Notice2026-11377
Constellation Energy Generation, LLC; Christopher M. Crane Clean Energy Center; Draft Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No Significant Impact
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Published
June 8, 2026
Abstract
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment a draft environmental assessment (EA) and draft finding of no significant impact (FONSI) regarding the evaluation of the reasonably foreseeable environmental effects from proposed Federal actions related to reauthorizing power operations at the Christopher M. Crane Clean Energy Center (CCEC). Specifically, the NRC is considering issuance of an exemption and three license amendments, which were requested by Constellation Energy Generation, LLC (CEG) to support the potential reauthorization of power operations at the CCEC. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) is a cooperating agency on the draft EA. The DOE EDF's proposed action is a decision on providing Federal financial assistance (a loan guarantee) for refueling and resumption of power operations at the CCEC.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 109 (Monday, June 8, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 109 (Monday, June 8, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34658-34661]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-11377]
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NUCLEAR REGUALTORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 50-289; EAXX-429-00-000-1773009788; NRC-2026-0397]
Constellation Energy Generation, LLC; Christopher M. Crane Clean
Energy Center; Draft Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No
Significant Impact
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for
public comment a draft environmental assessment (EA) and draft finding
of no significant impact (FONSI) regarding the evaluation of the
reasonably foreseeable environmental effects from proposed Federal
actions related to reauthorizing
[[Page 34659]]
power operations at the Christopher M. Crane Clean Energy Center
(CCEC). Specifically, the NRC is considering issuance of an exemption
and three license amendments, which were requested by Constellation
Energy Generation, LLC (CEG) to support the potential reauthorization
of power operations at the CCEC. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) is a cooperating agency on
the draft EA. The DOE EDF's proposed action is a decision on providing
Federal financial assistance (a loan guarantee) for refueling and
resumption of power operations at the CCEC.
DATES: Submit comments by July 8, 2026. 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.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods;
however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the
Federal rulemaking website.
<bullet> Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> and search for Docket ID NRC-2026-0397. Address
questions about Docket IDs in <a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a> to Bridget Curran;
telephone: 301-415-1003; email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#fbb989929f9c9e8fd5b88e89899a95bb958998d59c948d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6e2c1c070a090b1a402d1b1c1c0f002e001c0d40090118">[email protected]</span></a>. For technical
questions, contact the individual(s) listed in the For Further
Information Contact section of this document.
<bullet> Email: Comments may be submitted to the NRC electronically
using the email address <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f0b3b3b5b3a2958384918284b59e8699829f9e9d959e84919cb09e8293de979f86"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a7e4e4e2e4f5c2d4d3c6d5d3e2c9d1ced5c8c9cac2c9d3c6cbe7c9d5c489c0c8d1">[email protected]</span></a>.
<bullet> Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop:
TWFN-5-A85, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.
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: Kevin Folk, telephone: 301-415-6944;
email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#b6fdd3c0dfd898f0d9daddf6d8c4d598d1d9c0"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="d49fb1a2bdbafa92bbb8bf94baa6b7fab3bba2">[email protected]</span></a>, or Ashley Waldron, telephone: 301-415-7317;
email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#4f0e3c27232a3661182e232b3d20210f213d2c61282039"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="bdfcced5d1d8c493eadcd1d9cfd2d3fdd3cfde93dad2cb">[email protected]</span></a>. Both are staff of the Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2026-0397 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:
<bullet> Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> and search for Docket ID NRC-2026-0397.
<bullet> NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection at <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html">https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html</a>. To begin the search, select ``Begin ADAMS Public Search.''
For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document Room
(PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at 301-415-4737, or by email
to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#267662740874435549535445436648544508414950"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="015145532f5364726e74736264416f73622f666e77">[email protected]</span></a>. The ADAMS accession number for each document
referenced (if it is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time
that it is mentioned in the document.
<bullet> NRC's PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies
of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. To make an
appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#1c4c584e324e796f73696e7f795c726e7f327b736a"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a6f6e2f488f4c3d5c9d3d4c5c3e6c8d4c588c1c9d0">[email protected]</span></a> or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415- 4737, between 8
a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time, Monday through Friday, except Federal
holidays.
<bullet> Public Library: A copy of the draft EA and draft FONSI is
available for public review at the following public library location:
Middletown Public Library, 20 North Catherine Street, Middletown, PA
17057.
