[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 199 (Friday, October 15, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63519-63521]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-25997]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2009-0435]
Notice of Availability of Draft Environmental Assessment and
Draft Finding of No Significant Impact and Notice of Public Meeting for
the Proposed License Renewal for Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. in Erwin,
TN
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of Availability of Draft Environmental Assessment and
Draft Finding of No Significant Impact; Notice of public meeting.
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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment the Draft Environmental
Assessment (EA) and Draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for
the proposed renewal of NRC special nuclear material license SNM-124
(License SNM-124) that authorizes operations at the Nuclear Fuel
Services, Inc. (NFS) fuel fabrication facility in Erwin, Tennessee. On
June 30, 2009, NFS submitted to the NRC an application in which NFS
requested renewal of License SNM-124 for a 40-year period.
The Draft EA and Draft FONSI are being issued for public review and
comment based on the NRC staff determination that (1) the NFS proposed
action to renew License SNM-124 for 40 years is without precedent,
because, if granted, this would be the first 40-year license renewal
for a Category I nuclear fuel fabrication facility, and (2) the
preparation of a Draft EA and Draft FONSI will further the purposes of
the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended (42
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).
The NRC staff's environmental review of the proposed 40-year
license renewal is documented in the Draft EA, which was prepared
following NRC regulations at title 10 of the U.S. Code of Federal
Regulations (10 CFR) part 51 that implement NEPA, and in accordance
with NRC staff guidance in NUREG-1748, ``Environmental Review Guidance
for Licensing Actions Associated with NMSS Programs.'' In the Draft EA,
the NRC staff identifies and evaluates the potential environmental
impacts of the proposed renewal of License SNM-124 and any reasonable
alternatives. Based on the Draft EA, the NRC staff has made a
preliminary determination that renewal of License SNM-124 for a 40-year
period will not significantly affect the quality of the human
environment and that a finding of no significant impact should
therefore be made. By this notice, the NRC staff is requesting public
comment on the Draft FONSI and on the supporting Draft EA.
The NRC staff will hold a public meeting on October 26, 2010, to
accept oral and written public comments on the Draft FONSI and Draft
EA. The meeting will take place at the Erwin Town Hall in Erwin,
Tennessee. For one hour prior to the public meeting, the NRC staff will
be available to informally discuss the proposed action and answer
questions in an ``open house'' format. The public meeting will
officially begin at 6 p.m. The meeting will include (1) NRC staff
presentations summarizing the NRC's roles and responsibilities with
respect to the proposed license renewal and also the contents of the
Draft EA that supports the Draft FONSI, and (2) an opportunity for
interested government agencies, Tribal governments, organizations, and
individuals to provide oral or written comments on the Draft EA and
Draft FONSI. The public meeting will be transcribed by a court
reporter, and the meeting transcript will be made publicly available at
a later date.
Persons wishing to provide oral comments at the public meeting may
register in advance by contacting Ms. Tarsha Moon at (800) 368-5642,
ext. 6745, no later than October 22, 2010. Those who wish to present
oral comments may also register at the meeting. Individual oral
comments may have to be limited by the time available, depending upon
the number of persons who register. Written comments can also be
provided at the meeting, and should be given to an NRC staff person at
the registration desk at the meeting entrance. 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 Ms.
Tarsha Moon at (800) 368-5642, ext. 6745, no later than October 22,
2010, 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
during the comment period, as described in the DATES section of this
notice. Any interested party may submit comments on the Draft EA and
Draft FONSI for consideration by NRC staff. Comments may be submitted
by any of the methods described in the ADDRESSES section of this
notice.
DATES: The public comment period on the Draft FONSI and the Draft EA
begins on the date of publication of this notice and ends on November
13, 2010. To ensure consideration, comments on the Draft FONSI and
Draft EA must be received or postmarked by November 13, 2010. The NRC
staff will consider comments received or postmarked after that date to
the extent practical.
The NRC will conduct a public meeting in Erwin, Tennessee. The
meeting date, time, and location are listed below:
Meeting Date: October 26, 2010.
Meeting Location: Erwin Town Hall, 211 North Main, Avenue, Erwin,
Tennessee 37650.
Informal Open House Session: 5-6 p.m.
Public Comment Meeting: 6-9 p.m.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods.
Please include Docket ID NRC-2009-0435 in the subject line of your
comments.
Electronic Mail: Comments may be sent by electronic mail to the
following address: [email protected].
