The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received Entergy Nuclear’s license application for a second reactor at Grand Gulf Nuclear Station and is ready to hear public comments.

A hearing on the Combined License Application is set for Thursday at Port Gibson City Hall in two sessions, each lasting up to four hours. The first will begin at noon and the second will begin at 6 p.m.

An initial meeting held by the agency in February attracted about 50 people and centered on emergency planning and tax revenue produced by a second reactor.

Entergy Nuclear is in the seventh year of a 15-year process to add a second reactor at the Grand Gulf site in Claiborne County. It would be the nation’s first licensed reactor since 1996.

If you go Public Scoping Meeting hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory CommissionPort Gibson City Hall, 1005 College St.Two open houses are scheduled, one at noon and one at 6 p.m. Staff presentations lasting up to three hours where the public can comment will follow each open house.As part of a consortium, Entergy Nuclear has received early site approval for Grand Gulf, where the state’s only nuclear plant now operates.

The first phase, which took five years, concluded the sites were environmentally sound and eligible. Though the effort is in the license application phase, undertaking it does not mean a decision to build has been made. Components for a new reactor, however, have been pre-ordered.

Grand Gulf, a boiling water reactor, employs more than 700 people. Construction of a second reactor would generate more than 1,400 construction jobs and employ about 400 full-time workers once complete.