NRC ISSUES FINAL SAFETY EVALUATION REPORTFOR VIRGIL C. SUMME

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NRC ISSUES FINAL SAFETY EVALUATION REPORTFOR VIRGIL C. SUMMER NEW REACTORS APPLICATIONThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has completed its Final Safety Evaluation Report (FSER) for Combined Licenses (COL) for the proposed Virgil C. Summer Units 2 and 3reactors. The NRC, in its FSER, concluded that there are no safety aspects that would preclude issuing the COLs for construction and operation of the proposed reactors at the site, near Jenkinsville, S.C. The FSER will be available on the NRC website.The FSER and Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) will be provided to the Commission for the mandatory hearing phase of the licensing process. In the mandatory hearing, expected to take place later this year, the Commission will determine whether the staff’s review supports the findings necessary to issue a license. In addition, because the Summer application references the amended AP1000 design, the Commission must complete the certification process for that design before it can render a mandatory hearing decision on the license.South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) submitted its COL application for Summer on March 27, 2008. SCE&G is applying for permission to build and operate two AP1000 reactors at the Summer site, adjacent to the company’s existing reactor, approximately 26 miles northwestof Columbia, S.C. Westinghouse submitted an application to amend the already-certified AP1000, a 1,100 megawatt electric design, on May 26, 2007. More information on proposed changes to the AP1000, as well as the staff’s review, is available on the NRC website. The NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) independently reviewed those aspects of the application that concern safety, as well as the advanced safety evaluation report without open items (an earlier version of the FSER). The ACRS provided the results of itsreview to the Commission in a report dated Feb. 17. The NRC completed its environmental review and issued the FEIS for the Summer COL on April 15. ###