1.0 Introduction Under the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) environmental protection regulations | in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 51, which implement the NationalEnvironmental Policy Act (NEPA), renewal of a nuclear power plant operating license (OL)requires the preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS). In preparing the EIS, theNRC staff is required first to issue the statement in draft form for public comment, and thenissue a final statement after considering public comments on the draft. To support thepreparation of the EIS, the staff has prepared a Generic Environmental Impact Statement forLicense Renewal of Nuclear Plants (GEIS), NUREG-1437, Volumes 1 and 2 (NRC 1996;1999). (a) The GEIS is intended to (1) provide an understanding of the types and severity of environmental impacts that may occur as a result of license renewal of nuclear power plantsunder 10 CFR Part 54, (2) identify and assess the impacts that are expected to be generic tolicense renewal, and (3) support 10 CFR Part 51 to define the number and scope of issues thatneed to be addressed by the applicants in plant-by-plant renewal proceedings. Use of theGEIS guides the preparation of complete plant-specific information in support of the OL renewalprocess.