[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 32 (Thursday, February 15, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10557-10558]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-3823]


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TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY


Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement: Browns Ferry Nuclear 
Plant Operating License Renewal

AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: This notice is provided in accordance with the Council on 
Environmental Quality's regulations (40 CFR parts 1500-1508) and TVA's 
procedures for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act. The 
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will prepare a supplemental 
environmental impact statement (SEIS) to address the environmental 
impacts associated with obtaining license extensions for the Browns 
Ferry Nuclear Plant (BFN) located in Limestone County, Alabama. Renewal 
of the operating licenses will allow the plant to continue to operate 
for an additional 20 years beyond the expiration dates of the current 
operating licenses. The regulations of the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) in 10 CFR part 54 set forth the applicable license 
extension requirements. This SEIS will also consider the impacts of the 
possible restart of Unit 1, which has been in a non-operational status 
since 1985, with an extended operating license. At this early stage, 
TVA contemplates that the action alternatives in the EIS could include 
a combination of license renewal and restart of Unit 1. The no-action 
alternative considered is a decision by TVA to not seek renewal of the 
operating licenses for the BFN units. Public comment is invited 
concerning both the scope of alternatives and environmental issues that 
should be addressed as part of the SEIS.

DATES: Comments on the scope of the SEIS must be postmarked or e-mailed 
no later than March 23, 2001 to ensure consideration.

ADDRESSES: Written comments or e-mails on the scope of issues to be 
addressed in the SEIS should be sent to Bruce L. Yeager, Senior 
Specialist, National Environmental Policy Act, Environmental Policy and 
Planning, Tennessee Valley Authority, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, Mail 
Stop WT 8C-K, Knoxville, Tennessee 37902 (e-mail: [email protected]).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charles L. Wilson, Nuclear Licensing 
Staff, Tennessee Valley Authority, 1101 Market Street, Mail Stop BR 4X-
C, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 37402 (e-mail: [email protected]), Roy V. 
Carter, Tennessee Valley Authority, Mail Stop CEB 4C-M, Muscle Shoals, 
Alabama, 35662 (e-mail: [email protected]) or Bruce Yeager, Tennessee 
Valley Authority, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, Mail Stop WT 8C-K, 
Knoxville, Tennessee 37902 (e-mail: [email protected]).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The proposal to renew the operating licenses for the Browns Ferry 
Nuclear Plant (BFN) was part of a system-wide evaluation of future 
power needs. A range of options to meet those needs was evaluated in 
TVA's Integrated Resource Plan and Environmental Impact Statement, 
Energy Vision 2020, released on December 21, 1995.
    The Final Environmental Statement for BFN was published in 1972. 
BFN was TVA's first nuclear power plant. The facility is located on an 
840-acre tract adjacent to Wheeler Reservoir in Limestone County, 
Alabama, 10 miles southwest of Athens, Alabama. BFN has three General 
Electric boiling water reactors and associated turbine-generators that 
can produce more than 3,000 megawatts (MW) of power. Unit 1 began 
commercial operation in August 1974, Unit 2 in 1975 and Unit 3 in 1977. 
An extended shutdown of all units at Browns Ferry began in 1985 to 
review the TVA nuclear power program. Unit 2 returned to service in May 
1991 and Unit 3 in November 1995. Unit 1 has been idled since 1985, and 
changes would be necessary prior to restarting the unit. The current 
operating characteristics of Units 2 and 3 are considered 
representative of future operations at Browns Ferry because of the 
changes in personnel, procedures, and equipment that occurred during 
and following the extended regulatory outage which began in 1985. For 
example, since return to service from the regulatory outage, Units 2 
and 3 have performed well with consistently higher levels of 
availability and generating capacity than before the outage.

Proposed Action

    TVA proposes to submit an application to the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) requesting renewal of BFN operating licenses. Renewal 
of the current operating licenses would permit operation for an 
additional twenty years past the current (original) 40-year operating 
license terms which expire in 2014 and 2016 for Units 2 and 3, 
respectively. The Unit 1 operating license expires in 2013. License 
renewal of the operating BFN facilities does not involve new major 
construction or modifications beyond normal maintenance and minor 
refurbishment.
    The SEIS will also examine the impacts associated with the possible 
recovery and restart of Unit 1, which has been in a non-operational 
status for 15 years. Among the impacts to be examined in this SEIS are 
those resulting from thermal (heat) discharges to Wheeler Reservoir 
associated with three-unit operation. The cooling capaicity necessary 
to mitigate thermal impacts under the various alternatives would also 
be examined in the SEIS. Other aspects of the actions under 
consideration include the impacts associated with a spent fuel storage 
facility and a few new office buildings.
    Independent of the matters considered in the SEIS, TVA is 
considering a project which would uprate the maximum operating power 
level of Units 2 and 3 to 120 percent of their originally licensed 
power levels. If this project is approved, the various alternatives in 
the SEIS will be modified as appropriate to reflect the higher 
operating levels. If Unit 1 is returned to service, it is currently 
contemplated that it would also be operated at 120 percent of its 
originally licensed power level. Additional information about the 
uprate project is available from the contacts listed above.

