Grand Gulf’s early site permit renewal application on the docket

In its original ESP application, Entergy stated, “The site selected for evaluation . . . is property co-located with the existing Grand Gulf Nuclear Station near Port Gibson, Miss. Entergy Corporation has not yet selected a specific reactor design for any future plant that may be built at this proposed site. Therefore, technical information from various certified and proposed designs has been used to develop and envelope [sic] a facility characterization necessary to evaluate the suitability of the site for any future construction and operation of a nuclear power plant.”

A renewed ESP would allow a construction permit or combined license application to reference the ESP for 20 years beyond the current permit's expiration date of April 5, 2027. A notice of the agency's decision—which also creates an opportunity to request a hearing or petition for leave to intervene by March 30—was published in the January 27 Federal Register.

According to the Federal Register notice, the new application relies, in part, on the acceptability of an associated exemption request from 10 CFR 52.29(a), which requires “that an ESP renewal application contain all information necessary to bring up to date the information and data contained in the previous ESP. The NRC staff has determined that the exemption request appears to contain sufficient information to enable the staff to begin its detailed review.”

To date, the NRC has issued a total of six ESPs. Other recipients include Constellation Energy, for Clinton (2007); Dominion Energy, for North Anna (2007, amended 2013); Southern Nuclear, for Vogtle (2009); PSEG Nuclear, for Salem County (2016); and, most recently, the Tennessee Valley Authority, for its Clinch River site (2019).

Recommended reading: Discussing the Grand Gulf ESP renewal in a September Energy, Oil & Gas Magazine piece, Entergy Mississippi CEO Haley Fisackerly said, “That's very important to us because it would help us to accelerate and reduce costs on another plant if we were to look at building one; it's something we're studying very carefully. For example, we're looking at new technologies such as small modular reactors, which are greater passive safety systems than what we currently use today. We're making investments in upgrading our transmission systems with more resilient, robust structures, as well as into various other grid enhancement technologies, to ensure that the grid is stable and operating at its highest capability.”