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Home > Nuclear Reactors > Operating Reactors > Licensing > Renewal > Introduction > Environmental
Environmental Impact of Reactor License
Renewal
The NRC has responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA),
which calls for a review of the environmental impact of reactor license renewal.
On this page:
- National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
requires Federal agencies to use a systematic approach to consider
environmental impacts
- Atomic Enery Act
- Energy Reorganization Act
- National Environmental Policy Act
- Other Statutes
- Commission has determined that an environmental impact statement will be
prepared for a license renewal action
- Application Received - Month 0
- Notice of Intent - Month 3
- Scoping Meeting - Month 4
- Environmental Review Site Audit - Month 4
- Requests for Additional Information (RAI) - Month 6
- Draft Supplement Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) - Month 11
- Final SEIS - Month 19
For additional information, see License
Renewal Process.
The following diagram shows how a Draft Supplement Environmental
Impact Statement is derived.
For the review, the Environmental PM or EPM establishes a team made
up of the NRC staff, supplemented by experts in various fields from labs
like
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
For additional information, see Detail
Analysis Approach.
NRC-defined impact levels that are consistent with the Council on
Environmental Quality guidance for NEPA analysis:
- Small:
Effect is not detectable or too small to destabilize or noticeably alter
any important attribute of the resource
- Moderate:
Effect is sufficient to alter noticeably, but not destabilize, important
attributes of the resource
- Large: Effect is clearly noticeable and sufficient
to destabilize important attributes of the resource
Categorization of Issues
- Category 1 criteria:
- Impacts apply to all plants or, for some
issues, to plants having a specific type of cooling system or other
specified plant or site characteristic
- Single significance level (i.e., small,
moderate or large) assigned to the impacts with two exceptions (certain
fuel cycle impacts)
- Additional plant-specific mitigation measures not likely to be
sufficiently beneficial to warrant implementation
- Category 2 criteria:
- One or more Cat-1 criteria cannot be met
Ninety-two issues considered for refurbishment
and renewal
- 69 Category 1 Issues - NRC Generically
Resolved
- 21 Category 2 Issues - Addressed in
Application
- Two Uncategorized Issues - Addressed by NRC
Detailed List:
92 issues in GEIS
- Environmental Report (ER) submitted with
application
-
Cat-1 Issues: Applicant not required to include
analysis of impacts nor required to consider mitigation
-
Cat-2 Issues: Applicant required to include analysis
and required to consider mitigation alternatives
-
Applicant required to include any known new
and significant information on Cat-1 environmental impact issues
to ensure Cat-1 conclusions are valid for current application
- Design-Basis Accidents
- Severe Accidents
- Severe Accidents Mitigation Alternatives
(SAMAs)
For additional information, see SAMA
Evaluation Process.
- Scoping and Comment Period
- Issue draft Supplement Environmental Impact
Statement (SEIS)
- Issue final SEIS
For additional information, see Review
Milestone.
Take the Review.
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