NRC NEWS

 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

 Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200

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

Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov

 

No. 06-061 May 4, 2006

NRC RENEWS BROWNS FERRY NUCLEAR PLANT

OPERATING LICENSES FOR AN ADDITIONAL 20 YEARS

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has renewed the operating licenses of the Browns Ferry

Nuclear Plant, Units 1, 2 and 3, each for an additional 20 years.

The Browns Ferry plant is located on the north shore of Wheeler Reservoir in Limestone

County, Ala., approximately 10 miles northwest of Decatur. The licensee, the Tennessee Valley

Authority (TVA), submitted its license renewal application Dec. 31, 2003. With the renewal, the

license for Unit 1 is extended until Dec. 20, 2033; the license for Unit 2 is extended until June 28,

2034; and the license for Unit 3 is extended until July 2, 2036.

The renewed licenses were signed today at the plant by James Dyer, director of the NRC’s

Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. NRC Chairman Nils J. Diaz attended the signing ceremony. 

“The NRC is utilizing a fair, equitable and safety-driven process to review license renewal

applications in a timely manner,” Diaz said at the signing ceremony.

All three units of the Browns Ferry plant were shut down in 1985 but retained NRC operating

licenses. Unit 2 was restarted in 1991 and Unit 3 was restarted in 1995. TVA has been doing extensive

work on Unit 1 and says it expects to have that unit ready to begin operating again by 2007.

The NRC’s environmental review for this license renewal is described in a site-specific

supplement to the NRC’s “Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear

Power Plants” (NUREG-1437, Supplement 21), issued in June. The review concluded there were no

environmental impacts that would preclude renewal of the licenses for environmental reasons. Public

meetings to discuss the environmental review were held near the plant April 1, 2004, and Jan. 25,

2005.

After carefully reviewing the plant’s safety systems and specifications, the staff concluded that

there were no safety concerns that would preclude license renewal, because the licensee had

demonstrated effectively the capability to manage the effects of plant aging. The “Safety Evaluation

Report Related to the License Renewal of the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Units 1, 2 and 3" (NUREG1843) and a supplement were published in April. In addition, NRC conducted inspections of the plant

to verify information submitted by the licensee. The reports relating to the Browns Ferry renewal are

available on the NRC Web site at this address:
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications/browns-ferry.html .

On March 23, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards - an independent body of

technical experts which advises the Commission - issued its recommendation that the operating

licenses for Browns Ferry be renewed. That recommendation is contained in “Report on the Safety

Aspects of the License Renewal Application for the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Units 1, 2 and 3.”

This document is available on the NRC Web site at this address:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/acrs/letters/2006/ .

The Browns Ferry renewals bring the total number of renewals to 42 reactor units. A complete

listing of renewal applications can be found on the NRC Web site at

http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal.html .

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