[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 207 (Thursday, October 25, 2012)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 65137-65139]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-26295]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 207 / Thursday, October 25, 2012 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 65137]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION.
10 CFR Part 51
[NRC-2012-0246]
RIN 3150-AJ20
Consideration of Environmental Impacts of Temporary Storage of
Spent Fuel After Cessation of Reactor Operation
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Request for comments on the notice of intent to prepare and
environmental impact statement and notice of public meetings.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission)
is updating its Waste Confidence Decision and Rule. The NRC intends to
prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to support the
rulemaking to update the Commission's Waste Confidence Decision and
Rule, and is conducting a scoping process to gather information
necessary to prepare the EIS. As part of the scoping process the NRC is
planning to hold two public meetings on November 14, 2012, and two
webinars on December 5 and 6, 2012.
DATES: Any interested party may submit comments on the scope of the
Waste Confidence environmental review. The deadline to submit comments
is January 2, 2013. The NRC staff is able to ensure consideration only
for comments received on or before this date. There will be no
extensions to this comment period; however, to the extent practical
staff will consider comments received after January 2, 2013. Interested
parties will be given additional opportunities to comment on any draft
EIS and proposed rule that are prepared as part of this effort.
ADDRESSES: Information and comment submissions related to this action,
which the NRC possesses and are publicly available, may be accessed by
searching on http://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2012-0246.
Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2012-0246. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-492-
3668; email: [email protected].
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules,
Announcements, and Directives Branch (RADB), Office of Administration,
Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
Fax comments to: RADB at 301-492-3446
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Sarah Lopas, NEPA Communications
Project Manager, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone:
301-492-3425; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Accessing Information and Submitting Comments
A. Accessing Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2012-0246 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information related to the EIS and Waste
Confidence Decision update and rule. Information related to this
action, which the NRC possesses and is publicly available, may be
accessed by any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Public comments and
supporting materials related to this notice can be found at http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID NRC-2012-0246.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may access publicly available documents created or
received at the NRC are available online in the NRC Library 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 the NRC's
public documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are
problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC's
Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-
4737, or by email to [email protected].
NRC's Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine
and have copied, for a fee, publicly available documents at the NRC's
PDR, O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville,
Maryland 20852.
NRC's Public Web site: Additional information regarding
the Waste Confidence Decision and Rule and the EIS can be accessed
online at the NRC's Web site: http://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/wcd.html. The Web site will be periodically updated with
information related to the EIS development and opportunities for public
participation.
B. Submitting Comments
Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted
on the Federal rulemaking Web site, http://www.regulations.gov. Please
include Docket ID NRC-2012-0246 in the subject line of your comment
submission. Because your comments will not be edited to remove any
identifying or contact information, 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; therefore, they should not include
any information in their comments that they do not want publicly
disclosed.
II. Background
The Waste Confidence Decision and Rule represent the Commission's
generic determination that spent nuclear fuel can be stored safely and
without significant environmental impacts for a period of time after
the end of the licensed life of a nuclear power plant (in 1984 and 1990
the time period was 30 years after the end of the license, and in 2010
it was increased to 60 years). This generic analysis is reflected in
section 51.23 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR),
which is intended to satisfy the NRC's National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA) obligations with respect to post-licensed-life storage of
spent nuclear fuel. Historically, the Waste Confidence
[[Page 65138]]
Decision has consisted of five findings and a technical basis for each
finding.
The Waste Confidence Decision and Rule were first adopted in 1984
in response to Minnesota v. NRC, 602 F.2d 412 (D.C. Cir. 1979). The
Decision and Rule were amended in 1990, reviewed in 1999, and amended
again in 2010. (SRM-SECY-09-0090; under ADAMS Accession No. ML102580229
and 75 FR 81037; December 23, 2010).
In response to the 2010 Decision and Rule, the States of New York,
New Jersey, Connecticut, and Vermont, and several other parties
challenged the Commission's NEPA analysis in the Decision, which
provided the regulatory basis for the Rule. On June 8, 2012, the D.C.
Circuit Court found that some aspects of the 2010 Decision did not
satisfy the NRC's NEPA obligations and vacated the Decision and Rule.
(New York v. NRC, 681 F.3d 471 (D.C. Cir. 2012)).
