ML22347A211
| ML22347A211 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Oconee  |
| Issue date: | 12/14/2022 |
| From: | John Moses NRC/NMSS/DREFS/ELRB |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NRC-2021-0146 | |
| Download: ML22347A211 (8) | |
Text
[7590-01-P]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket Nos. 50-269, 50-270, and 50-287; NRC-2021-0146]
Notice of Intent to Conduct a Supplemental Scoping Process and Prepare a Draft
Environmental Impact Statement
Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC
Oconee Nuclear Station, Units 1, 2, and 3
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Subsequent license renewal environmental report supplement; i ntent to
conduct a supplemental scoping process and prepare a draft envi ronmental impact
statement; request for comment.
SUMMARY
- In response to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRC)
Memorandum and Order, CLI-22-03 (February 24, 2022), the NRC re ceived Subsequent
License Renewal - Appendix E Environmental Report Supplement 2 (ER Supplement),
dated November 7, 2022, related to the subsequent renewal of Re newed Facility
Operating License Nos. DPR-38, DPR-47, and DPR-55, which author izes Duke Energy
Carolinas, LLC (Duke Energy, the applicant) to operate Oconee N uclear Station
(Oconee), Units 1, 2, and 3. The ER Supplement addresses certa in environmental
impacts of operating Oconee for an additional period of 20 year s beyond the current
license expiration dates.
The NRC will conduct a limited scoping process to gather additi onal information
necessary to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) to evaluate the
environmental impacts for the subsequent license renewal (SLR) of the operating
licenses for Oconee. The NRC is seek ing public comment on the proper scope of the
EIS to be prepared for this action.
DATES: Submit comments on the scope of the EIS by January 18, 2023. Comments
received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is able to
ensure consideration only for co mments received on or before th is date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods; howe ver,
the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Fe deral rulemaking
website.
- Federal rulemaking website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search
for Docket ID NRC-2021-0146. Address questions about Docket IDs to Stacy
Schumann; telephone: 301-415-0624; email: Stacy.Schumann@nrc. gov. For technical
questions, contact the individual listed in the For Further In formation Contact section of
this document.
- Email: Comments may be submitted to the NRC electronically using the
email address OconeeEnvironmental@nrc.gov.
- Mail Comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN-7-A60M,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Program
Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.
For additional direction on obtaining information and submittin g comments, see
Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments in the SUPPLEME NTARY
INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lance Rakovan, Office of Nuclear
Materials Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commis sion, Washington,
DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-2589, email: Lance.Rakovan@ nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2021-0146 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain pu blicly available information
related to this action using any of the following methods:
- Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and
search for Docket ID NRC-2021-0146.
- NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the ADA MS Public
Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.ht ml. To begin the
search, select Begin Web-based ADAMS Search. For problems wi th ADAMS, please
contact the NRCs Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209,
301-415-4737, or by email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov. For the con venience of the
reader, instructions about obtaining materials referenced in th is document are provided
in the Availability of Documents section.
- NRCs PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public documents,
by appointment, at the NRCs PDR, Room P1 B35, One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. To make an appointm ent to visit the PDR,
please send an email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-
4737, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
- Public Library: A copy of the ER Supplement is available for public review
at the Oconee County Public Library, 300 E. South 2nd St, Senec a, SC 29678.
B. Submitting Comments
The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Fe deral
rulemaking website (https://www.regulations.gov). Please inclu de Docket ID NRC-2021-
0146 in your comment submission.
The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact info rmation that you
do not want to be publicly disclosed in your comment submission. The NRC will post all
comment submissions at https://www.regulations.gov as well as e nter the comment
submissions into ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit commen t submissions to
remove identifying or contact information.
If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other person s for
submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to include identifying
or contact information that they do not want to be publicly dis closed in their comment
submission. Your request should state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment
submissions to remove such information before making the commen t submissions
available to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.
II. Discussion
By letter dated June 7, 2021, Duke Energy submitted to the NRC an application
for subsequent license renewal of Renewed Facility Operating Li cense Nos. DPR-38,
DPR-47, and DPR-55 for Oconee, Units 1, 2, and 3, respectively, for an additional 20
years of operation. That submission initiated the NRC's propos ed action of determining
whether to grant the SLR application. The Oconee units are pre ssurized water reactors
designed by Babcock & Wilcox and are located in Seneca, South C arolina,
approximately 30 miles west of Greenville, SC. The current ren ewed facility operating
license for Unit 1 expires at midnight on February 6, 2033, the current renewed facility
operating license for Unit 2 expires at midnight on October 6, 2033, and the current
renewed facility operating license for Unit 3 expires at midnig ht on July 19, 2034. The
SLR application was submitted pursuant to Section 103 of the At omic Energy Act of
1954, as amended, and part 54 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR),
Requirements for Renewal of Operating Licenses for Nuclear Pow er Plants, and seeks
to extend the renewed facility operating license for Unit 1 to midnight on February 6, 2053, the renewed facility operating license for Un it 2 to midnight on
October 6, 2053, and the renewed facility operating license for Unit 3 to midnight on
July 19, 2054. A notice of receipt and availability of the app lication was published in the
Federal Register on June 25, 2021 (86 FR 33784). A notice of acceptance for do cketing
of the application and of opportunity to request a hearing was published in the Federal
Register on July 28, 2021 (86 FR 40662). A public scoping meeting was held on August
21, 2021.
