The Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County

NRC to reschedule VC Summer public meeting

FAIRFIELD COUNTY – Due to the National Day of Mourning for President Carter, the National Regulatory Commission (NRC) is rescheduling the Jan. 9 public meeting about the V.C. Summer plant. The NRC will provide the new meeting details as soon as possible.

The NRC is seeking public comment on the draft supplemental environmental impact statement for a second, or subsequent, renewal of the operating license of Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station, Unit 1, in Jenkinsville. The draft report contains the NRC staff’s evaluation and preliminary conclusion that no environmental impacts would preclude extending the license from 60 years up to 80 years.

The NRC staff held a webinar on Dec. 17 to gather information. The rescheduled meeting will be in-person. As part of these meetings, the staff will describe the environmental review process and accept comments from the public on the draft report.

Members of the public can also submit comments on the draft report online at regulations.gov, under Docket ID NRC-2023-0152; by email to SummerEnvironmental@nrc.gov; or by U.S. mail to Office of administration, Mail Stop TWFN7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. The deadline for submitting comments is Jan. 21, 2025.

Summer Unit 1 is a pressurized-water reactor about 26 miles northwest of Columbia, S.C. It was initially licensed in 1982 to operate for 40 years, until 2022. The NRC approved a first license renewal in 2004, extending operation for 20 years until 2042. The plant owner, Dominion Energy South Carolina, submitted the subsequent license renewal application on Aug. 17, 2023, seeking to extend the license to a total of 80 years of operation, until 2062. The subsequent license renewal application can also be viewed at the Fairfield County Library located at 300 West Washington Street, in Winnsboro.

The draft report is part of the NRC’s environmental review, and is available on the NRC’s website. A final supplemental environmental impact statement is anticipated to be issued in June 2025. General information about reactor license renewal is also available on the NRC website.

For more information, contact Scott Burnell at 301-415-8200.