At the beginning of February, the Department of Energy (DOE) released a notice of its new categorical exclusion for authorization, siting, construction, operation, reauthorization, and decommissioning of advanced nuclear reactors to DOE’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing procedures. A NEPA categorical exclusion is a category of actions identified by federal agencies that do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the environment. Therefore, projects qualifying for a categorical exclusion do not require environmental assessments or environmental impact statements. This presents a huge change to NEPA and projects involving advanced nuclear reactors.
Tri-Valley CAREs does not agree with this decision to add a categorical exclusion and submitted comments in coalition with allied organizations. We urge the DOE to withdraw this notice and maintain full NEPA review for any and all nuclear reactor proposals.
Read our comment to DOE here