On February 24, 2022, the Commission issued several decisions, including CLI-
22-02 and CLI-22-03, in which the Commission held that the 201 3 GEIS [NUREG-1437,
"Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants] did
not consider the impacts from operations during the subsequent license renewal period
and applicants for subsequent license renewal must evaluate Cat egory 1 impacts in their
environmental reports. Accordi ngly, these impacts must be addr essed on a site-specific
basis in the Staff's site-specific environmental impact stateme nts. In addition, the
Commission held that 10 CFR 51.53(c)(3) only applies to an init ial license renewal
applicant's preparation of an environmental report. As a resul t, the Commission
determined, among other things, that the NRC staff's environmen tal reviews of pending
subsequent license renewal applications are incomplete and dire cted the staff to prepare
an update to the 2013 GEIS. In CLI-22-03, the Commission furth er stated that if an
applicant does not wish to wait for the completion of the gener ic analysis and associated
rulemaking, the applicant may submit a revised environmental r eport providing
information on environmental impacts during the subsequent lice nse renewal period.
Following the issuance of CLI-22-03, the NRC received the ER Su pplement from
Duke Energy, dated November 7, 2022, related to the subsequent renewal of the
operating licenses for Oconee.
Given recent circumstances that require including, within the s cope of the EIS for
subsequent license renewal for Oconee, an evaluation of the iss ues treated as Category
1 in the 2013 GEIS, the NRC staff will conduct an additional li mited scoping process
associated with this action. Consistent with Commission direct ion, the NRC staff intends
to prepare a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for SLR of Oconee
Units 1, 2 and 3 (DSEIS) for public comment, in which it will r eview all applicable
Category 1 (generic) issues listed in the 2013 GEIS for the p urpose of making site-
specific findings (e.g., SMALL, MODERATE, LARGE) on those issue s. The NRC staff
also intends to review all applicable Category 2 (site-specif ic) issues listed in the 2013
GEIS, including any significant new information that may have a risen following the
original August 10, 2021, to September 9, 2021, scoping period and will update the site-
specific analysis, as appropriate, to address the new informati on. Environmental
scoping comments should address matters that fit within these t wo categories;
comments that do not fit into these two categories will not be considered.
III. Request for Comment
This notice informs the public of the NRC's intention to prepar e a DSEIS related
to the subsequent license renewal application and to provide th e public an opportunity to
participate in the environmental scoping process, as defined in 10 CFR part 51,
Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory
Functions.
Participation in the scoping process by members of the public a nd local, State,
Tribal, and Federal government agencies is encouraged. The sco ping process for the
DSEIS will be used to accomplish the following:
- a. Define the proposed action, which is to be the subject of th e DSEIS;
- b. Determine the scope of the DSEIS and identify the significan t issues to be
analyzed in depth;
- c. Identify and eliminate from detailed study those issues that are peripheral or
are not significant; or were covered by a prior environmental r eview;
- d. Identify any environmental assessments and other EISs that a re being or will
be prepared that are related to, but are not part of, the scope of the DSEIS being
considered;
- e. Identify other environmental review and consultation require ments related to
the proposed action;
- f. Indicate the relationship between the timing of the preparat ion of the
environmental analyses and the Commission's tentative planning and decisionmaking
schedule;
- g. Identify any cooperating agencies and, as appropriate, alloc ate assignments
for preparation and schedules for completing the DSEIS to the N RC and any
cooperating agencies; and
- h. Describe how the DSEIS will be prepared, including any contr actor
assistance to be used.
The NRC invites the following entities to participate in scopin g:
- a. The applicant, Duke Energy;
- b. Any Federal agency that has jurisdiction by law or special e xpertise with
respect to any environmental impact involved or that is authori zed to develop and
enforce relevant environmental standards;
- c. Affected State and local government agencies, including thos e authorized to
develop and enforce relevant environmental standards;
- d. Any affected Indian Tribe;
- e. Any person who requests or has requested an opportunity to p articipate in
the scoping process; and
- f. Any person who has petitioned or intends to petition for lea ve to intervene.
Participation in the scoping process for the Oconee subsequent license renewal
DSEIS does not entitle participants to become parties to the pr oceeding to which the
DSEIS relates. Matters related to participation in any hearing are outside the scope of
matters to be discussed.
IV. Availability of Documents
The documents identified in the following table are available t o interested
persons through one or more of the following methods, as indica ted.
DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION ADAMS ACCESSION NO.
Subsequent License Renewal - Appendix E Environmental Report Supplement 2, dated ML22311A036 November 7, 2022 Oconee Nuclear Station, Units 1, 2, and 3, Application for Subsequent Renewed Operating ML21158A193 (package)
License, dated June 7, 2021 Commission Memorandum and Order CLI-22-02, dated February 24, 2022 ML22055A496 Commission Memorandum and Order CLI-22-03, dated February 24, 2022 ML22055A554 NUREG-1437, "Generic Environmental Impact ML13106A241, ML13106A242, Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants and ML13106A244 Rev. 1 (June 2013), Vols. 1-3 NUREG-1437, "Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants," ML003670518 Supplement 2, Regarding Oconee Nuclear Station, Units 1, 2 & 3, dated December 1999
Dated: December 14, 2022.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
/RA/
John M. Moses, Deputy Director, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support, Office of Nuclear Materials, Safety and Safeguards.