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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 151 / Tuesday, August 10, 2021 / Notices Begin Web-based ADAMS Search. For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRCs Public Document Room PDR
reference staff at 18003974209, 301
4154737, or by email to pdr.resource@
nrc.gov. The Staff Requirements Memorandum SRMM210218B, Briefing on Equal Employment Opportunity, Affirmative Employment, and Small Business, 10:00 a.m., Thursday, February 18, 2021, Video Conference Meeting, dated April 23, 2021, which provides direction to the staff or this assessment, is available in ADAMS under Accession No.
ML21113A070.
Attention: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of public documents, is currently closed. You may submit your request to the PDR via email at pdr.resource@nrc.gov or call 1
8003974209 or 3014154737, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

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B. Submitting Comments The NRC encourages comment submission via email and phone. Please reference Docket ID NRC20210137 in your comment submission.
The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your comment submission.
The NRC will post comment submissions received via regulations.gov at https
www.regulations.gov as well as enter the comment submissions into ADAMS.
The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove identifying or contact information.
If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be publicly disclosed in their comment submission.
Your request should state that the NRC
does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove such information before making the comment submissions available to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.
II. Background The NRC is an independent agency established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 that began operations in 1975 as a successor to the licensing and regulatory activities of the Atomic Energy Commission. The NRCs mission is to license and regulate the Nations civilian use of radioactive materials to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety and to promote
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the common defense and security and to protect the environment. As part of its licensing and regulatory activities, the NRC conducts safety, security, and environmental reviews.
Specifically, with respect to environmental reviews, the National Environmental Policy Act NEPA of 1969, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq., requires all Federal agencies to evaluate the impacts of proposed major actions on the human environment. As part of its responsibilities under NEPA, the NRC
considers environmental justice.
According to the Commission, the term environmental justice refers to the federal policy established in 1994 by Executive Order 12898, which directed federal agencies to identify and address disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority and low-income populations. Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. Indian Point Nuclear Generating Units 2 and 3, CLI156, 81
NRC 340, 369 2015.
The NRC, as an independent agency, was requested, rather than directed, to comply with Executive Order 12898, and this Executive Orderdid not, in itself, create new substantive authority for Federal agencies. In a March 31, 1994, letter to President Clinton, NRC
Chairman Ivan Selin indicated that the NRC would endeavor to carry out the measures set forth in Executive Order 12898 and the accompanying memorandum as part of the NRCs efforts to comply with NEPA ADAMS
Accession No. ML033210526. As noted in the NRCs 1995 Environmental Justice Strategy ADAMS Accession No.
ML20081K602 March 24, 1995, because the NRC is not a land management agency, i.e., it neither sites, owns, or manages facilities or properties, the NRC determined that Executive Order 12898 would primarily apply to NRC efforts to fulfill NEPA requirements as part of NRCs licensing process.
On August 24, 2004, following public comment on a draft Policy Statement 68 FR 62642, the Commission issued its Policy Statement on the Treatment of Environmental Justice Matters in NRC
Regulatory and Licensing Actions 69
FR 52040. The purpose of this Policy Statement was to set forth a comprehensive statement of the Commissions policy on the treatment of environmental justice matters in NRC
regulatory and licensing actions. Id. at 52,041. The Policy Statement explains that the focus of an environmental justice review should be on identifying and weighing disproportionately significant and adverse environmental
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impacts on minority and low-income populations that may be different from the impacts on the general population.
It is not a broad-ranging or even limited review of racial or economic discrimination. Id. at 52,047.
The Policy Statement also reiterates guidance on defining the geographic area for environmental justice assessments and identifying low-income and minority communities. Id. In addition, it explains that a scoping process is used to assist the NRC in ensuring that minority and low-income communities, including transient populations, affected by the proposed action are not overlooked in assessing the potential for significant impacts unique to those communities. Id. at 52,048. In performing a NEPA analysis, published demographic data, community interviews and public input through well-noticed public scoping meetings should be used in identifying minority and low-income communities that may be subject to adverse environmental impacts. Id.
On April 23, 2021, in a Staff Requirements Memorandum ADAMS
Accession No. ML21113A070, the Commission directed the staff to systematically review how the agencys programs, polices, and activities address environmental justice. As part of this review, the Commission directed the staff to evaluate recent Executive Orders and assess whether environmental justice is appropriately considered and addressed in the agencys programs, policies, and activities, given the agencys mission. As directed, the staff will consider the practices of other Federal, State, and Tribal agencies and evaluate whether the NRC should incorporate environmental justice beyond implementation through NEPA.
The staff will also review the adequacy of the 2004 Policy Statement. The Commission further directed the staff to consider whether establishing formal mechanisms to gather external stakeholder input would benefit any future environmental justice efforts. To carry out the Commissions direction, the staff is seeking to engage stakeholders and interested persons representing a broad range of perspectives. This Federal Register notice is part of this engagement effort.
III. Requested Information and Comments On July 9, 2021, the NRC published a notice in the Federal Register 86 FR
36307 requesting comments. The comment period was originally scheduled to close on August 23, 2021.
The NRC staff has decided to extend the comment period until September 13,
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