ML24117A226

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TMI-2 FRN Issuance of Draft Environmental Assessment - Historic and Cultural
ML24117A226
Person / Time
Site: Three Mile Island Constellation icon.png
Issue date: 05/29/2024
From: Robert Sun
NRC/NMSS/DREFS/ERMB
To:
References
NRC-2024-0099
Download: ML24117A226 (9)


Text

[7590-01-P]

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 50-0320; NRC-2024-0099]

TMI-2SOLUTIONS, LLC.;

Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit No. 2;

Draft Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No Significant Impact

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comment; issuance of programmatic

agreement.

SUMMARY

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public

comment a draft environmental assessment ( EA) and draft finding of no significant

impact (FONSI) for a proposed amendment of NRC Possession Only License (POL) No.

DPR-73 for the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit No. 2 (TMI-2), located in

Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The proposed amendment

would ensure that TMI-2 Energy Solutions (TMI-2 Solutions) can continue

decommissioning the facility in accordance with NRC regulations. TMI-2 Solutions will be

engaging in certain major decommissioning activities, including the physical demolition

of buildings previously deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places

(NRHP). The draft EA, Environmental Assessment for Specific Decommissioning

Activities at Three Mile Island, Unit 2 in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, documents the

NRC staffs environmental review of the license amendment application. The NRC is

also issuing a final Programmatic Agreement (PA) under Section 106 of the National

Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).

DATES: Submit comments on the draft EA by July 5, 2024. Comments received after

this date will be considered, if it is practical to do so, but the Commission is able to

ensure consideration only for comments received on or before this date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods; however,

the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal rulemaking

website:

for Docket ID NRC-2024-0099. 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 Information Contact section of

this document.

  • 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.

  • Email comments to: TMI2Environmental@nrc.gov.

For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting comments, see

Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments in the SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jean Trefethen, Office of Nuclear Material

Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC

20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-0867; email: Jean.Trefethen@nrc.gov.

2 SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2024-0099 when contacting the NRC about the

availability of information regarding this action. You may obtain publicly available

information related to this action by the following methods:

search for Docket ID NRC-2024-0099.

  • NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System

(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the ADAMS Public

Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the

search, select Begin Web-based ADAMS Search. For problems with ADAMS, please

contact the NRCs Public Document Room (P DR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at

301-415-4737, or by email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov. The ADAMS accession number

for each document referenced (if it is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that it

is mentioned in this document.

  • NRCs PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of publicly

available documents, is open by appointment. To make an appointment 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 a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (ET), Monday through Friday, except

Federal holidays.

  • NRCs Public Project Website: Information related to the TMI-2 project can

be accessed on NRCs TMI-2 public website at https://www.nrc.gov/info-

finder/decommissioning/power-reactor/three-mile-island-unit-2.html, under the section

titled 2.0 Site Status Summary, scroll down to Environmental Review of Cultural and 3

Historic Resource Impacts from Decommissi oning Activities and click on Environmental

Assessment (EA), Draft Report for Comment.

B. Submitting Comments

The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal

rulemaking website (https://www.regulations.gov). Please include Docket ID NRC-

2024-0099 in the subject line of your comment submission.

The NRC cautions you not to include identif ying or contact information that you

do not want to be publicly disclosed in y our comment submission. The NRC will post all

comment submissions at https://www.regulat ions.gov as well as enter the comment

submissions into ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to

remove identifying or contact information.

If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons for

submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to include identifying

or contact information that they do not w ant to be publicly disclosed in their comment

submission. Your request should state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment

submissions to remove such information before making the comment submissions

available to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.

II. Background

The Three Mile Island Nuclear Station (TMINS) is approximately 16 kilometers

(10 miles) southeast of Harrisburg, Pennsyl vania. The TMINS site includes Three Mile

Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1 (TMl-1) and TMl-2. It encompasses approximately 178

hectares (440 acres), including the adjacent islands on the north end, a strip of land on

the mainland along the eastern shore of the river, and an area on the eastern shore of

Shelley Island. The TMINS site has significance in U.S. history because it is the site of

the nations most serious commercial nuclear power plant accident, occurring at TMI-2.

4 On March 28, 1979, TMI-2 experienced an accident initiated by interruption of secondary

feedwater flow which led to a core heat up that caused fuel damage. The partial

meltdown of the reactor core led to a very small offsite release of radioactivity. In

response to this accident many changes occurred at nuclear power plants including

emergency response planning, reactor operator training, human factors engineering,

radiation protection, and heightened NRC regulatory oversight.

III. Introduction

By letter dated February 22, 2023 (ADAMS Accession No. ML23058A064),

TMI-2Solutions requested an amendment to POL No. DPR-73. TMI-2 Solutions will be

engaging in certain major decommissioning activities, including the physical demolition

of buildings previously deemed eligible for the NRHP. Because the impacts on the

historic properties from these decommissioning activities have not been previously

evaluated and are not bounded by the impacts discussion in NUREG-0586, Final

Generic Environmental Impact Statement on Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities,

TMI-2Solutions requested an amendment that would require evaluation of the impacts of

the decommissioning activities on the NRHP-e ligible properties, in compliance with

paragraph 50.82(a)(6)(ii) of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR).

Pursuant to 36 CFR 800.8, the NRC is using its National Environmental Policy

Act process for developing the environmental assessment (EA) to facilitate consultation

pursuant to Section 106 of the NHPA.

