Final Environmental Statement related to the Proposed Manufacture of Floating Nuclear Power Plants Offshore Power Systems - Part III

A Final Environmental Statement, Part III, related to the proposed manufacture of floating nuclear power plants by Offshore Power Systems has been prepared by the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This FES presents a comparison of overall risk from accidental releases of radioactivity to the environment for floating and land-based nuclear power plants and an integrated cost-benefit analysis for the floating nuclear plant concept. Also included are comments from governmental agencies and other individuals on teh Draft Environmental Statement, Part III, and the Revision thereto and staff responses to these comments. On the basis of the considerations set forth in the FES, Part III, the NRC staff has concluded that the action called for is the issuance of a manufacturing license for the manufacture of eight floating nuclear power plants subject to the conditions for the protection of the environment. One of the conditions requires the applicant to replace the concrete pad beneath the reactor vessel with a pad constructed of magnesium oxide or other equivalent refractory material that will provide increased resistance to melt-through by the molten reactor core in the event of a highly unlikely core-melt accident and which will not react with core debris to form a large volume of gases.