NRC and FEMA outline emergency preparedness plans for Crane nuclear plant restart targeted for 2027

Federal regulators met in central Pennsylvania on Tuesday to lay out where things stand on emergency preparedness for the planned restart of the Crane nuclear power plant—the facility formerly known as Three Mile Island-1—as early as 2027. Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency walked attendees through how both agencies are coordinating their on-site and off-site response plans ahead of one of the most closely watched nuclear restarts in recent U.S. history.

NRC and FEMA hold public meeting on Crane restart preparedness

Tuesday’s meeting wasn’t a routine check-in. It was a concrete step in a carefully sequenced federal process to bring Crane back online after years of dormancy. Constellation, the licensee responsible for operating the facility, is pushing toward a 2027 restart target, and both the NRC and FEMA are now deep into parallel reviews to make sure emergency response infrastructure is ready before that happens.

FEMA Region 3 has already received state, county, and local government emergency plans and procedures as part of its review. Daniel Rose, a FEMA emergency management specialist, said the agency will conduct a detailed review of all submitted plans and solicit input from other federal agencies. The goal, Rose emphasized, is to make sure communities surrounding Crane have a strong, workable plan in place if something goes wrong at the plant.

The NRC and FEMA will then assess how the licensee classifies the emergency, how it notifies relevant government bodies, and how those agencies actually respond.

NRC Region I is leading the review of Constellation’s on-site emergency preparedness plan. The two tracks—FEMA’s off-site review and the NRC’s on-site review—are designed to run in coordination, not in isolation.

Why an emergency preparedness review is required before a restart

This kind of review has direct roots in what happened at this very site. FEMA established its Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program shortly after the partial meltdown of TMI-2 in 1979—the accident that put Three Mile Island on the map for all the wrong reasons.

“FEMA established the REP Program to help ensure that the health and safety of the public living around commercial plants would be adequately protected in the event of an accident,” Rose said at Tuesday’s meeting.

That history gives the current review process extra weight. Crane sits on the same Pennsylvania site as TMI-2, which means nearby communities have lived with the legacy of that 1979 accident for more than four decades. Any restart plan has to account for that context—not just technically, but in terms of public trust. NRC Region I is handling Constellation’s on-site plan while FEMA Region 3 manages the off-site side, and both agencies are working toward a common endpoint: a full-participation exercise that brings all the pieces together.

Full-participation emergency exercise planned for February

The clearest near-term milestone is a full-participation emergency exercise tentatively scheduled for February. It’ll involve Crane along with state, county, and local government bodies—essentially a live-action test of whether plans on paper can translate into coordinated real-world response.

Constellation will design an emergency scenario, and other agencies will respond to it. The NRC and FEMA will then assess how the licensee classifies the emergency, how it notifies relevant government bodies, and how those agencies actually respond. NRC senior emergency preparedness specialist Jeff Herrera put it plainly: “A full-participation exercise allows both the licensee and state and local authorities to demonstrate those capabilities to respond to an emergency according to the emergency plan.”

It’s a high-stakes dry run. The results will shape whether the emergency preparedness framework is genuinely ready—or whether gaps still need to be addressed before restart.

Public comments reflect both support and concern

The meeting’s public comment segment surfaced a split that’s followed the Crane restart conversation throughout. Support and skepticism showed up in roughly equal measure.

Brittany Dixon, state policy manager at the American Conservation Coalition, voiced backing for both the restart and the preparedness process. “We encourage the NRC to continue its thorough science-based review and to ensure emergency preparedness remains a transparent partnership between plant operators, emergency management officials, first responders, and the surrounding communities,” she said.

Eric Epstein, chair of Three Mile Island Alert, took a different view. He argued that the emergency plans lean too heavily on assumptions and outdated material—some of it stretching back decades. His concern wasn’t with the effort itself, but with whether the underlying assumptions still hold in practice. “It is a heavy undertaking, and you’re assuming the best of times,” he said, questioning whether projected emergency response times and effectiveness reflect realistic conditions.

Inspections underway and environmental review nearing completion

Beyond emergency preparedness, Tuesday’s meeting also touched on inspections and the environmental review—two other critical pieces of the restart puzzle.

NRC Region I engineering branch chief Erin Carfang confirmed that team inspections at Crane are set to begin in August, covering cybersecurity, fire protection, corrective action, emergency preparedness, and license renewal over the following months. Senior resident inspector Nate Mentzer added that resident inspection frequency will soon align with the quarterly schedule used at other nuclear facilities.

On the environmental side, the NRC announced in June that its preliminary assessment found no significant environmental impacts from the restart. That determination produced a draft environmental assessment and a finding of no significant impact—commonly called a FONSI. A FONSI matters because it lets the Nuclear Regulatory Commission move forward without a full environmental impact statement, which can take years. The public comment period on the draft EA and FONSI has now closed, and NRC senior environmental project manager Kevin Folk said staff will review all comments received and respond to relevant ones as needed. The NRC plans to issue a final EA and FONSI in September—a milestone that would clear one of the last major regulatory hurdles standing between Crane and its 2027 restart target.

Kelly Lippke

Kelly is an experienced writer with 15 years of experience exploring the big stories that shape our world, from tech breakthroughs and space exploration to climate, energy, and the fascinating quirks of science. She has a talent for turning complex ideas into sharp, memorable insights that stay with readers long after they’ve finished reading.