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Nuclear Power Revival? -- Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/article_print/0,,SB109996476958968447-IZjfoNklah3oJuvbYGGba6Jm4,00.html
NRC Policy Statement on Environmental Justice
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Final policy statement.
Federal Register Notice
SUMMARY: On November 5, 2003 (68 FR 62642), the Commission issued, for public comment, a draft policy statement on the treatment of environmental justice (EJ) matters in Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulatory and licensing actions. This final policy statement reaffirms that the Commission is committed to full compliance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in all of its regulatory and licensing actions. The Commission recognizes that the impacts, for NEPA purposes, of its regulatory or licensing actions on certain populations may be different from impacts on the general population due to a community's distinct cultural characteristics or practices.
Disproportionately high and adverse impacts of a proposed action that fall heavily on a particular community call for close scrutiny -- a hard look -- under NEPA. While Executive Order (E.O.) 12898, ``Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations,'' characterizes these impacts as involving an ``environmental justice'' matter, the NRC believes that an analysis of disproportionately high and adverse impacts needs to be done as part of the agency's NEPA obligations to accurately identify and disclose all significant environmental impacts associated with a proposed action. Consequently, while the NRC is committed to the general goals of E.O. 12898, it will strive to meet those goals through its normal and traditional NEPA review process. This final policy statement reflects the pertinent comments received on the published draft policy statement.
DATES: Effective August 24, 2004.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brooke G. Smith, Office of General Counsel, Mail Stop O-15D21, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: (301) 415-2490; fax number: (301) 415-2036; e-mail: bgs@nrc.gov
NRC Stops Info On Nuke Plant Security Gaps August 2004 -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will no longer reveal security gaps discovered at nuclear-power plants, hoping to prevent terrorists from using the information. Until now, the NRC has provided regular public updates on vulnerabilities its inspectors found at the country's 103 nuclear-power reactors, such as broken fences or weaknesses in training programs.
NRC created the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response a(ONSIR) after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. ONSIR commissioners voted to take the step March 29, but kept it quiet as agency staff worked to implement the change. They deliberated for many months on finding the balance between the NRC's commitment to openness and the concern that sensitive information might be misused by those who wish us harm.
New Nuclear Plant(s) Proposed
April 2004 - - Seven companies have announced they will file a joint license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a new nuclear power plant: Chicago-based Exelon, Entergy Nuclear, a unit of New Orleans-based Entergy; Baltimore-based Constellation Energy; Atlanta-based Southern Co.; EDF International North America; and two reactor vendors, General Electric and Westinghouse Electric. It has been 30 years since an application has been filed to build a plant that later went into operation. Other applications were received after 1974, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but were withdrawn or the plants never began operating.
Exelon is the nation's largest nuclear operator, with 17 reactors in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Exelon, corporate parent of Commonwealth Edison, is in the earliest stages of seeking regulatory approval for the new reactor in Clinton, where an older nuclear plant has operated since 1987. Antinuclear activists are trying to block construction of a new nuclear plant in Clinton, Ill., about 20 miles south of Bloomington. Illinois has more experience with nuclear power than any other state. Illinois is a net exporter of electricity.
Utilities are considering building or restarting up to eight reactors in Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, and Idaho, as well as in Illinois. Entergy Corp. of New Orleans is looking at building a nuclear plant near Port Gibson, Miss., and Dominion Resources Inc., a utility based in Richmond, Va., is considering building a plant near the Virginia community of Mineral. One of the sites we are looking at is the Savannah River [nuclear] site in South Carolina. Another potential site is the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory near Idaho Falls. The Energy Department controls both properties.
The companies have not committed to building a new plant but aim to test the NRC's streamlined licensing process, implemented in 1992. The companies hope to file the application in 2008 and get an NRC decision in 2010. They say their actions follow a Department of Energy initiative last fall to develop nuclear power plants. Nustart has already won a commitment of $260 million from the Energy Department to complete plant design. The original request was for $400 million.
Under another consortium, NuStart Energy Development applied for a smaller grant to study building an advanced reactor on the site of a twin-reactor project abandoned in 1988 as too expensive. NuStart includes the Tennessee Valley Authority, Duke Power, Exelon Nuclear, a unit of the Exelon Corporation; Entergy Nuclear, a unit of the Entergy Corporation; Constellation Energy; Southern Company; EDF International North America, a subsidiary of Électricité de France, which owns shares in reactors in the United States, General Electric and the Westinghouse Electric Company, a subsidiary of BNFL, which was formerly British Nuclear Fuels Limited. NuStart is applying for a dollar-for-dollar match, under a program called Nuclear Power 2010, whose goal is to have at least one reactor under construction by that year. It has not picked a site or a design, or even committed to build anything.
A different group asked for help with a $4 million under Nuclear Power 2010 to explore building a
nuclear reactor in northern Alabama at the site of the Tennessee Valley Authority's Bellefont project. The T.V.A. stopped work on a twin-unit nuclear plant at Bellefonte in 1988, after spending $2.5 billion. This consortium consists of T.V.A. and General Electric (which are both members of the NuStart group as well); Bechtel, Toshiba; and USEC, a company that processes uranium for nuclear reactor use.
Another consortium made up of Dominion Resources Inc., Hitachi America, Bechtel and an American subsidiary of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd are also asking for financing.
Constellation Buys Ginna In New York Nov 2003 Constellation Energy Group, the owner of Baltimore Gas & Electricis buying the R.E. Ginna nuclear power plant near Rochester, N.Y., from Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. for $401 million. Mayo A. Shattuck III, Baltimore based Constellation's chairman, president and chief executive announced that Constellation expects to close the Ginna purchase, as well as a $21.6 million nuclear fuel acquisition, on June 30. The deal is subject to federal and state approval of a 20-year extension of Ginna's operating license, now set to expire in 2009.
Constellation expects that upgrades to oversized steam generators will boost the plant's production capacity from 495 megawatts to 580 megawatts. It is currently operating at 95 percent of capacity. Constellation will sell 90 percent of its production to Rochester Gas & Electric for 10 years. The transaction will be financed with a mixture of debt and equity.
The Ginna plant, on the south shores of Lake Ontario, would be the third nuclear plant owned by Constellation. It owns the Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland and most of the Nine Mile Point plant in Scriba, N.Y. BG&E has 1.1 million customers in central Maryland, including parts of Montgomery, Prince George's, Anne Arundel and Howard counties.
Dominion Resources Inc., the predominant Virginia power company, announced in October it is buying the Kewaunee nuclear plant in northeastern Wisconsin.
