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Proposed Rules
Federal Register Vol. 86, No. 86
Thursday, May 6, 2021

This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER
contains notices to the public of the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.

NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
10 CFR Parts 50 and 52
Docket No. PRM50117; NRC20190063

Criteria To Return Retired Nuclear Power Reactors to Operations Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; denial.
AGENCY:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC is denying a petition for rulemaking PRM, dated December 26, 2018, submitted by George Berka petitioner. The petition was docketed by the NRC on February 19, 2019, and was assigned Docket No. PRM50117.
The petitioner requested that the NRC
allow the owner or operator of a nuclear power reactor an opportunity to return a retired facility to full operational status, even if the operating license for the facility had previously been surrendered. The NRC is denying the petition because the issue does not involve a significant safety or security concern and the existing regulatory framework may be used to address the issue raised by the petitioner. In addition, the nuclear industry has not expressed a strong interest in returning retired plants to operational status and proceeding with rulemaking to develop a new regulatory framework that may not be used is not a prudent use of resources.
DATES: The docket for the petition for rulemaking PRM50117 is closed on May 6, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID
NRC20190063 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 Website: Go to https www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC20190063. Address questions about NRC dockets to Dawn Forder; telephone: 3014153407;

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email: Dawn.Forder@nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact the individuals listed in the FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.
NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System ADAMS: You may obtain publiclyavailable documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at https www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/
adams.html. To begin the search, select Begin Web-based ADAMS Search. For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRCs Public Document Room PDR
reference staff at 18003974209, at 3014154737, or by email to pdr.resource@nrc.gov. For the convenience of the reader, instructions about obtaining materials referenced in this document are provided in the Availability of Documents section.
Attention: The Public Document Room PDR, where you may examine and order copies of public documents is currently closed. You may submit your request to the PDR via email at pdr.resource@nrc.gov or call 1800
3974209 between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00
p.m. EST, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Nicole Fields, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 630
8299570; email: Nicole.Fields@nrc.gov;
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 205550001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Table of Contents I. The Petition II. Public Comments on the Petition III. Public Meeting on the Petition and Other Topics IV. Reasons for Denial V. Availability of Documents VI. Conclusion
I. The Petition Section 2.802 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations 10 CFR, Petition for rulemakingrequirements for filing, provides an opportunity for any interested person to petition the Commission to issue, amend, or rescind any regulation. On December 26, 2018, the NRC received a petition for rulemaking PRM from George Berka petitioner. The petitioner requested that the NRC revise 10 CFR part 52, Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants, to establish criteria that would allow retired nuclear
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power reactors return to operation after their licenses no longer authorize operation. This circumstance could occur either after the NRC has docketed a licensees certifications that it has permanently ceased operations and permanently removed fuel from the reactor vessel or when a final legally effective order to permanently cease operations has come into effect.
The petitioner requested a fair, reasonable, and unobstructed opportunity to return a retired facility to full operational status, even if the operating license for the facility had previously been surrendered. The petitioner requested that facilities only have to meet the safety standards that had been in place at the time the facility had last operated, and not the latest standards. Specifically, the petitioner requested that a nuclear power reactor be allowed to return to operational status, if the facility had been in an operational condition at the time of retirement, had last operated no more than twenty-one 21 calendar years prior to the retirement date, the facility remains intact, and the facility passes a general safety inspection.
Alternatively, the petitioner proposes, if the nuclear power reactor had not been in an operational condition at the time of retirement, had last operated more than twenty-one 21 calendar years prior to the retirement date, is not intact, and/or has had significant decommissioning and/or dismantling activities commence, then the nuclear power reactor must be repaired or rebuilt to the safety standards that had been in place at the time the facility had last operated, and pass a safety inspection appropriate to the degree of repairs or reconstruction that had been performed, which would be, at the very least . . . a general safety inspection.
The petitioner stated that this proposal would be pennies on the dollar, compared to building new nuclear, or trying to replace the same capacity with wind or solar sources.
The petitioner also stated that through this proposal, several gigawatts of ultra-clean, and very low-carbon, electrical generating capacity could be restored to the electrical grid, which would help to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The petitioner provided a calculation comparing the cost and time of the
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