[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 173 (Thursday, September 8, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53396-53398]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-4878]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 70-7004]


USEC Inc.'s Proposed American Centrifuge Plant; Notice of 
Availability of Draft Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability of Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) is issuing a Draft Environmental Impact Statement 
(DEIS) for the USEC Inc. (USEC) license application, dated August 23, 
2004, for the possession and use of source, byproduct and special 
nuclear materials at its proposed American Centrifuge Plant (ACP) 
located near Piketon, Ohio.
    The DEIS is being issued as part of the NRC's decision-making 
process on whether to issue a license to USEC, pursuant to Title 10 of 
the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Parts 30, 40, and 70. The scope of 
activities conducted under the license would include the construction, 
operation, and decommissioning of the ACP. Specifically, USEC proposes 
to use gas centrifuge technology to enrich the uranium-235 isotope 
found in natural uranium up to 10-weight percent. The enriched uranium 
would be used to

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manufacture nuclear fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors.
    The NRC staff will hold a public meeting to present an overview of 
the DEIS and to accept oral and written public comments. The meeting 
date, time and location are listed below:
    Meeting Date: Thursday, September 29, 2005.
    Meeting Location: Vern Riffe Career Technology Center, 175 Beaver 
Creek Road, Piketon, OH 45661.
    Informal Open House: 6-7 p.m.
    DEIS Comment Meeting: 7-9:45 p.m.
    Prior to the public meeting, the NRC staff will be available to 
informally discuss the proposed USEC project and answer questions in an 
``open house'' format. This ``open house''' format provides for one-on-
one discussions with the NRC staff involved with the preparation of the 
DEIS. The DEIS meeting officially begins at 7 p.m. and will include: 
(1) A presentation summarizing the contents of the DEIS and (2) an 
opportunity for interested government agencies, organizations, and 
individuals to provide comments on the DEIS. This portion of the 
meeting will be transcribed by a court reporter. Persons wishing to 
provide oral comments will be asked to register at the meeting 
entrance. Individual oral comments may have to be limited by the time 
available, depending upon the number of persons who register. If 
special equipment or accommodations are needed to attend or present 
information at the public meeting, the need should be brought to the 
attention of Mr. Matthew Blevins no later than September 22, 2005, to 
provide NRC staff with adequate notice to determine whether the request 
can be accommodated. Please note that comments do not have to be 
provided at the public meeting and may be submitted at any time 
throughout the comment period, through October 24, 2005, as described 
in the DATES and ADDRESSES sections of this notice.

DATES: The public comment period on the DEIS begins with publication of 
this notice and continues until October 24, 2005. Written comments 
should be submitted as described in the ADDRESSES section of this 
notice. Comments submitted by mail should be postmarked by that date to 
ensure consideration. Comments received or postmarked after that date 
will be considered to the extent practical. A public meeting to discuss 
the DEIS will be held on September 29 as described in the SUMMARY 
section of this notice.

