NRC Plans Revision of Generic Decommissioning Environmental Impact Statement

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 amended during the ongoing update of federal regulations for nuclear power plants transitioning from operations to decommissioning, NRC spokesman David McIntyre said Monday.

Staff at the regulator cited several reasons for the upcoming refresh 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 apply experience from recent nuclear power decommissioning projects; add the findings of a 2014 GEIS for storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel; add new data to the prior generic environmental impact statement, including public input for the decommissioning rulemaking; and make any changes needed to address the results of ongoing rulemaking operations.

“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 or end, McIntyre said. The NRC also declared its plan for the update in the annual decommissioning report for 2017.

The scoping process will include public meetings, McIntyre said by email.

“The update of the Decommissioning GEIS will follow the NRC’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process for preparing Environmental Impact Statements (EISs),” he wrote. “The NRC will issue a Federal Register Notice starting the public scoping period.  The NRC will gather public comments on the scope of the review. The NRC will then a draft GEIS for public review and comment and will then issue a Final GEIS.”

Federal branches including the Environmental Protection Agency participated in the last revision of the GEIS. The EPA would review and comment on the updated environmental impact statement, and if invited would participate in the revision as a cooperating agency.

The process will be conducted on a “separate schedule” from the decommissioning rulemaking, which will update regulations in areas including emergency preparedness, physical security, cybersecurity, and insurance requirements for retired nuclear power plants. As of last year, the commission was scheduled in fall 2019 to vote on revised regulations recommended by NRC staff.

The 2002 version of the decommissioning GEIS made amendments to the original 1988 document. It addressed a broad range of potential environmental impacts from nuclear decommissioning, including on-site and off-site land use, water use and quality, threatened and endangered species, radiological accidents, environmental justice, and transportation.

At the time, 19 commercial power reactor facilities were undergoing decommissioning – remediation to the point at which radioactivity levels have been reduced so the site can be released for restricted or unrestricted use and the NRC license can be terminated.

The potential environmental impacts were cited as either small, moderate, or large for any category that could be applied to all licensed power plants. For those generic cases, the 2002 report found only small impacts for all issue categories and subcategories.

A few subcategories had site-specific impacts, so the issue could not be applied a generic ranking.

For example, on environmental justice: “The determination of whether the minority or low-income populations are disproportionately highly and adversely impacted by facility decommissioning activities needs to be made on a site-by-site basis because their presence and their socioeconomic circumstances will be site specific.”