en.Wedoany.com Reported - On July 28, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency held a public meeting in Pennsylvania to discuss the emergency preparedness, environmental review, and on-site inspection arrangements involved in the restart of the Crane Clean Energy Center. The facility, formerly Unit 1 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Station, ceased operations in 2019. Operator Constellation plans to restore its 835-megawatt generating capacity as early as 2027, but the restart has not yet received full regulatory approval.
The emergency preparedness review is divided into on-site and off-site components. NRC Region I will review the on-site emergency plan submitted by Constellation; FEMA Region III is responsible for evaluating the off-site response plans of Pennsylvania, surrounding counties, and local governments. Currently, the relevant plans from state and local governments have been submitted to FEMA, and subsequent reviews will cover accident information dissemination, local government response, personnel evacuation, and inter-agency coordination.
The NRC and FEMA plan to conduct a full-participation emergency exercise before the restart, tentatively scheduled for February 2027. The exercise scenario will be developed by Constellation, and regulators will assess whether the operator can correctly classify accident levels, promptly notify government agencies, and whether state, county, and local emergency departments can respond in accordance with the plans.
The NRC also plans to advance a new round of on-site inspections starting in August, covering areas such as cybersecurity, fire protection, corrective actions, and emergency preparedness. Regarding the environmental review, the draft environmental assessment previously prepared by the NRC preliminarily concludes that restarting operations would not result in significant environmental impacts; the related public comment period has concluded, and the final environmental assessment is scheduled for release in September. This conclusion is currently in the review stage of transitioning from draft to final document.
The public comment segment of the meeting saw both support and skepticism. Some attendees supported the restart of the facility, while other residents and community organizations raised questions about evacuation routes, traffic conditions, emergency response assumptions, and the timeliness of certain baseline data. The NRC stated that before deciding whether to authorize the resumption of unit operations, it will also complete license reviews, special inspections, and subsequent public engagement.
