United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20555

Phone 301-415-8200 Fax 301-415-2234

Internet:opa@nrc.gov

No. 99-38 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Friday, February 26, 1999)

NRC ISSUES DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL SUPPLEMENT

ON RENEWAL OF CALVERT CLIFFS OPERATING LICENSES

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued for public comment a draft

environmental impact statement on Baltimore Gas and Electric’s (BG&E’s) proposed renewal of

its license for the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Calvert County, Maryland. The agency

will hold a public meeting April 6 in Solomons, Maryland, to discuss the draft.

The NRC staff’s preliminary finding in the newly published document is that there are no

environmental impacts that would preclude NRC license renewal for environmental reasons.

BG&E submitted an application to the NRC in April to renew the Calvert Cliffs Unit 1 and

Unit 2 licenses for 20 years. If the operating licenses are not renewed, the reactors would be

shut down on or before the expiration of the current licenses on July 31, 2014, for Unit 1 and

August 13, 2016, for Unit 2.

The document that is being issued for public comment is a plant-specific supplement to

the “Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants,”

(NUREG-1437), published in 1996. Known as NUREG-1437, Supplement 1, the new document

includes the staff’s preliminary analysis of the environmental effects of the proposed action and

alternatives available for reducing or avoiding adverse impacts. It also examines possible

alternatives to the proposed action (license renewal), including no action and reasonable

alternative energy sources.

Interested persons are invited to submit comments on the draft supplement by May 20.

They should be addressed to the Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative

Services, Mailstop T-6D-59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-

0001, or by Internet to the NRC at cceis@nrc.gov.

The public meeting will be at the Holiday Inn Select, Solomons, Maryland. The first

session will run from 1:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m., and the second session will be from 7:00 until

10:00 p.m.

Interested persons may pre-register to attend or present oral comments at the meeting

by contacting Thomas J. Kenyon at 1/800/368-4542, extension 1120, or by sending an Internet

message to the NRC at cceis@nrc.gov by April 2.

Members of the public may also register to present oral comments within 15 minutes of

the start of each session. Individual comments may be limited by the time available, depending

on the number of persons who register.
In preparing the draft environmental impact supplement, the NRC considered comments

made at a public meeting held in July of last year in Solomons.

The agency also offered an opportunity for an evidentiary hearing on BG&E’s license

renewal request. The National Whistleblower Center’s request for a hearing was denied by an

NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board on October 16. That decision was upheld by the

Commission on December 23. The Whistleblower Center has filed an appeal in the U.S. Court

of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The NRC staff is continuing its safety review associated with the application for license

renewal.

Single copies of the draft supplement are available by written request to the Office of the

Chief Information Officer, Reproduction and Distribution Services Section, U.S. Nuclear

Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; by Internet to

DISTRIBUTION@nrc.gov; or by fax to 301/415-2289.

Copies will also be available for review at the NRC Public Document Room, 2120 L

Street, NW, Washington, DC, and the Local Public Document Room for Calvert Cliffs located in

the Calvert County Public Library, 30 Duke Street, Prince Frederick, MD 20678.

###