The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission intends to update its generic environmental impact statement (GEIS) for decommissioning of nuclear power reactors, which was last revised 17 years ago.
The document, as the name indicates, assesses possible environmental impacts from decommissioning of NRC-licensed nuclear power facilities. The agency determined the 2002 version of the GEIS needed to be revised during the ongoing update of federal regulations for nuclear power plants transitioning from operations to decommissioning, an NRC spokesman said Monday.
Staff at the regulator cited several reasons for the upcoming update in its report for fiscal 2018 on the status of the NRC decommissioning program, issued in November and made public last week. The revised document will feature experience from recent nuclear power decommissioning projects; add the findings of a 2014 GEIS for storage of spent nuclear fuel; refresh the prior decommissioning environmental impact statement with new data, including public input for the ongoing rulemaking on decommissioning nuclear power plants; and make any changes needed to address the results of ongoing rulemakings.
“In addition, the staff would incorporate best practices and lessons learned from environmental reviews conducted for other NRC applications,” according to the annual report. “The staff would also evaluate the process for implementing the decommissioning GEIS and make any necessary enhancements to the document.”
There is no set schedule for the revision to begin, the spokesman said. The NRC also declared its plan for the update in the fiscal 2017 decommissioning report. The process will be conducted on a “separate schedule” from the NRC decommissioning rulemaking. As of last year, the commission was scheduled to vote on the revised regulations in fall 2019.
