SUBJECT: PEACH BOTTOM ATOMIC POWER STATION, UNITS 2 AND 3 – SECURITY
BASELINE INSPECTION REPORT 05000277/2023401 AND 05000278/2023401
BASELINE INSPECTION REPORT 05000277/2023401 AND 05000278/2023401
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Settlement of Fraud Allegations Involving NRC Contractor
Settlement of Fraud Allegations Involving NRC Contractor
ROCKVILLE, Md.— Yesterday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced the settlement of fraud allegations involving a contractor to the NRC and other federal agencies. The settlement will recover $742,500 to the benefit of the national treasury, and culminates years of coordinated effort between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of the Inspector General (NRC OIG) and four other agencies.
“I am proud of the work our OIG Special Agents performed on this case to produce such a favorable result,” said NRC Inspector General Robert J. Feitel. Mr. Feitel also commended Assistant Special Agent in Charge Erika Keyes, Special Agent in Charge Nathaniel Smith, and Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Malion Bartley “for their investigative talents navigating this complex case, and for so deftly coordinating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service’s Mid-Atlantic Field Office, and the Defense Contract Audit Agency.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office provides more information on this case in its press release. As stated in the press release, the claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
Comments requested on Peach Bottom Atomic Power Stations License rollback
NRC Ordered Updated Environmental Review for Reactors Seeking Subsequent License Renewals—Reversing Four Previously Extended Licenses
On February 24, 2022, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued three unusual decisions pertaining to the agency’s review of subsequent license renewal (SLR) applications. The Commission orders reversed a previous Commission decision—CLI-20-03—pertaining to environmental reviews conducted by the NRC under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for SLRs.
In two of the orders the Commission reversed previously granted SLRs for four reactors—two reactors at Florida Power & Light Co.’s (FPL) Turkey Point nuclear power plant (CLI-22-02) and two reactors at Constellation Energy Corp.’s (Constellation) Peach Bottom nuclear power station (CLI-22-04). These orders, in part, moved the license terms back to their previous expiration dates and provided further direction to the NRC staff regarding next steps for the licenses.
The third Commission order provided further direction for conducting the environmental reviews for pending SLR proceedings, involving nine additional reactors at four more plants (CLI-22-03).
We walk through the three Commission decisions in more detail below, after providing a brief overview of SLRs and the regulations at issue.
1. What is Subsequent License Renewal?
Typically, at initial licensing, the NRC issues a license for commercial reactors to operate for up to 40 years. NRC regulations permit these licenses to be renewed beyond the initial 40-year term for an additional period of time, limited to 20-year increments per renewal There are no specific limitations in the Atomic Energy Act or the NRC’s regulations restricting the number of times a license may be renewed. Initial license renewal generally extends a plant operating license from 40-60 years, while so-called “subsequent license renewal”—or SLR—extends a plant operating license from 60-80 years.
In deciding whether to grant a renewed license, the NRC evaluates whether the nuclear facility can continue to operate safely during the period of extended operation. The review is conducted in accordance with both safety (10 C.F.R. Part 54) and environmental (10 C.F.R. Part 51) requirements.
a. Environmental Reviews During License Renewal
In addition to a safety review, the renewal of a nuclear power plant operating license requires the preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) to comply with the requirements of NEPA. The EIS includes the Staff’s analysis that considers and weighs the environmental effects of the proposed action. To support the preparation of EISs, the NRC published the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants(GEIS) in 1996, and updated the GEIS in 2013.
The GEIS for license renewal assessed the environmental impacts associated with the continued operation of nuclear power plants during the license renewal term. The NRC also promulgated a rule that codified the findings of the GEIS into its regulations in 10 C.F.R. Part 51, Subpart A, Appendix B, Table B-1 (“Table B-1”).
