NUREG-1437 Supplement 34
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NUREG-1437 Supplement 34 Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants Supplement 34 Regarding Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, Units 1 and 2 Final Report Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation AVAILABILITY OF REFERENCE MATERIALS IN NRC PUBLICATIONS NRC Reference Material Non-NRC Reference Material As of November 1999, you may electronically access Documents available from public and special technical NUREG-series publications and other NRC records at libraries include all open literature items, such as NRC=s Public Electronic Reading Room at books, journal articles, and transactions, Federal http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html. Register notices, Federal and State legislation, and Publicly released records include, to name a few, congressional reports. 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NUREG-1437 Supplement 34 Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants Supplement 34 Regarding Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, Units 1 and 2 Final Report Manuscript Completed: November 2008 Date Published: December 2008 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Abstract The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) considered the environmental impacts of renewing nuclear power plant operating licenses for a 20-year period in its Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants (GEIS), NUREG-1437, Volumes 1 and 2, and codified the results in 10 CFR Part 51. In the GEIS (and its Addendum 1), the Staff identified 92 environmental issues and reached generic conclusions related to environmental impacts for 69 of these issues that apply to all plants or to plants with specific design or site characteristics. Additional plant-specific review is required for the remaining 23 issues. These plant-specific reviews are to be included in a supplement to the GEIS. This supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) has been prepared in response to an application submitted by Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc. (SNC) to the NRC to renew the operating licenses for Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Units 1 and 2 (VEGP) for an additional 20 years under 10 CFR Part 54. This SEIS includes the NRC staff’s analysis that considers and weighs the environmental impacts of the proposed action, the environmental impacts of alternatives to the proposed action, and mitigation measures available for reducing or avoiding adverse impacts. It also includes the Staff’s recommendation regarding the proposed action. Regarding the 69 issues for which the GEIS reached generic conclusions, neither SNC nor the Staff has identified information that is both new and significant for any issue that applies to VEGP. In addition, the Staff determined that information provided during the scoping process was not new and significant with respect to the conclusions in the GEIS. Therefore, the Staff concludes that the impacts of renewing the operating licenses for VEGP will not be greater than impacts identified for these issues in the GEIS. For each of these issues, the Staff’s conclusion in the GEIS is that the impact is of SMALL(a) significance (except for collective off-site radiological impacts from the fuel cycle and high-level waste and spent fuel, which were not assigned a single significance level). Regarding the remaining 23 issues, those that apply to VEGP are addressed in this SEIS. The Staff concludes that the significance of potential environmental impacts related to operating license renewal is SMALL for each applicable issue, with one exception. Research is continuing in the area of chronic effects on electromagnetic fields, and a scientific consensus has not been reached. Therefore, no further evaluation of this issue is required. (a) Environmental effects are not detectable or are so minor that they will neither destabilize nor noticeably alter any important attribute of the resource. December 2008 iii NUREG-1437, Supplement 34 Abstract The NRC staff’s recommendation is that the Commission determines that the adverse environmental impacts of license renewal for VEGP are not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy-planning decision makers would be unreasonable. This recommendation is based on (1) the analysis and findings in the GEIS; (2) the Environmental Report submitted by SNC; (3) consultation with federal, state, and local agencies; (4) the Staff’s own independent review; and (5) the Staff’s consideration of public comments received during the scoping process and on the draft SEIS. NUREG-1437, Supplement 34 iv December 2008 Contents Abstract.........................................................................................................................................iii Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................xvii Abbreviations/Acronyms ............................................................................................................xxiii 1.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................................1-1 1.1 Report Contents.........................................................................................................1-2 1.2 Background................................................................................................................1-3 1.2.1 Generic Environmental Impact Statement .....................................................1-3 1.2.2 License Renewal Evaluation Process............................................................1-5 1.3 The Proposed Federal Action ....................................................................................1-7 1.4 The Purpose and Need for the Proposed Action .......................................................1-8 1.5 Compliance and Consultations ..................................................................................1-9 1.6 References................................................................................................................1-9 2.0 Description of Nuclear Power Plant and Site and Plant Interaction with the Environment .......................................................................................................................2-1 2.1 Facility and Site Description and Proposed Plant Operation During the Renewal Term...........................................................................................................2-1 2.1.1 Site Location and Features ............................................................................2-4 2.1.2 Reactor Systems............................................................................................2-7