Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp.; Notice of Issuance of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 50-482]

Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp.; Notice of Issuance of

Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the Commission) is

considering issuance of an exemption from the requirements of 10 CFR

part 50, Appendix E, Section IV.F.2 to Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating

Corporation, (the licensee), for operation of the Wolf Creek Generating

Station, Unit 1, located in Coffey County, Kansas.

Environmental Assessment

Identification of Proposed Action

Section IV.F.2 of Appendix E to 10 CFR Part 50 states ``Each

license at each site shall annually exercise its emergency plan.'' By

letter dated March 8, 1994, the licensee requested an exemption from

the requirements of 10 CFR Part 50, Section IV.F.2, that would delay

the exercise scheduled for 1994 until early 1995. The delay was

requested in order to allow for the approval and implementation of

revised emergency classification criteria submitted to the NRC by

letter dated December 15, 1993, and to avoid conflict with the seventh

refueling outage currently scheduled to begin in September 1994.

Section 50.12(a)(2)(v) of Title 10 of the Code of Federal

Regulations provides an example of a special circumstance for which the

NRC will consider granting exemptions that involve cases providing only

temporary relief from the applicable regulation and for which the

licensee has made good faith efforts to comply with the regulation. The

licensee completed an annual exercise in December 1993 and had

scheduled the 1994 exercise for June 29, 1994. The proposed exemption

would delay the 1994 exercise until early 1995, approximately fourteen

months after the 1993 exercise, and would not affect the requirement to

conduct the normally scheduled 1995 annual exercise.

The Need for the Proposed Action

The proposed exemption provides temporary relief to delay an annual

emergency exercise in order to provide the licensee an opportunity to

implement revised emergency classification procedures and avoid

conflict with a scheduled refueling outage. The transition to the

revised emergency action levels includes NRC review and additional

training of licensee personnel. Although these activities are expected

to be completed during 1994, scheduling of the exercise for late 1994

would result in its coinciding with activities associated with the

seventh outage. Both activities, the exercise and refueling outage, are

resource intensive and therefore, it is undesirable to schedule them

for the same time period.

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action

The Commission has completed its evaluation of the proposed

exemption and concludes that granting of the temporary relief does not

affect the configuration of plant systems or any manner of their

operation. The proposed exemption is limited to a delay in the conduct

of an annual emergency exercise such that the interval between the 1993

exercise and the delayed exercise is extended to approximately fourteen

months. The delay in the exercise does not constitute a significant

degradation in emergency planning and would therefore not result in an

increase in radiological consequences in the event of a major accident

involving the release of radioactive materials. Accordingly, the

Commission concludes that this proposed action would result in no

significant radiological evironmental impact.

With regard to potential nonradiological impacts, the proposed

exemption only involves the action of emergency plan exercises. It does

not affect nonradiological plant effluents and there are no other

nonradiological environmental impact associated with the proposed

exemption.

Alternatives to the Proposed Action

Since the Commission concluded that there are no significant

environmental impacts that would result from the proposed action, any

alternatives with equal or greater environmental impacts need not be

evaluated. The principal alternative would be to deny the requested

exemption and require the licensee to conduct an emergency exercise

during the 1994 calendar year. Conducting an exercise prior to

implementation of the revised emergency action levels would reduce

potential benefits since key event classification procedures would be

superseded shortly following the exercise. Conducting the exercise late

in 1994 would result in conflicts with the planning and execution of

the seventh refueling outage.

Alternate Use of Resource

This action does not involve the use of any resources not

previously considered in the Final Environmental Statement in the Wolf

Creek Generating Station dated June 1982.

Agencies and Persons Consulted

The NRC staff reviewed the licensee's request and consulted with

the Kansas State official. The State official had no comments regarding

the NRC's proposed action.

Finding of No Significant Impact

The NRC staff has determined not to prepare an environmental impact

statement for the proposed exemption.

Based upon the foregoing environmental assessment, the Commission

concludes that the proposed action will not have a significant effect

on the quality of the human environment.

For further details with respect to this action, see the request

for exemption dated March 8, 1994, which is available for public

inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room, The Gelman

Building, 2120 L Street, NW., Washington, DC 20555, and at the Local

Public Document Rooms, Emporia State University, William Allen White

Library, 1200 Commercial Street, Emporia, Kansas 66801 and the Washburn

University School of Law Library, Topeka, Kansas 66621.

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 19th day of May 1994.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

James E. Lyons,

Acting Director, Project Directorate IV-2, Division of Reactor Projects

III/IV, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

[FR Doc. 94-12728 Filed 5-24-94; 8:45 am]

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