§ 51.20 - Criteria for and identification of licensing and regulatory actions requiring environmental impact statements.

§ 51.20 Criteria for and identification of licensing and regulatory actions requiring environmental impact statements.

(a) Licensing and regulatory actions requiring an environmental impact statement shall meet at least one of the following criteria:

(1) The proposed action is a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.

(2) The proposed action involves a matter which the Commission, in the exercise of its discretion, has determined should be covered by an environmental impact statement.

(b) The following types of actions require an environmental impact statement or a supplement to an environmental impact statement:

(1) Issuance of a limited work authorization or a permit to construct a nuclear power reactor, testing facility, or fuel reprocessing plant under part 50 of this chapter, or issuance of an early site permit under part 52 of this chapter.

(2) Issuance or renewal of a full power or design capacity license to operate a nuclear power reactor, testing facility, or fuel reprocessing plant under part 50 of this chapter, or a combined license under part 52 of this chapter.

(3) Issuance of a permit to construct or a design capacity license to operate or renewal of a design capacity license to operate an isotopic enrichment plant pursuant to part 50 of this chapter.

(4) Conversion of a provisional operating license for a nuclear power reactor, testing facility or fuel reprocessing plant to a full term or design capacity license pursuant to part 50 of this chapter if a final environmental impact statement covering full term or design capacity operation has not been previously prepared.

(5)-(6) [Reserved]

(7) Issuance of a license to possess and use special nuclear material for processing and fuel fabrication, scrap recovery, or conversion of uranium hexafluoride pursuant to part 70 of this chapter.

(8) Issuance of a license to possess and use source material for uranium milling or production of uranium hexafluoride pursuant to part 40 of this chapter.

(9) Issuance of a license pursuant to part 72 of this chapter for the storage of spent fuel in an independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at a site not occupied by a nuclear power reactor, or for the storage of spent fuel or high-level radioactive waste in a monitored retrievable storage installation (MRS).

(10) Issuance of a license for a uranium enrichment facility.

(11) Issuance of renewal of a license authorizing receipt and disposal of radioactive waste from other persons pursuant to part 61 of this chapter.

(12) Issuance of a license amendment pursuant to part 61 of this chapter authorizing

(i) closure of a land disposal site,

(ii) transfer of the license to the disposal site owner for the purpose of institutional control, or

(iii) termination of the license at the end of the institutional control period.

(13) Issuance of a construction authorization and license pursuant to part 60 or part 63 of this chapter.

(14) Any other action which the Commission determines is a major Commission action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. As provided in § 51.22(b), the Commission may, in special circumstances, prepare an environmental impact statement on an action covered by a categorical exclusion.

[49 FR 9381, Mar. 12, 1984, as amended at 53 FR 31681, Aug. 19, 1988; 53 FR 24052, June 27, 1988; 54 FR 15398, Apr. 18, 1989; 54 FR 27870, July 3, 1989; 57 FR 18392, Apr. 30, 1992; 66 FR 55790, Nov. 2, 2001; 72 FR 49509, Aug. 28, 2007]