Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc. Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2; Notice of Availability of the Draft Supplement 4 to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement and Public Meeting for the License Renewal of Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2

Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has published a draft plant-specific supplement to NUREG-1437, “Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants [GEIS],” regarding the renewal of operating licenses DPR-57 and NPF-5 for Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant (HNP), Units 1 and 2, for an additional 20 years. HNP is located in Appling County, Georgia. Possible alternatives to the proposed action (license renewal) include no action and reasonable alternative energy sources.

The draft supplement to the GEIS is available electronically through the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room (PERR) found on the Internet at the following web address: http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html. From this site, the public can gain access to the NRC's Agencywide Document Access and Management Systems (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. The draft report can also be examined, or copied for a fee, at the NRC's Public Document Room found at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, MD. In addition, the Appling County Library, located at 242 East Parker Street, Baxley, Georgia, has agreed to make the draft supplement to the GEIS available for public inspection.

Any interested party may submit comments on the draft supplement to the GEIS for consideration by the NRC staff. To be certain of consideration, comments on the draft supplement to the GEIS and the proposed action must be received by January 24, 2001. Comments received after the due date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC staff is able to assure consideration only for comments received on or before this date. Written comments on the draft supplement to the GEIS should be sent to:

David L. Meyer, Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Mailstop T 6 D 59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001.

Comments may be hand-delivered to the NRC at 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, between 7:45 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays. Comments may be submitted electronically to the NRC to the e-mail address hatcheis@nrc.gov. All comments received by the NRC, including those made by Federal, State, and local agencies; Indian tribes; or other interested persons, will be accessible electronically through NRC's PERR link listed above, and can be examined, or copied for a fee, at the NRC's Public Document Room in Rockville, Maryland.

The NRC staff will hold public meetings to present an overview of the draft plant-specific supplement to the GEIS and to accept public comments on the document. The public meetings will be held at the Southeastern Technical Institute, Vidalia, Georgia, on December 12, 2000. There will be two sessions to accommodate interested parties. The first session will commence at 1:30 p.m. and will continue until 4:30 p.m. The second session will commence at 7:00 p.m. and will continue until 10:00 p.m. Both meetings will be transcribed and will include (1) a presentation of the contents of the draft plant-specific supplement to the GEIS, and (2) the opportunity for interested government agencies, organizations, and individuals to provide comments on the draft report. Persons may pre-register to attend or present oral comments at the meeting by contacting Mr. Andrew Kugler by telephone at 1-800-368-5642, extension 2828, or by Internet to the NRC at hatcheis@nrc.gov no later than December 7, 2000. Members of the public may also register to provide oral comments within 15 minutes of the start of each session. Individual oral comments may be limited by the time available, depending on the number of persons who register. If special equipment or accommodations are needed to attend or present information at the public meeting, the need should be brought to Mr. Kugler's attention no later than December 7, 2000, to provide the NRC staff adequate notice to determine whether the request can be accommodated.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mr. Andrew Kugler, Generic Issues, Environmental, Financial, and Rulemaking Branch, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555. Mr. Kugler may be contacted at the aforementioned telephone number or e-mail address.