Notice2026-11642
Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC; Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station; Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact
Primary source
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Published
June 10, 2026
Issuing agencies
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Abstract
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an environmental assessment (EA) and a finding of no significant impact (FONSI) for a license amendment request submitted by Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC, (HDI) to approve the License Termination Plan (LTP), Revision 2 for the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station (OCNGS), located in Lacey and Ocean Townships, New Jersey. If approved, the amendment would add a condition to the license reflecting the NRC's approval of the LTP and establishing criteria for determining when changes to the LTP would require prior NRC approval. HDI would use the LTP to meet the requirements for terminating the license and releasing the site for unrestricted use. Based on the EA, the NRC staff has concluded that there will be no significant impacts to environmental resources from the requested license amendment, and therefore, a FONSI is appropriate.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 111 (Wednesday, June 10, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 111 (Wednesday, June 10, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35277-35280]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-11642]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 50-219; NRC-2026-2773]
Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC; Oyster Creek Nuclear
Generating Station; Environmental Assessment and Finding of No
Significant Impact
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice; issuance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an
environmental assessment (EA) and a finding of no significant impact
(FONSI) for a license amendment request submitted by Holtec
Decommissioning International, LLC, (HDI) to approve the License
Termination Plan (LTP), Revision 2 for the Oyster Creek Nuclear
Generating Station (OCNGS), located in Lacey and Ocean Townships, New
Jersey. If approved, the amendment would add a condition to the license
reflecting the NRC's approval of the LTP and establishing criteria for
determining when changes to the LTP would require prior NRC approval.
HDI would use the LTP to meet the requirements for terminating the
license and releasing the site for unrestricted use. Based on the
[[Page 35278]]
EA, the NRC staff has concluded that there will be no significant
impacts to environmental resources from the requested license
amendment, and therefore, a FONSI is appropriate.
DATES: The EA and FONSI referenced in this document are available on
June 10, 2026.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2026-2773 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may obtain publicly available information related to this document
using 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-2026-2773. 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#c280b0aba6a5a7b6ec81b7b0b0a3ac82acb0a1eca5adb4"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="c98bbba0adaeacbde78abcbbbba8a789a7bbaae7aea6bf">[email protected]</span></a>. For technical
questions, contact the individual(s) listed in the For Further
Information Contact section of this document.
<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">https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams</a>.html. 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#8adaced8a4d8eff9e5fff8e9efcae4f8e9a4ede5fc"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="bbebffe995e9dec8d4cec9d8defbd5c9d895dcd4cd">[email protected]</span></a>. For the convenience of the reader,
instructions about obtaining materials referenced in this document are
provided in the ``Availability of Documents'' section of this 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#2f7f6b7d017d4a5c405a5d4c4a6f415d4c01484059"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="1a4a5e4834487f69756f68797f5a746879347d756c">[email protected]</span></a> or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415- 4737, between 8
a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (ET), Monday through Friday, except
Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Patrick Donohue, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-5237; email:
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#c191a0b5b3a8a2aaef85aeafaea9b4a481afb3a2efa6aeb7"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="e8b8899c9a818b83c6ac878687809d8da8869a8bc68f879e">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The NRC is considering the issuance of a license amendment request
to approve the LTP, Revision 2 for the OCNGS, located in Lacey and
Ocean Townships, New Jersey, as part of OCNGS Renewed Facility
Operating License No. DPR-16. If approved, the amendment would add a
condition to the license reflecting the NRC's approval of the LTP and
establishing criteria for determining when changes to the LTP require
prior NRC approval. As required by part 51 of title 10 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Environmental Protection Regulations
for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions,'' the NRC
prepared an EA. Based on the results of the EA, the NRC has determined
not to prepare an environmental impact statement for the license
amendment request and is issuing a FONSI.
