The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has published a supplemental environmental impact statement on the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)’s proposed reactor project adjacent to the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
NRC, together with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, seek public comment on a draft supplemental environmental impact statement, or supplemental EIS, on the construction permit application on a GE Hitachi BWRX-300 reactor at a site in Roane County, Tenn.
The supplemental EIS notice was published in Monday’s Federal Register for the Clinch River nuclear project. The small modular reactor would be built on the site of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project, which was terminated in the 1980s and never completed.
The draft supplemental EIS evaluates the environmental impacts of issuing a permit allowing construction of Clinch River Nuclear Unit-1.
Comments are due by Dec. 22.
NRC deemed the application complete and in July announced the opportunity to request a public hearing. A notice of intent to prepare a supplemental EIS was published on July 18.
During a quarterly call on financial results Thursday, TVA CEO Don Moul said he expects NRC could take action on the construction permit application by January 2027. Moul also said TVA will explore various technologies for handling waste from the proposed SMR, including possibly reaching a deal with a contractor to reprocess some of the resulting waste.