10 CFR Part 51, Environmental
Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related
Regulatory Functions
Revision of a currently approved collection
No
Regular
10/04/2024
Requested
Previously Approved
07/31/2025
08/31/2027
27
27
100,712
140,000
0
0
PROPOSED RULE - Generic Environmental
Impact Statement for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors The NRC is
proposing to amend the regulations that govern the NRC’s
environmental reviews of new nuclear reactor applications under
NEPA. The NRC’s regulations in § 51.45, Environmental report,”
require each applicant to prepare and submit an environmental
report which includes, among other things, a description of the
proposed action, a statement of its purposes, a description of the
environment affected, and a discussion of the environmental impacts
of the proposed action and alternatives. The rulemaking would
codify the generic findings of NUREG-2249, “Generic Environmental
Impact Statement for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors” (NR GEIS),
which presents impact analyses for the environmental issues common
to many new nuclear reactors that can be addressed generically,
thereby eliminating the need to repeatedly reproduce the same
analyses each time a licensing application is submitted. The
proposed rule would reduce burden on an applicant because they
would not be required to assess the environmental impacts of NR
GEIS Category 1 issues if: 1) the applicant has demonstrated that
it has met the bounding values and assumption of each PPE and SPE
parameter relevant to that Category 1 issue, and 2) the applicant
has not identified any new and significant information that would
change a conclusion related to a Category 1 issue in the NR GEIS.
If a value or assumption is not met, then the applicant may be able
to limit its analysis to just the impact of not meeting the value
or assumption. Similarly, if the applicant identifies new and
significant information that would change a conclusion in the NR
GEIS, then the applicant may be able to limit its analysis to just
the impact of the new and significant information. To comply with
NEPA, the NRC uses the information in the environmental report
along other information to conduct an independent environmental
evaluation.
The NR GEIS and associated
rulemaking incorporates text to improve the effectiveness and
efficiency of the environmental review for new nuclear reactor
applications by codifying the NR GEIS findings in Table C-1 in
Appendix C to Subpart A of 10 CFR Part 51. Improving the
effectiveness and efficiency of new nuclear reactor environmental
reviews will reduce the cost to industry in preparing environmental
reports for new nuclear reactor applications and focuses resources
on project-specific analyses. Burden for the 10 CFR Part 51
information collection will be reduced by 39,288 hours, from
140,000 to 100,712 hours.
$7,221,824
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Stewart Schneider 301 415-4123
stewart.schneider@nrc.gov
No
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.