NRC SEEKS PUBLIC INPUT ON DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT FOR 

INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR PLANT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION 

 

 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is seeking public comments on its draft 

environmental impact statement (EIS) that concludes that there are no environmental impacts 

that would preclude renewal of the operating license for the Indian Point nuclear power plant, 

Units 2 and 3. The plant, operated by Entergy, is located in Buchanan (Westchester County), 

N.Y. 

 As part of Indian Point’s license renewal application, in April 2007, Entergy submitted an 

environmental report. The NRC staff reviewed the report and performed an on-site audit. The 

staff also considered comments made during the environmental scoping process, including 

comments offered at public meetings held June 27, 2007, and Sept. 19, 2007, and comments 

received from state and other federal agencies. The NRC’s draft EIS on the Indian Point reactors 

is based on the staff’s independent analysis of that information. 

 The draft EIS supplements an existing document, “Generic Environmental Impact 

Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Power Plants,” (NUREG-1437), that assesses the 

possible environmental effects of an additional 20 years of nuclear plant operation at any plant 

site. The supplement to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS), which is being 

issued for public comment, addresses the potential environmental impacts specific to the Indian 

Point plant site (Supplement 38 to the GEIS). 

 Comments on the draft supplement will be accepted until March 11, 2009, and will be the 

subject of two public meetings to be held on Feb. 12, 2009. (Details of the meetings will be 

announced closer to that date.) Comments received by the above date will be considered and, if 

appropriate, incorporated in the final EIS supplement. 

 Under NRC regulations, the original operating license for a commercial nuclear power 

plant has a term of 40 years. The license can be renewed for up to an additional 20 years if NRC 

requirements are met. The current operating license for the Indian Point 2 reactor is due to expire 

Sept. 28, 2013, and the license for Indian Point 3 will expire Dec. 12, 2015. 

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 

Site: http://www.nrc.gov

No. 08-232 December 22, 2008
 The draft supplement to the GEIS and other related documents are available for public 

inspection in the NRC Public Document Room at NRC headquarters, One White Flint North, 

11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md.; or will be available electronically through the 

Agencywide Documents Access and Management System through the NRC web site at: 

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html. The accession number of the draft 

supplement is volume 1: ML083540594 and volume 2: ML083540614. In addition, the draft 

supplement to the GEIS is available for public inspection at the following locations: The White 

Plains Public Library, 100 Martine Ave., White Plains, N.Y.; the Hendrick Hudson Free Library, 

185 Kings Ferry Road, Montrose, N.Y.; and the Field Library, 4 Nelson Ave., Peekskill, N.Y. 

 Additional information concerning license renewal reviews in general and the Indian 

Point application in particular can be found at: 

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

 

 At the conclusion of the public comment period, the NRC staff will consider and address 

all the comments received and issue a final supplement to the GEIS. That supplement will 

contain a recommendation regarding the environmental acceptability of license renewal.

 

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