[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 182 (Friday, September 19, 2014)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 56263-56264]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-22250]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 51

[NRC-2012-0246]
RIN 3150-AJ20


Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Storage of 
Spent Nuclear Fuel

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Generic environmental impact statement.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) has published the final generic environmental impact 
statement (GEIS), NUREG-2157, ``Generic Environmental Impact Statement 
for Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel.'' NUREG-2157 addresses the 
environmental impacts of continued storage of spent nuclear fuel beyond 
the licensed life for operations of a reactor and provides a regulatory 
basis for the NRC's final rule on the environmental impacts of 
continued storage of spent nuclear fuel beyond the licensed life for 
operations of a reactor.

DATES: The generic environmental impact statement is available 
September 19, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2012-0246 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:

[[Page 56264]]

     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: 301-287-
3422; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact 
the individual 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 
ADAMS Public Documents collection 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 document 
(if that document is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time 
that a document is referenced. The two volumes of the final GEIS are 
available electronically in ADAMS under Accession Nos. ML14196A105 and 
ML14196A107.
     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.
    In addition, the final GEIS may be accessed online at the NRC's Web 
page at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sarah Lopas, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-287-0675, email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In response to a ruling by the Court of 
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (New York v. NRC, 681 F.3d 
471) that vacated the NRC's former Waste Confidence rule (Sec.  51.23 
of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR)), the NRC 
developed a revised rule supported by a GEIS. NUREG-2157, ``Generic 
Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear 
Fuel'' provides a regulatory basis for the final rule and generically 
determines the environmental impacts of continued storage of spent fuel 
beyond the licensed life for operation of a reactor (continued 
storage). Concurrently with this document, the NRC is publishing the 
final rule, ``Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel'' (RIN 3150-AJ20; 
NRC-2012-0246), in the Rules section of this issue of the Federal 
Register. The final rule codifies the results of the analyses in NUREG-
2157 in 10 CFR 51.23 and makes other conforming changes to 10 CFR part 
51.
    The NRC prepared the GEIS to satisfy its National Environmental 
Policy Act obligations regarding the environmental impacts of continued 
storage. A notice of intent to prepare a draft environmental impact 
statement and conduct scoping was published in the Federal Register on 
October 25, 2012 (77 FR 65137). The draft GEIS notice of availability 
and public meetings, and request for comment, was published on 
September 13, 2013 (78 FR 56621). Additional draft GEIS public meeting 
notices were published on September 19, 2013 (78 FR 57538); October 29, 
2013 (78 FR 64412; 78 FR 64413); and November 4, 2013 (78 FR 65903). An 
extension to the comment period was published on November 7, 2013 (78 
FR 66858). The purpose of this notice is to inform the public that the 
final GEIS is available for public inspection.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of September, 2014.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Paul Michalak,
Acting Director, Waste Confidence Directorate, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2014-22250 Filed 9-18-14; 8:45 am]
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