[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 207 (Thursday, October 26, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54867-54869]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-26601]



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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Disposition of Surplus Highly Enriched Uranium; Draft 
Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE) announces the availability of 
the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Disposition of Surplus 
Highly Enriched Uranium (draft HEU EIS) for public review and comment. 
In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 
(NEPA), the Council on Environmental Quality regulations (40 CFR Parts 
1500-1508), and the Department's NEPA Implementation Procedures (10 CFR 
Part 1021), the Department has prepared this draft HEU EIS to evaluate 
alternatives for the disposition of United States-origin weapons-usable 
highly enriched uranium (HEU) that has been, or may be, declared 
surplus to national defense needs by the President.

DATES: The public is invited to comment on the draft HEU EIS during a 
comment period that will continue until December 11, 1995. Comments 
postmarked after that date will be considered to the extent 
practicable. The Department will hold two public workshops to discuss 
and receive comments on the draft HEU EIS on November 14 and 16, 1995. 
The times and locations of the workshops are provided in the 
Supplementary Information.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the draft HEU EIS and requests for information 
should be directed to: Office of Fissile Materials Disposition (MD-4), 
Attention: HEU EIS, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence 
Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585, 1-800-820-5134.
    Written comments on the draft HEU EIS should be mailed to the 
following address: DOE--Office of Fissile Materials Disposition, P.O. 
Box 23786, Washington, DC 20026-3786. Comments may also be submitted 
orally (to a recording machine) or by fax to 1-800-820-5156.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on the DOE National 
Environmental Policy Act process, contact: Carol M. Borgstrom, 
Director, Office of NEPA Policy and Assistance (EH-42), U.S. Department 
of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20585, (202) 586-
4600 or leave a message at 1-800-472-2756.
    Availability of the draft HEU EIS: Copies of the draft HEU EIS have 
been distributed to Federal, State, Indian tribal, and local officials, 
agencies, and interested organizations and individuals. Copies of the 
draft HEU EIS and supporting technical reports are also available for 
public review at the locations listed at the end of this Notice.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On June 21, 1994, the Department published a Notice of Intent (NOI) 
in the Federal Register (59 FR 31985) to prepare a programmatic EIS 
(PEIS) for weapons-usable fissile materials, including both surplus and 
non-surplus HEU. The purpose of the NOI was to inform the public of the 
proposed scope of the Storage and Disposition of Weapons-Usable Fissile 
Materials PEIS (Storage and Disposition PEIS), to solicit public input, 
and to announce that public scoping meetings would be conducted from 
August through October 1994.1 During that period, 12 public 
meetings were held throughout the United States to obtain input 
regarding the scope, alternatives, and issues associated with weapons-
usable fissile materials that should be addressed in the Storage and 
Disposition PEIS. The extensive scoping process for the Storage and 
Disposition PEIS included options for the disposition of surplus HEU.

    \1\ In the NOI, the PEIS was referred to as the Long-Term 
Storage and Disposition of Weapons-Usable Fissile Materials PEIS.
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    In the course of the PEIS public scoping process, it appeared that 
it may be more appropriate to analyze the impacts of surplus HEU 
disposition in a separate EIS. The Department held a public meeting on 
November 10, 1994, to obtain comments on this potential course of 
action. While views were expressed both pro and con, the Department 
subsequently concluded that a separate EIS would be appropriate. 
Accordingly, the Department published a notice in the Federal Register 
(60 FR 17344) on April 5, 1995, to inform the public of the proposed 
plan to prepare a separate EIS for the disposition of surplus HEU.

Alternatives Considered

    The draft HEU EIS assesses environmental impacts of five reasonable 
alternatives identified for the disposition of up to 200 metric tons of 
surplus HEU. This includes HEU that has already been declared surplus 
(165 metric tons) as well as additional weapons-usable HEU that may be 
declared surplus in the future. The material is currently located at 
facilities throughout the Department's nuclear weapons complex, but the 
majority is in, or destined for, interim storage at the Department's Y-
12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Except for no action, all reasonable 
alternatives involve blending HEU with depleted, natural, or low-
enriched uranium (LEU) to make LEU, 

[[Page 54868]]
which is not weapons-usable, and the majority of which would have 
potential commercial value as non-defense, nuclear power plant fuel 
feed. The alternatives, except for the no action alternative, represent 
different ratios of blending HEU to LEU for commercial use versus 
blending HEU to LEU for disposal as waste. The alternatives also 
represent different combinations of blending sites and blending 
processes.
    Alternative 1 is No Action (continued storage of surplus HEU). 
Alternative 2 is No Commercial Use, and represents blending all 200 
metric tons of surplus HEU to waste (fuel/waste ratio of 0/100) using 
four sites. Alternative 3 is Limited Commercial Use, and includes 
transferring 50 metric tons of HEU (and 7,000 metric tons of natural 
uranium) to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) for 
commercial use, but blending the remaining 150 metric tons of HEU to 
waste (fuel/waste ratio of 25/75). Alternative 3 assumes the 50 metric 
tons of commercial material would be blended at two commercial blending 
sites, and the waste material would be blended at four sites. 
Alternative 4 is Substantial Commercial Use, and represents blending 
130 metric tons of HEU for commercial use and 70 metric tons for 
disposal as waste (fuel/waste ratio of 65/35). Alternative 5 is Maximum 
Commercial Use, and represents blending 170 metric tons of HEU for 
commercial use and 30 metric tons for disposal as waste (fuel/waste 
ratio of 85/15). Both Alternatives 4 and 5 include the proposal to 
transfer 50 metric tons of HEU and 7,000 metric tons of natural uranium 
to USEC for commercial use. Alternatives 4 and 5 each have four site 
variations: a) two DOE sites only, b) two commercial sites only, c) all 
four sites, and d) each site alone.
    This draft HEU EIS assesses potential environmental impacts at two 
DOE sites and two commercial sites where HEU conversion and blending 
could occur: DOE's Y-12 Plant at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Oak 
Ridge, Tennessee; DOE's Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina; 
the Babcock & Wilcox Naval Nuclear Fuel Division in Lynchburg, 
Virginia; and the Nuclear Fuel Services Fuel Fabrication Plant in 
Erwin, Tennessee. The EIS also assesses the environmental impacts of 
necessary transportation of materials.
    The alternatives as described are not intended to represent 
exclusive choices among which the Department must choose, but rather 
are analyzed to represent reasonable points in the matrix of possible 
choices. The draft HEU EIS explains how impacts would change if the 
exact fuel/waste ratio or division among sites or processes were 
different.