<bullet> NRC Public Project Website: The draft EA and draft FONSI
along with information regarding the CCEC, including licensing,
operation, decommissioning, and potential restart, is available at
<a href="https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors/ccec">https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors/ccec</a>.
B. Submitting Comments
The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the
Federal rulemaking website (<a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>). Please
include Docket ID NRC-2026-0397 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 all comment submissions at
<a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> 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. Introduction
The CCEC, formerly Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1 (TMI-
1), consists of a single pressurized-water nuclear reactor located in
Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, on Three Mile Island in the Susquehanna
River. Originally licensed for operation on April 19, 1974, the NRC
issued a renewed facility operating license (RFOL) for TMI-1 on October
22, 2009, with the license term expiring on April 19, 2034.
On June 20, 2017, and September 26, 2019, Exelon Generation
Company, LLC, the licensee who then operated the facility, submitted
certifications that it would permanently cease operations of TMI-1 and
had permanently removed fuel from the reactor vessel, respectively, in
accordance with paragraph 50.82(a)(1) of title 10 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (10 CFR). Upon the NRC's docketing of these
certifications, the RFOL license no longer authorized operation of the
reactor or emplacement or retention of fuel into the reactor vessel, as
provided by 10 CFR 50.82(a)(2).
CEG is seeking to return the CCEC to power operations and has
submitted for NRC approval an exemption request and three license
amendment requests (LARs) in support of allowing the resumption of
power operations through April 19, 2034, the previous expiration date
of the facility's RFOL.
A notice of opportunity to request a hearing and petition for leave
to intervene was published in the Federal Register on February 24,
2026, regarding the three LARs. Consistent with the Atomic Energy Act
of 1954, as amended (the Act), and the NRC's regulations, the NRC did
not publish a notice of opportunity for hearing on the exemption
request.
The NRC staff has prepared a draft EA and draft FONSI documenting
its environmental review of the proposed actions related to
reauthorizing power operations at the CCEC. Based on its
[[Page 34660]]
environmental review, the NRC staff has made the preliminary
determination that the proposed actions will not have a significant
effect on the quality of the human environment. Therefore, the NRC
staff has made the preliminary determination that it will not prepare
an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed actions and
that a FONSI is warranted.
The NRC staff will consider comments on the draft EA and draft
FONSI received over a 30-day public comment period from Federal, State,
local, and Tribal officials and members of the public. After
consideration of these comments, the NRC staff will make a final
determination regarding whether it will prepare an EIS for the proposed
actions or whether a FONSI is warranted.
The environmental review included fulfillment of the NRC's
obligations related to Section 106 of the National Historic
Preservation Act of 1966, as amended (54 U.S.C. 300101, et seq.)
(NHPA). The regulation in section 800.8 of title 36 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (36 CFR), ``Coordination with the National
Environmental Policy Act,'' allows agencies to use their National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321, et seq.) process to
fulfill the requirements of Section 106 of the NHPA. Therefore,
pursuant to 36 CFR 800.8(c), the NRC used its process for the
preparation of the EA on the proposed actions to comply with Section
106 of the NHPA in lieu of the procedures set forth at 36 CFR 800.3
through 800.6.
III. Summary of Draft Environmental Assessment
Description of the Proposed Federal Actions and Need
The NRC's proposed actions are decisions on whether to grant or
deny CEG's interdependent, connected licensing and regulatory requests,
including any revisions or supplements thereto or other regulatory or
licensing requests submitted to the NRC, that are necessary to support
reauthorizing power operations and refueling of the CCEC reactor. The
DOE EDF's proposed action is a decision on providing Federal financial
assistance for refueling and resumption of power operations at the CCEC
pursuant to CEG's loan guarantee agreement with the DOE that was issued
pursuant to the Energy Policy Act (EPA) of 2005.
The need for the NRC proposed actions, which would collectively
support the reauthorization of power operations and refueling of the
CCEC under the existing RFOL, is to provide 835 megawatts-electric of
baseload power generation capability to the Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
and Maryland electric grid. In support of its decision to pursue the
resumption of power operations at the CCEC, CEG cites a 20-year power
purchase agreement signed in 2024 with Microsoft to supply carbon-free
energy from the CCEC to Microsoft's data centers located within the PJM
Interconnection LLC's electric grid.
