Systematic Assessment for How the NRC Addresses Environmental Justice in Its Programs, Policies, and Activities, 36307-36309 [2021-14673]

Agencies

• NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 129 (Friday, July 9, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36307-36309]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-14673]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2021-0137]


Systematic Assessment for How the NRC Addresses Environmental 
Justice in Its Programs, Policies, and Activities

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Public meeting and request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting 
comments as part of its systematic review for how NRC programs, 
policies, and activities address environmental justice. Specifically, 
the NRC would like input on how the agency is addressing environmental 
justice, considering the agency's mission and statutory authority. The 
information will be used to inform the agency's assessment of how it 
addresses environmental justice.

DATES: Submit comments by August 23, 2021. Comments received after this 
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is 
able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before 
this date. The NRC will hold public meetings related to its assessment. 
See Section IV Public Meeting, of this document for additional 
information.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
     Telephone: 301-415-3875.
     Email: [email protected].
     Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop: 
TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.

[[Page 36308]]

     Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2021-0137. Address 
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; 
telephone: 301-415-0624; email: [email protected]. For technical 
questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT section of this document.
    For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting 
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Allen Fetter, Office of the Executive 
Director for Operations, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-8556, email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2021-0137 when contacting the NRC 
about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain 
publicly available information related to this action by any of the 
following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2021-0137.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the 
ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS 
Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public 
Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or 
by email to [email protected]. The Staff Requirements Memorandum 
(SRM)-M210218B, ``Briefing on Equal Employment Opportunity, Affirmative 
Employment, and Small Business, 10:00 a.m., Thursday, February 18, 
2021, Video Conference Meeting,'' dated April 23, 2021, which provides 
direction to the staff or this assessment, is available in ADAMS under 
Accession No. ML21113A070.
     Attention: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies 
of public documents, is currently closed. You may submit your request 
to the PDR via email at [email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 
301-415-4737, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (ET), Monday through 
Friday, except Federal holidays.

B. Submitting Comments

    The NRC encourages comment submission via email and phone. Please 
reference Docket ID NRC-2021-0137 in your comment submission.
    The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact 
information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your 
comment submission. The NRC will post comment submissions received via 
regulations.gov at https://www.regulations.gov as well as enter the 
comment submissions into ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment 
submissions to remove identifying or contact information.
    If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons 
for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to 
include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be 
publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should 
state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to 
remove such information before making the comment submissions available 
to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.

II. Background

    The NRC is an independent agency established by the Energy 
Reorganization Act of 1974 that began operations in 1975 as a successor 
to the licensing and regulatory activities of the Atomic Energy 
Commission. The NRC's mission is to license and regulate the Nation's 
civilian use of radioactive materials to provide reasonable assurance 
of adequate protection of public health and safety and to promote the 
common defense and security and to protect the environment. As part of 
its licensing and regulatory activities, the NRC conducts safety, 
security, and environmental reviews.
    Specifically, with respect to environmental reviews, the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq., 
requires all Federal agencies to evaluate the impacts of proposed major 
actions on the human environment. As part of its responsibilities under 
NEPA, the NRC considers environmental justice. According to the 
Commission, ``[t]he term `environmental justice' refers to the federal 
policy established in 1994 by Executive Order 12898, which directed 
federal agencies to identify and address `disproportionately high and 
adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, 
policies, and activities on minority and low-income populations.''' 
Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (Indian Point Nuclear Generating Units 
2 and 3), CLI-15-6, 81 NRC 340, 369 (2015).
    The NRC, as an independent agency, was requested, rather than 
directed, to comply with Executive Order 12898, and this Executive 
Order did not, in itself, create new substantive authority for Federal 
agencies. In a March 31, 1994, letter to President Clinton, NRC 
Chairman Ivan Selin indicated that the NRC would endeavor to carry out 
the measures set forth in Executive Order 12898 and the accompanying 
memorandum as part of the NRC's efforts to comply with NEPA (ADAMS 
Accession No. ML033210526). As noted in the NRC's 1995 Environmental 
Justice Strategy (ADAMS Accession No. ML20081K602 (March 24, 1995)), 
because ``the NRC is not a `land management' agency, i.e., it neither 
sites, owns, or manages facilities or properties,'' the NRC determined 
that Executive Order 12898 would ``primarily apply to [NRC] efforts to 
fulfill'' NEPA requirements as part of NRC's licensing process.
    On August 24, 2004, following public comment on a draft Policy 
Statement (68 FR 62642), the Commission issued its ``Policy Statement 
on the Treatment of Environmental Justice Matters in NRC Regulatory and 
Licensing Actions'' (69 FR 52040). The purpose of this Policy Statement 
was to set forth a ``comprehensive statement of the Commission's policy 
on the treatment of environmental justice matters in NRC regulatory and 
licensing actions.'' Id. at 52,041. The Policy Statement explains that 
the focus of an environmental justice review ``should be on identifying 
and weighing disproportionately significant and adverse environmental 
impacts on minority and low-income populations that may be different 
from the impacts on the general population. It is not a broad-ranging 
or even limited review of racial or economic discrimination.'' Id. at 
52,047.
    The Policy Statement also reiterates guidance on defining the 
geographic area for environmental justice assessments and identifying 
low-income and minority communities. Id. In addition, it explains that 
a scoping process is used to ``assist the NRC in ensuring that minority 
and low-income communities, including transient populations, affected 
by the proposed action are not overlooked in assessing the potential 
for significant impacts unique to those communities.'' Id. at 52,048. 
In performing a NEPA analysis, ``published demographic data, community 
interviews and public input through well-noticed public scoping 
meetings should be used in identifying minority and low-income 
communities

