Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Power Plants: Regarding Beaver Valley Power Station, Units 1 and 2 - Final Report (NUREG-1437, Supplement 36)

This NUREG-series publication was issued for public comment, and the comment period is now closed.

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Publication Information

Manuscript Completed: May 2009
Date Published: May 2009

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 (OLs) for a 20-year period in NUREG-1437 “Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants,” Volumes 1 6 and 2 (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 identifies 92 environmental issues and reaches 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.The remaining 23 issues require additional plant-specific review. These plant-specific reviews are included in this supplement to the GEIS.

The NRC staff has prepared this final supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) in response to an application submitted to the NRC by FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) to renew the OL for Beaver Valley Power Station (BVPS) Units 1 and 2 for an additional 20 years under 10 CFR Part 54, “Requirements for Renewal of Operating Licenses for Nuclear Power Plants.” This final SEIS includes the NRC staff's analysis of 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 recommendation regarding the proposed action.

Concerning the 69 issues for which the GEIS reached generic conclusions, the NRC staff has not identified any information that is both new and significant for any issue that applies to BVPS. In addition, the NRC staff determined that information provided during the scoping process did not call into question the conclusions in the GEIS. Therefore, the NRC staff concludes that the impacts of renewing the BVPS OL would not be greater than 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 SMALL¹ significance.

Regarding the remaining 23 issues, this final SEIS addresses those that apply to BVPS. For each applicable issue, the NRC staff concludes that the significance of the potential environmental impacts of renewal of the OL would be SMALL. The NRC staff determined that information provided during the scoping process did not identify any new issue with a significant environmental impact.

The NRC staff's recommendation is that the Commission determine that the adverse environmental impacts of license renewal for BVPS 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 FENOC, (3) consultation with Federal, State, and local agencies, (4) comments during the scoping period and the draft SEIS comment period(5) the NRC staff's own independent review, and (6) the NRC staff's consideration of public comments received during the scoping process.

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¹ This designation indicates that environmental effects are not detectable or are so minor that they will neither destabilize nor noticeably alter any important attribute of the resource.