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and
search
[[Page 63520]]
for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-2009-0435. Comments may be
submitted electronically through this Web site. Address questions about
NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher at 301-492-3668, or e-mail at
[email protected].
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements, and
Directives Branch (RADB), Division of Administrative Services, Office
of Administration, Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax to RADB at (301) 492-
3446.
Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted
on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site http://www.regulations.gov. Unless your comments contain sensitive information
typically not released to the public by NRC policy, the NRC will make
all comments publically available. Because your comments will not be
edited to remove any identifying information, the NRC cautions you
against including any information in your submission that you do not
want to be publicly disclosed.
The NRC requests that any party soliciting or aggregating comments
received from other persons for submission to the NRC inform those
persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to remove any
identifying or contact information, and therefore, they should not
include any information in their comments that they do not want
publicly disclosed.
Document Availability: Publicly available documents related to this
notice can be accessed using any of the methods described in this
section.
NRC's Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine and have
copied, for a fee, publicly available documents related to the NFS
facility and license renewal at the NRC's PDR, located at One White
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland
20852. Members of the public can contact the NRC's PDR reference staff
by calling 1-800-397-4209, by faxing a request to 301-415-3548, or by
e-mail to [email protected]. Hard copies of the documents are
available from the PDR for a fee.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS):
Members of the public can access the NRC's ADAMS at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this Web site, the following documents
related to the NRC's environmental review can be obtained by entering
the accession numbers provided:
The NFS license renewal application (ADAMS Accession
Number: ML091880040) and the accompanying Environmental Report (ADAMS
Accession Number: ML091900072),
The NRC request for additional information (ADAMS
Accession Number: ML100680426),
The NFS response providing additional information (ADAMS
Accession Number: ML101590160), and
The NRC Draft FONSI (ADAMS Accession Number: ML102790260)
and supporting Draft EA (ADAMS Accession Number: ML102650505).
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Public comments and supporting
materials related to this notice can be found at http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID: NRC-2009-0435.
Additionally, copies of the Draft FONSI and supporting Draft EA
will be available at the following public libraries:
Unicoi County Public Library, 201 Nolichucky Avenue, Erwin, Tennessee
37650-1239. 423-743-6533.
Jonesborough Branch, Washington County Library, 200 Sabin Drive,
Jonesborough, Tennessee 37659-1306. 423-753-1800.
Greeneville/Green County Public Library, 210 North Main Street,
Greeneville, Tennessee 37745-3816. 423-638-5034.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about the Draft FONSI,
the Draft EA, or the environmental review process, please contact James
Park at (301) 415-6935 or [email protected]. For general or technical
information associated with the review of the NFS license renewal
application, please contact Kevin Ramsey at (301) 492-3123 or
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June 30, 2009, NFS submitted an
application and accompanying environmental report to the NRC to request
renewal of License SNM-124. On October 6, 2009, the NRC provided notice
in the Federal Register (74 FR 51323) of its receipt of the license
renewal application and also noticed an opportunity to request a
hearing on the application; no requests for a hearing were received.
Under the conditions of License SNM-124, NFS operates a nuclear fuel
fabrication facility located in Erwin, Tennessee. If granted as
proposed, the renewed license would allow NFS to continue operations
and activities at the site for a 40-year period to begin with issuance
of the renewed license.
The NRC staff prepared the Draft EA following NRC regulations at 10
CFR part 51 that implement NEPA. Preparation of the Draft EA is part of
the NRC's process to decide whether to renew the NFS license, pursuant
to 10 CFR parts 20 and 70, and thus authorize continued operations at
the NFS facility. In accordance with the provisions of 10 CFR part 70,
the current license authorizes NFS to receive, possess, store, use, and
ship SNM enriched up to 100 percent. Under the proposed action analyzed
in the Draft EA, NFS would continue production of reactor fuel for
government operations and for commercial domestic operations.
In addition to NFS' proposed action to renew its license for 40
years, the NRC staff analyzed two alternatives: (1) The no-action
alternative, and (2) renewing the NFS license for 10 years. Under the
no-action alternative, NRC would not renew License SNM-124, and as a
result, operations at the NFS site would be required to cease. Also,
NFS would be required under 10 CFR 70.38 to submit a detailed site
decommissioning plan, and facility decommissioning would begin upon NRC
approval of that plan. NRC's review would address both the health and
safety and the environmental aspects of the proposed decommissioning
plan.
NRC considered a 10-year license renewal period as an alternative.