As explained in the Commission decision CLI-20-03 (at page 5), the intent of the GEIS was to improve the efficiency of license renewal by determining which environmental impacts would result in essentially the same impact at all nuclear power plants (i.e., generic or “Category 1” issues) and which ones could result in different levels of impacts at different plants and would require a plant-specific analysis to determine the impacts (“Category 2” issues). In developing the GEIS, the NRC relied on the following factors:
- License renewal will involve nuclear power plants for which the environmental impacts of operation are well understood as a result of lessons learned and knowledge gained from operating experience and completed license renewals.
- Activities associated with license renewal are expected to be within this range of operating experience; thus, environmental impacts can be reasonably predicted.
- Changes in the environment around nuclear power plants are gradual and predictable.
For the issues that could not be generically addressed—the Category 2 issues—the Staff prepares plant-specific supplements to the GEIS, i.e., a plant-specific supplemental EIS, or “SEIS”.
While the NRC is responsible for complying with NEPA, the process of creating an EIS begins with the license renewal applicant. Under 10 C.F.R. §§ 51.45(a) and 51.53(c)(1), license renewal applicants must submit an environmental report to the NRC “to aid the Commission in complying with section 102(2) of NEPA.” See 10 C.F.R. § 51.14(a) (definition of “environmental report”). The NRC staff reviews the environmental report submitted by the applicant and uses it to draft the plant-specific SEIS. SeeCLI-20-03 at 6.
Under 10 C.F.R. § 51.53(c)(3), “[f]or those applicants seeking an initial renewed license…the environmental report…for the operating license renewal stage is not required to contain analyses of the environmental impacts of the license renewal issues identified as Category 1 issues in [Table B-1].” Therefore, applicants meeting this criteria may rely on the GEIS and Table B-1 in preparing their environmental reports, and the NRC staff may subsequently rely on the GEIS and Table B-1 when preparing its SEISs.
b. Status of License Renewal Reviews
As of January 2022, the NRC has completed initial license renewal for 94 commercial nuclear reactors—58 have entered their extended period of operation, while 8 of those have since ceased operations. An additional reactor with a renewed license shut down before reaching 40 years of operation.
The first SLR application, for Turkey Point Units 3 and 4 reactors, was submitted to the NRC in January 2018, and the NRC issued the Turkey Point SLRs in December 2019. As of January 2022, the NRC had issued SLRs for six reactors, and SLR applications are under review for an additional nine reactors.
Completed SLR Applications (as of January 2022):
| Plant Name and Unit(s) | Application Date | Renewed License Issued | Date Entering Subsequent Period of Extended Operation |
| Turkey Point Units 3 and 4 | 01/31/18 | 12/04/19 | 07/19/32 (Unit 3) 04/10/33 (Unit 4) |
| Peach Bottom Units 2 and 3 | 07/10/18 | 03/05/20 | 08/08/33 (Unit 2) 07/02/34 (Unit 3) |
| Surry Units 1 and 2 | 10/15/18 | 05/04/21 | 05/25/2032 (Unit 1) 01/29/2033 (Unit 2) |
SLR Applications Currently under Review:
| Plant Name and Unit(s) | Application Received |
| St. Lucie Plant, Units 1 and 2 | 08/03/2021 |
| Oconee Nuclear Station, Units 1, 2, and 3 | 06/07/2021 |
| Point Beach, Units 1 and 2 | 11/16/2020 |
| North Anna, Units 1 and 2 | 08/24/2020 |
*Tables are taken from the NRC website.
2. Summary of Commission Position before February 24th Orders
The Commission’s February 24th orders reversed a prior Commission decision—CLI-20-03. The matter specifically before the Commission in CLI-20-3 was whether 10 C.F.R. § 51.53(c)—and therefore the GEIS and Table B-1—applied to SLRs or only initial license renewals. At issue was the language in the regulation that stated that the regulation applied to “those applicants seeking an initial renewed license” and whether this language limited the applicability of § 51.53(c) to only initial license renewal and not to SLRs.