[[Page 36309]]

that may be subject to adverse environmental impacts.'' Id.
    On April 23, 2021, in a Staff Requirements Memorandum (ADAMS 
Accession No. ML21113A070), the Commission directed the staff to 
``systematically review how the agency's programs, polices, and 
activities address environmental justice.'' As part of this review, the 
Commission directed the staff to evaluate recent Executive Orders and 
assess whether environmental justice is appropriately considered and 
addressed in the agency's programs, policies, and activities, given the 
agency's mission. As directed, the staff will consider the practices of 
other Federal, State, and Tribal agencies and evaluate whether the NRC 
should incorporate environmental justice beyond implementation through 
NEPA. The staff will also review the adequacy of the 2004 Policy 
Statement. The Commission further directed the staff to consider 
whether establishing formal mechanisms to gather external stakeholder 
input would benefit any future environmental justice efforts. To carry 
out the Commission's direction, the staff is seeking to engage 
stakeholders and interested persons representing a broad range of 
perspectives. This Federal Register notice and the meetings referenced 
herein are part of this engagement effort.

III. Requested Information and Comments

    The NRC is interested in obtaining a broad range of perspectives 
from stakeholders and interested persons. The focus of this request is 
to gather information to inform a systematic assessment for how the NRC 
addresses environmental justice in its programs, policies, and 
activities, considering the agency's mission and statutory authority. 
The NRC is particularly interested in receiving input on the following 
questions:
    (1) What is your understanding of what is meant by environmental 
justice at the NRC?
    (2) As described in the Commission's 2004 Policy Statement on the 
Treatment of Environmental Justice Matters in NRC Regulatory and 
Licensing Actions (69 FR 52040), the NRC currently addresses 
environmental justice in its NEPA reviews to determine if a proposed 
agency action will have disproportionately high and adverse impacts on 
minority and low-income communities, defined as environmental justice 
communities.
    (a) When the NRC is conducting licensing and other regulatory 
reviews, the agency uses a variety of ways to gather information from 
stakeholders and interested persons on environmental impacts of the 
proposed agency action, such as in-person and virtual meetings, Federal 
Register notices requesting input, and dialog with community 
organizations.
    (i) How could the NRC expand how it engages and gathers input?
    (ii) What formal tools might there be to enhance information 
gathering from stakeholders and interested persons in NRC's programs, 
policies, and activities?
    (iii) Can you describe any challenges that may affect your ability 
to engage with the NRC on environmental justice issues?
    (b) How could the NRC enhance opportunities for members of 
environmental justice communities to participate in licensing and 
regulatory activities, including the identification of impacts and 
other environmental justice concerns?
    (c) What ways could the NRC enhance identification of environmental 
justice communities?
    (d) What has the NRC historically done well, or currently does well 
that we could do more of or expand with respect to environmental 
justice in our programs, policies, and activities, including engagement 
efforts? In your view, what portions of the 2004 Policy Statement are 
effective?
    (3) What actions could the NRC take to enhance consideration of 
environmental justice in the NRC's programs, policies and activities 
and agency decision-making, considering the agency's mission and 
statutory authority?
    (a) Would you recommend that NRC consider any particular 
organization's environmental justice program(s) in its assessment?
    (b) Looking to other Federal, State, and Tribal agencies' 
environmental justice programs, what actions could the NRC take to 
enhance consideration of environmental justice in the NRC's programs, 
policies, and activities?
    (c) Considering recent Executive Orders on environmental justice, 
what actions could the NRC take to enhance consideration of 
environmental justice in the NRC's programs, policies, and activities?
    (d) Are there opportunities to expand consideration of 
environmental justice in NRC programs, policies, and activities, 
considering the agency's mission? If so, what are they?

IV. Public Meeting Information

    The NRC plans to hold public meetings during the public comment 
period for this action. The first public meetings are currently planned 
for July 15, 2021, from 1:30 p.m.-3:00 p.m. ET and 8:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m. 
ET, via webinar. The public meetings will provide forums for the NRC 
staff to discuss issues and questions with stakeholders and interested 
persons. During the public meetings, the NRC does not intend to provide 
responses to comments submitted during the public meetings. The public 
meetings were noticed on the NRC's public meeting website. Members of 
the public should monitor the NRC's public meeting website for 
additional information about the public meetings at https://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm. The NRC will post 
notices for additional public meetings associated with this effort and 
may post additional material related to this action to the Federal 
Rulemaking website at https://www.regulations.gov/ under Docket ID NRC-
2021-0137.

    Dated: July 6, 2021.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Gregory F. Suber,
Director, Environmental Justice Review Team, Office of the Executive 
Director for Operations.
[FR Doc. 2021-14673 Filed 7-8-21; 8:45 am]
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