The Court concluded that the Waste Confidence Rulemaking is a major
Federal action necessitating either an EIS or an Environmental
Assessment (EA) that results in a Finding of No Significant Impact. In
vacating the 2010 decision and rule, the Court identified three
specific deficiencies in the analysis:
1. Related to the Commission's conclusion that permanent disposal
will be available ``when necessary,'' the Court held that the
Commission did not evaluate the environmental effects of failing to
secure permanent disposal;
2. Related to the storage of spent fuel on site at nuclear plants
for 60 years after the expiration of a plant's operating license, the
Court concluded that the Commission failed to properly examine the risk
of spent fuel pool leaks in a forward-looking fashion;
3. Also related to the post-licensed-life storage of spent fuel,
the Court concluded that the Commission failed to properly examine the
consequences of spent fuel pool fires.
Waste Confidence, though applicable only to the period after the
licensed life of a reactor, is part of the basis for agency licensing
decisions on new reactor licensing, reactor license renewal, and
independent spent fuel storage installation licensing (see generally 10
CFR 51.23). The Commission has decided that no final licenses will be
issued until a new Waste Confidence Decision and Rule are in effect.
(CLI-12-016). The NRC is now preparing a revised Decision and Rule to
address the issues identified by the Court. This Federal Register
notice is the first step in that process.
In a rulemaking, the Commission must consider the effect of its
actions on the environment in accordance with NEPA. Section 102(1) of
NEPA requires that policies, regulations, and public laws of the United
States be interpreted and administered in accordance with the policies
set forth in NEPA. It is the intent of NEPA to have Federal agencies
consider environmental issues in their decision-making processes.
NRC regulations implementing NEPA are contained in 10 CFR Part 51,
``Environmental protection regulations for domestic licensing and
related regulatory functions.'' To fulfill its responsibilities under
NEPA, the NRC is preparing an EIS to support the potential update to
the Waste Confidence Decision and Rule.
The Commission's regulations in 10 CFR 51.26, ``Requirement to
publish notice of intent and conduct scoping process,'' contain
requirements for conducting a scoping process prior to preparation of
an EIS, including preparation of a notice of intent in the Federal
Register regarding the EIS and indication that the scoping process may
include holding a public scoping meeting.
III. Scoping Process for Environmental Impact Statement
The purposes of this notice are: (1) to inform the public that the
NRC staff will be preparing an EIS as part of revising the Waste
Confidence Decision and Rule and (2) to provide the public with an
opportunity to participate in the environmental scoping process as
defined in 10 CFR 51.29. This step is the first opportunity for
stakeholder participation in the Waste Confidence Decision and rule
update following the June 2012 remand, and it occurs before the NRC has
determined results or recommendations for the update. Additional
opportunities for public participation will occur during the public
comment period for the draft EIS, the revised Waste Confidence
Decision, and the proposed Rule. Notices of these public participation
opportunities will be published in the Federal Register.
The NRC intends to gather the information necessary to prepare an
EIS to evaluate the environmental impacts of the storage of spent
nuclear fuel after cessation of reactor operations. This EIS will form
the technical basis for the revision of the Waste Confidence Decision
and Rule. Possible scenarios to be analyzed in the EIS include
temporary spent fuel storage after cessation of reactor operation until
a repository is made available in either the middle of the century or
at the end of the century, and storage of spent fuel if no repository
is made available by the end of the century. The affected environment
may include a set of general characteristics and associated ranges to
bound the environmental analysis of spent fuel storage throughout the
United States. It is important to note that the environmental analysis
in the EIS and the update of the Waste Confidence Decision and rule are
generic activities. The EIS and update of the Decision and rule are
therefore not the appropriate forums to consider site-specific issues
or concerns.
The NRC will first conduct a scoping process for the EIS and
thereafter will prepare a draft EIS and draft Waste Confidence Decision
and proposed Rule for public comment. Participation in this scoping
process by members of the public and local, State, Tribal, and Federal
government agencies is encouraged. The scoping process for the draft
EIS will be used to accomplish the following:
a. Define the proposed action that is to be the subject of the EIS;
b. Determine the scope of the EIS and identify the significant
issues to be analyzed in depth, including potential spent fuel storage
scenarios for evaluation, such as availability of a delayed permanent
repository towards the end of the century;
c. Identify and eliminate from detailed study those issues that are
peripheral or that are not significant. Also note that analysis of
environmental impacts for this effort would be principally intended to
provide input to decision-making for updating the Waste Confidence
Decision and Rule and would not involve analysis of site-specific
issues;
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 EIS 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 EIS to the
NRC and any cooperating agencies. No cooperating agencies are involved
at this time;
h. Describe how the EIS will be prepared, including any contractor
assistance to be used. The NRC will prepare a draft EIS in accordance
with its regulations in 10 CFR part 51. The NRC is obtaining contractor
assistance in preparation of the EIS; and
[[Page 65139]]
i. Obtain public input on potential locations for future public
meetings on the draft EIS.
