[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 235 (Thursday, December 7, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71023-71024]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-20761]


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TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY


Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement: Completion of Watts 
Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 2

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 (CEQ) 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 (EIS) to update information and address 
the potential environmental impacts associated with its proposal to 
complete the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant (WBN) Unit 2 located in Rhea 
County, Tennessee. Completion of WBN Unit 2 would help address the need 
for additional baseload generation in the power service area of the 
Tennessee Valley Authority and make use of that unfinished asset.

DATES:  Comments on the draft Supplemental EIS will be invited from the 
public. It is anticipated that the draft Supplemental EIS will be 
available in the spring of 2007.

ADDRESSES: Information about the Supplemental EIS process can be 
obtained by contacting Bruce L. Yeager, NEPA Program Manager, NEPA 
Policy, Environmental Stewardship and Policy, Tennessee Valley 
Authority, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, Mail Stop WT 11B-K, Knoxville, 
Tennessee 37902 (e-mail: [email protected]).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Chardos, Project Manager, 
Nuclear Generation Development at Tennessee Valley Authority, Mail Stop 
ADM 1V-WBN, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402 (e-mail: [email protected]).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: TVA operates the largest public power system 
in the country. It provides electricity to more than 8.5 million people 
in parts of seven southeastern states. It also serves 650,000 
businesses and industries in this region, including 61 large industrial 
and federal facilities. TVA currently has 33,000 megawatts of 
dependable generating capacity on its system. This capacity consists of 
three nuclear plants, 11 coal-fired plants, six combustion-turbine 
plants, 29 hydroelectric dams, one pump-storage facility, the 
southeast's largest wind turbine installation, and one methane-gas 
capture facility. Slightly more than 60 percent of TVA's installed 
generating capacity is coal, almost 30 percent is nuclear, and the 
remaining 10 percent is hydro and other renewable energy resources and 
combustion turbines.
    Demand for electricity in the TVA Power Service Area is growing at 
the rate of approximately 2 percent per year. In 2005, demand for 
electricity from the TVA system exceeded the previous all-time high 
demand (peak demand) on the system twice. To meet this growing demand 
TVA anticipates having to add additional baseload capacity to its 
system by no later than the 2012-2014 timeframe. Completing TVA's 
partially-constructed WBN Unit 2 would not only help meet this growing 
need for generation but also make use of that unfinished asset. TVA is 
further supplementing the original 1972 Environmental Statement for the 
plant and updating pertinent information discussed and evaluated in the 
related documents identified below to inform decision makers about the 
potential for environmental impacts that would be associated with a 
decision to complete and operate WBN Unit 2. On July 28, 2006, the TVA 
Board of Directors also authorized staff to conduct a comprehensive 
Detailed, Scoping, Estimating and Planning (DSEP) study to evaluate the 
cost and schedule for completing WBN Unit 2.
    WBN is located on 1,700 acres at the northern end of Chickamauga 
Reservoir about 8 miles from Spring City, Tennessee. The Atomic Energy 
Commission (AEC) issued construction permits (now the responsibility of 
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)) for the two-unit, 2,540 MW 
plant in January of 1973. In 1985, TVA halted construction activities 
for WBN in order to address safety concerns. Due to these construction 
delays, WBN Unit 1 did not begin commercial operation until May 1996. 
The plant currently has one Westinghouse pressurized-water reactor with 
a capacity of 1,167 megawatts--enough electricity to supply about 
650,000 homes a day. WBN Unit 2 was approximately 60 percent complete 
when construction was halted in 1985.

Summary of Relevant Environmental Reviews

    In 1972, TVA released a Final EIS that reviewed the potential 
environmental and socioeconomic impacts of constructing and operating 
the two-unit plant (WBN Units 1 and 2). TVA updated the WBN EIS in 
November 1976 and submitted additional environmental information and 
analyses to NRC in an Environmental Information Supplement in 1977. In 
December of 1978, NRC issued its Final EIS, NUREG-0498 related to the 
licensing of the two-unit plant.
    In 1993, TVA conducted a thorough review of the TVA and NRC 
documents to determine if additional environmental review was needed to 
inform decisions about whether or not to complete WBN Units 1 and 2. 
The 1993 TVA review, focusing on ten sections of the earlier documents, 
concluded that neither the plant design nor environmental conditions 
had changed in a manner that materially altered the environmental 
impact analysis set forth in the earlier EIS. In 1994, TVA provided 
additional analyses and information in support of NRC's issuance of a 
Supplemental EIS. That Supplemental EIS, issued by NRC in 1995, 
similarly concluded that there were no significant changes in the 
potential environmental impacts of WBN 1 and 2 since the 1978 Final 
Environmental Statement issued by the NRC. Following independent review 
of the adequacy of the analyses and document, in July of 1995 TVA 
adopted the 1995 NRC final Supplemental EIS for the completion of WBN 
Unit 1. In

[[Page 71024]]