The construction permit for OCNGS was issued by the NRC in 1964,
with the provisional operating license issued by the NRC to Jersey
Central Power and Light in 1969. The OCNGS began commercial operation
in December 1969. The 2009 renewed facility operating license for OCNGS
allowed operation until April 9, 2029. By letter dated January 7, 2011,
Exelon Generation Company, LLC (Exelon) announced its plan to retire
OCNGS no later than December 31, 2018. A February 14, 2018, supplement
to the January 7 letter certified that operations would cease no later
than October 31, 2018, in accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(a)(1)(i). Exelon
permanently shut down OCNGS on September 17, 2018. Pursuant to 10 CFR
50.82(a)(1)(ii), Exelon certified to the NRC that it had permanently
removed fuel from the reactor vessel by letter dated September 25,
2018. Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.82(a)(4)(i), Exelon submitted a SAFSTOR
Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) on May 21,
2018, to initiate decommissioning of OCNGS under the SAFSTOR method.
By letter dated August 31, 2018, Exelon submitted to the NRC an
application for transfer of the OCNGS facility licenses to Oyster Creek
Environmental Protection, LLC as owner and HDI as operator. This
transfer was completed on July 1, 2019.
On September 28, 2018, HDI submitted a revised PSDAR to address the
acceleration of decommissioning activities, and changes to the
decommissioning schedule and cost estimates. The revised PSDAR
established the decommissioning method as DECON.
II. Environmental Assessment
Description of the Proposed Action
The proposed action is the review and subsequent approval, if
appropriate, of a license amendment to the OCNGS license to approve the
LTP. HDI submitted their application on August 1, 2024, the LTP
Revision 1 in April 2025, and the LTP Revision 2 in December 2025.
During the review of the application, the NRC staff conducted a site
visit on September 17, 2025, and conducted an audit. If approved, the
amendment would add a condition to the license reflecting the NRC's
approval of the LTP and establishing criteria for determining when
changes to the LTP require prior NRC approval. The proposed action is
described in HDI's 2025 LTP application.
Purpose and Need for the Proposed Action
The purpose and need for the proposed action is to allow for the
completion of decommissioning of the OCNGS site by HDI, termination of
its operating license by the NRC, and subsequent release of the OCNGS
site for unrestricted use. A portion of the site required for operation
of the independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) would remain
under the 10 CFR part 50 license until the spent fuel is shipped off-
site and the ISFSI can be decommissioned. The NRC regulation at 10 CFR
50.82, ``Termination of license,'' sets forth the process for the
licensee to decommission its nuclear power plant, including submission
of the LTP. The NRC will approve the LTP, provided that the LTP meets
the criteria in 10 CFR 50.82(a)(10).
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action
The NRC staff considered the potential impacts of the proposed
action on land use; geology and soils; water resources; climatology,
meteorology, and air quality; ecological resources; socioeconomics;
historical and cultural resources; public and occupation health;
transportation; waste management; noise; and visual and scenic
resources. The Decommissioning Generic Environmental Impact Statement
(GEIS) (NUREG-0586) generically addressed many of the potential
environmental impacts of decommissioning at the OCNGS. During its
review of the LTP, the NRC concluded that the impacts for most resource
areas--onsite land use; water resources, not including groundwater
contamination; air quality; ecology, not including threatened and
endangered species; socioeconomics; historic and cultural resources
within the operational area; public and occupational health;
transportation; noise; and visual and scenic resources--were still
bounded by the Decommissioning GEIS. Therefore, the
[[Page 35279]]
NRC does not expect impacts associated with these resource areas beyond
those discussed in the GEIS, which concluded that the impact level for
these resource areas was SMALL.
In the Decommissioning GEIS, the NRC staff concluded that it could
not determine the environmental impacts of decommissioning generically
for five environmental resource areas (offsite land use, threatened and
endangered species, aquatic ecology beyond the operational area,
terrestrial ecology beyond the operational area, and historic and
cultural resources beyond the operational area). The Decommissioning
GEIS determined that for these five resource areas a site-specific
analysis would be required. Additionally, the GEIS did not address the
affected environment, nonradioactive waste management, and
contamination of groundwater from decommissioning activities.
