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7 December 2006
[Federal Register: December 7, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 235)]
[Notices]
[Page 71023-71024]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr07de06-113]
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TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement: Completion of Watts
Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 2
AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority.
ACTION: Notice of Intent.
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SUMMARY: This notice is provided in accordance with the Council on
Environmental Quality's (CEQ) regulations (40 CFR parts 1500-1508) and
TVA's procedures for implementing the National Environmental Policy
Act. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will prepare a Supplemental
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to update information and address
the potential environmental impacts associated with its proposal to
complete the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant (WBN) Unit 2 located in Rhea
County, Tennessee [Google Aerial]. Completion of WBN Unit 2 would help address the need
for additional baseload generation in the power service area of the
Tennessee Valley Authority and make use of that unfinished asset.
DATES: Comments on the draft Supplemental EIS will be invited from the
public. It is anticipated that the draft Supplemental EIS will be
available in the spring of 2007.
ADDRESSES: Information about the Supplemental EIS process can be
obtained by contacting Bruce L. Yeager, NEPA Program Manager, NEPA
Policy, Environmental Stewardship and Policy, Tennessee Valley
Authority, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, Mail Stop WT 11B-K, Knoxville,
Tennessee 37902 (e-mail: blyeager@tva.gov).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Chardos, Project Manager,
Nuclear Generation Development at Tennessee Valley Authority, Mail Stop
ADM 1V-WBN, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402 (e-mail: jschardos@tva.gov).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: TVA operates the largest public power system
in the country. It provides electricity to more than 8.5 million people
in parts of seven southeastern states. It also serves 650,000
businesses and industries in this region, including 61 large industrial
and federal facilities. TVA currently has 33,000 megawatts of
dependable generating capacity on its system. This capacity consists of
three nuclear plants, 11 coal-fired plants, six combustion-turbine
plants, 29 hydroelectric dams, one pump-storage facility, the
southeast's largest wind turbine installation, and one methane-gas
capture facility. Slightly more than 60 percent of TVA's installed
generating capacity is coal, almost 30 percent is nuclear, and the
remaining 10 percent is hydro and other renewable energy resources and
combustion turbines.
Demand for electricity in the TVA Power Service Area is growing at
the rate of approximately 2 percent per year. In 2005, demand for
electricity from the TVA system exceeded the previous all-time high
demand (peak demand) on the system twice. To meet this growing demand
TVA anticipates having to add additional baseload capacity to its
system by no later than the 2012-2014 timeframe. Completing TVA's
partially-constructed WBN Unit 2 would not only help meet this growing
need for generation but also make use of that unfinished asset. TVA is
further supplementing the original 1972 Environmental Statement for the
plant and updating pertinent information discussed and evaluated in the
related documents identified below to inform decision makers about the
potential for environmental impacts that would be associated with a
decision to complete and operate WBN Unit 2. On July 28, 2006, the TVA
Board of Directors also authorized staff to conduct a comprehensive
Detailed, Scoping, Estimating and Planning (DSEP) study to evaluate the
cost and schedule for completing WBN Unit 2.
WBN is located on 1,700 acres at the northern end of Chickamauga
Reservoir about 8 miles from Spring City, Tennessee. The Atomic Energy
Commission (AEC) issued construction permits (now the responsibility of
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)) for the two-unit, 2,540 MW
plant in January of 1973. In 1985, TVA halted construction activities
for WBN in order to address safety concerns. Due to these construction
delays, WBN Unit 1 did not begin commercial operation until May 1996.
The plant currently has one Westinghouse pressurized-water reactor with
a capacity of 1,167 megawatts--enough electricity to supply about
650,000 homes a day. WBN Unit 2 was approximately 60 percent complete
when construction was halted in 1985.
Summary of Relevant Environmental Reviews
In 1972, TVA released a Final EIS that reviewed the potential
environmental and socioeconomic impacts of constructing and operating
the two-unit plant (WBN Units 1 and 2). TVA updated the WBN EIS in
November 1976 and submitted additional environmental information and
analyses to NRC in an Environmental Information Supplement in 1977. In
December of 1978, NRC issued its Final EIS, NUREG-0498 related to the
licensing of the two-unit plant.
In 1993, TVA conducted a thorough review of the TVA and NRC
documents to determine if additional environmental review was needed to
inform decisions about whether or not to complete WBN Units 1 and 2.
The 1993 TVA review, focusing on ten sections of the earlier documents,
concluded that neither the plant design nor environmental conditions
had changed in a manner that materially altered the environmental
impact analysis set forth in the earlier EIS. In 1994, TVA provided
additional analyses and information in support of NRC's issuance of a
Supplemental EIS. That Supplemental EIS, issued by NRC in 1995,
similarly concluded that there were no significant changes in the
potential environmental impacts of WBN 1 and 2 since the 1978 Final
Environmental Statement issued by the NRC. Following independent review
of the adequacy of the analyses and document, in July of 1995 TVA
adopted the 1995 NRC final Supplemental EIS for the completion of WBN
Unit 1. In
[[Page 71024]]
August 1995, TVA issued a ROD stating the agency decision to complete
WBN Unit 1. In 1998, TVA prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) and
Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for a project to provide
supplemental condenser cooling water to WBN for the purpose of
increasing power generation from Unit 1 that was constrained by cooling
tower performance.