A period of 10 years was chosen as an alternative because the license
was previously renewed for this time period. The NRC staff did not
separately address the 10-year alternative throughout the Draft EA,
because the staff determined that the site operations and the types of
potential impacts during a 10-year license renewal period would be
expected to be the same for the proposed 40-year license renewal
period. Additionally, the significance of the potential impacts also
would be the same under the 10-year renewal alternative even though
proportionally, the impacts would be reduced for certain environmental
resource areas (i.e., for transportation, public and occupational
health, and waste management) under that alternative.
The table below summarizes the potential environmental impacts for
each of the three alternatives. Using guidance in NUREG-1748, the NRC
staff evaluated the potential impacts and then categorized the impacts
as follows:
SMALL--environmental effects are not detectable or are so
minor that they will neither destabilize nor noticeably alter any
important attribute of the resource;
MODERATE--environmental effects are sufficient to alter
noticeably, but not to destabilize, important attributes of the
resource; or
[[Page 63521]]
LARGE--environmental effects are clearly noticeable and
are sufficient to destabilize important attributes of the resource.
Summary of Potential Environmental Impacts
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Proposed action (40-
Resource area Year Renewal) 10-Year renewal No-action
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Land Use............................. SMALL.................. SMALL.................. MODERATE.
Transportation....................... SMALL (overall), SMALL (overall), SMALL (overall),
MODERATE (local). MODERATE (local). MODERATE (local).
Socioeconomics....................... SMALL.................. SMALL.................. SMALL to MODERATE.
Air Quality.......................... SMALL.................. SMALL.................. SMALL.
Water Resources--Surface Water....... SMALL.................. SMALL.................. SMALL to MODERATE.
Water Resources--Groundwater......... SMALL to MODERATE...... SMALL to MODERATE...... SMALL to MODERATE.
Geology & Soils...................... SMALL (geology), SMALL SMALL (geology), SMALL SMALL (geology),
to MODERATE (soils). to MODERATE (soils). MODERATE (soils).
Ecology.............................. SMALL.................. SMALL.................. SMALL to MODERATE.
Noise................................ SMALL.................. SMALL.................. SMALL to MODERATE.
Historic & Cultural.................. SMALL.................. SMALL.................. SMALL.
Scenic & Visual...................... SMALL.................. SMALL.................. MODERATE.
Public & Occupational Health......... SMALL.................. SMALL.................. SMALL.
Public & Occupational Health-- SMALL to MODERATE...... SMALL to MODERATE...... SMALL.
Accidents.
Waste Management..................... SMALL.................. SMALL.................. MODERATE.
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Based on its review of the proposed action relative to the
requirements set forth in 10 CFR part 51, the NRC staff has
preliminarily determined that renewal of License SNM-124, which would
authorize operations at NFS's nuclear fuel fabrication facility in
Erwin, Tennessee to continue for a period of 40 years would not
significantly affect the quality of the human environment. The facility
already exists, and no changes to the site or to facility operations
are associated with the proposed license renewal. As such, the proposed
action can be considered a continuation of impacts and was evaluated
based on impacts from past operations. Gaseous emissions and liquid
effluents are controlled and monitored by permit and are within
regulatory limits for non-radiological and radiological components.
Public and occupational radiological dose exposures are below 10 CFR
part 20 regulatory limits. Therefore, based on this preliminary
assessment, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is not warranted,
and pursuant to 10 CFR 51.31, a Finding of No Significant Impact is
appropriate.
The Draft FONSI and supporting Draft EA are a preliminary analysis
of the environmental impacts of the proposed action and its
alternatives. Based on comments received on the Draft FONSI and Draft
EA, the staff may publish a Final FONSI and Final EA, or instead may
find that preparation of an EIS is warranted should significant impacts
resulting from the proposed action be identified. Should an EIS be
warranted, a Notice of Intent to prepare the EIS will be published in
the Federal Register.
Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.33(a), the NRC staff is making the Draft
FONSI and Draft EA available for public review and comment. The public
comment period begins with publication of this Notice and continues
until November 13, 2010. Written comments should be submitted as
described in the ADDRESSES section of this notice. The NRC will
consider comments received or postmarked after that date to the extent
practical.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 8th day of October, 2010.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
David Skeen,
Acting Deputy Director, Environmental Protection and Performance
Assessment Directorate, Division of Waste Management and Environmental
Protection, Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental
Management Programs.
[FR Doc. 2010-25997 Filed 10-14-10; 8:45 am]
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