NUREG-1437, Vol. 1 Supplement 38 Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants Supplement 38 Regarding Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit Nos. 2 and 3 Draft Report for Comment Main 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. Such documents as theses, NUREG-series publications; Federal Register notices; dissertations, foreign reports and translations, and applicant, licensee, and vendor documents and non-NRC conference proceedings may be purchased correspondence; NRC correspondence and internal from their sponsoring organization. memoranda; bulletins and information notices; inspection and investigative reports; licensee event reports; and Commission papers and their Copies of industry codes and standards used in a attachments. substantive manner in the NRC regulatory process are maintained atC NRC publications in the NUREG series, NRC The NRC Technical Library regulations, and Title 10, Energy, in the Code of Two White Flint North Federal Regulations may also be purchased from one 11545 Rockville Pike of these two sources. Rockville, MD 20852B2738 1. The Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office Mail Stop SSOP These standards are available in the library for Washington, DC 20402B0001 reference use by the public. Codes and standards are Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov usually copyrighted and may be purchased from the Telephone: 202-512-1800 originating organization or, if they are American Fax: 202-512-2250 National Standards, fromC 2. The National Technical Information Service American National Standards Institute Springfield, VA 22161B0002 11 West 42nd Street www.ntis.gov New York, NY 10036B8002 1B800B553B6847 or, locally, 703B605B6000 www.ansi.org 212B642B4900 A single copy of each NRC draft report for comment is available free, to the extent of supply, upon written request as follows: Legally binding regulatory requirements are stated only Address: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in laws; NRC regulations; licenses, including technical Office of Administration specifications; or orders, not in Mail, Distribution and Messenger Team NUREG-series publications. The views expressed in Washington, DC 20555-0001 contractor-prepared publications in this series are not E-mail: [email protected] necessarily those of the NRC. Facsimile: 301B415B2289 The NUREG series comprises (1) technical and Some publications in the NUREG series that are administrative reports and books prepared by the staff posted at NRC=s Web site address (NUREGBXXXX) or agency contractors http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs (NUREG/CRBXXXX), (2) proceedings of conferences are updated periodically and may differ from the last (NUREG/CPBXXXX), (3) reports resulting from printed version. Although references to material found international agreements (NUREG/IABXXXX), (4) on a Web site bear the date the material was brochures (NUREG/BRBXXXX), and (5) compilations accessed, the material available on the date cited may of legal decisions and orders of the Commission and subsequently be removed from the site. Atomic and Safety Licensing Boards and of Directors= decisions under Section 2.206 of NRC=s regulations (NUREGB0750). NUREG-1437, Vol. 1 Supplement 38 Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants Supplement 38 Regarding Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit Nos. 2 and 3 Draft Report for Comment Main Report Manuscript Completed: December 2008 Date Published: December 2008 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation COMMENTS ON DRAFT REPORT Any interested party may submit comments on this report for consideration by the NRC staff. Comments may be accompanied by additional relevant information or supporting data. Please specify the report number NUREG-1437, Supplement 38, draft, in your comments, and send them by March 11, 2009, to the following address: Chief, Rules Review and Directives Branch U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Mail Stop TWB-05-B01 Washington, DC 20555-0001 Electronic comments may be submitted to the NRC by e-mail at [email protected]. For any questions about the material in this report, please contact: Drew Stuyvenberg Project Manager U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Mail Stop O-11E19 Washington, DC 20555-0001 Phone: 301-415-4006 E-mail: [email protected] 1 ABSTRACT 2 The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) considered the environmental impacts of 3 renewing nuclear power plant operating licenses for a 20-year period in NUREG-1437, 4 Volumes 1 and 2, “Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear 5 Plants” (hereafter referred to as the GEIS),(1) and codified the results in Title 10, Part 51, 6 “Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory 7 Functions,” of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR Part 51). In the GEIS (and its 8 Addendum 1), the NRC staff identified 92 environmental issues and reached generic 9 conclusions related to environmental impacts for 69 of these issues that apply to all plants or to 10 plants with specific design or site characteristics. Additional plant-specific review is required for 11 the remaining 23 issues. These plant-specific reviews are to be included in a supplement to the 12 GEIS. 13 This supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) has been prepared in response to an 14 application submitted by Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (Entergy), Entergy Nuclear Indian 15 Point 2, LLC, and Entergy Nuclear Indian Point 3, LLC (all applicants will be jointly referred to as 16 Entergy) to the NRC to renew the operating licenses for Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit 17 Nos. 2 and 3 (IP2 and IP3) for an additional 20 years under 10 CFR Part 54, “Requirements for 18 Renewal of Operating Licenses for Nuclear Power Plants.” This draft SEIS includes the NRC 19 staff’s analysis which considers and weighs the environmental impacts of the proposed action, 20 the environmental impacts of alternatives to the proposed action, and mitigation measures 21 available for reducing or avoiding adverse impacts. It also includes the NRC staff’s preliminary 22 recommendation regarding the proposed action. 23 Regarding the 69 issues for which the GEIS reached generic conclusions, neither Entergy nor 24 the NRC staff has identified information that is both new and significant for any issues that apply 25 to IP2 and/or IP3. In addition, the NRC staff determined that information provided during the 26 scoping process was not new and significant with respect to the conclusions in the GEIS. 27 Therefore, the NRC staff concludes that the impacts of renewing the operating licenses for IP2 28 and IP3 will not be greater than the impacts identified for these issues in the GEIS. For each of 29 these issues, the NRC staff’s conclusion in the GEIS is that the impact is of SMALL(2) 30 significance (except for the collective offsite radiological impacts from the fuel cycle and high- 31 level waste and spent fuel, which were not assigned a single significance level). 32 Regarding the remaining 23 issues, those that apply to IP2 and IP3 are addressed in this draft 33 SEIS. The NRC staff determined that several of these issues were not applicable because of 34 the type of facility cooling system or other reasons detailed within this SEIS. For the remaining 35 applicable issues, the NRC staff concludes that the significance of potential environmental 36 impacts related to operating license renewal is SMALL, with four exceptions—entrainment, 37 impingement, heat shock from the facility’s heated discharge, and impacts to aquatic 38 endangered species. Overall effects from entrainment and impingement may be SMALL to (1) The GEIS was originally issued in 1996. Addendum 1 to the GEIS was issued in 1999. Hereafter, all references to the “GEIS” include the GEIS and its Addendum 1. (2) 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 Draft NUREG-1437, Supplement 38 Abstract 1 LARGE, depending on the species affected. Impacts from heat shock likely range from SMALL 2 to MODERATE depending on the conclusions of thermal studies proposed by the New York 3 State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). NRC staff did not find data that 4 suggest the effect of heat shock is likely to rise to LARGE. Given the uncertainties in the data 5 NRC staff reviewed, impacts to the endangered shortnose sturgeon could range from SMALL to 6 LARGE. 7 The NRC staff’s preliminary recommendation is that the Commission determine that the adverse 8 environmental impacts of license renewals for IP2 and IP3 are not so great that preserving the 9 option of license renewal for energy planning decisionmakers would be unreasonable. This 10 recommendation is based on (1) the analysis and findings in the GEIS, (2) the environmental 11 report submitted by Entergy, (3) consultation with other Federal, State, and local agencies; (4)