TVA participated as a cooperating agency with the Department of
Energy (DOE) on an environmental review evaluating the production of
tritium at one or more commercial light water reactors (CLWRs) to
ensure safe and reliable tritium supply for U.S. defense needs. In
March 1999, the Secretary of the DOE designated the TVA Watts Bar and
Sequoyah Nuclear Plants as the Preferred Alternative for CLWR tritium
production in the CLWR EIS. DOE issued its Record of Decision (ROD) in
May of 1999. TVA subsequently issued its own Notice of Adoption and ROD
for the Final EIS in May of 2000. Tritium production subsequently began
at WBN Unit 1 in 2003. TVA's proposed completion and operation of WBN
Unit 2 does not include provision for tritium production, however
pertinent information on spent nuclear fuel management is included in
the CLWR EIS. As appropriate, TVA intends to incorporate, utilize, and
update information from these earlier plant-specific analyses for the
present Supplemental EIS.
In December 1995, TVA also completed a comprehensive environmental
review of alternative means of meeting demand for power on the TVA
system through the year 2020. This review was in the form of a Final
EIS titled the Integrated Resource Plan --Energy Vision 2020.
Completion of WBN Unit 2 was evaluated in this Final EIS. To address
future demand for electricity, TVA decided to rely on a portfolio of
energy resource options, including new generation and conservation.
Because of uncertainties about performance and cost, completion of WBN
Unit 2 was not included in the portfolio of resource options. In the
Integrated Resource Plan, TVA made conservative assumptions about the
capacity factor (roughly how much a unit would be able to run) nuclear
units generally would achieve and this capacity factor was used in
conducting the economic analyses of nuclear resource options. TVA
nuclear units, consistent with U.S. nuclear industry performance, now
routinely exceed this earlier assumed capacity factor, which changes
the earlier analyses and will be taken into account in the current
consideration of completing WBN Unit 2.
In February of 2004, TVA issued a Final EIS for its Reservoir
Operations Study (ROS) evaluating the potential environmental impacts
of alternative ways for operating the agency's reservoir system to
produce overall greater public value for the people of the Tennessee
Valley. That Final EIS review included provision of adequate water
supply for reliable, efficient operation of TVA generating facilities,
such as WBN, within their operating limits of National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and other permits. A ROD for the
ROS Final EIS was subsequently issued in May of 2004.
TVA will incorporate assumptions for reservoir operations resulting
from the ROS Final EIS review in the present evaluation.
Proposed Action and Need for Power
The proposal under consideration by TVA is to meet the demand for
additional baseload capacity on the TVA system and maximize the use of
existing assets by completing and operating WBN Unit 2 alongside its
sister unit, WBN Unit 1 that has been operating since 1996. The
environmental impacts of other energy resource options were evaluated
as part of TVA's Energy Vision 2020 Final EIS. As part of the present
supplemental environmental review, TVA will update the Need for Power
analysis, as well as consider any new environmental information.
Preliminary Identification of Environmental Issues
This Supplemental EIS will discuss the need to complete WBN Unit 2
and will update information on existing environmental, cultural,
recreational, and socioeconomic resources, as appropriate. The
Supplemental EIS will also update the analysis of potential
environmental impacts resulting from construction, operation, and
maintenance of WBN Unit 2, and the total impacts occurring with
concurrent operation of WBN Unit 1. The update of potential
environmental impacts will include, but not necessarily be limited to,
the potential impacts on water quality, vegetation, wildlife, aquatic
ecology, endangered and threatened species, floodplains, wetlands, land
use, cultural and historic resources, socioeconomics, spent fuel
management, and radiological impacts, as well as an analysis of severe
accident mitigation alternatives. Information from TVA's and NRC's
previous environmental reviews (described above) that is relevant to
the current assessment would be incorporated by reference and
appropriately summarized in the Supplemental EIS.
Public and Agency Participation
This Supplemental EIS is being prepared to update information and
to inform decision-makers and the public about the potential
environmental impacts of completing and operating WBN Unit 2. The
Supplemental EIS process also will provide the public an opportunity to
comment on TVA's analyses. Other federal, state, and local agencies and
governmental entities will be asked to comment, including the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Tennessee
Department of Environmental and Conservation.
TVA will invite the public and agencies to submit written, verbal
or e-mail comments on the draft Supplemental EIS. It is anticipated the
draft Supplemental EIS will be released in the spring of 2007. Notice
of availability of the Supplemental EIS will be published in the
Federal Register, as well as announced in local news media. TVA expects
to release a final Supplemental EIS in the summer of 2007.
Dated: November 28, 2006.
Kathryn J. Jackson,
Executive Vice President, River System Operations & Environment.
[FR Doc. E6-20761 Filed 12-6-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8120-08-P