[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 47 (Thursday, March 11, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11576-11578]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-5270]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 50-397; NRC-2010-0029]
Energy Northwest; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental
Impact Statement and Conduct the Scoping Process for Columbia
Generating Station
Energy Northwest has submitted an application for renewal of
Facility Operating License No. NPF-21 for an additional 20 years of
operation at the Columbia Generating Station (CGS). CGS is located in
Benton County, Washington, approximately 12 miles northwest of
Richland.
The current operating license for CGS expires on December 20, 2023.
The application for renewal, dated January 19, 2010, was submitted
pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part
54, which included the environmental report (ER). A separate notice of
receipt and availability of the application was published in the
Federal Register on February 2, 2010 (75 FR 5353). A notice of
acceptance for docketing of the application and opportunity for hearing
regarding renewal of the facility operating licenses 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. In addition, 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 in meeting the requirements of the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA).
In accordance with 10 CFR 51.53(c) and 10 CFR 54.23, Energy
Northwest 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
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Accession Number for the CGS ER is ML100250666. 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 1-800-397-4209, or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at
[email protected]. The CGS ER may also be viewed on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications/columbia.html. In addition, the ER is available to the public near the
site at the Richland Public Library, 955 Northgate Drive, Richland,
Washington 99352 and at the Kennewick Branch of Mid-Columbia Libraries,
1620 South Union Street, Kennewick, Washington 99338. Public comments
and supporting materials related to this notice can be found at the
Federal rulemaking Web site, http://www.regulations.gov, by searching
on Docket ID NRC-2010-0029.
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 (GEIS) for License
Renewal of Nuclear Plants,'' (NUREG-1437) related to the review of the
application for renewal of the CGS 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 supplement to the GEIS
in connection with the renewal of an operating license. This notice is
being published in accordance with NEPA and the NRC's regulations found
in 10 CFR Part 51.
The NRC will first conduct a scoping process for the supplement to
the GEIS and, as soon as practicable thereafter, will prepare a draft
supplement to the GEIS 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 GEIS will be used to accomplish the following:
a. Define the proposed action which is to be the subject of the
supplement to the GEIS;
b. Determine the scope of the supplement to the GEIS 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 ElSs that are
being or will be prepared that are related to, but are not part of the
scope of the supplement to the GEIS 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 GEIS to the NRC and any cooperating agencies; and
h. Describe how the supplement to the GEIS will be prepared, and
include any contractor assistance to be used.
The NRC invites the following entities to participate in scoping:
a. The applicant, Energy Northwest;
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 CGS license renewal supplement to the GEIS. The scoping meetings
will be held on April 6, 2010, and there will be two sessions to
accommodate interested parties. The first session will convene at 1:30
p.m. and will continue until 3:30 p.m. The second session will convene
at 6 p.m. with a repeat of the overview portions of the meeting and
will continue until 8 p.m., as necessary. Both sessions will be held at
the Richland Public Library, 955 Northgate Drive, Richland, Washington
99352. 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 GEIS, 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
GEIS. Additionally, the NRC staff will host 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 GEIS 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, Mr. Daniel Doyle, by telephone at
1-800-368-5642, extension 3748, or by e-mail at [email protected] no
later than March 30, 2010. 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 GEIS. Mr. Doyle will need to be contacted no
later than March 23, 2010, 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.
Members of the public may submit comments by any one of the
following methods. Please include Docket ID NRC-2010-0029 in the
subject line of the comments. Comments submitted in writing or in
electronic form will be posted on the NRC Web site and on the Federal
rulemaking Web site Regulations.gov. Because comments will not be
edited to remove any identifying or contact information, the NRC
cautions against including any information that the submitter does 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.
Submit comments electronically via the Federal rulemaking Web site:
Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for documents filed under
Docket ID NRC-2010-0029. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol
Gallagher at
[[Page 11578]]
301-492-3668 or via e-mail at [email protected].
Mail comments to: Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rulemaking and
Directives Branch (RDB), Division of Administrative Services, Office of
Administration, Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax to RDB at (301) 492-
3446.
To be considered in the scoping process, written comments should be
postmarked by May 11, 2010. Comments will be available electronically
and accessible through ADAMS at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.
Participation in the scoping process for the supplement to the GEIS
does not entitle participants to become parties to the proceeding to
which the supplement to the GEIS relates. Matters related to
participation in any hearing are outside the scope of matters to be
discussed at this public meeting.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 5th day of March 2010.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Bo M. Pham,
Chief, Projects Branch 1, Division of License Renewal, Office of
Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2010-5270 Filed 3-10-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P