74-76 issues construction permits

AEC issued construction permit for the PRDC reactor. AFL-CIO unions petitioned the AEC for a hearing on the PRDC cortstruction permit. 

As with any construction project, a construction permit must be obtained from the local authority. All local construction codes must be adhered to regarding the electricity and water supply and fire safety. A health physicist or a medical physicist should be consulted to address the issues of shielding and personnel traffic in restricted areas. A radioactive material license from the appropriate authority must be in possession for the use of PET radiopharmaceuticals, before the PET center goes into operation. Authorized physicians must be included on the license. 

Construction continues on the HTR-10 at the INET site outside of Beijing, China. This pebble-bed helium cooled test reactor is being supported by the government of China. The construction permit for this plant was issued by the national safety authority at the end of 1994... 

The licensing authority finally reaches a favorable Safety Evaluation Report which leads to the issuing of the construction permit of the HTR-10 test reactor... 

The licensing activities of the construction permit of the HTR-10 test reactor are overall well organized in a rather tight time-framework The evaluation of the licensing body on the safety favorites the reactor safety design and has led to the issuing of the construction permit of the HTR-10 test reactor... 

PLAN FOR RESOLVING ISSUES AT THE CONSTRUCTION PERMIT STAGE... 

After the construction permit is issued, the applicant must, if it did not as part of the original application, submit a final safety analysis report (FSAR) to support its application for an OL. The FSAR describes the final design of the plant and its operating and emergency procedures. The NRC prepares a final SER for the OL, and also the ACRS makes an independent evaluation and presents its findings and recommendations to the NRC. 

Similar to the construction permit under the two-step licensing process (10 CFR 50), the COL authorizes construction of the commercial nuclear power plant. Essenhally, the COL must contain the same information required in an application for an OL issued under 10 CFR 50. It must also specify the inspections, tests, and analyses that the applicant must perform. In addition, the document must specify acceptance criteria that are necessary to provide reasonable assurance that the plant is constructed and will be operated in conformity with all applicable regulatory requirements. If the ESP and design cerhfication are not referenced, then the NRC reviews the technical and environmental information as described for the two-step licensing process (10 CFR 50). Finally, there is also a mandatory hearing for a COL process. 

Construction permit—If the site is approved, a construction permit is issued. 

To provide as much freedom as possible for the developers to experiment as they progressed in their construction. Price s task force included in the regulations an "extended time for providing technical information" that allowed the AEC to issue a conditional or provisional construction permit even though all the technical information required for the application had not been submitted. The staff qualified this type of permit by requiring that it be given sufficient information to provide "reasonable assurance that a facility. . . can be constructed. . . without undue risk to the health and safety of the public and that the omitted information will be supplied." ... 

Both the applicant and the AEC benefited from this provision. The fact that the applicant would be issued a permit, albeit conditional, would give the company some assurance that a construction permit would be converted to an operating license. For the agency, issuing a conditional construction permit provided the flexibility to investigate proposed reactor designs that had not yet proved themselves. AEC officials assumed that outstanding safety questions would be satisfied by the time the reactor was ready to operate. 

Following its evaluation and review of an atomic-facility application. Price s division submitted a staff paper to the general manager ttiat analyzed all pertinent facts on ffie proposed facility and presented its recommendations on issuing the construction permit and the allocation of special nuclear material. After review by the general counsel, ffie recommendation along with ffie independent Safeguards Committee appraisal was sent to the Commission for its decision. If it was approved. Price issued a construction permit. ... 

Over a month before the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards had met on the breeder-reactor application, the PRDC had selected 8 August 1956, as the groundbreaking date for the plant. Qsler informed various officials, including Strauss, not only of the date but about the intention of the company trustees to name the project in memory of celebrated atomic pioneer Enrico Fermi. Cisler assumed a construction permit would be issued by that time. In mid-June he sent invitations to the ceremonies. The invitation list included such notables as Eisenhower, Strauss, and Senator Anderson. ... 

In one context the PRDC reactor controversy was an aberration. Using the same procedure, the Commission had issued two construction permits before considering the PRDC application. No uproar accompanied those decisions. But the PRDC reactor was different. The other two were light-water reactors, with which the AEC and atomic experts had more experience and more confidence that they could be operated safely. The fast breeder, admittedly an advanced design, was bound to raise questions that had not yet been resolved. Nonetheless, under the Power... 

In the middle of the growing controversy over the best way to develop an atomic industry, the AEC issued the PRDC provisional construction permit. Even Democrats with short memories remembered that nine days earlier the Republicans in the House, with strong administration backing, had narrowly defeated the Gore-Holifield bill, the Democratic attempt, with labor support, to bolster the civilian power program by directing the AEC to construct and operate six different prototype power reactors. In this heated political context, and with the fall election on most politicians minds, the PRDC decision took on a new dimension. Anderson and Holifield as well as several labor leaders recognized that the AEC decision on the PRDC reactor offered both the Democrats and the AFL-CIO a political opportunity that could be exploited to embarrass the Republicans. But the best tactical course to pursue was less obvious. 

The rules provided three methods of allowing public participation when the AEC reviewed a request for a construction permit. The Commission could give public notice of its intention to issue a permit and afford parties fifteen days to ask for a hearing. It could, on its own initiative, schedule a hearing prior to granting a permit, or it could, "without formally expressing an advanced intention, or without hear-... 

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