Range of Alternatives

    As required by Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations 
(40 CFR 1502.14), TVA will evaluate a reasonable range of alternatives 
in this SEIS. Action alternatives TVA is currently considering include 
license extensions for Units 2 and 3 to continue power operation for an 
additional 20 years, and the possible return to service of Unit 1 with 
a 20-year license extension. TVA will also consider a ``no action'' 
alternative which would be a decision by the TVA Board of Directors to 
not

[[Page 10558]]

pursue license renewal. Under the no action alternative the plant would 
cease to produce power and TVA would choose one of the decommissioning 
options. Under this alternative, the power no longer being produced by 
Browns Ferry may or may not be generated or obtained by other means.

Preliminary Identification of Environmental Issues

    This SEIS will discuss the need to continue to operate the plant 
and will describe the existing environmental, cultural, recreational, 
and socioeconomic resources. The SEIS will consider the potential 
environmental impacts resulting from refurbishment, operation and 
maintenance of the existing facilities, as well as any additional 
impacts from returning Unit 1 to service. TVA's evaluation of 
environmental impacts to resources will include, but not necessarily be 
limited to, the potential impacts on air quality, surface and ground 
water quality and resources, vegetation, wildlife, aquatic ecology, 
endangered and threatened species, floodplains, wetlands and wetland 
wildlife, aesthetics and visual resources, land use, cultural and 
historic resources, light, noise, socioeconomics, transportation, spent 
fuel management, and radiological impacts. These concerns and other 
important issues identified during the scoping process will be 
addressed as appropriate in the SEIS.
    Additionally, TVA will review the Generic Environmental Impact 
Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants (GEIS), NUREG-1437, in 
which the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) considered the 
environmental effects of renewing nuclear power plant operating 
licenses for a 20-year period (results are codified in 10 CFR Part 51). 
The GEIS identifies 92 environmental issues and reaches generic 
conclusions on environmental impacts for 69 of those issues that apply 
to all plants or to plants with specific design or site 
characteristics. It is expected that the generic assessment in NRC's 
EIS would be relevant to the assessment of impacts of the proposed 
actions at the Browns Ferry Plant. Information from NRC's EIS that is 
relevant to the current assessment would be incorporated by reference 
following the procedures described in 40 CFR 1502.21. Alternatively, 
TVA may choose to tier off this EIS after first adopting this EIS in 
accordance with 40 CFR 1506.3. Additional plant-specific review would 
likely be necessary for the remaining issues, which are encompassed by 
the range of resource issue areas identified above.

Public Participation

    This Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) is being 
prepared to provide the public an opportunity to provide input to TVA's 
assessment of the environmental impacts of the suite of proposals at 
BFN including the request for license renewal and the possible return 
to service of Unit 1. The SEIS will also serve to inform the public and 
the decision-makers of the reasonable alternatives that would minimize 
adverse impacts.
    The scoping process will include both interagency and public 
scoping. The agencies expected to participate in interagency scoping 
include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service, various State of Alabama agencies including the Department of 
Environmental Management, and other federal, state and local agencies 
as appropriate.
    The public is invited to submit written comments or e-mail comments 
on the scope of this SEIS no later than the date given under the DATES 
section of this notice.
    Comments may also be provided in an oral or written format at the 
public scoping meeting. TVA will conduct a public meeting on the scope 
of the SEIS in Limestone County, Alabama, on Tuesday, March 6, 2001. 
The meeting will be held at the Aerospace Technology Building 
Auditorium on the campus of Calhoun State Community College on Highway 
31 North. Registration for the meeting will be from 6 to 6:30 p.m. 
There will be visual displays and information handouts available during 
the registration period. The meeting will begin with brief 
presentations by TVA staff explaining the SEIS process and the proposed 
license renewal project. Following these presentations there will be 
group discussions facilitated by staff of TVA and Calhoun State 
Community College to record the issues and concerns that the public 
believes should be considered in the SEIS.
    Upon consideration of the scoping comments, TVA will develop 
alternatives and identify important environmental issues to be 
addressed in the SEIS. Following analysis of the environmental 
consequences of each alternative, TVA will prepare a draft SEIS for 
public review and comment. Notice of availability of the draft SEIS 
will be published in the Federal Register. TVA will solicit written 
comments on the draft SEIS through this Federal Register notice. Any 
meetings that are scheduled to comment on the draft SEIS will be 
announced by TVA. TVA expects to release a final SEIS by January 2002.

    Dated: February 9, 2001.
Kathryn J. Jackson,
Executive Vice President, River System Operations & Environment.
[FR Doc. 01-3823 Filed 2-14-01; 8:45 am]
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