[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 204 (Tuesday, October 22, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62709-62711]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-24275]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 50-391; NRC-2008-0369]
Tennessee Valley Authority; Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Unit 2
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact;
issuance.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering
extending the latest construction completion date specified in
Construction Permit No. CPPR-92 issued to Tennessee Valley Authority
(permittee, TVA) for the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant (WBN), Unit 2.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2008-0369 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may access publicly-available information related to this action by the
following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2008-0369. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-287-
3422; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact
the individual(s) listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section
of this document.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may access publicly available documents online in the NRC
Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the
search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and then select ``Begin Web-
based ADAMS Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's
Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-
4737, or by email to [email protected]. The ADAMS accession number
for each document referenced in this notice (if that document is
available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that a document is
referenced. The request to extend the construction permit expiration
date, dated May 17, 2012, is available electronically in ADAMS under
Accession No. ML12143A346.
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The NRC is considering extending the latest construction completion
date specified in Construction Permit No. CPPR-92 issued to Tennessee
Valley Authority (permittee, TVA) for the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant
(WBN), Unit 2. The facility is located at the permittee's site on the
west branch of the Tennessee River approximately 50 miles northeast of
Chattanooga, Tennessee. Therefore, as required by section 51.21 of
Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), the NRC performed
an environmental assessment. Based on the results of the environmental
assessment that follows, the NRC has determined not to prepare an
environmental impact statement for the action of extending the
completion date of the construction permit, and is issuing a finding of
no significant impact.
II. Environmental Assessment
Identification of the Proposed Action
The proposed action would extend the latest construction completion
date of Construction Permit No. CPPR-92 from March 31, 2013, to
September 30, 2016. TVA submitted the construction permit request by
letter dated May 17, 2012 (ADAMS Accession No. ML12143A346). TVA
submitted the request to extend the construction permit at least 30
days before the expiration of the existing permit, therefore, in
accordance with 10 CFR 2.109(a), the existing construction permit will
remain in effect until the NRC staff has completed the review of the
request.
[[Page 62710]]
The proposed extension will not allow any work to be performed that
is not already allowed by the existing construction permit. The
extension will merely grant the permittee more time to complete
construction in accordance with the previously approved construction
permit.
The Need for the Proposed Action
The proposed action is necessary to give the permittee adequate
time to complete construction of WBN Unit 2 given their latest estimate
to completion. The construction permit for WBN Unit 2 was originally
issued on January 23, 1973. The permit listed the earliest date for
completing WBN Unit 2 as November 1, 1976, and the latest date for
completion as May 1, 1977. The completion date of the WBN Unit 2
construction permit has been extended numerous times since 1977, mainly
for construction delays.
In a July 14, 2000, letter, TVA confirmed that WBN Unit 2 met the
NRC's definition of a deferred plant, as described in Generic Letter
(GL) 87-15, ``Policy Statement on Deferred Plants.'' By letter dated,
August 3, 2007, and in accordance with the policy specified in GL 87-
15, TVA informed the Commission of its intent to complete construction
and licensing of WBN Unit 2 by April 1, 2012. TVA provided the
information requested in GL 87-15, and also informed the Commission
that it would resume construction activities no sooner than December 3,
2007. These activities were within the scope of the construction
permit, which was set to expire December 31, 2010. By letter dated May
8, 2008, TVA requested the construction permit completion date be
extended from December 31, 2010, to March 31, 2013. The NRC granted the
extension of the permit completion date by order dated July 7, 2008.
In March of 2012, TVA completed a detailed review of the status of
WBN 2 construction and developed a revised estimate of the time
necessary to complete the project. The results of the review came up
with a completion range of September 2015 to June 2016, with the most
likely date being December 2015. TVA is requesting September 30, 2016,
to ensure the entire completion range is covered, including a few extra
months in case of additional delay.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action
The environmental impacts associated with the construction of the
facility have been previously discussed and evaluated in TVA's Final
Environmental Statement for construction (FES-CP) of WBN, Units 1 and
2, issued on November 9, 1972 (ADAMS Accession No. ML073470580). Since
TVA is a corporate agency of the Federal government, the Atomic Energy
Commission (AEC), the precursor agency to NRC, agreed that TVA was the
lead agency for preparing and circulating detailed environmental
statements for TVA nuclear plants. TVA consulted with the AEC in
preparing the environmental statement and incorporated AEC's comments
and recommendations in the final environmental statement.
