NRC, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS ISSUE FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL 

IMPACT STATEMENT FOR PROPOSED FERMI 3 REACTOR

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has concluded there are no environmental impacts 

to preclude issuing a Combined License (COL) to build and operate the proposed Fermi Unit 3

near Newport, Mich.

The NRC developed the Fermi project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)

jointly with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District. The Corps will use the 

document’s information in considering its federal permit decision in accordance with the Clean 

Water Act and Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. 

Issuing the statement is an important milestone in the overall Fermi 3 COL review, which

continues. The staff continues working on a final safety evaluation report, which will include a 

review by the NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, an independent group of 

nuclear safety experts. The NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, a group of independent 

administrative law judges, is currently considering legal challenges to the Fermi application. The 

NRC’s five Commissioners will conduct a separate mandatory hearing regarding the application 

and the staff’s review, when completed.

While all of these review activities continue, a Commission Order from August 2012 

directs the staff to hold off on any new reactor license decisions until completion of a rulemaking 

and environmental impact statement to update the waste confidence decision, expected by 

September 2014. If the rulemaking leaves any Fermi-specific issues unresolved, those issues will 

be addressed separately. All of this work must be completed before the NRC can reach a final 

decision on the Fermi application.

Detroit Edison submitted a COL application Sept. 18, 2008, seeking permission to 

construct and operate an Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor at the Fermi site, adjacent 

to the company’s existing reactor approximately 25 miles northeast of Toledo, Ohio. General 

Electric-Hitachi Nuclear Energy submitted an application to certify its 1,600-megawatt electric 

design, on Aug. 24, 2005. More information on the design’s ongoing certification review is 

available on the NRC website.

The FEIS is available on the NRC website. The NRC staff, in cooperation with the Corps, 

started the environmental review in late 2008 by gathering community input on what issues 

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200

Washington, D.C. 20555-0001

E-mail: opa.resource@nrc.gov Site: www.nrc.gov

Blog: http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov

No. 13-008 February 7, 2013
should be considered. The agencies issued a draft EIS in October 2011 and met with the local 

community again in December 2011 for additional comments.

The four-volume FEIS is also available via the NRC’s electronic document database, 

ADAMS, by entering accession numbers ML12307A172, ML12307A176, ML12307A177, and 

ML12347A202 in the ADAMS search engine. In addition, an electronic copy of the document

will be available for public inspection at the Ellis Library and Reference Center, located at 3700 

S. Custer Road in Monroe, Mich.

###

News releases are available through a free Listserv subscription or by clicking on the EMAIL UPDATES 

link on the NRC homepage (www.nrc.gov). E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are 

posted to NRC's website. For the latest news, follow the NRC on www.twitter.com/NRCgov.