For the proposed action, there are no planned activities outside of
the operational area. Plant personnel would need to enter radiological
areas less frequently during decommissioning when compared to plant
operation; thus, occupational dose during decommissioning would be
significantly lower than it was during operation of the plant. During
decommissioning, HDI would continue to use the various protection
programs to ensure public and occupational doses remain below
regulatory limits in 10 CFR part 20 and 10 CFR part 50.
HDI commits to using best management practices and obtaining all
necessary licenses from Federal or State agencies to protect the
surrounding lands. The proposed action would result in no significant
change to the off-site impacts and there would be no reasonably
foreseeable significant effects associated with decommissioning
activities at the OCNGS site. The proposed action does not include the
use of any previously undisturbed land, or alterations to site surface
waters or vegetated lands.
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
As an alternative to the proposed action, the NRC staff considered
only the ``no-action alternative.'' Under the no-action alternative,
the NRC would not approve the LTP or the license amendment request
because regulatory requirements have not been met. If the NRC was
unable to approve the LTP because the regulatory requirements had not
been met, then HDI would have to take the necessary actions to ensure
the regulations are met. HDI would need to take additional action to
prepare an LTP that meets the requirements in 10 CFR 50.82(a)(10), and
the updated LTP would then need to be submitted to the NRC for approval
prior to license termination. Under this scenario, until HDI resubmits
the LTP, activities at the OCNGS would likely continue and the
environmental impacts would neither increase nor decrease as a result
of the additional time required for the LTP resubmission.
Agencies and Persons Consulted
By letter dated April 15, 2026, the NRC staff provided a copy of
the draft EA to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
(NJDEP) for their review. By letter dated May 6, 2026, the NJDEP
responded with multiple comments regarding figure legibility,
groundwater wells, potential pathways for soil contamination,
decommissioning activity details, and National Historic Preservation
Act (NHPA) consultation with the New Jersey State Historic Preservation
Office (NJ SHPO). The NRC staff made changes in EA sections 1.1, 3.2,
3.3, 3.8, and 4.1 to address these comments.
By letter dated February 24, 2026, the NRC staff requested U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) concurrence on the staff's impact
determination for the following Federally protected species: American
chaffseed, eastern black rail, Knieskern's Beaked-rush, monarch
butterfly, Northern long-eared bat, rufa red knot, swamp pink,
tricolored bat, Atlantic sturgeon, green sea turtle, Kemp's ridley sea
turtle, leatherback sea turtle, and loggerhead sea turtle. By letter
dated April 2, 2026, the FWS concurred with the NRC staff's effect
determinations. Therefore, the NRC's obligations under Section 7 of the
Endangered Species Act are satisfied.
The NRC staff made a preliminary determination of No Adverse Effect
based on HDI's architectural survey report and sent the report and
correspondence to the NJ SHPO requesting concurrence on December 17,
2025. The NJ SHPO responded by letter dated January 15, 2026, stating
that they did not concur with the NRC staff's preliminary
determination, and in their opinion, six buildings/structures
contribute to the NRHP-eligibility of OCNGS as a whole; the letter also
requested additional/updated maps. On March 3, 2026, the NRC staff sent
correspondence to the NJ SHPO requesting concurrence on a revised
determination of effect.
The NJ SHPO concurred with the determination of adverse effect by
email dated March 17, 2026, which also agreed to the applicability of a
memorandum of agreement (MOA) to resolve adverse effects. The Advisory
Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) responded by letter dated March
6, 2026, where they elected not to participate in the resolution of
adverse effects.
On August 20, 2025, the NRC staff also initiated consultation with
four Federally recognized Indian Tribes with historic and ancestral
ties to the project vicinity--the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of
Indians, Shawnee Tribe, and Stockbridge-Munsee Community, and three
Tribes recognized by the State--the Powhatan Renape Indians, Ramapough
Lenape Indian Nation, and Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians of New Jersey.