The NRC staff evaluated the environmental impacts of construction
and operation of this plant, issuing comments on TVA's FES-CP as part
of its review. In December 1978, the NRC staff issued NUREG-0498,
``Final Environmental Statement Related to Operation of Watts Bar
Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2,'' (ADAMS Accession No. ML082540803) for
the operating-license stage (FES-OL), which addressed environmental
impacts of construction activities not addressed previously in TVA's
FES-CP. The activities included: (1) Construction of the transmission
route for the Watts Bar--Volunteer 500 kilovolt line, (2) construction
of the settling pond for siltation control for construction runoff at a
different location from that originally proposed in the FES-CP, and (3)
the relocation of the blowdown diffuser from the originally proposed
site indicated in the FES-CP. The staff addressed the terrestrial and
aquatic environmental impacts in the FES-OL, as well as historic and
archeological impacts, and concluded that the assessment presented in
the FES-CP remains valid.
The NRC issued NUREG-0498, Supplement 1 (FES-95) in April 1995
(ADAMS Accession No. ML081430592) to re-evaluate the environmental
issues before deciding to issue the operating license for WBN Unit 1.
Environmental issues evaluated included changes to regional demography,
natural resource use, meteorology, ecology, impacts to humans and the
environment, severe accident mitigation design alternatives, and
socioeconomic impacts, including environmental justice issues. The
staff concluded that there were no significant changes to the
environmental impacts discussed in the 1978 FES-OL due to changes in
plant design or operation, or changes in the environment. Furthermore,
the staff concluded that no additional impacts not previously discussed
in the NRC's 1978 FES-OL related to construction of Unit 2 were
expected.
On February 15, 2008, TVA submitted ``Watts Bar Nuclear Plant
(WBN)--Unit 2--Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement
[FSEIS] For the Completion and Operation of Unit 2,'' (ADAMS Accession
No. ML080510469) to the NRC. This FSEIS was completed in June 2007, and
was submitted in support of TVA's operating license application for WBN
Unit 2. It also included TVA's evaluation of the environmental impacts
of construction.
The NRC staff reviewed TVA's 2008 FEIS and in May 2013, the NRC
issued NUREG-0498, Supplement 2 (FES-2013) (ADAMS Accession Nos.
ML13144A092--Vol. 1 and ML13144A039--Vol. 2) to describe the
environmental impacts associated with completing construction and
subsequently operating, WBN Unit 2. Additionally, FES-2013 covers
issues that have changed since the publication of 1978 FES-OL, or were
introduced subsequent to the publication of FES-95. Issues that were
either not included in the previous versions of NUREG-0498, or issues
that needed updating, include groundwater quality, public services,
noise, socioeconomic impacts, severe accident mitigation alternatives,
cultural and historical resources, environmental justice, greenhouse
gas emissions, and cumulative impacts.
FES-2013 reviews the impacts on the environment of operating WBN
Unit 2 and since the majority of environmentally disruptive activities
have been completed, the findings in FES-2013 will bound any further
environmental impacts as a result of construction activities. In FES-
2013, the NRC staff concluded that the impacts from operation of WBN
Unit 2 associated with water use, aquatic ecology, terrestrial
resources, design basis accidents, socioeconomics, the radiological
exposure and nonradiological wastes and effluents, decommissioning, air
quality and land use are generally consistent with the impacts
disclosed in the FES-OL, and FES-95 documents. The NRC staff concluded
that impacts associated with operation of WBN Unit 2 on groundwater
quality, public services, noise, transportation infrastructure,
cultural and historical resources, greenhouse gas emissions, and severe
accidents would be small. The staff also concluded that operation of
the WBN Unit 2 would not result in disproportionately high and adverse
human health or environmental effect to any of the minority and low-
income communities near the WBN site. The NRC staff also considered the
cumulative impacts from past, present, and reasonably foreseeable
future actions. The NRC staff concluded that the potential cumulative
impacts from
[[Page 62711]]
the issues evaluated in FES-2013, with the exception of aquatic
ecology, would be small. The staff concluded that the overall
cumulative impact to the aquatic ecology from all past, present and
future activities is large; however, the incremental impact from the
operation of WBN Unit 2 would be minor and would not be noticeable in
comparison.
