New Nuclear Reactor Generic Environmental Impact Statement (NR GEIS)
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Abstract
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff prepared a generic environmental impact statement (GEIS) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended, to address the NRC licensing of the building and operation of new nuclear reactors in the United States. As discussed in SECY-21-0098 the NRC staff has prepared a proposed rule that would amend the regulations that govern the NRC’s environmental reviews under NEPA by codifying the findings of the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors, Draft NUREG-2249. In this GEIS, the NRC staff uses the values and assumptions in a technology-neutral plant parameter envelope (PPE) for a new nuclear reactor to evaluate the environmental impacts of constructing and operating a nuclear reactor. In addition, this GEIS assumes that a new reactor might be built anywhere in the United States that meets the requirements of the NRC’s siting regulations. To accommodate this broad range of siting possibilities, the staff developed a site parameter envelope (SPE) that provides limiting values and assumptions related to the site. The generic findings from this GEIS will be codified in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 51.
Project Background
On November 15, 2019, the NRC staff issued a Federal Register notice (84 FR 62559) announcing an exploratory process and soliciting comments to determine the possible utility of developing a GEIS for licensing advanced nuclear reactors (ANRs). The exploratory process included two public meetings, a comprehensive public workshop attended by multiple stakeholders, and a site visit to the Idaho National Laboratory, one location that is being contemplated for some ANRs. As part of the exploratory process, the staff considered its experience with previous NRC GEIS documents that support power reactor license renewals, in situ uranium recovery facilities, and decommissioning. The staff gathered information to determine whether a GEIS for construction and operation of ANRs might be viable. The exploratory process concluded with an information paper to the NRC Commission concluding that the staff decided to pursue a GEIS using a technology-neutral approach, and that a GEIS would generically resolve many environmental issues, saving resources and providing predictability for potential applicants.
In Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM) SECY-20-0020, dated September 21, 2020, the Commission approved the development of a GEIS for the construction and operation of ANRs using a technology-neutral, performance-based approach, and directed staff to codify results in the Code of Federal Regulations. The NRC issued a notice of intent to prepare the GEIS on April 30, 2020 (85 FR 24040), carried out a scoping process, and held a scoping meeting to receive public comments on the GEIS on May 28, 2020. After considering the comments received from various sources during the scoping process, the NRC staff initially developed this GEIS as a document that would be applicable to only ANRs.
Because this GEIS was initially developed using a technology-neutral, performance-based approach, its analyses can be used by any reactor. In SRM SECY-21-0098, dated April 17, 2024, the Commission directed the NRC staff to change the limited applicability of the GEIS from solely “advanced nuclear reactors” to any new nuclear reactor licensing application, provided the application meets the values and the assumptions of the plant parameter envelopes and the site parameter envelopes used to develop the GEIS.
Proposed Rule
Advanced Nuclear Reactor Generic Environmental Impact Statement Rulemaking
Key Documents
NRC Docket NRC-2020-0101
Includes proposed rule language, schedule information and stakeholder comments.
Project Status
The Notice of Availability of the Draft NR GEIS and Proposed Rulemaking package was published in the Federal Register on October 4, 2024 (CITATION), opening a 75-day comment period ending on December 20, 2024.
On or before December 20, 2024, you may submit public comments via the following:
Project Mailing List
To join the project mailing list, select the topic “NRC Advanced Reactors GEIS"