A supplemental draft environmental impact statement filed this spring by Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will likely advance the operating license renewal request filed by Constellation Energy, owner of the Clinton nuclear power plant.
NRC staff has concluded the “adverse environmental impacts of license renewal for Clinton are not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy-planning decision-makers would be unreasonable.”
Constellation Energy formally asked for a 20-year extension to its operating license for Clinton more than a year ago, though it expressed an intention to do so before that. Without an extension, the plant would have to close by April 17, 2027.
The NRC looked at the environmental impact on the area surrounding Clinton Lake under several scenarios, including letting the license expire and shutting down the plant, making up for the loss of the reactor’s generating capacity with natural gas, renewable energy sources, a mixture of gas and renewable, or allowing the plant to operate for another two decades.
“The NRC staff preliminarily recommends renewal of the [Clinton plant] operating license … all other replacement power alternatives have impacts in more than one resource area that are greater than LR [license renewal], in addition to the environmental impacts inherent to new construction projects,” said the report.
Among the many factors staff looked at in the 325-page supplemental report are: “groundwater within the sandy silty lenses of the Wedron formation,” wells within two miles of the plant, seismic activity, water temperatures and levels in Clinton Lake, socioeconomic factors involving plant employees and nearby towns, migrant farm workers and temporary farm labor in the economic impact area of the plant, nearby wetlands, and endangered or threatened species, to name a few. Even various kinds of air emissions from the plant got a look from staff.
No factors rose to a substantial level of concern in the supplement.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior identified four federally endangered or threatened species that could be in the area of the plant. Those include the northern long-eared bat, Indiana bat, rusty patched bumble bee, and the eastern prairie fringed orchid.
There also are several species the Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended for threatened or endangered status: the salamander mussel, monarch butterfly, and western regal fritillary. Even what the service labeled an "experimental population" — the whooping crane — could lumber by the plant during migration.
Sarah Schmuecker, deputy field supervisor for the Illinois-Iowa field office, wrote in a May 1 letter the "proposed action is unlikely to affect" the named species for various reasons.
“This precludes the need for further action on this project as required under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended,” wrote Schmuecker.
The final environmental impact report will come out in the fall after a review of public comments. Another key element of review must still happen — an in-depth safety assessment of the reactor that began operating in 1987 and proposed additional programs to maintain "aging systems." That report is expected in August, according to an NRC timeline.
The NRC is likely to decide whether to grant the license extension by the end of the year.
