Press Release-05-079, NRC Renews Operating Licenses for Farley Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2, for Additional 20 Years

Press Release-05-079: NRC Renews Operating Licenses for Farley Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2, for Additional 20 Years

ML051320149
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Site:	Farley
Issue date:	05/12/2005
From:	Office of Public Affairs
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Press Release-05-079
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NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA No.05-079 May 12, 2005 NRC RENEWS OPERATING LICENSES FOR FARLEY NUCLEAR PLANT, UNITS 1 AND 2, FOR AN ADDITIONAL 20 YEARS The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has renewed the operating licenses of the Joseph M.

Farley Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2, for an additional 20 years.

The Farley plant is located about 18 miles southeast of Dothan, Ala. The licensee, Southern Nuclear Operating Co., submitted its license renewal applications for both reactors on Sept. 15, 2003.

With the renewals, the license for Farley Unit 1 is extended to June 25, 2037, and the license for Unit 2 is extended to March 31, 2041.

The NRCs environmental review is described in a site-specific supplement to the NRCs Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Power Plants (NUREG-1437, Supplement 18), issued March 9. The review concluded there were no environmental impacts that would preclude renewal of the licenses for environmental reasons. Two public meetings to discuss the environmental review were held near the plant on Jan. 8 and Sept. 30, 2004.

After carefully reviewing the plants safety systems and specifications, the staff concluded that there were no safety concerns that would preclude license renewal, because the licensee had demonstrated the capability to manage the effects of plant aging. The Safety Evaluation Report Related to the License Renewal of Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2, was published March 3. In addition, NRC conducted inspections of the plants to verify information submitted by the licensee. The reports relating to the Farley renewals are available on the NRC Web site at this address:

http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications/farley.html .

On April 14, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards - an independent body of technical experts which advises the Commission - issued its recommendation that the operating licenses for Farley be renewed. That recommendation is contained in Report on the Safety Aspects of the License Renewal Application for the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2. This document is available on the NRC Web site at this address:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/acrs/letters/2005/ .

The Farley license renewals bring the total number of renewals to 32 reactor units. A complete listing of renewal applications can be found on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications.html .