ML11342A073

Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and Conduct Scoping Process for License Renewal for the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station, Unit 1

ML11342A073
Person / Time
Site:	Grand Gulf
Issue date:	12/22/2011
From:	David Wrona License Renewal Projects Branch 2
To:	Mike Perito Entergy Operations
Drucker D, 415-6223
Shared Package
ML11342A074	List: ML11342A073
References
Download: ML11342A073 (11)

Text

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001 December 22, 2011 Mr. Michael Perito Vice President, Site Grand Gulf Nuclear Station Entergy Operations, Inc.

P.O. Box 756 Port Gibson, MS 39150

SUBJECT:

NOTICE OF INTENT TO PREPARE AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT AND CONDUCT SCOPING PROCESS FOR LICENSE RENEWAL FOR THE GRAND GULF NUCLEAR STATION, UNIT 1

Dear Mr. Perito:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff (NRC or the staff) has received your application dated October 28, 2011, for the renewal of Operating License NPF-29 for Grand Gulf Nuclear Station, Unit 1 (GGNS). In support of the application and in accordance with Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR Part 51) and 10 CFR Part 54, Entergy Operations, Inc also submitted an environmental report for GGNS. This letter provides information related to the staff's environmental review of the application.

The NRC has prepared a notice of intent advising the public that the NRC intends to gather information necessary to prepare a plant-specific supplement to the Commission's "Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants," (NUREG-1437) related to the review of the application for the renewal of the GGNS operating license. Enclosed is a copy of the Notice of Intent, which has been forwarded to the Office of the Federal Register for publication.

Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.28, GGNS is invited to participate in the environmental scoplng process.

As discussed in the enclosed notice, the staff is providing the public with the opportunity to participate in two environmental scoping meetings to be held on January 31, 2012 The meetings will be held at the Port Gibson City Hall, 1005 College Street, Port Gibson, Mississippi 39150. The first session will be held in the afternoon, and the second session, covering the same subjects, will be held in the evening. The NRC will present an overview of the environmental review process and will describe how the process will be implemented for the review of the GGNS license renewal application.

M. Perito - 2 A separate NRC meeting notice with a more detailed agenda is forthcoming. You will be provided a copy of that notice.

In the interim, should you have any questions regarding the scoping meeting, please contact the NRC's Environmental Project Manager, David Drucker, at 301-415-6223 or bye-mail at David. Drucker@nrc.gov.

Sincerely, O~ (~'9'-'.

David J. Wrona, Chief (y-----

i /

Projects Branch 2 Division of License Renewal Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-416

Enclosure:

As stated cc w/encl: Listserv

[7590-01-P]

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION ENTERGY OPERATIONS. INC.

NOTICE OF INTENT TO PREPARE AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT AND CONDUCT THE SCOPING PROCESS FOR GRAND GULF NUCLEAR STATION, UNIT 1 DOCKET NO. 50-416 Entergy Operations, Inc. (Entergy) has submitted an application for renewal of Facility Operating License NPF-29 for an additional 20 years of operation at Grand Gulf Nuclear Station, Unit 1 (GGNS). GGNS is located in Claiborne County, Mississippi.

The current operating license for GGNS expires on November 1, 2024. The application for renewal, dated October 28, 2011, was submitted pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 54, which included an environmental report (ER). A separate notice of receipt and availability of the application was published in the Federal Register on November 17, 2011 (76 FRN 71379). A notice of acceptance for docketing of the application and opportunity for hearing regarding renewal of the facility operating license is also being published in the Federal Register. The purpose of this notice is to inform the public that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will be preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) related to the review of the license renewal application and to provide the public an opportunity to participate in the environmental scoping process, as defined in 10 CFR 51.29.

As outlined in 36 CFR 800.8, "Coordination with the National Environmental Policy Act," the NRC plans to coordinate compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) in meeting the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). Pursuant to 36 CFR 800.8(c), the NRC intends to use its process and ENCLOSURE

-2 documentation for the preparation of the EIS on the proposed action to comply with Section 106 of the NHPA in lieu of the procedures set forth at 36 CFR 800.3 through 800.6.

