NRC NEWS

 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

 Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200

 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov 

 Web Site: www.nrc.gov

No. 03-029 March 12, 2003

NRC TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETINGS TO DISCUSS DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

STATEMENT ON PROPOSED MOX NUCLEAR FACILITY

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold public meetings March 25-27 in Georgia,

South Carolina and North Carolina to discuss environmental impacts of the proposed Mixed Oxide Fuel

Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

The meetings follow publication of the NRC’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS),

which includes the NRC staff’s preliminary NEPA recommendation that, unless safety issues mandate

otherwise, NRC approve a license for construction and operation of the plant, with conditions for

enhancing protection of the environment. NRC staff members will explain the findings in the DEIS and

receive oral and written public comments at the public meetings.

Duke Cogema Stone & Webster (DCS), a contractor of the Department of Energy, is proposing

to build the MOX facility at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina. If NRC approves,

DCS could build a MOX facility that would convert surplus weapons-grade plutonium, supplied by the

DOE, into fuel for use in a limited number of commercial nuclear power reactors. Commercial nuclear

power plants in the United States currently use only uranium in fresh fuel; the mixed oxide fresh fuel

would use a combination of uranium and plutonium. Converting weapons-grade plutonium into MOX

fuel helps advance the cause of nonproliferation by converting the material into a form unsuitable for

use in weapons of mass destruction.

The DEIS discusses the proposed action as well as alternatives, including the no-action

alternative. The discussion of the no-action alternative evaluates the environmental impacts of

continuing to store surplus plutonium in various DOE facilities nationwide, in the event NRC decides

not to approve the MOX facility. Alternatives considered, but not analyzed in detail, include alternative

locations for the facility within the Savannah River Site, alternative technology and design options,

immobilization of surplus plutonium instead of producing MOX fuel, deliberately making offspecification MOX fuel (which would be unsuitable for use in reactors and placed directly into spent

fuel storage facilities), and the Parallex Project, which involves irradiating the MOX fuel in Canadian

CANDU reactors. Additionally, the DEIS compares the impacts of using HEPA filters to the impact of

using sand filters for removal of particulate air emissions from the proposed facility.
After issuing the DEIS, the NRC discovered that the accident consequences in the DEIS are

overestimated. NRC anticipates it will revise the estimated 1-year public dose from hypothetical

accidents to lower values. NRC has notified stakeholders and plans to discuss this issue at the public

meeting and in a Federal Register notice. NRC will also post information regarding the error and

changes to the DEIS on the MOX web site listed below.

The public meetings will be held as follows: 

 March 25 at the Coastal Georgia Center, located at 305 Fahm Street, Savannah, Georgia;

 March 26 at the North Augusta Community Center, 495 Brookside Avenue, North Augusta,

South Carolina; and 

 March 27 at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center, located at 600 E. Fourth Street in

Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Each meeting will include an Open House session from 5:30 until 7 p.m., during which NRC

staff will be available informally to discuss the MOX project and answer questions. The formal public

meetings will be held from 7 until 10 p.m. Individuals wishing to make oral comments must register

before the start of the meetings. Individual comments may have to be limited due to high demand and

the time available.

In addition to the public meetings, interested parties may submit written comments for

consideration by the NRC staff. To be certain of consideration, comments must be postmarked by May

14 (a 30-day extension of the deadline originally published in the Federal Register). Comments may be

submitted to: Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative

Services, Office of Administration, Mail Stop T-6D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,

Washington, DC 20555. Comments may also be submitted by e-mail to teh@nrc.gov or by fax to 301-

415-5398, Attention: Tim Harris.

The DEIS is available for public review through the NRC electronic reading room:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1767/ . A selected group of documents

on which the DEIS is based is available on the MOX web page: http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuelcycle-fac/mox/licensing.html . Documents may also be obtained by contacting NRC’s Public

Document Room (PDR) at 301-415-4737 or 1-800-397-4209. The PDR can also provide assistance in

using the electronic reading room on NRC’s web page.

For general information on the environmental review process, contact Tim Harris at 301-415-

6613. For technical information associated with the proposed MOX facility, please contact Drew

Persinko at 301-415-6522.

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