NRC STAFF TO SEEK COMMENTS ON DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT
FOR INDIAN POINT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION AT FEB. 12th MEETINGS
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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will solicit public comments at two meetings on Thursday, Feb. 12, regarding its preliminary conclusion that environmental impacts would not preclude a 20-year extension of the operating license for the Indian Point nuclear power plant.

A draft environmental impact statement on the proposed license renewal contains the information.  The report, which was issued in December, will be discussed first at a meeting to be held at 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 12 at the Colonial Terrace event facility, 119 Oregon Road in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.  A second session will get under way at 7 p.m. on the same day at the same location.

The two meetings will begin with identical overviews, including a discussion of the contents of the report, then be opened for public comment.

In addition, the NRC staff will host informal discussions 1 hour prior to each meeting at the same facility.  NRC staff members will be available to answer questions and provide information about the license renewal process during these discussions, but no formal comments on environmental issues will be accepted during them.

“When the NRC staff issued the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Indian Point application in December, we encouraged members of the public to review the report and offer their comments.  While we have been accepting comments in writing since then, the meetings on February 12th will represent an opportunity to provide input in person,” said Drew Stuyvenberg, the NRC Project Manager who is leading the environmental review.

The NRC staff will continue to accept written comments through March 18th.

As part of its license renewal application, Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the owner of the plant in Buchanan (Westchester County), N.Y., submitted an environmental report.  The NRC staff reviewed the report, performed an on-site audit and consulted with state and federal agencies.  The staff also considered comments made during the environmental “scoping” process, including comments offered at public meetings held on Sept. 19, 2007, at the Colonial Terrace.  Based on its review, the NRC staff has preliminarily determined that the “adverse environmental impacts of license renewal for Indian Point are not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy planning decision-makers would be unreasonable.”

The NRC staff has been reviewing the Indian Point license renewal application since Entergy receiving it on April 30, 2007.  Under NRC regulations, the original operating license for a nuclear power plant has a term of 40 years.  The license may be renewed for up to an additional two decades if NRC requirements are met.  The current operating licenses for Indian Point Units 2 and 3 expire, respectively, on Sept. 28, 2013 and Dec. 12, 2015.

The possible 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.

The draft supplement to the GEIS, along with other related documents, is available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room at the NRC Headquarters, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md.; or electronically through the Agencywide Documents Access System (ADAMS).  ADAMS is accessible through the NRC web page at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html.  The accession numbers of the Indian Point draft supplement are ML083540594 (Volume 1, Main Report) and ML083540614 (Volume 2, Appendices).  In addition, the draft supplement is available for public inspection at following locations: The White Plains Public Library, 100 Martine Ave., White Plains, N.Y. ; the Hendrick Hudson Free Library, 185 Kings Ferry Road, Montrose, N.Y., and the Field Library, 4 Nelson Ave., Peekskill, N.Y.

At the conclusion of the public comment period on March 18, 2009, the NRC staff will consider and address the comments received and issue a final supplement to the GEIS for the plant.  That final supplement, scheduled for publication in February 2010, will contain a recommendation regarding the environmental acceptability for license renewal.

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Thursday, February 05, 2009