The matter had been referred to the Commission by the Licensing Board in the Turkey Point SLR proceeding. When faced with this issue, the Licensing Board had determined the plain regulatory language does not resolve whether § 51.53(c)(3) can be applied to SLR applicants, explaining: “it neither directs the Commission to apply section 51.53(c)(3) to [subsequent license renewal] applicants, nor does it forbid the Commission from doing so.” Because the Board found the regulations silent as to SLR applicants, the Board looked to “regulatory language and structure; regulatory purpose and history; the agency’s interpretative rules; and administrative efficiency, logic, and practicality.” Based on its analysis, the Board concluded that the Commission intended § 51.53(c)(3) to apply to all license renewal applicants, including those for SLR. See CLI-20-03 at 8-9 (citing LBP-19-3, 89 NRC 245 (2019)).
In affirming the Licensing Board’s decision, the Commission held in CLI-20-03 that, in SLR proceedings, the NRC staff may rely on the NRC’s GEIS and Table B-1, and could exclude consideration of “Category 1” issues from their environmental reports absent new and significant information that would change the conclusions in the GEIS. See CLI-20-03 at 29 and 10 C.F.R. § 51.53(c)(3)(i). Therefore, under CLI-20-03, an applicant’s environmental reports need only address “Category 2” issues and the NRC staff need only address the same information in their SEISs. See 10 C.F.R. § 51.53(c)(3)(ii).
3. Commission February 24th Orders
In the Commission’s February 24th orders, the Commission reversed its previous decision in CLI-20-03, and determined that the GEIS, Table B-1, and 10 C.F.R. § 51.53(c)(3) only apply to an initial license renewal (i.e., from years 40-60 of a plant’s operating life) and not subsequent license renewal (i.e., from years 60-80 of a plant’s operating life). This decision impacts pending SLRs as well as already-issued SLRs as explained below.
Commissioner Wright also dissented from the majority decision, as further explained below.
- Turkey Point and Peach Bottom. With respect to the four licenses at the Turkey Point and Beach Bottom plants, the Commission determined that as a result of overturning CLI-20-03, the environmental review of these license renewal applications is incomplete. See CLI-22-02 at 2 and CLI-22-04 at 3. The Commission directed that the NRC staff roll back the license dates for these facilities to where they were before the SLR, and directed the parties to submit their views on the practical effects of (1) the subsequent renewed licenses continuing in place and (2) the previous licenses being reinstated.
In the Turkey Point decision, the Commission explained the effects of its decision as follows (CLI-22-02 at 14):
The interpretation we apply today is consistent with the intent and text of NEPA and the APA, as well as judicial interpretations of those laws. This decision aligns the agency interpretation of section 51.53 with the plain language of the regulation.
We conclude that the Staff did not conduct an adequate NEPA analysis before issuing FPL licenses for the subsequent license renewal period. While FPL’s subsequently renewed licenses became immediately effective upon issuance, the environmental analysis associated with the previous licenses analyzed the impacts of operation until 2032 and 2033 for Units 3 and 4, respectively. We conclude that it is appropriate for FPL to maintain its current subsequently renewed licenses, but with shortened terms to match the end dates of the previous licenses … until completion of the NEPA analysis. Accordingly, we direct the Staff to amend the licenses to this effect. Given the timeframe involved, we fully expect that the Staff will be able to evaluate the environmental impacts prior to FPL entering the subsequent license renewal period. While we recognize that FPL and other subsequent license renewal applicants have relied on CLI-20-03 and prior agency statements, our holding today will ultimately promote the agency’s goals of clear communication with the public and transparency in our actions.
We would note that it is unusual for the NRC to alter pre-existing decisions without a demonstration of new information, especially in light of the fact that a licensing action had already been taken by the NRC based on a Commission decision. This unusual course of action is further addressed in the overview of Commissioner Wright’s dissent below.
We would further note that Dominion Energy Inc.’s Surry nuclear power plant also received approval for a subsequent license renewal in 2021, but for reasons unclear at present to the blog authors is not named in the NRC’s recent decisions.
