[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 83 (Friday, April 29, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25722-25723]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-09986]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 52-039; NRC-2008-0603]


Combined License Application for Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Final environmental impact statement; issuance.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers (USACE), Baltimore District, have completed the 
final environmental impact statement (EIS), NUREG-2179, ``Environmental 
Impact Statement for the Combined License (COL) for the Bell Bend 
Nuclear Power Plant.'' The USACE and the NRC are cooperating agencies 
that jointly participated in the preparation the final EIS for use in 
both agencies' decision-making processes. The site is located in 
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

DATES: The final EIS is available April 21, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2008-0603, when contacting the 
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You 
may obtain publicly-available information related to this document 
using any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search

[[Page 25723]]

Docket ID NRC-2008-0603. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol 
Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-3463; 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 obtain 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 (if it is available 
in ADAMS) is provided the first time that it is mentioned in this 
document. The final EIS is available in ADAMS under Accession Nos. 
ML16111B169 and ML16111B193, respectively.
     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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tomeka Terry, telephone: 301-415-1488, 
email: [email protected] or Patricia Vokoun, telephone: 301-415-
3470, email: [email protected]. Both are staff members of the 
Office of New Reactors, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, 
DC 20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    In accordance with Section 51.118 of title 10 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations, the NRC is issuing NUREG-2179. A notice of 
availability of the draft EIS was published by the NRC in the Federal 
Register on April 21, 2015 (80 FR 22231), and the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency on April 24, 2015 (80 FR 22992). The public comment 
period on the draft EIS ended July 7, 2015; public comments are 
addressed in Appendix E in the final EIS. The final EIS is available 
for public inspection as indicated in the ADDRESSES section of this 
document. It is also available at the McBride Memorial Library, 500 
North Market Street, Berwick, Pennsylvania, 18603 and the Mill Memorial 
Public Library, 495 East Main Street, Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, 17101. 
The final EIS also can be accessed online at the NRC's Bell Bend 
Nuclear Power Plant COL specific Web page at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/bell-bend.html. The final EIS also supports 
the USACE's review of the Department of the Army permit application for 
certain construction activities at the Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant. 
The USACE's Department of the Army permit application number for the 
Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant project is CENAB-OP-RPA-2008-01401. The 
USACE's Public Interest Review will be part of its Record of Decision 
and is not addressed in the final EIS.

II. Discussion

    As discussed in the final EIS, the NRC staff's recommendation 
related to the environmental aspects of the proposed action is that the 
COL should be issued. This recommendation is based on: (1) The 
environmental report (ER) submitted by Talen Energy; (2) consultation 
with Federal, State, Tribal, and local agencies; (3) the NRC staff's 
independent review; (4) the NRC staff's consideration of comments 
received during the environmental review; and (5) the assessments 
summarized in the final EIS, including the potential mitigation 
measures identified in the ER and in the final EIS. In addition, in 
making its preliminary recommendation, the NRC staff has concluded that 
there are no environmentally preferable or obviously superior sites in 
the region of interest.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 21 day of April 2016.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Mark Delligatti,
Deputy Director, Division of New Reactor Licensing, Office of New 
Reactors.
[FR Doc. 2016-09986 Filed 4-28-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P