LaCrosseSolutions, LLC; La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor Partial Site Release

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Request for comment.

SUMMARY:

On June 27, 2016, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) received from LaCrosse Solutions, LLC (LS) a request for approval to remove portions of the site from the operating license for the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor. Specifically, LS intends to remove and release five radiologically non-impacted portions of the site from its license. The partial site release request was submitted concurrently with the La Crosse License Termination Plan and supports ongoing decommissioning activities at the site. The NRC is requesting public comments on LS's partial site release request and the La Crosse License Termination Plan.

DATES:

Submit comments by November 17, 2016. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before this date.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments by any of the following methods (unless this document describes a different method for submitting comments on a specific subject):

• Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0279. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-3463; email: Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact the individual in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.
• Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: OWFN-12-H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting comments, see “Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments” in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Marlayna Vaaler, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-3178; email: Marlayna.Vaaler@nrc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2015-0279 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain publicly-available information related to this action by any of the following methods:

• Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0279.
• NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select “ADAMS Public Documents” and then select “Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.” For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to pdr.resource@nrc.gov. The ADAMS accession number for each document referenced (if it is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that it is mentioned in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
• NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.

B. Submitting Comments

Please include Docket ID NRC-2015-0279 in in the subject line of your comment submission, in order to ensure that the NRC is able to make your comment submission available to the public in this docket.

The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your comment submission. The NRC posts all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as entering the comment submissions into ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove identifying or contact information.

If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove such information before making the comment submissions available to the public or entering the comment submissions into ADAMS.

II. Discussion

The La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor (LACBWR) was an Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Demonstration Project Reactor that first went critical in 1967, commenced commercial operation in November 1969, and was capable of producing 50 megawatts electric. The reactor is located on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Vernon County, Wisconsin. The Allis-Chalmers Company was the original licensee; the AEC later sold the plant to the Dairyland Power Cooperative (DPC) and granted it Provisional Operating License No. DPR-45 on August 28, 1973.

The reactor permanently ceased operations on April 30, 1987, and reactor defueling was completed on June 11, 1987. In a letter dated August 4, 1987, the NRC terminated DPC's authority to operate LACBWR under Provisional Operating License No. DPR-45, and granted the licensee a possess-but-not-operate status. By letter dated August 18, 1988, the NRC amended DPC's Provisional Operating License No. DPR-45 to Possession Only License No. DPR-45 to reflect the permanently defueled configuration at LACBWR. Therefore, pursuant to the provisions of §§ 50.82(a)(1)(iii) and 50.82(a)(2) of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), DPC's part 50 license does not authorize operation of LACBWR or emplacement or retention of fuel into the reactor vessel.

The NRC issued an order to authorize decommissioning of LACBWR and approve the licensee's proposed Decommissioning Plan (DP) on August 7, 1991. Because the NRC approved DPC's DP before August 28, 1996, pursuant to 10 CFR 50.82, the DP is considered the Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) for LACBWR. The PSDAR public meeting was held on May 13, 1998, and subsequent updates to the LACBWR decommissioning report have combined the DP and PSDAR into the “LACBWR Decommissioning Plan and Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report” (D-Plan/PSDAR).

The DPC developed an on-site independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) and completed the movement of all 333 spent nuclear fuel elements from the Fuel Element Storage Well to dry cask storage at the ISFSI by September 19, 2012 (ADAMS Accession No. ML12290A027). The remaining associated buildings and structures are ready for dismantlement and decommissioning activities.

By Order dated May 20, 2016 (ADAMS Accession No. ML16123A073), the NRC approved the direct transfer of Possession Only License No. DPR-45 for LACBWR from DPC to LaCrosse Solutions, LLC (LS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Energy Solutions, LLC, and approved a conforming license amendment, pursuant to 10 CFR 50.80 and 50.90, to reflect the change. The Order was published in the Federal Register on June 2, 2016 (81 FR 35383). The transfer assigns DPC's licensed possession, maintenance, and decommissioning authorities for LACBWR to LS in order to implement expedited decommissioning at the LACBWR site. Decommissioning of LACBWR is scheduled to be completed in 2018.

By letter dated June 27, 2016 (ADAMS Accession No. ML16200A095), LS submitted the License Termination Plan (LTP) for LACBWR in accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(a)(9). The LTP includes a site characterization to ensure that final radiation surveys (FRS) cover all areas where contamination existed, remains, or has the potential to exist or remain; identification of remaining dismantlement activities; plans for site remediation; a description of the FRS plan to confirm that LACBWR will meet the release criteria in 10 CFR part 20, subpart E; dose-modeling scenarios that ensure compliance with the radiological criteria for license termination; an estimate of the remaining site-specific decommissioning costs; and a supplement to the Environmental Report describing any new information or significant environmental changes associated with proposed license termination activities. The LACBWR LTP is currently being reviewed by the NRC.

By letter dated June 27, 2016 (ADAMS Accession No. ML16181A068), LS submitted a request for approval to remove portions of the site from the part 50 License, No. DPR-45. Specifically, LS intends to remove and release five radiologically non-impacted portions of the site from its part 50 license in accordance with 10 CFR 50.83(b), “Release of part of a power reactor facility or site for unrestricted use.” This request is the subject of this notice.