Activists raise concerns about toxic water disposal at Three Mile Island
Activists raise concerns about toxic water disposal at Three Mile Island
Nuclear watchdogs emailed Governor Shapiro to place a moratorium to ensure no toxic water is dumped into the Susquehanna River.
Author: Matt Klinedinst
Published: 9:56 PM EDT March 17, 2023
Updated: 9:56 PM EDT March 17, 2023
GOLDSBORO, Pa. — Eric Epstein wants the Commonwealth to watch the water during the Three Mile Island decommissioning process. The long-time nuclear watchdog said the Susquehanna River will be a significant source during cleanup.
“You need water to clean the plant up. The water comes in contact with radioactive components, it becomes radioactive, and then the issue becomes, what to do with the water," said Epstein. “We don’t want to establish a precedent where the company simply dumps radioactive water into the Susquehanna River.”
The Susquehanna River Basin Commission currently regulates the amount of water that can be used during the decommissioning process. TMI-1 has rights to use the water from the river, however, TMI-2 does not have those same rights.
“We have two separate timelines and two separate demands for water," said Epstein. "What we want to unify and clarify is that whoever and whatever uses water, when it becomes radioactive, that it doesn’t go back into the Susquehanna River.”
Epstein said he sent a letter to Governor Shapiro’s office, asking him to take action.
“What we’re asking the governor to do is to take the lead and negotiate a memorandum of understanding between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the owners of the plants, and also the Pennsylvania DEP," said Epstein.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued the following statement to FOX43:
"DEP is actively engaged with NRC and the owners in routine communication so we are aware of activities at the site."
Epstein says the water and waste issue could have ripple effects for years to come.
“This is an issue the community is going to have to negotiate for decades," said Epstein. "Actually, it’s an accident without an ending.”
We reached out to Constellation Energy, who owns TMI-1, for an interview, but they declined to comment.
TMI-2, which was the site of the 1979 accident, is set to be decommissioned by 2037. TMI-1 is set to be decommissioned by 2079.
Saturday, March 11, 2023
NRC Authorizes Restart of National Institute of Standards and Technology Reactor
Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: 23-021 March 10, 2023
CONTACT: Scott Burnell, 301-415-8200
NRC Authorizes Restart of National Institute of Standards and Technology Reactor
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has concluded the National Institute of Standards and Technology has satisfied the requirements to safely restart the NIST research reactor in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The facility has been safely shut down since February 2021, when an event damaged a reactor fuel element without affecting public health and safety.
“We’ve reached this decision after extensive review of the event, NIST’s corrective actions, and additional work the facility has done to ensure safe operation,” said Andrea Veil, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. “We’re satisfied this research facility’s important systems and components are ready to go, and we’re satisfied the reactor staff are ready to carry out improved procedures for maintaining safety. We’ll continue our increased oversight of the facility and its ongoing corrective actions.”
NRC approval was required before the facility could restart the reactor because the facility violated the fuel cladding temperature safety limit. The NRC’s technical evaluation report includes: review of the facility’s systems to verify there was no adverse impact from the event; NIST’s actions to comply with the Confirmatory Order issued in August 2022; and results from follow-on NRC inspections. NIST’s actions covered several areas relevant to the 2021 event, including: fuel handling and related management activities; the facility’s safety culture and corrective action program; and the facility’s emergency response resources and procedures. The NRC also separately reviewed and approved several amendments to the facility’s license that were requested by NIST to support the safe restart of the facility.
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Energy Harbor, owner of nuclear plants at heart of HB6 scandal, sold for $3.4 billion to Texas-based Vistra Corp
Energy Harbor, owner of nuclear plants at heart of HB6 scandal, sold for $3.4 billion to Texas-based Vistra Corp.
This April 4, 2017, file photo shows the entrance to the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio. Energy Harbor, which owns the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants, will be sold to Texas-based Vistra Corp. for $3 billion in cash, a 15% stake in a Vistra subsidiary, and assumption of $430 million in debt. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane, File)AP
By Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio—Energy Harbor, the owner of two nuclear power plants at the center of the House Bill 6 scandal, has been purchased for more than $3.4 billion by Texas-based Vistra Corp., according to a release.