The NRC invites the following entities to participate in the
scoping process:
a. 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,
b. Any affected State and local government agencies, including
those authorized to develop and enforce relevant environmental
standards,
c. Any affected Indian tribe, and
d. Any person who requests or has requested an opportunity to
participate in the scoping process.
IV. Notice of Public Webcast Meetings and Webinars
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 staff has elected to hold two identical
public scoping meetings on November 14, 2012, at NRC's headquarters,
One White Flint North, First Floor Commission Hearing Room, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Both meetings will be web-
streamed via the NRC's Web site. See the NRC's Live Meeting Webcast
page to participate: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/webcast-live.html. The first meeting will convene at 1:00 p.m. EST and
will continue until approximately 4:00 p.m. EST, with in-person
attendance from members of the public welcome. The second meeting will
be a webstream-only meeting held later in the evening to better
accommodate stakeholders in Western time zones. The webstream-only
meeting will convene at 9:00 p.m. EST (6:00 p.m. PST) and will continue
until approximately 12:00 a.m. EST (9:00 p.m. PST). The late evening
webstream-only meeting will not be open to the public for in-person
attendance. Therefore, persons wishing to attend a scoping meeting in-
person at the NRC's headquarters must attend the 1:00 p.m. meeting.
Additionally, in early December, the NRC will be hosting two public
scoping webinars. The first webinar will take place on December 5,
2012, from 1:00 p.m. EST through 4:00 p.m. EST. The second webinar will
take place on December 6, 2012, from 9:00 p.m. EST (6:00 p.m. PST)
through 12:00 a.m. EST (9:00 p.m. PST).
All meetings and webinars will be transcribed and will include the
following: (1) An overview by the NRC staff of the environmental review
process, the proposed scope of the EIS to support the Waste Confidence
Decision and Rule update, and the proposed review schedule; and (2) an
opportunity for interested government agencies, organizations, and
individuals to submit comments on the environmental issues or the
proposed scope of the EIS. All meetings and webinars will have a
moderated teleconference phone line so that remote attendees will have
the opportunity to voice their comments. In addition to a moderated
phone line, webinars will also feature a real-time instant messaging
tool that will allow participants to type their questions and comments
and send them to the NRC during the webinar.
To be considered, comments must be provided either during the
transcribed public meetings and webinars (in person, over the phone, or
via the webinar instant messaging tool) or in writing, as discussed
above.
To register for and request to present oral comments at the
November 14 meetings, whether in-person or over the phone, please
contact Ms. Susan Wittick or Ms. TR Rowe at 1-800-368-5642, extensions
3187 or 3133, respectively. You may also register for and request to
present comments at these meetings via email to [email protected]. To
attend the 1:00 p.m. at the NRC's headquarters meeting in-person,
please provide your full name as it appears on a government-issued
photo ID, which you must present upon entering the NRC facility.
Directions and parking information will be sent to you upon
registration. While pre-registration for the November 14 meetings is
encouraged, members of the public may also register to speak just prior
to the start of each meeting.
Public meeting notices for the November 14 meetings and the
December 5 and 6 webinars will be posted on the NRC's public meeting
Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm
approximately 2 weeks before each meeting date. The meeting notices
will contain additional information, including agendas, teleconference
phone line details, and information on how to access and participate in
the webinars. This information will also be provided on the NRC's Waste
Confidence public Web site: http://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/wcd.html.
During all meetings and webinars, individual oral comments may be
limited by the time available, depending on the number of persons who
register to speak. Members of the public who have not registered may
also have an opportunity to speak, if time permits. If special
equipment or accessibility modifications (e.g., sign language
interpreters, large print, oral interpreters) are needed to attend or
present information at the afternoon meeting on November 14 at the
NRC's headquarters, such requests should be brought to Ms. Wittick's or
Ms. Rowe's attention no later than November 7, 2012, so that the NRC
staff can determine whether the request can be accommodated.
At the conclusion of the scoping process, the NRC will prepare a
summary of the determinations and conclusions reached on the scope of
the environmental review, including the significant issues identified,
and will make this summary publicly available. The staff will then
prepare and issue for comment the draft EIS, and update to the Waste
Confidence Decision, and proposed Rule, which will be the subject of
separate Federal Register notices and a series of public meetings at
different locations throughout the country. After receipt and
consideration of comments on the EIS and proposed Rule, the NRC will
prepare a final EIS and rule, which will also be available to the
public.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 19th day of October 2012.
Carrie Safford,
Deputy Director, Waste Confidence Directorate, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2012-26295 Filed 10-24-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P