In accordance with 10 CFR 51.53(c) and 10 CFR 54.23, Entergy submitted the ER as part of the application. The ER was prepared pursuant to 10 CFR Part 51 and is publicly available at the NRC Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, or from the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). The ADAMS Public Electronic Reading Room is accessible at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this page, the public can gain entry into ADAMS, which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS Accession Number for the GGNS ER is ML113080132. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC's PDR reference staff by telephone at 800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737 or bye-mail at pdr.resource@nrc.gov. The ER may also be viewed on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications.html. In addition, the ER is

.. - availabletothe public-nearthesite-attheHarrietie Person-Memorialttbrary,600Main St~Port Gibson, Mississippi 39150.

Public comments and supporting materials related to this notice can be found at the Federal Rulemaking website, http://www.regulations.gov, by searching on Docket 10 NRC-2011-0262.

This notice advises the public that the NRC intends to gather the information necessary to prepare a plant-specific supplement to the NRC's "Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GElS) for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants" (NUREG-1437), related to the review of the application for renewal of the GGNS operating license for an additional 20 years.

Possible alternatives to the proposed action (license renewal) include no action and reasonable alternative energy sources. The NRC is required by 10 CFR 51.95 to prepare a

-3 supplement to the GElS in connection with the renewal of an operating license. This notice is being published in accordance with NEPA and the NRC's regulations found at 10 CFR Part 51.

The NRC will first conduct a scoping process for the supplement to the GElS and, as soon as practicable thereafter, will prepare a draft supplement to the GElS for public comment.

Participation in the scoping process by members of the public and local, State, Tribal, and Federal government agencies is encouraged. The scoping process for the supplement to the GElS will be used to accomplish the following:

a. Define the proposed action, which is to be the subject of the supplement to the GElS;

b. Determine the scope of the supplement to the GElS and identify the significant issues to be analyzed in depth;

c. Identify and eliminate from detailed study those issues that are peripheral or that are not significant;

d. Identify any environmental assessments and other EISs that are being or will be prepared that are related to, but are not part of, the scope of the supplement to the GElS being considered;

e. Identify other environmental review and consultation requirements related to the proposed action;

f. Indicate the relationship between the timing of the preparation of the environmental analyses and the Commission's tentative planning and decision-making schedule;

g. Identify any cooperating agencies and, as appropriate, allocate assignments for preparation and schedules for completing the supplement to the GElS to the NRC and any cooperating agencies; and

h. Describe how the supplement to the GElS will be prepared and include any contractor assistance to be used.

-4 The NRC invites the following entities to participate in scoping:

a. The applicant, Entergy;

b. Any Federal agency that has jurisdiction by law or special expertise with respect to any environmental impact involved or that is authorized to develop and enforce relevant environmental standards;

c. Affected State and local government agencies, including those authorized to develop and enforce relevant environmental standards;

d. Any affected Indian tribe;

e. Any person who requests or has requested an opportunity to participate in the scoping process; and

f. Any person who has petitioned or intends to petition for leave to intervene.

In accordance with 10 CFR 51.26, the scoping process for an EIS may include a public scoping meeting to help identify significant issues related to a proposed activity and to determine the scope of issues to be addressed in an EIS. The NRC has decided to hold public meetings for the GGNS license renewal supplement to the GElS. The scoping meetings will be held on January 31, 2012, and there will be two sessions to accommodate interested parties.

The first session will convene at 2:00 p.m. and will continue until 3:30 p.m The second session will convene at 7:00 p.m. with a repeat of the overview portions of the meeting and will continue until 8:30 p.m., as necessary. Both sessions will be held at the Port Gibson City Hall, 1005 College Street, Port Gibson, Mississippi 39150.

Both meetings will be transcribed and will include: (1) an overview by the NRC staff of the NEPA environmental review process, the proposed scope of the supplement to the GElS, and the proposed review schedule; and (2) the opportunity for interested government agencies, organizations, and individuals to submit comments or suggestions on the environmental issues or the proposed scope of the supplement to the GElS. Additionally, the NRC staff will host

- 5 informal discussions one hour prior to the start of each session at the same location. No formal comments on the proposed scope of the supplement to the GElS will be accepted during the informal discussions. To be considered, comments must be provided either at the transcribed public meetings or in writing, as discussed below.

