Blvd., Westlake Village, Calif.;

NRC seeks input on proposed rule revisions to the environmental protection regulations and revised generic environmental impact statement for nuclear plant license renewals

Aug 03, 2009 — NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION DOCUMENTS AND PUBLICATIONS/ContentWorks

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold five public meetings in September and October seeking comments on the proposed rule to the environmental protection regulations, specifically the Summary of Findings on National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Issues for License Renewal of Nuclear Power Plants and the draft revision of Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants, NUREG-1437, originally published in 1996. The deadline for comments to be submitted on these documents is Oct. 14.

The proposed rule revisions redefine the number and scope of environmental impact issues that must be addressed in a nuclear power plant license renewal review. The NRC conducted public scoping meetings and collected comments over the past few years that were considered in the revised GEIS. In addition, knowledge gained and lessons learned from previous license renewal reviews, as well as new information were incorporated in the revision. On a 10-year cycle, the Commission stated it intends to review and update the rule as necessary.

The GEIS assesses the overall scope and impact of environmental effects associated with license renewal at any nuclear power plant site and it improves the efficiency of the license renewal process. Plant-specific supplements to the GEIS are prepared for each license renewal review. The NRC’s environmental protection regulations stem from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); which requires an environmental impact statement for major federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment, such as renewing the license of a nuclear plant.

Concurrent with the rulemaking and GEIS revision, the NRC is publishing for public comment, a revised Regulatory Guide 4.2, Supplement 1, Preparation of Environmental Reports for License Renewal Applications, and NUREG-1555, Supplement 1, Standard Review Plans for Environmental Reviews for Nuclear Power Plants.

The NRC will hold public meetings in Georgia, Massachusetts, California, Illinois and Maryland. At these meetings, the members of the public will have an opportunity to comment on the documents. The NRC staff will be available to answer questions.

In September, the staff will be available to answer questions during an open house prior to each meeting. Each open house will start at 5 p.m. and the public meetings will start at 7 p.m. The October public meeting will start at 1 p.m. and staff will be available to answer questions following this meeting at 5 p.m. The October 1 meeting will be webstreamed to maximize the potential to include interested stakeholders via the NRC’s website at: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/webcast-live.html. No public comments will be taken during the open house and discussion sessions.

The meetings will be held on the following dates and locations:

* Sept. 15 : DoubleTree Atlanta Perimeter, 6120 Peachtree Dunwoody

Road, Atlanta, Ga; * Sept. 17: Boston Marriott Newton, 2345 Commonwealth

Avenue, Newton, Mass.; * Sept. 22: Hyatt Westlake Plaza, 880 South Westlake

Blvd., Westlake Village, Calif.; * Sept. 24: DoubleTree Oak Brook, 1909

Spring Road, Oak Brook, Ill. and * Oct. 1: NRC HQ, Two White Flint North,

11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md.

Those who wish to make oral comments during the meetings are encouraged to pre-register and anyone with questions or special needs should contact Jennifer Davis, the NRC Project Manager at 1-800-368-5642, extension 3835, or by e-mail at LRGEISupdate.Resource@nrc.gov. Meeting transcripts will be posted to NRC’s Web site at

http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment.html.

Comments on the proposed rule, draft revised GEIS and associated documents may be submitted over the federal e-Rulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov (Docket I.D. NRC-2008-0608);by e-mail to Rulemaking.Comments@nrc.gov; by mail to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff; or by fax to 301-492-3466. Written comments on the draft revised GEIS should be sent to: Chief, Rulemaking, Directives and Editing Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, Mailstop TWB-05-B01M, U.S.Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001.

The draft revised GEIS is publicly available at the NRC Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md. 20852, or from the NRC=s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) at http://adamswebsearch.nrc.gov/dologin.htm. The accession numbers for the draft revised GEIS is ML090220654; the draft Regulatory Guide 4.2 Supplement 1, Rev. 1 is ML091620409 and the Draft NUREG-1555, Supplement 1, Rev. 1 is ML090230497. Persons with ADAMS questions should contact the NRC=s PDR reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209, or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at pdr.resource@nrc.gov.

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| Posted: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 12:00 am |

SAN ONOFRE – The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station shut down this weekend to fix a leaking valve, according to officials at Southern California Edison and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Officials said the valve, which was leaking hydraulic fluid, is one of several used to vent steam from the plant’s Unit 2 reactor in the event of an unplanned shut down.

“If there was a problem, this valve would dump the steam to relieve the pressure,” said Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Steven Conroy, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, San Onofre’s majority owner and operator, said Monday that plant engineers detected hydraulic fluid leaking from one of the valves and decided to shut the plant’s “Unit 2″ reactor down over the weekend in order to make repairs.

“The repairs were completed and the unit was returned to service late Sunday,” Conroy said.

Some in the anti-nuclear community viewed the shutdown not as preventive maintenance, but rather as further evidence that San Onofre is showing its age.

Rochelle Becker, a founding member of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, said Monday that San Onofre’s twin reactors, which produce enough electricity to power 1 million homes, continue to require repairs that should not be necessary for a plant midway through its operating life.

“These are all components that are guaranteed to last the life of the plant,” Becker said. “But the license does not run out until 2022.”

The plant has suffered much larger expenses than a leaky valve. Edison is midway through replacing the “steam generators” in both of its two operating reactors at a cost that exceeds $600 million.

