ML17293A615

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09/19/2017 Summary of Meting to Describe License Renewal and Allow Members of the Public the Opportunity to Provide Comments Environmental Issues with Us NRC Should Consider During Environmental Review of River Bend Statin License Renewal A
ML17293A615
Person / Time
Site: River Bend Entergy icon.png
Issue date: 10/19/2017
From: David Drucker
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:
References
CAC MF9778
Download: ML17293A615 (3)


Text

October 19, 2017 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Meeting Summary Title: Public Scoping Meeting for Environmental Review of River Bend Station, Unit 1 (RBS)

License Renewal Application (LRA) (CAC NO. MF9778)

Meeting Identifier: 20171130 Date of Meeting: Tuesday, September 19, 2017 Location: St. Francisville Town Hall, 11936 Ferdinand Street, St. Francisville LA Type of Meeting: Category 3 Purpose of the Meeting(s):

To describe the license renewal process and to allow members of the public the opportunity to provide comments regarding environmental issues the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should consider during its environmental review of the RBS LRA.

General Details:

The NRC held a public scoping meeting as part of the RBS LRA environmental review. The meeting started at 7:00 p.m. Central Standard Time (CST). The meeting ended at 7:25 p.m.

CST. Six NRC staff members were present. The meeting was facilitated by Dan Mussatti, an NRC in-house facilitator. The meeting began with a review of meeting ground rules and an introduction of NRC staff, followed by a presentation on the license renewal safety review process by Manny Sayoc and the license renewal environmental review process by Bob Hoffman. The presentations emphasized that comments were welcome to help focus the environmental review. Next, there was a question and answer period on the NRC staff presentations. Finally, there was the comment portion of the meeting.

Twenty people (this number includes the six NRC staff) attended the meeting. In addition to two members of the public, meeting participants included Mr. Couhig, the Parish President of West Feliciana Parish, JiYoung Wiley, a representative from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the applicant.

Summary of Presentation:

The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 authorizes the NRC to grant licenses for commercial power reactors to operate for up to 40 years and allows these licenses to be renewed for up to another 20 years. The 40-year term was based primarily on economic considerations and antitrust factors, not on safety and technical limitations. The NRC has established a license renewal process that has two separate, but parallel review tracks; a safety review and an environmental review.

The focus of the safety review stems from the NRCs obligation under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, and is performed under the regulations of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), Part 54, Requirements for Renewal of Operating Licenses for Nuclear Power Plant. The purpose of this review is to verify that each applicant has fully analyzed the management of aging effects in sufficient detail to conclude that the plant can be operated safely during the period of extended operation. The NRCs safety review is documented in the final safety evaluation report.

Under the NRCs environmental protection regulations in 10 CFR Part 51which implement the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)issuance of a new nuclear power plant operating license requires the preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS). The NRC performs plant-specific reviews of environmental impacts of operating life extension in accordance with NEPA and the requirements of 10 CFR Part 51, Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions. As part of the environmental review, the staff consults with local, State, Federal, and Tribal officials.

The environmental review begins with a scoping process, which is an assessment of specific environmental impacts associated with renewing the RBS operating license. Some environmental impacts are similar, if not identical, at all nuclear power plants, so, to improve efficiency, the NRC staff developed a generic environmental impact statement, NUREG-1437, Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants, that addresses a number of impacts common to all nuclear power plants. The NRC staff supplements the generic EIS with a plant-specific EIS (SEIS), in which all issues that are specific to RBS will be addressed. The staff also re-examines the conclusions reached in the generic EIS to determine if there is any new and significant information that would change those conclusions. The NRC staff will make a recommendation on whether or not the environmental impacts are so great that they preclude maintaining the option of license renewal for energy-planning decisionmakers.

The closing date for submitting scoping comments is October 23, 2017. In addition to providing comments at the meetings, comments can be: (1) mailed to Chief, Rules, Announcements and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Mailstop TWFN-8-E-21, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555; (2) submitted online using the Federal Rulemaking website at regulations.gov (keyword: NRC-2017-0141); or emailed to elaine.keegan@nrc.gov. Comments will not be edited to remove any identifying or contact information. Do not include any information in comments that you do not want publicly disclosed.

Public Participation Themes:

The only commenter during the meeting was Mr. Couhig, the Parish President of West Feliciana Parish. He stated: (1) he is in favor of license renewal, (2) he is concerned with ensuring his Parish has adequate funding for nuclear emergency preparedness exercises, and, (3) he wants to understand the long-term plan for spent fuel stored at RBS.

A complete accounting of the comments provided can be found in the meeting transcripts which are available in the NRCs ADAMS public electronic reading room under the accession numbers listed below, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.

Action Items/Next Steps:

NRC staff will address the comments provided during this meeting as part of the LRA review process for RBS. A record of how each comment was addressed will be included in the Scoping Summary Report or draft SEIS.

Attachments:

o Meeting description and agenda - ML17249A247 o NRC staff presentation - ML17293A503 o Meeting transcript - ML17293A547

Public Participation Themes:

The only commenter during the meeting was Mr. Couhig, the Parish President of West Feliciana Parish. He stated: (1) he is in favor of license renewal, (2) he is concerned with ensuring his Parish has adequate funding for nuclear emergency preparedness exercises, and, (3) he wants to understand the long-term plan for spent fuel stored at RBS.

A complete accounting of the comments provided can be found in the meeting transcripts which are available in the NRCs ADAMS public electronic reading room under the accession numbers listed below, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.

Action Items/Next Steps:

NRC staff will address the comments provided during this meeting as part of the LRA review process for RBS. A record of how each comment was addressed will be included in the Scoping Summary Report or draft SEIS.

Attachments:

OFFICE TR:MENB:DMLR PM:MRPB:DMLR BC:MRPB:DMLR NAME RHoffman DDrucker DDrucker DATE 10/19/17 10/19/17 10/19/17 OFFICE RECORD COPY

DISTRIBUTION:

Listserv David Drucker U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

William Burton NRC Ben Beasley NRC Emanuel Sayoc NRC Jeff Sowa NRC Brian Parks NRC Bob Hoffman NRC George Wilson NRC Kevin Couhig Parish President of West Feliciana Parish JiYoung Wiley Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Cleve Coates Resident Lacey Coates Resident Alyson Coates Entergy Mark Runion Entergy Tom Broussard Entergy Tim Schenk Entergy Garry Young Entergy Rick Buckley Entergy Mandy Halter Entergy Marvin Chase Entergy Bill MacGuire Entergy Erin Gryniak Entergy