No. I-09-008 

Contact: Diane Screnci, 610/337-5330 

 Neil Sheehan, 610/337-5331 

Feb. 5, 2009 

E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov

NRC STAFF TO SEEK COMMENTS ON DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT 

FOR INDIAN POINT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION AT FEB. 12th MEETINGS 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will solicit public comments at two meetings 

on Thursday, Feb. 12, regarding its preliminary conclusion that environmental impacts would not 

preclude a 20-year extension of the operating license for the Indian Point nuclear power plant. 

A draft environmental impact statement on the proposed license renewal contains the 

information. The report, which was issued in December, will be discussed first at a meeting to 

be held at 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 12 at the Colonial Terrace event facility, 119 Oregon Road in 

Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. A second session will get under way at 7 p.m. on the same day at the 

same location. 

The two meetings will begin with identical overviews, including a discussion of the 

contents of the report, then be opened for public comment. 

In addition, the NRC staff will host informal discussions 1 hour prior to each meeting at 

the same facility. NRC staff members will be available to answer questions and provide 

information about the license renewal process during these discussions, but no formal comments 

on environmental issues will be accepted during them. 

“When the NRC staff issued the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Indian 

Point application in December, we encouraged members of the public to review the report and 

offer their comments. While we have been accepting comments in writing since then, the 

meetings on February 12th will represent an opportunity to provide input in person,” said Drew 

Stuyvenberg, the NRC Project Manager who is leading the environmental review. 

The NRC staff will continue to accept written comments through March 18th. 

As part of its license renewal application, Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the owner of the 

plant in Buchanan (Westchester County), N.Y., submitted an environmental report. The NRC 

staff reviewed the report, performed an on-site audit and consulted with state and federal 

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs, Region I 

475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 

Site: http://www.nrc.gov
agencies. The staff also considered comments made during the environmental “scoping” 

process, including comments offered at public meetings held on Sept. 19, 2007, at the Colonial 

Terrace. Based on its review, the NRC staff has preliminarily determined that the “adverse 

environmental impacts of license renewal for Indian Point are not so great that preserving the 

option of license renewal for energy planning decision-makers would be unreasonable.” 

The NRC staff has been reviewing the Indian Point license renewal application since 

Entergy receiving it on April 30, 2007. Under NRC regulations, the original operating license 

for a nuclear power plant has a term of 40 years. The license may be renewed for up to an 

additional two decades if NRC requirements are met. The current operating licenses for Indian 

Point Units 2 and 3 expire, respectively, on Sept. 28, 2013 and Dec. 12, 2015. 

The possible effects of an additional 20 years of nuclear plant operation are described in 

the NRC’s Generic Environmental Impact Statement, or GEIS (NUREG-1437). The NRC issues 

a site-specific supplement to the GEIS on each plant requesting license renewal to address the 

potential environmental impacts. 

The draft supplement to the GEIS, along with other related documents, is available 

electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room at the NRC 

Headquarters, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md.; or electronically 

through the Agencywide Documents Access System (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible through 

the NRC web page at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html . The accession numbers 

of the Indian Point draft supplement are ML083540594 (Volume 1, Main Report) and 

ML083540614 (Volume 2, Appendices). In addition, the draft supplement is available for public 

inspection at 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. 

 At the conclusion of the public comment period on March 18, 2009, the NRC staff will 

consider and address the comments received and issue a final supplement to the GEIS for the 

plant. That final supplement, scheduled for publication in February 2010, will contain a 

recommendation regarding the environmental acceptability for license renewal. 

 ###