Final Environmental Impact Statement 

for Combined Licenses for 

Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station 

Units 2 and 3

Final Report

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of New Reactors

Washington, DC 20555-0001

Regulatory Division

Special Projects Branch

Charleston District

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Charleston, SC 29403-5107

NUREG-1939, Vol. 1
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Final Environmental Impact Statement 

for Combined Licenses for 

Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station 

Units 2 and 3

Final Report

Manuscript Completed: April 2011 

Date Published: April 2011

Division of Site and Environmental Review

Office of New Reactors

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Washington, DC 20555-0001

Regulatory Division

Special Projects Branch

Charleston District

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Charleston, SC 29403-5107

NUREG-1939, Vol. 1
Site Layout and Plant Description

NUREG-1939 3-6 April 2011

this EIS. However, such internal processes are considered by the NRC staff in the 

Westinghouse AP1000 design certification documentation and in NRC safety reviews of the 

SCE&G COL application. This section (3.2.2) describes the structures with significant plantenvironment interfaces. The remaining structures are discussed in Section 3.2.3, inasmuch as 

they may be relevant in the review team’s consideration of impacts discussed in Chapter 4 of 

this EIS. Figure 3-4 illustrates the VCSNS site layout with a grid overlay to reference the 

locations of various plant structures and activity areas as they are described in the following 

sections. Existing Unit 1 is located primarily in the C2 quadrant. Proposed Units 2 and 3 

structures are located primarily in the C3 and C4 quadrants.

3.2.2.1 Landscape and Stormwater Drainage

Landscaping and the stormwater-drainage system affect both the recharge to the subsurface 

and the rate and location at which precipitation drains into adjacent creeks and streams. 

Impervious areas eliminate recharge to aquifers beneath the site. Pervious areas managed to

reduce runoff and maintained free of vegetation would experience considerably higher recharge 

rates than adjacent areas with local vegetation. The stormwater-management system, including 

site grading, drainage ditches, and swales, provides a safety function to keep locally intense 

precipitation from flooding safety-related structures. 

The stormwater-retention basins in the immediate vicinity of the location of proposed Units 2 

and 3 are shown in Figure 3-5. The proposed site is on top of a hill and stormwater would drain 

away from the site in several directions and into several unnamed creeks to the west and into 

Mayo Creek to the east. Once drainage enters Mayo Creek it would flow south, then west 

around the southern base of the powerblock area. 

3.2.2.2 Cooling System

The cooling system represents the largest interface between the plant and the environment. 

Makeup water would be provided to the plant through an intake structure on Monticello 

Reservoir. A portion of the makeup water would be returned to the environment via the 

discharge structure on Parr Reservoir. The remaining portion of the water would be released to 

the atmosphere via evaporative cooling through mechanical draft cooling towers. 

These components represent interfaces between the plant and the environment. This section 

describes the components of the proposed cooling system based on the information provided by 

SCE&G in its ER (SCE&G 2010a) and FSAR (SCE&G 2010b).
Site Layout and Plant Description

April 2011 3-7 NUREG-1939

Figure 3-4. VCSNS Site Layout Showing Major Structure and Activity Areas for Proposed 

Units 2 and 3
Site Layout and Plant Description

NUREG-1939 3-8 April 2011

Figure 3-5. Site Layout Closeup
Site Layout and Plant Description

April 2011 3-9 NUREG-1939

Cooling-Water Intake Structures 

VCSNS Units 2 and 3 would obtain water for the cooling-water systems from Monticello 

Reservoir. Two new intake structures are proposed: one for makeup water for the CWS 

cooling towers and one for makeup water for the service-water system (SWS) cooling tower and 

for the potable, fire-protection, and demineralized water systems. The CWS intake would be the 

larger of the two and would be located on the shore of Monticello Reservoir approximately 

1250 ft west of the Unit 1 intake (Figure 3-4, grid reference C2). This intake would be 

constructed of concrete; it would be approximately 60 ft long and 75 ft wide. It would house six 

raw-water pumps (three per AP1000 unit), each in an individual pump bay with a dedicated 

trash rack for coarse-debris removal and a traveling screen for fine-debris removal. A plan view 

of the CWS intake system’s six pump bays is shown in Figure 3-6. A cross-sectional view of 

one pump bay is shown in Figure 3-7. 

The intake structure for the water-treatment plant proposed for providing SWS makeup water, 

and other miscellaneous treated-water systems (potable, fire protection, demineralized water 

systems) would be located in Monticello Reservoir approximately 5500 ft east of the Unit 1 intake 

(Figure 3-4, grid reference E2). This proposed intake structure consists of a 255-ft-long, 17-ftwide access pier extending approximately 200 ft into the reservoir, a 14-in.-diameter intake pipe 

suspended from the pier, and a cylindrical concrete wet well approximately 10 ft in diameter 

(SCE&G 2009d). The wet well is a chamber set in the reservoir to collect the water to be 

pumped to the water-treatment plant; the end of the intake pipe extends into the wet well. 

