Crystal River Unit 3 Nuclear Plant License Termination Plan, Comments Due 23rd Jun

Content

ACTION:

Public meeting; request for comment.

SUMMARY:

On October 15, 2025, as supplemented December 11, 2025, and February 25, 2026, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
received from Accelerated Decommissioning Partners Crystal River Unit 3, LLC (ADP CR3, licensee) a license amendment request
to approve the License Termination Plan (LTP) for the Crystal River Unit 3 Nuclear Generating Plant (CR3) and to add a license
condition that establishes the criteria for determining when changes to the LTP require prior NRC approval. The LTP provides
details about the known radiological information for the site, the planned demolition and decommissioning tasks to be completed,
and the final radiological surveys and data that must be obtained for termination of the NRC's license for CR3. The NRC is
requesting public comments on CR3's LTP and will hold a public meeting to discuss the LTP.

DATES:

Submit comments by June 23, 2026. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the
Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments received before this date. A public meeting will be held on May
12, 2026. See Section IV. Public Meeting, of this document for more information.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments by any of the following methods; however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through
the Federal rulemaking website:

• Federal rulemaking website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for: Docket ID NRC-2026-1819. Address questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Bridget Curran; telephone: 301-415-1003; email: Bridget.Curran@nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact the individual listed in the
For Further Information Contact
section of this document.

• Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN-5-A85, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Program
Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.

For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting comments, see “Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments”
in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Chris Allen, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001;
telephone: 301-415-6877; email: William.Allen@nrc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2026-1819 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 NRC-2026-1819.

• NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select “Begin ADAMS Public Search.” For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document
Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at 301-415-4737, 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.

• NRC's PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. To make an appointment
to visit the PDR, please send an email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (ET), Monday through Friday, except Federal
holidays.

B. Submitting Comments

The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal rulemaking website (https://www.regulations.gov). Please include Docket ID NRC-NRC-2026-1819 in your comment submission. The NRC cautions you not to include identifying
or contact information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your comment submission. The NRC will post all comment
submissions at https://www.regulations.gov as well as enter the comment submissions into ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove identifying
or contact information.

If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons
not to include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be publicly disclosed in their comment submission.
Your request should state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove such information before making
the comment submissions available to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.

II. Background

Accelerated Decommissioning Partners Crystal River Unit 3, LLC (ADP CR3, licensee) is currently the licensed operator responsible
for decommissioning of Crystal River Unit 3 Nuclear Generating Plant (CR3). Prior to ADP CR3, Duke Energy Florida (DEF) held
the licensed authority for CR3. The Facility Operating License No. DPR-72, provides, among other things, that the facility
is subject to all rules, regulations, and orders of the NRC now or hereafter in effect. The facility is located in Citrus
County, Florida.

By letter dated February 20, 2013, pursuant to paragraphs 50.82(a)(1)(i)-(ii) of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), DEF formally notified the NRC that it had determined to permanently cease power operations at CR3 and that it had
permanently removed fuel from the reactor vessel. In this letter, DEF explained that CR3 had been safely shutdown since September
26, 2009, and that all fuel had been permanently removed from the CR3 reactor vessel as of May 28, 2011, and had been placed
in the CR3 spent fuel pool for temporary storage.

DEF described its proposed decommissioning activities and schedule in its Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report
(PSDAR) submitted on December 2, 2013. At that time, DEF decided to place the facility in long-term storage (i.e., the SAFSTOR decommissioning option). SAFSTOR is a decommissioning method in which a nuclear facility is placed and maintained
in a condition

that allows the facility to be safely stored and subsequently decontaminated to levels that permit release for unrestricted
use.

By letter dated June 14, 2019, as supplemented by letters dated January 17, 2020, and March 5, 2020, DEF and ADP CR3 requested
that the NRC consent to the proposed direct transfer of licensed authority under CR3 Facility Operating License No. DPR-72
and the general license for the CR3 Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) from DEF to ADP CR3. ADP CR3 is a
joint venture between NorthStar Group Services and Orano USA. By letter dated June 26, 2019, ADP CR3 submitted a revised PSDAR
contingent upon NRC approval of the direct transfer of the licensed authority to ADP CR3. The revised PSDAR changed the decommissioning
approach for CR3 from SAFSTOR to the immediate implementation of the DECON decommissioning option. DECON is a method of decommissioning
in which structures, systems, and components that contain radioactive contamination are actively removed from the site and
safely disposed of at a commercially operated low-level waste disposal facility or decontaminated to a level that permits
the site to be released for unrestricted use as soon as possible after removal of the spent fuel from the spent fuel pool.

