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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
	Office of Public Affairs	Telephone: 301/415-8200
	Washington, DC 20555-001	E-mail: opa@nrc.gov

No. 99-38

February 26, 1999

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued for public comment a draft environmental impact statement on Baltimore Gas and Electric's (BG&E's) proposed renewal of its license for the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Calvert County, Maryland. The agency will hold a public meeting April 6 in Solomons, Maryland, to discuss the draft.

The NRC staff's preliminary finding in the newly published document is that there are no environmental impacts that would preclude NRC license renewal for environmental reasons.

BG&E submitted an application to the NRC in April to renew the Calvert Cliffs Unit 1 and Unit 2 licenses for 20 years. If the operating licenses are not renewed, the reactors would be shut down on or before the expiration of the current licenses on July 31, 2014, for Unit 1 and August 13, 2016, for Unit 2.

The document that is being issued for public comment is a plant-specific supplement to the "Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants," (NUREG-1437), published in 1996. Known as NUREG-1437, Supplement 1, the new document includes the staff's preliminary analysis of the environmental effects of the proposed action and alternatives available for reducing or avoiding adverse impacts. It also examines possible alternatives to the proposed action (license renewal), including no action and reasonable alternative energy sources.

Interested persons are invited to submit comments on the draft supplement by May 20. They should be addressed to the Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Mailstop T-6D-59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by Internet to the NRC at cceis@nrc.gov.

The public meeting will be at the Holiday Inn Select, Solomons, Maryland. The first session will run from 1:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m., and the second session will be from 7:00 until 10:00 p.m.

Interested persons may pre-register to attend or present oral comments at the meeting by contacting Thomas J. Kenyon at 1/800/368-4542, extension 1120, or by sending an Internet message to the NRC at cceis@nrc.gov by April 2.

Members of the public may also register to present oral comments within 15 minutes of the start of each session. Individual comments may be limited by the time available, depending on the number of persons who register.

In preparing the draft environmental impact supplement, the NRC considered comments made at a public meeting held in July of last year in Solomons.

The agency also offered an opportunity for an evidentiary hearing on BG&E's license renewal request. The National Whistleblower Center's request for a hearing was denied by an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board on October 16. That decision was upheld by the Commission on December 23. The Whistleblower Center has filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The NRC staff is continuing its safety review associated with the application for license renewal.

Single copies of the draft supplement are available by written request to the Office of the Chief Information Officer, Reproduction and Distribution Services Section, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; by Internet to DISTRIBUTION@nrc.gov; or by fax to 301/415-2289.

Copies will also be available for review at the NRC Public Document Room, 2120 L Street, NW, Washington, DC, and the Local Public Document Room for Calvert Cliffs located in the Calvert County Public Library, 30 Duke Street, Prince Frederick, MD 20678.