[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

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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