NRC EXTENDS COMMENT PERIOD ON PROPOSED RULE REVISIONS TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION REGULATIONS

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended the public comment period on the proposed rule revisions to the environmental protection regulations, specifically the Summary of Findings on National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Issues for License Renewal of Nuclear Power Plants and the draft revision of Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants, NUREG-1437, originally published in 1996. The submittal deadline is extended from Oct. 14 to Jan. 12, 2010.

The public can view the NRC’s original notice on the proposed rule revisions in the Federal Register at: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-24153.pdf. access.gpo. gov/2009/ pdf/E9-24153 and the original press release at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2009/09130.htmlhttp://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2009/09-130.html.

The NRC has held public meetings to obtain comments in Georgia, Massachusetts, Illinois and Maryland; the California meetings will be held in October and have been announced separately.

Comments on the proposed rule, draft revised GEIS and associated documents may be submitted via the federal e-Rulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov (Docket I.D. NRC-2008-0608); by e-mail to Rulemaking.Comments@nrc.gov; by mail to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff; or by fax to 301-492-3466. Written comments on the draft revised GEIS should be sent to: Chief, Rulemaking, Directives and Editing Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, Mailstop TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001.

The draft revised GEIS is publicly available at the NRC Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md., or from the NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) at http://adamswebsearch.nrc.gov/dologin.htm . The accession number for the draft revised GEIS is ML090220654; the draft Regulatory Guide 4.2 Supplement 1, Rev. 1 is ML091620409 and the Draft NUREG-1555, Supplement 1, Rev. 1 is ML090230497. Persons with ADAMS questions should contact the NRC’s PDR reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209, or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at pdr.resource@nrc.gov

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