The NRC has received no responses to date from any Tribe, other than to
decline to consult.
On April 16, 2026, the draft historic and cultural resources
section of the EA, including the draft MOA, was made available to
consulting parties and the public for review and comment. The MOA was
signed on June 3, 2026.
III. Finding of No Significant Impact
Based on its review of the proposed action, in accordance with 10
CFR part 51 requirements, the NRC staff has determined that the license
amendment of the 10 CFR part 50 license for OCNGS will not
significantly affect the quality of the human environment. No
significant radiological or non-radiological impacts are expected from
the proposed action at OCNGS. Therefore, the NRC staff has determined
that pursuant to 10 CFR 51.31, ``Determinations based on environmental
assessment,'' preparation of an environmental impact statement is not
required for the proposed action, and
10 CFR 51.32, ``Finding of no significant impact,'' a FONSI is
appropriate. In accordance with 10 CFR 51.32(a)(4), this FONSI
incorporates the EA set forth in this notice by reference.
IV. Availability of Documents
The documents identified in the following table are available to
interested persons through ADAMS. Documents with an ADAMS accession
number are available for public inspection online through ADAMS at
<a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams">https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams</a> or in person at the NRC's PDR as
previously described.
[[Page 35280]]
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Document description ADAMS accession No.
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Environmental Assessment for the ML26134A155.
Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating
Station License Termination Plan
Amendment Request, dated June 4,
2026.
Oyster Creek Decommissioning ML25345A095.
Project License Termination Plan,
Revision 2, dated December 2025.
Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Station ML18275A116.
Revised Post-Shutdown
Decommissioning Activities
Report, dated September 28, 2018.
Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating ML18241A068.
Station--Review of Post-Shutdown
Decommissioning Activities
Report, dated December 17, 2018.
Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating ML110070507.
Station, Permanent Cessation of
Operations, dated January 7, 2011.
Certification of Permanent ML18045A084.
Cessation of Power Operations for
Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating
Station, dated February 14, 2018.
Certification of Permanent Removal ML18268A258.
of Fuel from the Reactor Vessel
for Oyster Creek Nuclear
Generating Station, dated
September 25, 2018.
Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating ML18141A775.
Station--Post-Shutdown
Decommissioning Activities
Report, dated May 21, 2018.
Oyster Creek Application for Order ML18243A489.
Approving Direct Transfer of
Renewed Facility Operating
License and General License and
Proposed Conforming License
Amendment, dated August 31, 2018.
Generic Environmental Impact ML070100234.
Statement for License Renewal of
Nuclear Plants Regarding Oyster
Creek Nuclear Generating Station
Final Report (NUREG-1437, Volume
1, Supplement 28), dated January
2007.
Summary of September 17, 2025, ML26029A352 (Package).
Public Meeting on the License
Termination Plan, dated September
17, 2025.
Endangered Species Act Section 7 ML26152A069 (Package).
Consultation Correspondences for
the Oyster Creek License
Termination Plan, November 28,
2025.
National Historic Preservation Act ML26152A079 (Package).
Section 106 Consultation
Correspondences for the Oyster
Creek License Termination Plan,
August 19, 2025.
Memorandum of Agreement to Resolve ML26139A177.
NHPA Section 106 Adverse Effects
for the Oyster Creek Nuclear
Generating Station License
Termination Plan, dated June 4,
2026.
NRC Email to NJDEP--Request for ML26126A303.
State Review of Environmental
Assessment for Oyster Creek
Nuclear Generating Station
License Termination Plan, dated
April 15, 2026.
NJDEP Letter to NRC--Comment ML26126A343.
Response on Draft Environmental
Assessment for the License
Amendment of the Oyster Creek
Nuclear Generating Station
License Termination Plan.
Lacey and Ocean Townships, NJ,
dated May 6, 2026.
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Authority: 42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.
Dated: June 8, 2026.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Robert Sun,
Chief, Environmental Project Management Branch 2, Division of
Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2026-11642 Filed 6-9-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
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