Persons may register to attend or present oral comments at the meetings on the scope of the NEPA review by contacting the NRC Project Manager, David Drucker, by telephone at 800-368-5642, ext. 6223, or bye-mail at DavidDrucker@nrc.gov no later than January 24, 2012. Members of the public may also register to speak at the meeting within 15 minutes of the start of each session. Individual oral comments may be limited by the time available, depending on the number of persons who register. Members of the public who have not registered may also have an opportunity to speak if time permits. Public comments will be considered in the scoping process for the supplement to the GElS. David Drucker will need to be contacted no later than January 10, 2012, if special equipment or accommodations are needed to attend or present information at the public meeting so that the NRC staff can determine whether the request can be accommodated.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by anyone of the following methods.

Please include Docket 10 NRC-2011-0262 in the subject line of your comments. Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted on the NRC website and on the Federal rulemaking website www.Regulations.gov. Your comments will not be edited to remove any identifying or contact information, therefore, the NRC cautions you against including any information in your submission that you do not want to be publicly disclosed.

The NRC requests that any party soliciting or aggregating comments received from other persons for submission to the NRC inform those persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to remove any identifying or contact information, and therefore, they should not include any information in their comments that they do not want publicly disclosed.

- 6 Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to http://www.Regulations.gov and search for documents filed under Docket 10 NRC-2011-0262. Address questions about NRC dockets to Ms. Carol Gallagher 301-492-3668; e-mail CaroI.Galiagher@nrc.gov.

Mail/fax comments to: Ms. Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements and Directives Branch (RADB), Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01 M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax to RADB at 301-492-3446. To be considered in the scoping process, written comments should be sent no later than [60 DAYS FROM DATE OF PUBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER]. Comments will be available electronically and accessible through ADAMS at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.

You can access publicly available documents related to this notice using the following methods:

NRC's Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine and have copied for a fee, publicly available documents at the NRC's PDR, Public File Area 01 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.

Federal Rulemaking Website: Public comments and supporting materials related to this notice can be found at http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket 10:

NRC-2011-0262.

-7 Participation in the scoping process for the supplement to the GElS does not entitle participants to become parties to the proceeding to which the supplement to the GElS relates.

Matters related to participation in any hearing are outside the scope of matters to be discussed at this public meeting. The notice of acceptance for docketing of the application and opportunity for hearing that was published in the Federal Register describes the hearing process.

nd Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 22 day of December, 2011 FOR THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OJ9 David J. Wrona, Chief Projects Branch 2 Division of License Renewal Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

M. Perito -2 A separate NRC meeting notice with a more detailed agenda is forthcoming. You will be provided a copy of that notice.

In the interim, should you have any questions regarding the scoping meeting, please contact the NRC's Environmental Project Manager, David Drucker, at 301-415-301-415-6223 or bye-mail at DavidDrucker@nrc.gov.

Sincerely, IRA!

David J. Wrona, Chief Projects Branch 2 Division of License Renewal Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-416

Enclosure:

As stated cc w/encl: Listserv Distribution: See next page ADAMS Accession Nos.: ML11342A074 (Package), ML11342A073 (Letter),

ML11342A062(Fed era IR egis . ter Nto 'Ice )

OFFICE LARPB2:DLR PM:RPB2:DLR PM:RPB1 :DLR NAME IKing DDrucker NFerrer DATE 12/9/11 12/12/11 12/12/11 OFFICE OGC (t\lLO) BC:RPB2:DLR NAME BMizuno DWrona DATE 12/20/11 12/22/11 OFFICIAL RECORD COpy

Letter to M. Perito from D. Wrona dated December 22,2011

SUBJECT:

NOTICE OF INTENT TO PREPARE AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT AND CONDUCT SCOPING PROCESS FOR LICENSE RENEWAL FOR THE GRAND GULF NUCLEAR STATION, UNIT 1 DISTRIBUTION:

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