Preferred Alternative

    The draft HEU EIS identifies DOE's preferred alternative as 
Alternative 5 (Maximum Commercial Use) and site variation c (all four 
sites). Under this alternative, the commercial use of surplus HEU would 
be maximized and the blending would most likely be done at some 
combination of commercial and DOE sites. The Department prefers this 
alternative because commercial use of LEU derived from surplus HEU 
would serve the objective of rendering these materials non-weapons-
usable in the most timely fashion. It would allow for peaceful, 
beneficial reuse of the material, recover investment for the Federal 
Treasury, and reduce Government waste disposal costs that would be 
incurred if all (or a greater portion of) the material were blended to 
waste.

Invitation to Comment

    The public is invited to submit written and oral comments on any or 
all portions of the draft HEU EIS. DOE's responses to comments received 
during the public comment period will be presented in the final HEU 
EIS.
    DOE will hold two public workshops to provide information and 
receive comments on the draft HEU EIS (with identical afternoon and 
evening sessions in each location), as detailed in the following 
schedule. The workshop format will provide for collection of written 
and oral comments and will enable the public to discuss issues and 
concerns with DOE managers. Participants are asked to register for the 
workshops in advance by calling 1-800-820-5134.

Schedule of Public Workshops

November 14, 1995--Knoxville, TN
    1:00-5:00 pm and 6:00-10:00 pm, eastern time, Knoxville Hilton, 501 
Church Avenue, SW, Knoxville, TN 37902; phone (423) 523-2300, fax (423) 
546-1716.
November 16, 1995--Augusta, GA
    1:00-5:00 pm and 6:00-10:00 pm, eastern time, Ramada Plaza Hotel 
and Convention Center, 640 Broad Street, Augusta, GA 30901; phone (706) 
722-5541, fax (706) 724-0053.

DOE Public Reading Rooms

    Copies of the draft HEU EIS as well as technical data reports and 
other supporting documents are available for public review at the 
following locations:

Department of Energy Headquarters, Freedom of Information Reading Room, 
Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 
20585, Attn: Carolyn Lawson, 202-586-6020
Albuquerque Operations Office, National Atomic Museum, 20358 Wyoming 
Blvd., SE., Kirtland AFB, NM 87117, Attn: Diane Zepeda, 505-845-4378
Nevada Operations Office, Nevada Operations Office, U.S. Department of 
Energy, Public Reading Room, 2753 South Highland Dr., P.O. Box 98518, 
Las Vegas, NV 89193-8518, Attn: Charlotte Cox, 702-295-1459
Oak Ridge Operations Office, U.S. Department of Energy, Public Reading 
Room, 200 Administration Road, P.O. Box 2001, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-8501, 
Attn: Jane Greenwalt, 615-576-1216
Richland Operations Office, Washington State University, Tri-Cities 
Branch Campus, 300 Sprout Road, Room 130 West, Richland, WA 99352, 
Attn: Terri Traub, 509-376-8583
Rocky Flats Office, Front Range Community College Library, 3645 West 
112th Avenue, Westminister, CO 80030, Attn: Dennis Connor, 303-469-4435
Savannah River Operations Office, Gregg-Graniteville Library, 
University of South Carolina-Aiken, 171 University Parkway, Aiken, SC 
29801, Attn: Paul Lewis, 803-641-3320, DOE Contact: James M. Gaver, 
803-725-2889
Los Alamos National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, c/o Los 
Alamos Community Reading Room, 1450 Central, Suite 101, Los Alamos, NM 
87544, Attn: Tom Ribe, 505-665-2127
Chicago Operations Office, Office of Planning, Communications & EEO, 
U.S. Department of Energy, 9800 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439, 
Attn: Gary L. Pitchford, 708-252-2013
Amarillo Area Office, U.S. Department of Energy, Amarillo College, Lynn 
Library/Learning Center, P.O. Box 447, Amarillo, TX 79178, PH: 806-371-
5400, FX: 806-371-5470
U.S. DOE Reading Room, Carson County Library, P.O. Box 339, Panhandle, 
TX 79068, PH: 806-537-3742, FX: 806-537-3780, DOE Contact: Tom Walton, 
PH: 806-477-3120, FX: 806-477-3185, Contractor Contact: Kerry Cambell, 
PH: 806-477-4381, FX: 806-477-5743
Sandia National Laboratory/CA, Livermore Public Library, 1000 S. 
Livermore Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550, Attn: Julie Casamajor, PH: 510-
373-5500, FX: 510-373-5503.


[[Page 54869]]

    Issued in Washington, DC, October 20, 1995.
Gregory P. Rudy,
Acting Director, Office of Fissile Materials Disposition.
[FR Doc. 95-26601 Filed 10-25-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P