Ken Clark (404) 562-4416
Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417
Joey Ledford (404) 562-4487

NRC DRAFT REPORT FINDS SURRY LICENSE RENEWAL ENVIRONMENTALLY ACCEPTABLE; PUBLIC INPUT SOUGHT AT MEETINGS IN LATE MAY
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The information is contained in a draft environmental impact statement on the proposed license renewal issued in late April. That document is open for public comment until July 12, and will also be the subject of public meetings on Wednesday, May 29. Two similar meetings will be held at the Surry Combined District Court Room in the Surry County Government Center, 45 School Street, Surry County, Virginia. There will be one session in the afternoon at 1:30 and one in the evening at 7:00. In addition, the NRC staff will host informal discussions one hour prior to each meeting. NRC staff members will be available to answer questions and provide additional information about the process during those informal sessions, but no comment submittals on environmental issues will be accepted then.

The two sessions will begin with identical overviews, including a discussion by NRC staff and its contractors of the contents of the draft supplement to the GEIS. The meeting will then be opened for public comment.

For planning purposes, interested parties are encouraged to pre-register to attend or to present oral comments at the May 29 meetings by contacting Andrew Kugler of the NRC by telephone at (800) 368-5642, extension 2828, or by e-mail at Surry@nrc.gov no later than May 22. Interested persons may also register to speak before the start of each session. Time for individual comments at the meetings may be limited to accommodate all speakers.

Written comments on the draft supplement to the GEIS will also be considered by NRC staff. Comments should be submitted either by mail to the Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Mail Stop T-6 D 59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by Internet to SurryEIS@nrc.gov.

The NRC has been reviewing the application for extension of the Surry licenses since Dominion Energy (VEPCo on the licenses), which operates the plants, filed it in May 2001. Under NRC regulations, the original operating license for a nuclear power plant is issued for up to 40 years. The license may be renewed for up to an additional 20 years if NRC requirements are met. The current operating licenses for Surry will expire on May 25, 2012, for Unit 1 and January 29, 2013, for Unit 2.

The possible environmental effects of an additional 20 years of nuclear plant operation are described in the NRC's Generic Environmental Impact Statement, or GEIS (NUREG-1437). The NRC issues a site-specific supplement to the GEIS on each plant requesting license renewal to address the potential environmental impacts. Issues specific to Surry are addressed in Supplement 6. The NRC staff's preliminary recommendation is that the Commission determine that the adverse environmental impacts of license renewal for the two units at Surry are not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy-planning decision makers would be unreasonable.

The draft supplement to the GEIS, along with other related documents, is available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room at NRC headquarters, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland; or electronically on the Internet at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1437/supplement6/. In addition, the Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, has agreed to make the draft supplement to the GEIS available for public inspection.

At the conclusion of the public comment period the NRC staff will consider and address the comments provided and issue a final supplement to the GEIS. That supplement will contain a recommendation regarding the environmental acceptability for license renewal.

NRC news releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site.

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Monday, December 08, 2008