Wetlands: Their impact on siting a proposed nuclear production reactor

Conference · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)

OSTI ID:5803110

Hooker, K L; Danker, S A; Grainger, A R ^[1]; Rogers, V A

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1. Savannah River Operations Office, Aiken, SC (United States)

The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a 780-km[sup 2] US Department of Energy (DOE) site managed by the Westinghouse Savannah River Company for the production of nuclear materials for defense and other purposes. Five nuclear production reactors (NPRs) constructed in the 1950s are located on the site, and all but one are either on standby or shut down. The possibility of siting a new NPR at the SRS or at other sites (Hanford and Idaho) in the DOE complex was being evaluated in an environmental impact statement (EIS) when on November 1, 1991, the Secretary of Energy decided to defer a decision on the NPR until after a programmatic EIS addressing reconfiguration of the DOE weapons complex was completed. Candidate sites at SRS for the proposed NPR were evaluated against disqualifying conditions in the categories of ecological resources and wetlands, human health effects, geology/hydrology, and engineering considerations. In initial considerations, the presence of wetlands was not determined to be a disqualifying condition. It was critical that the proposed reactor be sited on an area with optimum geologic properties so that the required load-bearing capacity under its footprint could be met. Lessons learned in this planning effort are to clearly understand the real needs of the project in terms of area, hydrology, geologic criteria, etc., and conduct siting studies early in a project's life that strongly weigh wetlands and other ecological considerations. In this case, once project personnel had a clear understanding of the length of time required for processing the Sec. 404 permit (and possibly a Sec. 10 permit for the outfall) and the cost required for preparation of the permit application, mitigation, and long-term monitoring, the site selection criteria were revisited. After numerous discussions and additional geologic considerations, it was determined that the proposed NPR footprint could be oriented to avoid all but [approximately]0.5ha of wetlands.

• OSTI ID: 5803110
• Report Number(s): CONF-930601-; CODEN: TANSAO
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States), Vol. 68; Conference: American Nuclear Society (ANS) annual meeting, San Diego, CA (United States), 20-24 Jun 1993; ISSN 0003-018X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
SPECIAL PRODUCTION REACTORS
SITE SELECTION
WETLANDS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS
SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
DOCUMENT TYPES
ECOSYSTEMS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
PRODUCTION REACTORS
REACTORS
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
220501* - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Environmental Aspects- Siting
540350 - Environment
Aquatic- Site Resource & Use Studies- (1990-)
220600 - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Research
Test & Experimental Reactors