A Nuclear Regulatory Commission team conducting an environmental justice review of agency practices will give members of the public an update on their progress next week, the agency announced recently.
The review team, spearheaded by Gregory Suber, the head of the agency’s operating reactor licensing division, will host its second virtual public comment session Oct. 21 starting at 3 p.m. Eastern time, according to a meeting announcement published Oct. 1. NRC staff will brief participants on public feedback so far and will also take new input, the announcement said.
The NRC review team will use information gathered at next week’s meeting “to develop recommendations to the Commission,” the announcement said.
The review team is evaluating whether NRC should expand its environmental justice efforts beyond what’s required by the National Environmental Policy Act, as recommended in a 2004 agency policy statement. The review should wrap up in February, NRC has said.
At the last comment session, held Sep. 27, Suber said that his team hopes to take a look at “what’s appropriate for an independent agency, like the NRC to adopt and determine how well we are incorporating that into our programs, policies and activities.”
The Sep. 27 meeting also provided an opportunity for anti-nuclear groups to voice their concerns with NRC’s environmental justice review. Participants like the Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS) said that they hoped to see the agency take “meaningful, on-the-ground action” as a result of its review.
NRC is also taking written comments on its environmental justice initiative through Oct. 29, according to a recent Federal Register notice.
Environmental justice has been a major theme in the Joe Biden administration’s energy and climate agenda. In January Biden established the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council to “confron[t] longstanding environmental injustices and to ensur[e] that historically marginalized and polluted, overburdened communities have greater input on federal policies and decisions,” according to a March press release.
The administration also created 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.
