Agenda - 02-16-1999 - 3 - Laserfiche WebLink

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02i16i99 09:45 HARMON.CURRAN.SPI ~ 919 644 0246 N0.093 D10 -9- system. It also involves the importation of a significant quantity of spent nuclear power plant fuel from other nuclear power plants around the area, and the doubting of the inventory of spent fuel on the site. Tr fact, if the license amendment is granted, the Shearon Harris plant would become the largest spent fuel storage facility east of the Mississippi River. As recognized in Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporarion (Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station), LBP- 88-19, 28 NRC 145 (1988), there is no "independent utility" to the racking of a spent fuel pool: the only reason for the application is to permit the expansion of spent fttel storage at the plant. While the importation of additional spent fuel is not covered by the license amendment application, it is the intended result of the amendment. To narrowly focus the NEPA inquiry on the racking and cooling of the spent fuel pools would constitute unlawful segmentation of the NEPA decisionmaking process. Id. However, this is just what the NRC Staff apparently did in determining that no EIS or EA is required in this case. The NEPA questions that Orange County would raise in a hearing on the application include issues relating to the risk of the proposed cooling system; the impacts of foreseeable severe accidents involving a ;neatly increased inventory of spent fuel on the site, including the impacu of an accident involving partial drainage of the spent fuel pools; the impacts of transportin, and handling additional fuel; the environmental risks raised by using materials lacking proper QA certification; and the need for the increased spent fuel pool capacity.' `With respect to need, CP&L asserts in Enclosure 1 to iu license amendment application that it has implemented a spent fuel shipping program "because DOE spent fuel storage facilities are not available and are not expected to be available in the foreseeable future." This assertions contradicts the Commission's Waste Confidence decision, which forbids challenges to the NRC's assumption that a federal repository will be available by the first quarter of the 21" century. The conflict between CP&L's assertion and the Waste Confidence decision must be addressed in a public hearing before the amendment can be allowed to go forward.