Press Release-11-080, NRC, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Issue Final Environmental Impact Statement for New Reactor at Calvert Cliffs Site
| ML111330451 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 05200016 |
| Issue date: | 05/13/2011 |
| From: | Office of Public Affairs |
| To: | |
| References | |
| +reviewedjr Press Release-11-080 | |
| Download: ML111330451 (2) | |
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NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 E-mail: opa.resource@nrc.gov Site: www.nrc.gov Blog: http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov No.11-080 May 13, 2011 NRC, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS ISSUE FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR NEW REACTOR AT CALVERT CLIFFS SITE The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE),
Baltimore District, have completed the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Combined License (COL) for the proposed Calvert Cliffs Unit 3 reactor. The NRC concludes in the FEIS that there are no environmental impacts that would preclude issuing the COL for construction and operation of the proposed reactor at the site, near Lusby, Md. The USACE will use the information in the FEIS in making its federal permit decision in accordance with the Clean Water Act and Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899.
The NRCs publishing of the FEIS is only part of the overall Calvert Cliffs COL review.
The agency staff continues to compile its final safety evaluation report (SER), which will include recommendations from the NRCs Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, an independent group of nuclear safety experts. The NRCs Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is currently conducting a proceeding on a challenge to the staffs environmental review, as well as whether the applicant, Unistar, meets NRC requirements regarding foreign ownership. All of these items must be completed before the NRC can reach a final decision on the COL application.
Unistar has applied for a license to build and operate an Areva EPR reactor adjacent to the existing Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant, approximately 40 miles south of Annapolis, Md.
UniStar submitted the applications environmental report and associated information in July 2007, and supplemented the report in Dec. 2007. The EPR is a large pressurized-water reactor with a design output of approximately 1,500 MWe. The EPRs designer, Areva, filed an application on Dec. 11, 2007 to certify the design. More information regarding the NRCs review of the EPR is available on the NRCs website.
The FEIS will be available on the NRC website. The NRC staff, in cooperation with USACE, gathered comments from the community near the site in March 2008 during the environmental scoping process. The agencies issued a draft EIS in April 2010 and met with the local community again in May 2010 for additional comments.
The FEIS, with the NRC's conclusions, is also available via the NRC's electronic document database, ADAMS, by entering accession numbers ML11129A167 and ML11129A179 in the ADAMS search engine.
In addition, the Calvert Library Prince Frederick at 850 Costley Way in Prince Frederick, Md.,
and the Calvert Library Southern Branch at 20 Appeal Lane in Lusby, will have hardbound copies of the FEIS available for public inspection.
News releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRCs website.