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/OPA

No: II-01-041 October 11, 2001

Contact: Ken Clark (404) 562-4416

 Roger Hannah (404) 562-4417

 

NRC TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETINGS ON NORTH ANNA

POWER STATION LICENSE RENEWAL

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold public meetings Thursday, October

18, in Louisa, Virginia, on the environmental review related to the application of Virginia Electric &

Power Company (Virginia Power) to renew the operating licenses for both units of the North Anna

Power Station near Mineral, Virginia. 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 in the Public Meeting Room of the Louisa County Government

Building at 1 Woolfolk Avenue, Louisa, Virginia. 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 then.

For planning purposes, those who wish to attend or present oral comments at the meetings may

register by contacting Andrew J. Kugler of the NRC by telephone at (800) 368-5642, extension 2828,

or by e-mail at NorthAnnaEIS@nrc.gov no later than October 12, 2001. Interested persons may also

register to speak at the meeting 15 minutes 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 North Anna Units 1 and 2 will expire on April 01, 2018, and August

21, 2020, respectively. Virginia Power submitted its application for license renewal on May 29, 2001.

As part of its application, Virginia Power submitted an environmental report. That report is

available for public review in the NRC Public Document Room at NRC headquarters, One White Flint

North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. In addition, the Alderman Library at the

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Louisa County Public Library in Mineral,
Virginia, have agreed to make the report available for public inspection. The application is also

available on the NRC Web page at www.nrc.gov/NRC/REACTOR/LR/dominion/index.html.

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 the October meeting for a supplement to the generic environmental impact statement

that will be specific to the North Anna plant. 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 aforementioned libraries

and will be accessible electronically through the NRC Public Electronic Reading Room at

www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html. Assistance in using the electronic reading room is available

by calling the NRC Public Document Room at 301-415-4737 or (800) 368-5642, extension 4737.

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

November 5, 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 Internet to: NorthAnnaEIS@nrc.gov.

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