The need for the DOE proposed action (Federal financial assistance
in the form of a loan guarantee) is to implement DOE's authority under
Title XVII of the EPA of 2005, which was reauthorized, amended, and
revised by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (42 U.S.C. 16517) and
the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Pub. L. 119-21 (July 4, 2025)) to
create the EDF Program. The purpose of the EDF Program is to finance
projects and facilities in the United States that retool, repower,
repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations
or enable operating energy infrastructure to increase capacity or
output.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Federal Actions
In the draft EA, the NRC staff assessed the potential reasonably
foreseeable environmental effects (impacts) from the proposed actions
associated with the following relevant resource areas: land use and
visual resources; meteorology, air quality, and noise; surface water
resources; groundwater resources, ecological resources (terrestrial and
aquatic); Federally protected ecological resources, historic and
cultural resources; socioeconomic conditions; radiological and
nonradiological human health; waste management; uranium fuel cycle and
transportation; and postulated accidents. The NRC staff also considered
decommissioning impacts as well as greenhouse gas emissions and climate
change effects. The NRC staff determined that the environmental impacts
of the proposed actions would be NOT SIGNIFICANT for each potentially
affected environmental resource area. In addition, the NRC staff
determined that the projected effects of climate change would not alter
any of the impact determinations described in the EA.
Environmental Impacts of Alternatives to the Proposed Federal Actions
The NRC staff considered a reasonable range of alternatives to the
proposed actions, including an analysis of any environmental impacts of
not implementing the proposed actions (i.e., the no-action
alternative). The NRC staff determined that there are no alternatives
that meet the need for the proposed actions. For the no-action
alternative, the NRC staff determined that the environmental impacts
could potentially be SIGNIFICANT. In contrast, the potential
environmental impacts from the proposed actions of reauthorizing power
operations at the existing CCEC would be NOT SIGNIFICANT for each
potentially affected environmental resource area. Therefore, the NRC
staff concluded that there are no environmentally preferrable
alternatives to the proposed actions.
IV. Draft Finding of No Significant Impact
The proposed Federal actions before the NRC are whether to grant
requests for an exemption and license amendments to support
reauthorizing power operations at the CCEC through the remainder of its
RFOL term (to April 19, 2034). The NRC staff has conducted an
environmental review of these actions and prepared a draft EA. This
draft FONSI incorporates by reference the draft EA summarized in
Section III of this notice and referenced in Section V of this notice.
Based on its preliminary determination in the draft EA that the
environmental impacts of the proposed actions would be NOT SIGNIFICANT
for each potentially affected resource area, the NRC staff is issuing a
draft determination that the proposed Federal actions will not have a
significant effect on the quality of the human environment.
Accordingly, the NRC staff has made a draft determination not to
prepare an EIS for the proposed Federal actions and that a FONSI is
warranted.
This draft FONSI and the related environmental documents are
available for public inspection as discussed in the draft EA and
Section I of this notice. Before making its final determination, the
NRC staff will consider comments on the draft EA and draft FONSI
received over a 30-day public comment period from Federal, State,
Tribal, and local officials and members of the public. Once the NRC
staff makes its final determination, the NRC will publish the final EA
and final FONSI or proceed to prepare an EIS. At the conclusion of the
NRC environmental review, the DOE EDF would publish a separate notice
or decision document, as appropriate.
V. Availability of Documents
The documents identified in the following table are available to
interested parties through ADAMS, as indicated.
[[Page 34661]]
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Document description ADAMS accession No./ Federal Register Notice
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Draft Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No ML26120A058.
Significant Impact for the Christopher M. Crane Clean
Energy Center Reauthorization of Power Operations
Project, dated June 5, 2026.
Constellation Energy Generation, LLC; Christopher M. ML26013A106; 91 FR 8910.
Crane Clean Energy Center; Applications for Amendments
to Renewed Facility License Involving Proposed No
Significant Hazards Consideration Determination and
Containing Safeguards Information and Order Imposing
Procedures for Access to Safeguards Information; License
amendment request (LAR); notice of opportunity to
comment, request a hearing, and petition for leave to
intervene; order imposing procedures, dated February 24,
2026.
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(Authority: 42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.)
Dated: June 3, 2026.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Kimyata Savoy,
Acting Deputy Director, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and
Financial Support, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2026-11377 Filed 6-5-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
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