The generators, which act like a car’s radiator, contain thousands of tiny tubes which have begun to crack over time. Replacing the towering structures will require cutting holes in the sides of both reactor containment domes, a maneuver which Edison insists is safe and which the Alliance describes as pure folly.

Usually, when a San Onofre reactor shuts down, Edison issues a “event notification report” that explains why. But no such report was issued or posted on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Web site. Dricks said no report was issued because the shutdown was planned.

“They had scheduled the shutdown a week before, and no event notification report was required,” Dricks said.

Becker was not buying the explanation. She said the public deserves to be notified of any shutdown before it happens.

“Whether there were plans or not, there should have been a notice that said ‘We have a leak and we are going to fix it at such and such a time,’” Becker said.

Posted in Local on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 12:00 am Updated: 7:12 pm.

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www.swansweb.org

September 13, 2009 GRANDPARENTS DAY

Grandmother, Abuela, Nonna, Oma, Grand-mère –

Sharing More than a Name…

In celebration of Grandparents Day, we are proud to announce the pre-launch of SWANS (Sensible Women Advocating Nuclear Safety). As a dedicated “Nana” and Executive Director of SWANS, it seemed natural for our newly formed organization to honor a few Grandmothers on Grandparent’s Day and share a little bit about ourselves. For decades the following grandmothers have joined with other women who have challenged the production and storage of highly radioactive waste near our homes and the homes of our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Ann Harris, Mary Lambert and I began our activism as young mothers and to this day we share the “Audacity to Hope” that our voices will be heard. We each have read thousands of pages of documents, filed hundreds of formal and informal comments, and testified before local, state and federal agencies in the name of nuclear safety. We believe someone needs to ask how long our country will allow increasing stockpiles of highly radioactive waste to remain on its precious waterways and fragile coasts.

Over the years, we have been joined by attorneys general, state legislators, oversight agencies and congressional representatives in our quest to protect our communities from radioactive releases in our water and air. We each believe our children deserve to know that our country will make responsible choices when investing trillions of taxpayer dollars for future generations. We need to believe that the legacy of debt we are creating will create a cleaner, safer, more sustainable energy source for the future.

Our second purpose for a pre-launch newsletter was to share the ad and video SWANS created for each of you to distribute to your families and friends, women’s organizations, and media around our country. Did you know that nuclear power is the only electric generation that requires emergency sheltering and evacuation plans to attain a license? Furthermore, nuclear power necessitates the provision of cancer-blocking medication (Potassium Iodide) to protect thyroids from radioactive contamination in the event of an accident. We invite you to use this ad and video to educate yourself and your community.

We invite other sensible grandmothers, mothers, and single women to take a moment to meet us and to believe that together we can make a difference. “For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we’ve been told that we’re not ready, or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes we can.” [Barak Obama] We can, we must, address the implications of mounting radioactive waste and population growth near aging nuclear reactor sites.

Here are some brief profiles of some of SWANS high-profile advocates:

Rochelle Becker (with daughter Tama and granddaughters, Marina and Sierra)

Thirty years ago, I awoke to an event that would change my life. My daughter, Tama, age 11, was still asleep as the morning radio announced that there had been a near meltdown at a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Now my youngest grandchild is age 11 and lives near one of the two aging reactors operating and producing radioactive waste. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has hinted these nuclear power plants and waste storage facilities could remain on California’s seismically active and eroding coast for 100 more years, perhaps forever. (http://swansweb.org/about/women-leaders/rochelle-becker/ )

Sierra Varano (pictured with her Nana above) is the SWANS youngest supporter (she has chosen the SWANS a installment plan and will likely make her goal to be a Founding member in no time. Sierra has donated her Christmas craft and birthday money to the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility since she was nine years old. You can learn more about Sierra at:

http://a4nr.org/articles/01.03.06giftofhope/?searchterm=gift%20of%20hope . Sierra, along with other young female activists, will be highlighted in future SWANS newsletters.

Ann Harris and great grandchildren — Camilla and Elijah.
In 1944, I visited my uneducated, Southern Appalachian, Mother in an Army hospital, under an oxygen ten, from intentional exposure to Uranium being “cooked” for the nuclear bomb headed for Japan. I can still see that face and I feel driven to educate America’s women about nuclear issues. I love America, but I cannot support an energy source that leaves behind radioactive waste, because I love my great grandchildren’s future more. Today, I represent whistleblowers at nuclear and coal plants, represent my community on the impacts of last year’s coal ask spill and work with legislators and the media on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s efforts to relicense old reactors and build new reactors. (http://swansweb.org/about/women-leaders/ann-harris/ )

Mary Lampert with granddaughter Isa

Mary’s first grandchild, Isa, was born in May 2009, and this new addition to her family inspires Mary to continue to fight to protect our precious future.  Currently, Mary is challenging Pilgrim’s Nuclear Power Station’s license renewal application pro se. She was admitted into the adjudication process three years ago and the litigation is ongoing. Mary has chaired the town-appointed Duxbury Nuclear Advisory Committee for almost two decades. The committee reviews the town’s nuclear emergency plans and standard operating procedures annually. She has fought for over two decades to assure that all children, if evacuated due to a nuclear emergency, go first to the Reception Center for monitoring and decontamination, if required, before being sent to a Host facility.  The sooner contamination is identified and cleaned off, the better the prognosis (http://swansweb.org/about/women-leaders/mary-lampert/ )

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