The sale of the one-time FirstEnergy subsidiary fulfills a key goal of HB6 backers – to be able to sell the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants in Northern Ohio. Vistra was part of the coalition that unsuccessfully pushed to overturn HB6, but the company is now set to buy the power plants even though lawmakers have since repealed HB6′s $1 billion-plus ratepayer bailout, designed to financially prop up the two plants.
Both companies’ boards of directors have approved the deal, and a majority of Energy Harbor stockholders support the move, according to the release.
Most Energy Harbor shareholders will receive cash at the closing of the deal, according to the release, while the two largest shareholders – investment firms Nuveen and Avenue Capital Group – will get a combination of cash and a 15% ownership stake in Vistra.
The companies anticipate closing the deal sometime in the second half of this year, according to the release. Several federal regulators must still sign off on the purchase, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The release stated that Vistra will not purchase Energy Harbor’s two coal plants along the Ohio River – the W.H. Sammis plant in Jefferson County and the Pleasants Power Station near Belmont, W.Va. The Sammis plant (which was temporarily saved by HB6) is set to close later this summer; West Virginia lawmakers have been trying to find ways to save the Pleasants plant, including urging Energy Harbor to sell the facility to a FirstEnergy subsidiary.
Vistra was already the largest energy generator in Ohio even before the deal, operating seven natural gas, oil and coal power plants around the state, according to previous legislative testimony by the company, though two of their Ohio coal plants are set to close by 2027.
The announcement of the sale comes the same week as closing arguments are scheduled to be delivered in the trial of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, a Perry County Republican who is charged with using $60 million in FirstEnergy bribe money to get HB6 passed. Ex-Ohio Republican Party Chair Matt Borges, a pro-HB6 lobbyist, is also on trial for racketeering.
Both Householder and Borges have pleaded not guilty. Two other co-defendants, lobbyist Juan Cespedes and Householder political aide Jeff Longstreth, have already pleaded guilty to their roles in the scandal and testified in the trial.
At the time HB6 was passed in 2019, proponents – including FirstEnergy Solutions, the FirstEnergy subsidiary that later spun off into Energy Harbor – argued the law’s ratepayer bailout was needed to keep the plants from closing.
Energy Harbor’s three nuclear power plants – Davis-Besse and Perry in Northern Ohio, as well as Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania – will become part of a newly-formed Vistra subsidiary called “Vistra Vision,” according to the release.
The bailout was later repealed after Householder and his co-defendants were arrested in July 2020.
Energy Harbor executive chairman John Kiani stood to make $100 million if the two nuclear plants were sold, according to court testimony from Cespedes, a FirstEnergy Solutions lobbyist who helped lead efforts to get HB6 passed. Cespedes said Kiani knew about FirstEnergy Solutions’ aggressive, $35 million campaign to block an HB6 repeal effort, which included secretly funded ad buys, bribing anti-HB6 petition signature collectors, and hiring private investigators to tail signature gatherers.
It wasn’t immediately clear how much Kiani – who has been accused of no crime to date – stands to make from Vistra’s purchase of Energy Harbor.
The Plain Dealer/cleveland.com has reached out to an Energy Harbor spokesman about how much Kiani will make from the Energy Harbor’s sale to Vistra.
Cespedes also testified Vistra was one of the energy companies that funded efforts to stage a statewide referendum to repeal HB6. That effort failed after anti-HB6 petition gatherers, facing physical intimidation and bribe offers from pro-HB6 forces, were unable to get enough petition signatures for a repeal measure to make the November 2019 ballot.
“In some ways, it’s kind of funny and poetic that Vistra is buying these plants,” said Neil Waggoner, federal deputy director of energy campaigns for the Sierra Club, in an interview on Monday.
The sale, Waggoner said, also illustrates how financial fortunes have changed for the Davis-Besse and Perry plants since 2019.
