Site-Specific Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants: Regarding Subsequent License Renewal for Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant, Unit 1 – Final Report (NUREG-1437, Supplement 26, Second Renewal)

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Publication Information

Manuscript Completed: November 2024
Date Published: November 2024

Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

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Abstract

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) prepared this site-specific environmental impact statement (EIS) as part of its environmental review of Xcel Energy's request to renew the operating license for Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant, Unit 1 (Monticello) for an additional 20 years. This EIS includes the site-specific evaluation of the environmental impacts of the proposed action (Monticello subsequent license renewal [SLR]), and alternatives to SLR. As alternatives, the NRC considered: (1) natural gas and renewables; (2) renewables and storage; (3) new nuclear small modular reactors, and (4) the no-action alternative.

This EIS considers information contained in Xcel Energy's January 9, 2023, submittal (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System Accession No. ML23009A352). Xcel Energy prepared the Monticello SLR application in accordance with Commission direction. Specifically, in February 2022, the Commission issued three memoranda and orders: Commission Legal Issuance (CLI)-22-02, CLI-22-03, and CLI-22-04 (NRC 2022-TN8182, NRC 2022-TN9844, and NRC 2022-TN9553), concerning SLR environmental reviews. In CLI-22-02, the Commission found that the 2013 License Renewal Generic Environmental Impact Statement (LR GEIS) did not cover the SLR period and that 10 CFR 51.53(c)(3) (TN250) does not apply to SLR applicants and, therefore, the NRC staff may not exclusively rely on the 2013 LR GEIS and Table B–1 for the evaluation of Category 1 issues for SLR. In its decisions, the Commission directed the staff to revise the LR GEIS and Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 51 to address SLR and determined that the NRC staff must address these impacts on a site-specific basis in an EIS if an SLR applicant elects not to await the issuance of a revised GEIS and rule.

Following its receipt of Xcel Energy's SLR application and site-specific environmental report, the NRC staff issued a notice of the staff's intent to conduct a scoping process and to publish a site-specific EIS for Monticello SLR (88 FR 15103-TN9715). The NRC staff conducted the scoping process, and then published a scoping summary report (NRC 2024-TN9817).

The NRC staff has prepared this site-specific EIS in accordance with CLI-22-02 (NRC 2022-TN8182) and CLI-22-03 (NRC 2022-TN9844). The NRC staff published a draft of this site-specific EIS on April 24, 2024 (89 FR 31225-TN10572). Following its consideration of the comments it received on the draft EIS, the NRC staff prepared this final site-specific EIS. This final EIS considers, among other things, the information contained in Xcel Energy's January 9, 2023, SLR application submittal (Xcel 2023-TN9084), and evaluates all the environmental impacts applicable to Monticello SLR on a site-specific basis. In addition, this final EIS considers new information and issues identified in an August 2024 revision to the LR GEIS, as discussed below.

On August 6, 2024, following the NRC staff’s publication of the draft site-specific EIS for Monticello SLR, the NRC published a final rule (89 FR 64166-TN10321) revising its environmental protection regulations in 10 CFR Part 51, "Environmental protection regulations for domestic licensing and related regulatory functions," along with Revision 2 to the LR GEIS. The final rule updates the potential environmental impacts associated with the renewal of an operating license for a nuclear power plant for up to an additional 20 years for either initial license renewal or one period of SLR. Revision 2 to NUREG-1437, Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants (LR GEIS) (NRC 2024-TN10161) provides the technical basis for the final rule. The revised 2024 LR GEIS supports the updated list of environmental issues and associated environmental impact findings contained in Table B-1 in Appendix B to Subpart A of the revised 10 CFR Part 51 for both initial license renewal and one period of SLR. The final rule was updated with a correction to Appendix B of Subpart A published on August 21, 2024 (89 FR 67522-TN10823). This EIS provides, in Appendix G, a crosswalk of the new and modified issues under the 2024 LR GEIS and final rule as compared to the site-specific evaluation presented in this EIS.

Based on its evaluation of environmental impacts, the NRC staff's recommendation is that the adverse environmental impacts of Monticello SLR are not so great that preserving the option of SLR for energy planning decision-makers would be unreasonable. The EIS also considers the comments submitted during the NRC environmental scoping period conducted in March 2023 as summarized in the NRC staff’s scoping summary report (NRC 2024-TN9817). The NRC staff based its recommendation on the following:

• Xcel Energy's environmental report
• consultation with Federal, State, Tribal, and local governmental agencies
• the NRC staff’s independent environmental review
• the consideration of public comments received during the scoping process
• the consideration of public comments received on the 2024 draft site-specific EIS
• the consideration of the new and modified Category 1 and Category 2 environmental issues identified in the 2024 LR GEIS