ADDRESSES: Members of the public are invited and encouraged to submit 
comments to the Chief, Rules Review and Directives Branch, Mail Stop 
T6-D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. 
Please note Docket No. 70-7004 when submitting comments. Comments will 
also be accepted by e-mail at [email protected] or by facsimile to (301) 
415-5397, Attention: Mr. Matthew Blevins.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions related to the safety 
review or overall licensing of the USEC facility, please contact Mr. 
Yawar Faraz at at (301) 415-8113. For environmental review questions, 
please contact Mr. Matthew Blevins at (301) 415-7684.
    The DEIS may be accessed on the Internet at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/ by selecting ``NUREG-1834.'' 
Additionally, the NRC maintains an Agencywide Documents Access and 
Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's 
public documents. The DEIS and its appendices may also be accessed 
through the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. If you do not have access to 
ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in 
ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-
800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to [email protected].
    The DEIS is also available for inspection at the Commission's 
Public Document Room, U.S. NRC's Headquarters Building, 11555 Rockville 
Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Upon written request and to 
the extent supplies are available, a single copy of the DEIS can be 
obtained for a fee by writing to the Office of Information Services, 
Reproduction and Distribution Services Branch, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; by electronic mail at 
[email protected]; or by fax at (301) 415-2289.
    A selected group of documents associated with the USEC facility may 
also be obtained from the Internet on NRC's USEC Web page: http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/usecfacility.html. In addition, 
all comments of Federal, State and local agencies, Indian tribes or 
other interested persons will be made available for public inspection 
when received.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This DEIS was prepared in response to an 
application submitted by USEC dated August 23, 2004, for the possession 
and use of source, byproduct and special nuclear materials at its 
proposed ACP located near Piketon, Ohio. The DEIS for the proposed ACP 
was prepared by the NRC staff and its contractor, ICF Consulting, Inc., 
in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the 
NRC's regulations for implementing NEPA (10 CFR Part 51).
    The DEIS is being issued as part of the NRC's decision-making 
process on whether to issue a license to USEC, pursuant to Title 10 of 
the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Parts 30, 40, and 70. The scope of 
activities conducted under the license would include the construction, 
operation, and decommissioning of the ACP. Specifically, USEC proposes 
to use gas centrifuge technology to enrich the uranium-235 isotope 
found in natural uranium up to 10-weight percent. The enriched uranium 
would be used to manufacture nuclear fuel for commercial nuclear power 
reactors. USEC proposes to locate the ACP in leased portions of the 
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reservation in Piketon, OH. This is the 
same site as DOE's Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The ACP would 
consist of refurbished existing facilities and newly constructed 
facilities, primarily located in the southwestern portion of the 
central DOE reservation.
    The NRC staff published a Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS for 
the proposed ACP and to conduct a scoping process, in the Federal 
Register on October 15, 2004 (69 FR 61268). The NRC staff accepted 
comments through February 1, 2005, and subsequently issued a Scoping 
Summary Report in April 2005 (ADAMS Accession Number: ML050820008). The 
DEIS describes the proposed action and alternatives to the proposed 
action, including the no-action alternative. The NRC staff assesses the 
impacts of the proposed action and its alternatives on public and 
occupational health, air quality, water resources, waste management, 
geology and soils, noise, ecology resources, land use, transportation, 
historical and cultural resources, visual and scenic resources, 
socioeconomics, accidents and environmental justice. Additionally, the 
DEIS analyzes and compares the costs and benefits of the proposed 
action.
    Based on the preliminary evaluation in the DEIS, the NRC 
environmental review staff has concluded that the proposed action would 
have small effects on the physical environment and human communities 
with the exception of: (1) Short-term moderate impacts associated with 
increases in particulate matter released to the air during the 
construction phase, (2) short-term moderate impacts related to 
increased

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traffic congestion during the construction phase, (3) potential 
moderate impacts due to transportation accidents, (4) potential 
moderate impacts from facility operation accidents, (5) moderate 
impacts associated with a potential operating extension of the DOE 
depleted uranium tails conversion facility, and (6) moderate employment 
impacts on the local communities associated with the construction and 
operation phases.
    After weighing the impacts, costs, and benefits of the proposed 
action and comparing alternatives, the NRC staff, in accordance with 10 
CFR 51.71(e), set forth their preliminary recommendation regarding the 
proposed action. The NRC staff recommend that, unless safety issues 
mandate otherwise, the action called for is the approval of the 
proposed action (i.e., issue a license). The DEIS is a preliminary 
analysis of the environmental impacts of the proposed action and its 
alternatives. The Final EIS and any decision documentation regarding 
the proposed action will not be issued until public comments on the 
DEIS have been received and evaluated. Notice of the availability of 
the Final EIS will be published in the Federal Register.
    The NRC staff in the Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards 
are currently completing the safety review for USEC's license 
application and is currently scheduled for completion in the Spring of 
2006.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 30th day of August, 2005.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Scott C. Flanders,
Deputy Director, Environmental and Performance Assessment Directorate, 
Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection, Office of 
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. E5-4878 Filed 9-7-05; 8:45 am]
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