Comment (47) of Travis Knight on FR Doc # 2026-08155, NRC-2025-2161-0007, from Travis Knight

I am submitting this comment on the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement for Duke Energy’s Early Site Permit application for the Belews Creek site. I support a thorough, technology-neutral environmental review that recognizes the value of reusing an existing power-generation site for new nuclear development. I have great confidence in the NRC’s ability to ensure that the plant parameter envelope is sufficiently detailed, conservative, and transparent to bound the environmental impacts of the reactor technologies that could plausibly be deployed at the site. More specifically, I would encourage the NRC to consider the public benefits associated with the responsible development of new nuclear generation at existing or former power-generation sites. Nuclear power is a demonstrated source of clean, reliable, resilient, high-capacity electric generation. It provides firm power that is available around the clock and can support grid reliability in ways that are increasingly important as electricity demand grows and as the nation seeks to reduce emissions while maintaining energy security. The Belews Creek site appears to offer the kind of setting where the potential benefits of nuclear development should be carefully and fairly evaluated: an established energy site, existing regional familiarity with large-scale power generation, potential access to transmission infrastructure, and an opportunity to support long-term economic development in the surrounding communities. The Environmental Impact Statement should therefore consider not only potential environmental impacts, but also the comparative environmental and socioeconomic advantages of reusing an existing power-generation site rather than developing an entirely new greenfield location. Nuclear development has been shown to provide high-quality, long-duration employment, support local tax bases, and create durable economic advantages for host communities. This economic development serves to expand the regional base of qualified contractors and suppliers, and strengthens workforce pipelines through local technical colleges, universities, and training programs. The jobs associated with nuclear power are known to be safe, highly skilled, and well compensated. These benefits are particularly important in communities that have historically supported major energy infrastructure and may now have the opportunity to participate in the next generation of clean energy development. The need for additional reliable electricity should also be recognized in the broader context of economic growth, industrial expansion, and national security. The United States will need substantially more reliable, high-capacity, clean power to support manufacturing growth, onshoring of critical industries, electrification, and the energy needs of data centers and artificial intelligence. These are not abstract considerations. They are central to maintaining U.S. technological leadership, economic competitiveness, and strategic advantage. For these reasons, I encourage the NRC to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement that fully evaluates the environmental impacts of the proposed Early Site Permit while also giving appropriate consideration to the benefits of reusing an existing power-generation site for future nuclear development. The EIS should provide a clear, balanced, and technically rigorous basis for understanding how potential nuclear development at Belews Creek could contribute to clean energy, reliability, resilience, economic development, and national energy security while protecting public health, safety, and the environment.