By Order dated April 1, 2020, the NRC provided its consent to the direct transfer of licensed authority. On October 1, 2020,
DEF transferred the licensed authority to ADP CR3 pursuant to the terms of the transfer agreement between DEF and ADP CR3,
as proposed in the June 14, 2019, letter. Per the agreement, DEF remained the NRC-licensed owner of the plant, property, and
decommissioning trust fund while ADP CR3 became the NRC-licensed operator responsible for decommissioning and maintaining
the ISFSI under a service agreement with ADP SF1. ADP SF1 became the owner of the spent nuclear fuel, high-level waste, and
Greater-Than-Class C waste stored in the ISFSI.

On October 15, 2025, as supplemented December 11, 2025, and February 25, 2026, ADP CR3 submitted its LTP to the NRC. Paragraph
50.82(a)(9), “Termination of license,” specifies that an application for license termination must be accompanied or preceded
by a LTP which is subject to NRC review and approval. The LTP addresses site characterization to ensure that the scope of
final status surveys (FSS) of the site cover all areas where contamination existed, remains, or has the potential to exist
or remain, identification of remaining dismantlement activities, plans for site remediation, a description of the FSS plans
to confirm that CR3 will meet the release criteria in 10 CFR part 20, subpart E, “Radiological Criteria for License Termination,”
dose-modeling scenarios that ensure compliance with the radiological criteria for license termination, an estimate of the
remaining site-specific decommissioning costs and an updated assessment of the environmental effects of decommissioning CR3.
Once approved, the LTP would become a supplement to the CR3 Defueled Safety Analysis Report.

According to 10 CFR 50.82(a)(9)(iii), after the licensee submits an LTP the NRC must hold a public meeting near the site.
The purpose of the meeting is for the NRC staff to discuss the NRC's review of the LTP and to request public comments on the
LTP. In addition, in accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(a)(9)(iii) and 20.1405, upon the receipt of an LTP from a licensee, NRC
must publish a notice in the
Federal Register
and solicit comments from affected parties.

III. Availability of Documents

The documents identified in the following table are available to interested persons through one or more of the following methods,
as indicated.

Document description	ADAMS accession No.
DEF notification of its intent to permanently cease operations at Crystal River Unit 3, dated February 20, 2013	ML13056A005.
DEF submittal of PSDAR for Crystal River Unit 3, dated December 2, 2013	ML13340A009.
Submittal of updated PSDAR for Crystal River Unit 3 to reflect the change from SAFSTOR to DECON, dated June 26, 2019	ML19177A080.
DEF and ADP CR3 proposed direct transfer of CR3 Facility Operating License No. DPR-72 from DEF to ADP CR3 dated June 14, 2019,
and supplemented on January 17, 2020, and March 5, 2020	ML19170A209 (Package).
ML20017A216.ML20065K737.
NRC Order providing consent to the direct license direct transfer of CR3 Facility Operating License No. DPR-72 from DEF to
ADP CR3, dated April 1, 2020	ML20069A028 (Package).
ADP CR3 LTP submittal to the NRC, dated October 15, 2025	ML25288A001 (Package).
ADP CR3 LTP submittal update, dated December 11, 2025	ML25345A212 (Package).
ADP CR3 LTP supplement submittal, dated February 25, 2026	ML26056A059.

The NRC may post materials related to this document, including public comments, on the Federal rulemaking website at https://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2026-1819. In addition, the Federal rulemaking website allows members of the public to receive alerts
when changes or additions occur in a docket folder. To subscribe: (1) navigate to the docket folder (NRC-2026-1819); (2) click
the “Subscribe” link; and (3) enter an email address and click on the “Subscribe” link.

IV. Request for Comment and Public Meeting

The NRC will conduct a public meeting to answer questions and gather comments regarding ADP's request for approval of the
LTP. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, from 5:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. ET, at the Citrus County Chamber of
Commerce, located at 915 N Suncoast Blvd., Crystal River, FL 34429.

This is a Category 3 public meeting where stakeholders are invited to fully engage NRC staff to provide a range of views,
information, concerns and suggestions with regard to ADP's request for approval of the LTP. After the presentation portion
of the meeting, the public is allowed to speak and ask questions. Comments can be provided orally or in writing to the NRC
staff present at the meeting. The NRC will consider and, if appropriate, respond to these written and verbal comments, but
such comments will not otherwise constitute part of the decisional record.

Please contact Chris Allen no later than May 5, 2026, by phone at 301-415-6877 or by email at William.Allen@nrc.gov, if accommodations or special equipment are needed for you to attend or to provide comments, so that the NRC staff can determine
whether the request can be accommodated.

Stakeholders interested in attending this meeting should monitor the NRC's Public Meeting Schedule website at https://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm for additional information, meeting agenda, and access information for the public meeting.

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Dated: April 22, 2026. Michelle Sutherland, Acting Chief, Reactor Decommissioning Branch, Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs, Office of
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. [FR Doc. 2026-08008 Filed 4-23-26; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

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