Jan. 12--MONROE -- The public on Wednesday is invited to tell the Nuclear Regulatory Commission what environmental issues it wants addressed while the agency decides whether to give DTE Energy the go-ahead for a third nuclear reactor at the utility's Fermi complex northeast of Monroe.

Comments on the proposed Fermi 3 nuclear plant will be taken during a pair of three-hour meetings at the Meyer Theater of Monroe County Community College's La-Z-Boy Center, 1555 South Raisinville Rd., Monroe.

The first is from 1 to 4 p.m. and the second from 7 to 10 p.m.

Those who wish to speak must register no later than 15 minutes before each meeting.

Both meetings are to be preceded by hour-long open houses in which NRC staffers will discuss issues informally with the public. Those sessions begin at noon and 6 p.m., the agency said.

The Fermi complex is along Lake Erie, about 30 miles north of Toledo.

DTE's position on the potential environmental ramifications of a new plant may be accessed at nrc.gov/reactors/newreactors/ col/fermi.html.

Hard copies of that report are available in the Ellis Reference & Information Center of the Monroe County Library System, 3700 South Custer Rd., Monroe.

The NRC will try to bump the meetings and open houses to Thursday if bad weather forces them to be postponed.

The agency announced last week it has set a March 9 deadline for any requests for an intervention hearing. More information about the licensing process is at nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors.html.

DTE is considering a new breed of boiling-water reactor designed by GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy expected to produce 1,500 megawatts of electricity, roughly enough for 1.5 million homes. A single megawatt powers about 1,000 homes.

Viktoria Mitlyng, NRC spokesman, said agency officials "do not assume that environmental impacts of building and operating another unit at Fermi are understood because there already are two operating units in the area."

Fermi 2, a boiling-water reactor licensed to operate through 2025, generates 1,130 megawatts.

Fermi 1 was an experimental reactor that was shut down in 1972.

DTE spent $30 million and put more than 100,000 man-hours into its 17,000-page application that was submitted Sept. 18, though it hasn't committed itself to building the plant.

The plant, now estimated to cost $10 billion, is one of 26 the NRC has under review. It is the only new one proposed for the Great Lakes region. Most other applications have come from the South.

Each application is expected to undergo about four years of review.