August 1995, TVA issued a ROD stating the agency decision to complete 
WBN Unit 1. In 1998, TVA prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) and 
Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for a project to provide 
supplemental condenser cooling water to WBN for the purpose of 
increasing power generation from Unit 1 that was constrained by cooling 
tower performance.
    TVA participated as a cooperating agency with the Department of 
Energy (DOE) on an environmental review evaluating the production of 
tritium at one or more commercial light water reactors (CLWRs) to 
ensure safe and reliable tritium supply for U.S. defense needs. In 
March 1999, the Secretary of the DOE designated the TVA Watts Bar and 
Sequoyah Nuclear Plants as the Preferred Alternative for CLWR tritium 
production in the CLWR EIS. DOE issued its Record of Decision (ROD) in 
May of 1999. TVA subsequently issued its own Notice of Adoption and ROD 
for the Final EIS in May of 2000. Tritium production subsequently began 
at WBN Unit 1 in 2003. TVA's proposed completion and operation of WBN 
Unit 2 does not include provision for tritium production, however 
pertinent information on spent nuclear fuel management is included in 
the CLWR EIS. As appropriate, TVA intends to incorporate, utilize, and 
update information from these earlier plant-specific analyses for the 
present Supplemental EIS.
    In December 1995, TVA also completed a comprehensive environmental 
review of alternative means of meeting demand for power on the TVA 
system through the year 2020. This review was in the form of a Final 
EIS titled the Integrated Resource Plan --Energy Vision 2020. 
Completion of WBN Unit 2 was evaluated in this Final EIS. To address 
future demand for electricity, TVA decided to rely on a portfolio of 
energy resource options, including new generation and conservation. 
Because of uncertainties about performance and cost, completion of WBN 
Unit 2 was not included in the portfolio of resource options. In the 
Integrated Resource Plan, TVA made conservative assumptions about the 
capacity factor (roughly how much a unit would be able to run) nuclear 
units generally would achieve and this capacity factor was used in 
conducting the economic analyses of nuclear resource options. TVA 
nuclear units, consistent with U.S. nuclear industry performance, now 
routinely exceed this earlier assumed capacity factor, which changes 
the earlier analyses and will be taken into account in the current 
consideration of completing WBN Unit 2.
    In February of 2004, TVA issued a Final EIS for its Reservoir 
Operations Study (ROS) evaluating the potential environmental impacts 
of alternative ways for operating the agency's reservoir system to 
produce overall greater public value for the people of the Tennessee 
Valley. That Final EIS review included provision of adequate water 
supply for reliable, efficient operation of TVA generating facilities, 
such as WBN, within their operating limits of National Pollutant 
Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and other permits. A ROD for the 
ROS Final EIS was subsequently issued in May of 2004.
    TVA will incorporate assumptions for reservoir operations resulting 
from the ROS Final EIS review in the present evaluation.

Proposed Action and Need for Power

    The proposal under consideration by TVA is to meet the demand for 
additional baseload capacity on the TVA system and maximize the use of 
existing assets by completing and operating WBN Unit 2 alongside its 
sister unit, WBN Unit 1 that has been operating since 1996. The 
environmental impacts of other energy resource options were evaluated 
as part of TVA's Energy Vision 2020 Final EIS. As part of the present 
supplemental environmental review, TVA will update the Need for Power 
analysis, as well as consider any new environmental information.

Preliminary Identification of Environmental Issues

    This Supplemental EIS will discuss the need to complete WBN Unit 2 
and will update information on existing environmental, cultural, 
recreational, and socioeconomic resources, as appropriate. The 
Supplemental EIS will also update the analysis of potential 
environmental impacts resulting from construction, operation, and 
maintenance of WBN Unit 2, and the total impacts occurring with 
concurrent operation of WBN Unit 1. The update of potential 
environmental impacts will include, but not necessarily be limited to, 
the potential impacts on water quality, vegetation, wildlife, aquatic 
ecology, endangered and threatened species, floodplains, wetlands, land 
use, cultural and historic resources, socioeconomics, spent fuel 
management, and radiological impacts, as well as an analysis of severe 
accident mitigation alternatives. Information from TVA's and NRC's 
previous environmental reviews (described above) that is relevant to 
the current assessment would be incorporated by reference and 
appropriately summarized in the Supplemental EIS.

Public and Agency Participation

    This Supplemental EIS is being prepared to update information and 
to inform decision-makers and the public about the potential 
environmental impacts of completing and operating WBN Unit 2. The 
Supplemental EIS process also will provide the public an opportunity to 
comment on TVA's analyses. Other federal, state, and local agencies and 
governmental entities will be asked to comment, including the U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Tennessee 
Department of Environmental and Conservation.
    TVA will invite the public and agencies to submit written, verbal 
or e-mail comments on the draft Supplemental EIS. It is anticipated the 
draft Supplemental EIS will be released in the spring of 2007. Notice 
of availability of the Supplemental EIS will be published in the 
Federal Register, as well as announced in local news media. TVA expects 
to release a final Supplemental EIS in the summer of 2007.

    Dated: November 28, 2006.
Kathryn J. Jackson,
Executive Vice President, River System Operations & Environment.
 [FR Doc. E6-20761 Filed 12-6-06; 8:45 am]
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