For additional information, please contact:

Beth Boesch
Corporate Communication &
Public Relations Manager
Office: 402.563.5666
Cell: 402.649.2988
email: elboesc@nppd.com
P.O. Box 499
Columbus, NE 68602-0499

David Bremer
License Renewal
Project Manager
Office: 402.825.5673
email: dwbreme@nppd.com
P.O. Box 98
Brownville, NE 68321

Mark Becker
Media Relations Specialist
Office: 402.563.5667
Cell: 402.276.7547
email: mcbecke@nppd.com
P.O. Box 499
Columbus, NE 68602-0499

NRC’s public aspect of license renewal

Nebraska Public Power District is in the process of preparing its formal license renewal application for Cooper Nuclear Station to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has oversight on nuclear reactors in the United States. Cooper’s application is expected to be filed with the NRC by September 2008 and an approval of the application will extend the license 20 years.

The process is driven by extensive review and evaluation of plant equipment, operating experience, and environmental impacts, and includes a public involvement aspect. The public has an opportunity to participate in NRC’s decision making process with regard to license renewal.

The NRC and NPPD encourage the public to participate in the process through public meetings, and public comment periods on rules, renewal guidance, and other documents. Information on NRC’s reactor license renewal can be found at www.nrc.gov.

License renewal in a nutshell

Although it involves an extremely comprehensive and intense scrutiny of aging components and processes, nuclear power station license renewal follows three basic steps.

A plant must first notify the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and get it into its queue for license renewal. Cooper Nuclear Station notified the NRC in March of 2005 of its intention, and is scheduled to submit its license renewal application by September 2008.

Phase I of the schedule, which began in July 2005, was completed at the end of March 2007, and included numerous assessments, benchmarking activities, and training in preparation to move to Phase II. One of the final efforts was an upgrade project for the regulatory Compliance Tracking System, which allows Cooper to track past issues and assessments, to ensure compliance with NRC regulations. This past December, as part of Phase II, an environmental information gathering was conducted, which is one of numerous key reviews to be conducted for submittal in the licensing process.

The license renewal application is developed and submitted to the NRC which contains engineering, safety, and environmental reviews, along with any corrective action planning tasks the plant needs to complete in order to continue the operation of the facility.

This step contains five phases:

1. Begin a preliminary assessment of what will be needed to conduct the necessary reviews and prepare the databases, teams, and team training necessary to complete the application;
2. Conduct technical, environmental, and engineering reviews;
3. Submit the application;
4. The NRC reviews the application and approves and/or conducts on-site audits;
5. The licensee plant places its commitments into its corrective action plan.

In the final step the plant then assigns an individual to oversee the implementation of the commitments and any changes to the plant’s aging management program and implements the commitments identified in the application.

Dry cask storage project gets underway

Although not part of license renewal, the improvement will add to plant life

Preliminary work has begun on the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation Facility (ISFSI) at Nebraska Public Power District’s Cooper Nuclear Station in Brownville. During the final quarter of 2006, NPPD began procuring design and construction materials and services.

In March 2007, NPPD’s Board of Directors approved additional key activities for the $45 million facility including:

• Hired Transnuclear, Inc. to design, fabricate, and deliver the fuel storage system for an estimated $11 million;
• Refurbish and upgrade the reactor building crane;
• Upgrade a construction road to serve the ISFSI during construction;
• Make the necessary security modifications for ISFSI.

The storage system consists of stainless steel casks, large, secure concrete and steel enclosures called “overpacks” in which the canisters are stored, equipment to handle the casks, equipment to load, drain and seal the casks, and equipment to move the casks from the reactor building to the storage site. When the dry cask storage facility is complete, Cooper will transfer used nuclear fuel from theused fuel pool into a cask that will be taken to the storage pad for long-term storage in the overpacks.

The dry cask storage is necessary because nuclear power plants must have enough space in their used fuel pool to enable the station to unload all the fuel from the reactor and place it into the pool. The station must remove some fuel from the fuel pool so enough space is available to store all of its used fuel, plus the 548 fuel assembles in the reactor.

Used fuel pools are typically 40 feet deep with cooled, purified water circulating through the pool to remove decay heat from the fuel assembles, and provide shielding from radioactivity. Dry cask storage containers use circulating air to remove the decay heat, and the massive steel and concrete cask-and-overpack system provides the radiological shielding.

Current plans call for the construction of the pad starting in April 2008 and completed by the fall of 2008. Casks and storage systems are planned for delivery to the site in 2008, with the first casks loaded with used fuel moved to the storage pad in the second quarter of 2009.

One cask can hold 61 used fuel assemblies. The first set of eight canisters, planned for loading in early 2009, will contain 488 fuel assemblies. Every three to four years an additional five or six canisters will be loaded and moved to the storage pad.

From a public safety and security aspect, the dry cask storage units are considered safe and environmentally sound. The new system will allow the plant to continue to have the storage capacity necessary for years to come while also providing safety and security of the material while in storage.