NRC NEWS

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION II

61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta GA 30303

Web Site: www.nrc.gov

No. II-03-049 December 4, 2003

CONTACT: Ken Clark (404)562-4416 E-mail: OPA2@nrc.gov

Roger Hannah (404)562-4417

NRC TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETING ON FARLEY

NUCLEAR STATION LICENSE RENEWAL

 The U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold two public meetings on January 8th in

Dothan, Alabama, on the environmental review related to the application of Southern Nuclear

Operating Company (SNC) to renew the operating licenses for the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant,

Units 1 and 2 (FNP). Members of the public are invited to attend and comment on environmental

issues the NRC should consider in its review of the proposed license renewal.

 The meetings will be held at the Quality Inn in Dothan. There will be two similar sessions, one in

the afternoon at 1:30 and one in the evening at 7:00. In addition, the NRC staff will host informal

discussions one hour prior to each meeting. NRC staff members will be available to answer questions

and provide additional information about the process during those informal sessions, but no comment

submittals on environmental issues will be accepted at that time.

 All are welcome to attend. For planning purposes, those who wish to present oral comments at the

meeting may register by contacting Jack Cushing of the NRC by telephone at 1-800- 368-5642,

Extension 1424, or by email at FarleyEIS@nrc.gov no later than January 2, 2004. Interested persons

may also register to speak before the start of each session. Individual comment time may be limited by

the time available.

 The meetings will include an overview and NRC staff presentation on the environmental process

related to license renewal, after which members of the public will be given the opportunity to present

their comments on what environmental issues the NRC should consider during its review.

 Under NRC regulations, the original operating license for a nuclear power plant is issued for up to

40 years. The license may be renewed for up to an additional 20 years if NRC requirements are met. 

The current operating licenses for the FNP will expire on June 25, 2017, and March 31, 2021,

respectively. SNC submitted its application for license renewal on September 15th of this year.

 The application is available for public review at the Houston Love Memorial Library, 212 West

Burdeshaw Street, Dothan, Alabama, and at the Lucy Maddox Memorial Library, 11880 Columbia

Street, Blakely, Georgia. It is also available in the NRC Public Document Room at NRC

Headquarters, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, on the Internet at 

www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications/farley.html and from the Publicly 
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Available Records component of NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System

(ADAMS), accessible at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html . Persons who do not have access to

ADAMS or who encounter problems accessing the documents in ADAMS should contact the NRC’s

Public Document Room reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209, or by email at pdr@nrc.gov . 

 An existing NRC document, “Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of

Nuclear Plants,” (NUREG-1437), assesses the scope and impact of environmental effects that would

be associated with license renewal at any nuclear power plant site. The NRC staff is gathering

information at these meetings for a supplement to the generic environmental impact statement that will

be specific to FNP. It will contain a recommendation regarding the environmental acceptability of the

license renewal action.

 At the conclusion of the information-gathering process, the NRC staff will prepare a summary of

conclusions and significant issues and will send a copy to interested persons who participated in the

scoping process. The summary will also be available for public review at the Houston Love Memorial

Library and at the Lucy Maddox Memorial Library, and accessible electronically through the NRC

Public Electronic Reading Room at www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html.

 The NRC staff will then prepare a draft environmental impact statement supplement for public

comment and will hold a public meeting to solicit comments. After consideration of comments

received on the draft, the NRC will prepare a final EIS supplement.

 Members of the public may also submit written comments on the scope of the FNP-specific

supplement to the generic environmental impact statement. Comments should be submitted by

February 6, 2004, either by mail to the Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative

Services, Mail Stop T-6-D-59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C., 20555-0001,

or by email to: FarleyEIS@nrc.gov .

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