The permittee has no plans to construct additional transmission
lines or disturb any land not discussed in previous environmental
reviews. Completed construction of WBN Unit 2 includes major structures
such as the containment, turbine building, control building, and
equipment such as the reactor pressure vessel, reactor coolant system
piping, and steam generators. Installation of equipment shared with WBN
Unit 1, such as diesel generators, was completed prior to issuance of
the Unit 1 operating license in 1996. Therefore, most of the
construction impacts discussed in the previous versions of
environmental documents have already occurred. The remaining
construction activities will take place within structures already
completed. Therefore extending these types of construction activities
an additional three and half years out from March 31, 2012, to
September 31, 2016, as previously approved by order dated July 7, 2008,
does not involve any different impacts or a significant change to those
impacts described and analyzed in any of the previous environmental
documents (FES-CP, FES-OL, FES-95, FES-2013).
Based on the foregoing, the NRC staff has concluded that the
proposed action would have no significant environmental impact. Since
this action would only extend the period of construction activities
described in the FES, it does not involve any different impacts or a
significant change to those impacts described and analyzed in any of
the previous environmental documents (FES-CP, FES-OL, FES-95, FES-
2013).
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
A possible alternative to the proposed action would be to deny the
request, or the no-action alternative. This alternative would result in
expiration of the construction permit for Watts Bar, Unit 2. This
option would require submittal of another application for construction
in order to allow the permittee to complete construction of the
facility with no significant environmental benefit. The environmental
impacts of the proposed action and alternative action are similar.
Alternative Use of Resources
Since the permittee has no plans to construct additional
transmission lines or disturb any land not discussed in previous
environmental reviews, the construction of major structures such as the
containment, turbine building, control building, intake pumping
station, and equipment such as the reactor pressure vessel, reactor
coolant system piping, and steam generators and diesel generators were
already completed prior to issuance of the Unit 1 operating license in
1996, the remaining construction activities will take place within
structures already completed. Spreading these activities across three
and half more years does not involve the use of resources not
previously considered in the environmental documents already discussed
for Watts Bar, Units 1 and 2 (FES-CP, FES-OL, FES-95, FES-2013).
Agencies and Persons Consulted
In accordance with its stated policy, on August 14, 2013, the staff
consulted with officials from the State of Tennessee, including Anthony
Hogan, Deputy Director of Radiological Health, Tennessee Department of
Environment and Conservation, regarding the environmental impact of the
proposed action. The State officials had no comments.
III. Finding of No Significant Impact
Based on the details provided in the environmental assessment,
which is incorporated by reference, the NRC staff concludes that the
proposed action of extending the latest construction completion date of
Construction Permit No. CPPR-92 from March 31, 2013, to September 30,
2016, does not involve any different impacts or a significant change to
those impacts described and analyzed in the original environmental
impact statement or its supplements. Therefore, the NRC staff has
determined that extending the construction completion date will not
have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment
because the major construction activities have already occurred, and
the work being extended out for three and half more years is within
previously disturbed areas at the site within the existing structures.
Accordingly, the NRC has determined not to prepare an environmental
impact statement for the proposed action.
This finding and documents related to this action such as the
permittee's request for extension dated May 17, 2012 (ADAMS Accession
No. ML12143A346) and related environmental documents (FES-CP, FES-OL,
FES-95, and FES-2013 (ADAMS Accession Nos. ML073470580, ML082540803,
ML081430592, and ML13144A092--Vol. 1/ML13144A039--Vol. 2,
respectively)), are available electronically at the NRC Library at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select
``ADAMS Public Documents'' and then select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS
Search.''
Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 27th day of September 2013.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Farideh E. Saba,
Acting Chief, Plant Licensing Branch II-2, Division of Operating
Reactor Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2013-24275 Filed 10-21-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P