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Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants Regarding Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit Nos. 2 and 3 (NUREG-1437, Supplement 38)

This NUREG publication has been issued for public comment. Comments will be accepted until March 11, 2009. Please see the comment form.

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NUREG-1437, Supplement 38
- NUREG-1437, Supplement 38 Volume 1 (PDF 2.76 MB) - Draft Report for Comment (PDF - 7MB)
- NUREG-1437, Supplement 38 Volume 2 (PDF 5.68 MB) - Draft Report for Comment (PDF - 7MB)

Publication Information

Manuscript Completed: December 2008
Date Published: December 2008

Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

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Abstract

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) considered the environmental impacts of renewing nuclear power plant operating licenses for a 20-year period in NUREG-1437, Volumes 1 and 2, “Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants” (hereafter referred to as the GEIS), and codified the results in Title 10, Part 51, “Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions,” of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR Part 51). In the GEIS (and its Addendum 1), the NRC staff identified 92 environmental issues and reached generic conclusions related to environmental impacts for 69 of these issues that apply to all plants or to plants with specific design or site characteristics. Additional plant-specific review is required for the remaining 23 issues. These plant-specific reviews are to be included in a supplement to the GEIS.

This supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) has been prepared in response to an application submitted by Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (Entergy), Entergy Nuclear Indian Point 2, LLC, and Entergy Nuclear Indian Point 3, LLC (all applicants will be jointly referred to as Entergy) to the NRC to renew the operating licenses for Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit Nos. 2 and 3 (IP2 and IP3) for an additional 20 years under 10 CFR Part 54, “Requirements for Renewal of Operating Licenses for Nuclear Power Plants.” This draft SEIS includes the NRC staff’s analysis which considers and weighs the environmental impacts of the proposed action, the environmental impacts of alternatives to the proposed action, and mitigation measures available for reducing or avoiding adverse impacts. It also includes the NRC staff’s preliminary recommendation regarding the proposed action.

Regarding the 69 issues for which the GEIS reached generic conclusions, neither Entergy nor the NRC staff has identified information that is both new and significant for any issues that applies to IP2 and/or IP3. In addition, the NRC staff determined that information provided during the scoping process was not new and significant with respect to the conclusions in the GEIS. Therefore, the NRC staff concludes that the impacts of renewing the operating licenses for IP2 and IP3 will not be greater than the impacts identified for these issues in the GEIS. For each of these issues, the NRC staff’s conclusion in the GEIS is that the impact is of SMALL significance (except for the collective offsite radiological impacts from the fuel cycle and high-level waste and spent fuel, which were not assigned a single significance level).

Regarding the remaining 23 issues, those that apply to IP2 and IP3 are addressed in this draft SEIS. The NRC staff determined that several of these issues were not applicable because of the type of facility cooling system or other reasons detailed within this SEIS. For the remaining applicable issues, the NRC staff concludes that the significance of potential environmental impacts related to operating license renewal is SMALL, with four exceptions—entrainment, impingement, heat shock from the facility’s heated discharge, and impacts to aquatic endangered species. For some species, the combined effects of entrainment and impingement may be MODERATE to LARGE, and for one species, the effect is LARGE, based on NRC’s analysis of representative important species. Impacts from heat shock likely range from SMALL to MODERATE depending on the conclusions of thermal studies proposed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). NRC staff did not find data that suggest the effect of heat shock is likely to rise to LARGE. Given the uncertainties in the data NRC staff reviewed, impacts to the endangered shortnose sturgeon could range from SMALL to LARGE.

The NRC staff’s preliminary recommendation is that the Commission determine that the adverse environmental impacts of license renewals for IP2 and IP3 are not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy planning decisionmakers would be unreasonable. This recommendation is based on (1) the analysis and findings in the GEIS, (2) the environmental report submitted by Entergy, (3) consultation with other Federal, State, and local agencies; (4) the NRC staff’s own independent review, and (5) the NRC staff’s consideration of public comments received during the scoping process.