When HB6 was passed, the plants were seen as money losers that needed a bailout to become financially attractive. But now, he said, energy prices have gone up because of the war in Ukraine, a number of coal plants in the region are set to close, the Inflation Reduction Act offers a variety of tax credits and incentives for nuclear plants, and President Joe Biden’s administration is looking for ways to reduce carbon emissions.
“The big thing is just seeing how dramatically the world has changed since 2019,” Waggoner said.
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Sunday, March 5, 2023
Podcast is up
Hi Eric,
The podcast with your story about Three Mile Island is up on SoundCloud and other platforms. I hope you like it!
Thanks again for being our guest on Green Street News!
Doug Wood
Associate Director
Grassroots Environmental Education
Saturday, March 4, 2023
NRC Seeks Comment on Proposed Revision to Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Renewing Reactor Licenses
Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: 23-016 March 3, 2023
CONTACT: Scott Burnell, 301-415-8200
NRC Seeks Comment on Proposed Revision to Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Renewing Reactor Licenses
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published a proposed rule that would update the license renewal Generic Environmental Impact Statement used by the agency when considering applications to renew operating reactor licenses.
The proposed rule is in response to a 2022 Commission order that concluded the license renewal GEIS did not analyze the environmental impacts of a subsequent license renewal term (from 60 to 80 years of operation). The proposed rule amends the relevant rule language to account for intial license renewal and one term of subsequent license renewal, redefines the number and scope of the environmental issues that must be addressed during the review of each application for license renewal, and updates related guidance to fully address subsequent renewal.
The GEIS covers environmental topics relevant to all nuclear power plant licensees seeking renewed licenses. The revised document accounts for new or revised environmental impacts, changes in regulations or guidance, and applies what the agency has learned during previous license renewals.
The NRC will hold hybrid public meetings to gather comments before finalizing the rule and GEIS for Commission consideration. The first two meetings will be March 16 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, 5701 Marinelli Road in Rockville, Maryland, from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. The staff will host a 30-minute open house prior to each meeting. In the near future, the agency will announce four additional public meetings across the country. The meetings are one method for submitting comments on the proposed rule before the May 2 deadline. Comments can also be submitted via regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2018-0296, via email to Rulemaking.Comments@nrc.gov, or via U.S. mail to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff.
NRC Issues Annual Assessments for Nation's Nuclear Power Plants
Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: 23-019 March 3, 2023
CONTACT: Scott Burnell, 301-415-8200
NRC Issues Annual Assessments for Nation’s Nuclear Power Plants
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued annual letters to the nation’s operating commercial nuclear reactors assessing their 2022 performance.
Of the 93 reactors currently in the agency’s Reactor Oversight Process, 87 reached the highest performance category in safety and security. Those reactors (including Vogtle Unit 3, which was authorized for operation last year) remain under the NRC’s “baseline” inspection program, involving thousands of inspection hours for each reactor.
Six reactors were in the second performance category, as they need to resolve one or two items of low safety significance. For this performance level, regulatory oversight includes additional inspection and follow-up of corrective actions. Plants in this category are Calvert Cliffs 1 (Maryland), Davis-Besse (Ohio), Peach Bottom 2 (Pennsylvania), Quad Cities 2 (Illinois), V.C. Summer (South Carolina) and Waterford (Louisiana).
There were no reactors in the third and fourth performance categories.
Later this spring and summer, the NRC will host a public meeting or other event for each plant to discuss the annual assessment results. A separate announcement will be issued for each public assessment meeting. In addition to the annual assessment letters, plants also receive an NRC inspection plan for the coming year.
The NRC’s website outlines oversight of commercial nuclear power on the Reactor Oversight Process page. The NRC routinely updates each plant’s current performance and posts the latest information as it becomes available to the action matrix summary. Assessment letters are posted on the NRC website (click on “2022006” for each plant). Annual construction oversight assessments for new reactors at the Vogtle units 3 and 4 sites are also on the NRC website.
