The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced late last week that it was extending the comment period for its Environmental Justice review through September 22.
The commission is seeking “input on how the agency is addressing environmental justice, considering the agency’s mission and statutory authority,” according to a Federal Register notice published August 10.
The agency has also created an environmental justice review team led by Gregory Suber, deputy director of NRC’s operating reactor licensing division within the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR). In addition to reviewing current agency practices, the team will take a look at NRC’s 2004 policy statement, which set up a framework for applying environmental justice standards in regulatory activities.
The commission has said the review team has already started its work and that the inquiry would wrap up in February of next year.
While the commission hasn’t provided much information on what the final review will look like, last week’s Register notice includes questions for the interested public that shed some light on what NRC’s team is looking for.
NRC asked participants to define their understanding of environmental justice at the commission and provide input on what the agency has done well and how it can further engage the public about the subject.
The notice also asks the public to suggest other organizations’ environmental justice programs as examples, including programs run by federal, state or tribal agencies.
Outside of nuclear energy, environmental justice has been a major theme in the Joe Biden administration’s climate agenda.
In a January executive order, Biden established the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and tasked the body with “confronting longstanding environmental injustices and to ensuring that historically marginalized and polluted, overburdened communities have greater input on federal policies and decisions,” according to a March press release.
Also part of the Biden admin’s climate order: the Justice40 initiative, a program aimed at ensuring that 40% of the nation’s environmental improvements benefit underserved communities and those most impacted by the effects of climate change.