Adverse effects to historic properties would result from decommissioning

activities at TMI-2. Therefore, the NRC and consulting parties proceeded with

development of a PA to resolve adverse effects. On March 6, 2024 (89 FR 16037) the

draft PA was issued for public review and comment. One comment was received and

considered before finalizing the PA. The final PA (ADAMS Accession No.

5 ML24117A258) addresses the potential direct and indirect adverse effects from the

decommissioning activities and ensures that appropriate mitigation measures are

implemented. The NRC is issuing the final PA, which therefore, concludes NHPA

Section 106 consultation.

In accordance with NRCs regulations in 10 CFR part 51, Environmental

Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions, that

implement the National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA), the NRC staff has

prepared a draft EA documenting its environmental review of the license amendment

application. Based on the environmental review, the NRC has made a preliminary

determination that the proposed action will not significantly affect the quality of the

human environment and that a FONSI is theref ore appropriate. By this notice, the NRC

is requesting public comment on the draft FONSI and supporting draft EA.

IV. Summary of Draft Environmental Assessment

The draft EA is publicly available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML24117A224.

A summary description of the proposed ac tion and expected environmental impacts is

provided as follows.

Description of the Proposed Action

The proposed action is to amend POL No. DPR-73 so that TMI-2 Solutions can

continue with certain major decommissioning activities planned under Phase 2 of its

decommissioning schedule. Phase 2 decommissioning activities include the removal of

any radioactive components in preparation for demolition of structures, decommissioning

and dismantlement of the TMl-2 site to a level that permits the release of the site, except

for an area potentially to be set aside for storage of fuel-bearing material (small

quantities of spent nuclear fuel, damaged core material, and high-level waste) on the

independent spent fuel storage installation, backfilling of the site, license termination 6

plan submittal and implementation, and site restoration activities. In order to comply with

10 CFR 50.82(a)(6)(ii), TMI-2Solutions requested that NRC evaluate the impacts of

certain major decommissioning activities on historic and cultural resources and NRHP-

eligible properties. The definition of major decommissioning activity is in 10 CFR 50.2,

which states Major decommissioning activity me ans, for a nuclear power reactor facility,

any activity that results in permanent removal of major radioactive components,

permanently modifies the structure of the containment, or results in dismantling

components for shipment containing greater than class C waste in accordance with §

61.55 of this chapter. Due to radioactive contamination, the TMI-2 structures must be

demolished and removed during decommissioning.

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action

In the draft EA, the staff assessed the potential environmental impacts from the

proposed license amendment to the following resource areas: land use; visual and

scenic resources; the geologic environment; surface and groundwater resources;

ecological resources; air quality; noise; historic and cultural resources; socioeconomic

conditions; environmental justice; public and occupational health; transportation; and

waste generation and management. The NRC staff also considered the cumulative

impacts from past, present, and reasonably foreseeable actions when combined with the

proposed action. The TMI-2 Historic District would be adversely affected by the TMI-2

decommissioning, and adverse effects cannot be avoided. The mitigation of adverse

effects to the TMI-2 Historic District will be completed in accordance with the TMI-2

Demolition and Decommissioning Programmatic Agreement (NRC 2024a).

As part of the NRCs consultation under Section 7 of the Endangered Species

Act, the NRC staff determined that the proposed action may affect, but is not likely to

adversely affect, the Indiana bat ( Myotis sodalis), northern long-eared bat 7

(Myotis septentrionalis ), tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus), monarch butterfly

(Danaus plexippus), northeastern bulrush (Scirpus ancistrochaetus ), or green floater

(Lasmigona subviridis ). The NRC staff transmitted an email to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service for its review and concurrence on May 24, 2024 (ADAMS Accession No.

ML24120A324).

All other potential impacts from the proposed action were determined to not be

significant, as described in the draft EA. The NRC staff found that there would be no

significant negative cumulative impact to any resource area from the proposed action

when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable actions.

Environmental Impacts of the Alternative to the Proposed Action

As an alternative to the proposed action, the NRC staff considered denial of the

proposed action (i.e., the no-action alternative). Under the no-action alternative, the

NRC would deny the licensees request for an amendment to allow for the continuation

of major decommissioning activities under Phase 2. In this case, the NRC staff would not

review the historic and cultural resource impacts of the major decommissioning activities

as defined in 10 CFR 50.2 and would therefore disallow the removal of NRHP-eligible

structures and any impacts to historic and cultural resources. However, due to the

presence of radioactive contamination, TMI-2 structures, including the NRHP-eligible

structures, must be removed during the decommissioning process. Therefore, the NRC

staff concludes that denying the amendment request is not a reasonable alternative.

V. Draft Finding of No Significant Impact

In accordance with the NEPA and 10 CFR part 51, the NRC staff has conducted

an environmental review of a request for an amendment to POL No. DPR-73. The

proposed amendment would revise POL No. DPR-73 to allow the licensee to conduct

decommissioning at TMI-2 covering activities that were not previously addressed in the 8

staffs environmental assessments (site-specific historical and cultural resources). Based

on its environmental review of the proposed action, as documented in the draft EA, the

NRC staff has preliminarily determined that granting the requested license amendment

would not significantly affect the quality of the human environment. Therefore, the NRC

staff has preliminarily determined, pursuant to 10 CFR 51.31, that preparation of an

environmental impact statement is not requi red for the proposed action and a FONSI is

appropriate. Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.33(a), the NRC staff is making the draft FONSI and

draft EA available for public review and comment.

Dated: May 29, 2024.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

/RA/

Robert Sun, Chief, Environmental Project Management Branch 2, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support, Office of Nuclear Material Safety, and Safeguards.

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