Screens in the side of the wet well allow water to pass through but exclude debris.

Discharge Structure

Water released from proposed Units 2 and 3 would flow through a pipeline to a discharge 

structure (outfall) on the eastern shore of Parr Reservoir, approximately 5000 ft west-southwest 

of Units 2 and 3. The pipeline would be routed along the rail corridor between VCSNS Units 2 

and 3 and Parr Reservoir (Figure 3-4, grid references A4, B4, C4). The proposed discharge 

structure consists of a valve box and weir chamber housed in a structure 20 ft wide, 60 ft long, 

and approximately 23 ft deep, situated mostly below grade on the shoreline (Figure 3-8). 

Effluent would exit the weir chamber through a 36-in.-diameter discharge pipe to a diffuser line 

containing multiple ports that discharge approximately 3 ft above the bottom of Parr Reservoir. 

The proposed diffuser design has 20 ports, each with an inside diameter of 7 in., spaced 3.67 ft 

apart (on center), and alternately opening upstream and downstream. The diffuser line would 

be approximately 70 ft long; the main pipe and bottom part of each diffuser port would be sunk 

into the bottom of the reservoir and stabilized with riprap (Figure 3-9) (SCE&G 2010a).
NUREG-1939

3-10 April 2011

Figure 3-6. Plan View of the Circulating-Water System Intake Structure (SCE&G 2009e)
April 2011

3-11 NUREG-1939

Figure 3-7. Cross-Section View of the Circulating-Water System Intake Structure (SCE&G 20
NUREG-1939

3-12 April 2011

Figure 3-8. Plan and Cross-Section Views of the Outfall Discharge System (SCE&G 2009e
April 2011

3-13 NUREG-1939

Figure 3-9. Plan and Cross-Section Views of the Outfall Discharge Ports (SCE&G 2009e
Site Layout and Plant Description

NUREG-1939 3-14 April 2011

Cooling Towers

Proposed Units 2 and 3 would use closed-cycle cooling towers to dissipate heat from both the

CWS and the SWS. As described in Section 3.1, each unit requires two cooling towers for the 

CWS; these are mechanical draft towers with circular concrete shells, approximately 275 ft in 

diameter at the base and 70 ft high, including the fans on top. In each tower, fans blow air 

across water sprayed through fine nozzles, removing heat from the water and rejecting that heat 

to the atmosphere. The four towers would be aligned north-south, located to the east, and 

extending slightly farther south of Units 2 and 3 (Figure 3-5). Each new unit would also have 

one cooling tower for the SWS, rectangular in shape, located adjacent to the AP1000 turbine 

building. These would also be mechanical draft cooling towers, each divided into two cells. 

3.2.2.3 Other Structures with a Permanent Environmental Interface

Roads, railroad lines, and buildings are the additional structures with a permanent 

environmental interface that would be built on the proposed site. Proposed new buildings 

associated with proposed Units 2 and 3 include the water-treatment plant, sanitary wastetreatment plant, and power transmission system.

Roads

An existing road network on the VCSNS site would provide access to and between the existing 

facilities. To support proposed Units 2 and 3, existing roads would be improved, and 

approximately 6 mi of new road would be constructed. New roadways would include an 

approximately 1.5-mi main access road from State Highway 213 (SC-213) near SCE&G’s New 

Nuclear Deployment Office to Units 2 and 3, a 0.33-mi heavy-haul road between the laydown 

and fabrication areas, a 1.5-mi access road between the Units 2 and 3 cooling towers and the 

raw-water intake structure on Monticello Reservoir, and a perimeter road around the new units. 

Parr Road and much of the existing access road between Parr Road and VCSNS Unit 1 would 

be upgraded for use as the main access for Units 2 and 3 building materials and worker traffic. 

In the vicinity of the new units, this access road would be rerouted to the east side of the rail line 

into the site (SCE&G 2010a). 

Railroad Lines

SCE&G owns a spur railroad line connecting the VCSNS site to the Norfolk Southern Railroad’s 

main line along the Broad River. The VCSNS railroad line, which terminates at Unit 1, would be 

rerouted and another spur added between the new units and their cooling towers (Figure 3-4, 

grid reference C4). SCE&G indicated that another spur might be added to serve the concrete 

batch plant, which would be located south of the site of the proposed cooling towers along the 

new main access road (Figure 3-5).