Environmental Impact Statements; Availability, etc.: Fermi America LLC (dba Fermi America); Project Matador Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus AP1000 Units 1-4; Project[...]

Fermi America LLC (dba Fermi America); Project Matador Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus AP1000 Units 1-4; Project Matador Nuclear Units 1-4; Draft Environmental Impact Statement

DATES:

Submit comments on the draft EIS by November 23, 2026. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before this date.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2026-0100 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain publicly available information related to this action by any of the following methods:

• Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2026-0100.

• NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select "Begin ADAMS Public Search." For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at 301-415-4737, or by email to [email protected]. The draft EIS is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML26261A417.

• NRC's PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. To make an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to [email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415- 4737, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (ET), Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

B. Submitting Comments

The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal rulemaking website ( https://www.regulations.gov ). Please include Docket ID NRC-2026-0100 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 all comment submissions 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

On June 17, 2025, Fermi America submitted the initial portion of its COL application for four AP1000 reactors, PMN Units 1-4 (ADAMS Package Accession No. ML25169A395). The proposed reactors would be located at the Project Matador campus in Carson County, Texas, adjacent to the U.S. Department of Energy's Pantex Plant. The initial submittal included general, financial, and environmental information. The NRC acknowledged receipt of the initial submittal in a letter dated July 7, 2025 (ADAMS Accession No. ML25182A087). Fermi America's submission initiated the proposed Federal action of determining whether to issue the requested COL. On August 20, 2025, Fermi America provided a second submittal of the COL application (ADAMS Accession No. ML25232A199), which included non-site-specific technical chapters of the Final Safety Analysis Report. In an acceptance letter dated September 5, 2025, (ADAMS Accession No. ML25240A918), the NRC acknowledged, among other things, Fermi America's commitment to participate in the pilot program for environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA). This pilot involves the preparation of an applicant-prepared draft EIS, under NRC supervision. A notice of intent to prepare an EIS and to conduct a scoping process was published on March 20, 2026 (91 FR 13641).

This notice is being published in accordance with the NEPA, and the NRC's regulations implementing NEPA under part 51 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), "Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions." In addition, pursuant to 36 CFR 800.8(c), the NRC is using the process and documentation for the preparation of the draft EIS to comply with section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, in lieu of the procedures set forth in 36 CFR 800.3 through 800.6.

III. Discussion

The NRC is issuing the draft EIS for public comment. The draft EIS includes the evaluation of the environmental impacts of the proposed action of issuing a COL that would allow the construction of PMN Units 1-4, as well as the environmental impacts of the no-action alternative. In the draft EIS, after weighing the environmental, economic, technical, and other benefits against environmental and other costs, and considering reasonable alternatives, the preliminary recommendation is that the NRC issue the requested COL to Fermi America contingent upon successful completion of the safety review and unless safety issues mandate otherwise. The NRC staff based its preliminary recommendation on the NRC staff's independent environmental review, the NRC staff's assessment of the applicant-prepared EIS, the NRC staff's consultation with Federal, State, and local agencies and Indian Tribes, and the NRC staff's consideration of public comments received during the scoping process.

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.