Friday, March 3, 2023
Annual Assessment Letter for Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Units 1 and 2 (Reports 05000387/2022006 and 05000388/2022006)
Annual Assessment Letter for Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Units 1 and 2 (Reports 05000387/2022006 and 05000388/2022006)
ADAMS Accession No. ML23059A047
Annual Assessment Letter for Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Units 2 and 3 (Reports 05000277/2022006 and 05000278/2022006)
Annual Assessment Letter for Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Units 2 and 3 (Reports 05000277/2022006 and 05000278/2022006)
ADAMS Accession No. ML23059A045
NRC to Allow TMI-2 Cleanup to Proceed Without Radioactive Waste Disposal Plan; High-Level Waste to Remain On-Site Indefinitely, (March 2, 2023)
Three Mile Island To Become High-Level Radioactive Waste Site
Commission ruled against Eric Epstein's Petition
NRC Grants "Timely Renewal" Exemption to Allow Continued Operation of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: 23-015 March 2, 2023
CONTACT: Scott Burnell, 301-415-8200
NRC Grants "Timely Renewal" Exemption to Allow Continued Operation of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted an exemption to Pacific Gas & Electric Co. that would allow the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to continue operating while the agency considers its license renewal application.
After evaluating the company’s exemption request, the NRC staff determined that the exemption is authorized by law, will not present undue risk to the public health and safety, and is consistent with the common defense and security. In addition, the staff determined Diablo Canyon’s continued operation is in the public interest because of serious challenges to the reliability of California’s electricity grid.
The current operating licenses for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 2, expire on Nov. 2, 2024, and Aug. 26, 2025, respectively. The exemption granted today will allow those licenses to remain in effect provided PG&E submits a sufficient license renewal application for the reactors by Dec. 31, 2023. The NRC will continue its normal inspection and oversight of the facility throughout the review to ensure continued safe operation. If granted, the license renewal would authorize continued operation for up to 20 years.
NRC regulations allow a reactor’s operating license to remain in effect beyond its expiration date contingent upon the licensee submitting a sufficient license renewal application at least five years prior to expiration – a status called “timely renewal.” PG&E requires the exemption because it has not met that five-year requirement.
PG&E applied to renew the licenses in November 2009 but withdrew the application in 2018 and announced plans to cease operations and decommission the reactors when the licenses expire. After California enacted legislation last September to support continued operation, PG&E asked the NRC to resume its review of the previous application. In January, the staff informed the company that it would need to submit a new, up-to-date renewal application. That made the current exemption necessary to allow continued operation while the application is under review.
PG&E has said it will submit an application by the end of this calendar year. The NRC’s review of a license renewal application typically lasts 22 months.
NRC Names New Resident Inspector at Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant
Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: I-23-001 February 28, 2023
CONTACT: Diane Screnci, 610-337-5330
Neil Sheehan, 610-337-5331
NRC Names New Resident Inspector at Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, have selected Erin Brady as the resident inspector at the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Salem Township (Luzerne County), Pennsylvania. She joins Senior Resident Inspector Chris Highley at the two- unit site, which is operated by Talen Energy.
“Erin’s experience in private industry, with the Navy and during her time training and in the field as an NRC inspector will serve the agency well as she begins this new role,” said NRC Region I Administrator Ray Lorson. “She stands ready to put what she has learned to use as part of our front-line inspection team.”
Brady joined the NRC in 2021 after working as a quality control and maintenance technician in private industry. Prior to that, she served for eight years as an enlisted nuclear electrician aboard Navy aircraft carriers. Since joining the NRC, she has served as acting resident inspector at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania and completed NRC training qualifications.
She holds bachelor’s degrees in nuclear and electrical engineering from Thomas Edison State University in New Jersey.
Each operating U.S. commercial nuclear power plant has at least two NRC resident inspectors. They serve as the agency’s eyes and ears at the facility, conducting inspections, monitoring safety-significant work projects and interacting with plant workers and the public. Resident inspectors can serve at a reactor site for up to seven years.
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