The state of South Carolina wants the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to prepare a full environmental impact statement before deciding whether to renew the license for Westinghouse’s Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF).
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) made the request in an April 27 letter regarding the federal regulator’s draft environmental assessment on license renewal. In that document, agency staff determined there would be no significant environmental impact in authorizing the facility to continue operating.
The NRC said Monday it is still considering the letter from G. Kendall Taylor, director of the SCDHEC Site Assessment, Remediation, and Revitalization Division “We have not made a decision on whether to pursue an EIS or how long that might take if the decision is made to complete a full EIS,” agency spokesman Roger Hannah said by email Monday.
An EIS would have a broader scope than an environmental assessment, which Hannah described as a tight evaluation of the need for an action, alternatives, and the environmental effects. An environmental impact statement covers all that, along with providing deeper consideration of the alternatives, cumulative impacts, and current and anticipated development in the region.
The Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility has since 1969 been producing nuclear fuel for power plants. Westinghouse in 2014 applied for a 40-year renewal to the federal license for the 550,000-square-foot plant. The present operations license expires on Sept. 30, 2027.
Taylor said the request for a full EIS is based on additional data on potential environmental impacts from the Westinghouse operation.
The Department of Health and Environmental Control in February received data from 40 groundwater monitoring wells dug around the plant last summer under a consent agreement between Westinghouse and the State. The information – also taken from sediment, surface water, and soil samples – backs the finding that there is no off-site contamination from environmental releases from the plant, Kendall stated. There is, though, indication that volatile organic contaminants exist under and beyond the nearby Upper Sunset Lake.
