[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 232 (Friday, December 3, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67952-67954]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-31375]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION


Decommissioning Criteria for the West Valley Demonstration 
Project (M-32) and West Valley Site; Draft Policy Statement and Notice 
of Public Meeting

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft policy statement and notice of public meeting.

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SUMMARY: By memorandum from the Secretary of the Commission to the 
staff, dated June 3, 1999, the Commission approved the application of 
the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) License Termination 
Rule (LTR), as the decommissioning criteria for the West Valley 
Demonstration Project and the West Valley site. NRC is issuing this 
draft policy statement on the decommissioning criteria for public 
comment. It also is issuing a notice of public meeting to solicit 
public comment on the draft.

DATES: Comments on this draft policy statement should be submitted by 
February 1, 2000. Comments received after this date will be considered 
if it is practical to do so, but the Commission is able to assure 
consideration only for comments received on or before this date.

ADDRESSES: Submit written comments to: Jack D. Parrott, Project 
Scientist, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Mail Stop 
T-8F37, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. 
Hand-deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, 
between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., Federal workdays. Copies of comments 
received may be examined at the NRC Public Document Room, 2120 L 
Street, NW (Lower Level), Washington, DC.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jack D. Parrott, Project Scientist, 
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Mail Stop T-8F37, 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001; 
telephone 301-415-6700; e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    From 1966 to 1972, under an Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) license, 
Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS) reprocessed 640 metric tons of spent fuel 
at its West Valley, New York, facility--the only commercial spent fuel 
reprocessing plant in the U.S. The facility shut down in 1972 for 
modifications to increase its seismic stability and to expand capacity. 
In 1976, without restarting the operation, NFS withdrew from the 
reprocessing business and returned control of the facilities to the 
site owner, the New York State Energy Research and Development 
Authority (NYSERDA). The reprocessing activities resulted in 2,300,000 
liters (600,000 gallons) of liquid high-level radioactive waste (HLW), 
stored below ground in HLW tanks, and other radioactive wastes and 
residual radioactive contamination.
    The West Valley site was licensed by AEC, and then NRC, until 1981, 
when the license was suspended to execute the 1980 West Valley 
Demonstration Project (WVDP) Act, Pub. L. 96-368. The WVDP Act 
authorized the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE), in cooperation with 
NYSERDA, the owner of the site and the holder of the suspended NRC 
license, to: (1) carry out

[[Page 67953]]

a liquid-HLW management demonstration project; (2) solidify, transport, 
and dispose of the HLW at the site; (3) dispose of low-level waste 
(LLW) and transuranic waste produced by the WVDP, in accordance with 
applicable licensing requirements; and (4) decontaminate and 
decommission facilities used for the WVDP, in accordance with 
requirements prescribed by NRC. NYSERDA is responsible for all site 
facilities and areas outside the scope of the WVDP Act. Although NRC 
suspended the license covering the site until completion of the WVDP, 
NRC has certain responsibilities, under the WVDP Act, that include 
prescribing decontamination and decommissioning criteria.
    The WVDP is currently removing liquid HLW from underground HLW 
tanks at the site, vitrifying it, and storing it onsite for eventual 
offsite disposal in the Federal repository. The vitrification 
operations are nearing completion. In addition to the vitrified HLW, 
the WVDP operations have also produced large quantities of LLW and 
transuranic waste which, under the Act, must be disposed of in 
accordance with applicable licensing requirements. Besides the HLW at 
the site, the historical spent fuel reprocessing and waste disposal 
operations resulted in large quantities of a full range of buried 
radioactive wastes and structural and environmental contamination at 
the site.
    In 1989, DOE and NYSERDA began to develop a joint Environmental 
Impact Statement (EIS) for project completion and site closure, and to 
evaluate waste disposal and decommissioning alternatives. Because the 
WVDP Act requires NRC to prescribe decommissioning criteria for the 
project, NRC and DOE agreed on NRC's participation as a cooperating 
agency on the EIS, with DOE and NYSERDA, to aid NRC in its decision on 
decommissioning requirements. The draft EIS was published in 1996.
    After public review of the draft EIS, the WVDP convened the West 
Valley Citizen Task Force (CTF) in early 1997 to obtain stakeholder 
input on the EIS. The CTF recommendations for the preferred alternative 
in the EIS were completed in July 1998. The CTF generally does not 
believe the West Valley site is suitable for long-term isolation of 
waste and, therefore, favors disposal of the waste offsite at suitable 
and safe disposal facilities. In the latter half of 1997 (during the 
period that the CTF was working on their recommendations), the NRC's 
LTR was published (62 FR 39058; July 21, 1997).
    Because NRC is authorized to prescribe decommissioning criteria for 
the WVDP by the WVDP Act, the NRC staff proposed decommissioning 
criteria for West Valley to the Commission in a Commission Paper 
entitled ``Decommissioning Criteria for West Valley'' dated October 30, 
1998 (SECY-98-251). The Commission requested a public meeting on SECY-
98-251 to obtain input from interested parties. Based on the results 
from this meeting, which was held January 12, 1999, the Commission 
issued a Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM) on January 26, 1999, 
requesting additional information on the staff's proposed 
decommissioning criteria for West Valley. In response to the January 
26, 1999, SRM the staff provided SECY-99-057, to the Commission, 
entitled ``Supplement to SECY-98-251, `Decommissioning Criteria for 
West Valley.''' Based on the contents of SECY-98-251, SECY-99-057, and 
written and oral comments from interested parties, the Commission 
issued an SRM on June 3, 1999, detailing its decisions on the 
decommissioning criteria for West Valley. This draft policy statement 
is based on the contents of that SRM.

Statement of Policy

Decommissioning Criteria for the WVDP

    Under the authority of the WVDP Act the Commission is prescribing 
NRC's LTR as the decontamination and decommissioning criteria for the 
WVDP. These criteria shall apply to the decontamination and 
decommissioning of: (1) the HLW tanks and other facilities in which 
HLW, solidified under the project, was stored; (2) the facilities used 
in the solidification of the waste; and (3) any material and hardware 
used in connection with the WVDP. The LTR does not apply a single 
public dose criterion.
    Rather, it provides for a range of criteria. For unrestricted 
release, the LTR specifies a dose criterion of 25 millirem (mrem)/year 
to the average member of the critical group plus as low as reasonably 
achievable (ALARA) considerations (10 CFR 20.1402). For restricted 
release, the LTR specifies an individual dose criterion of 25 mrem/year 
plus ALARA considerations utilizing legally enforceable institutional 
controls established after a public participatory process (10 CFR 
20.1403). Even if institutional controls fail, individual doses should 
generally not exceed 100 mrem/year. If it is demonstrated that the 
general 100 mrem/year criterion in the event of failure of 
institutional controls is technically unachievable or prohibitively 
expensive, the individual dose criterion in the event of failure of 
institutional controls may be as high as 500 mrem/year. However, in 
this circumstance this site would be rechecked by a responsible 
government entity no less frequently than every five years and 
resources would have to be set aside to provide for any necessary 
control and maintenance of the institutional controls. Finally, the LTR 
permits alternate individual dose criteria of up to 100 mrem/year plus 
ALARA considerations for restricted release with institutional controls 
established after a public participatory process (10 CFR 20.1404). Use 
of alternate criteria must be approved by the Commission itself after 
coordination with the Environmental Protection Agency and after 
consideration of the NRC staff's recommendations and all public 
comments. The Commission's application of the LTR to the WVDP is a two-
step process: (1) The NRC is now prescribing the application of the 
LTR; and (2) following the completion of DOE/NYSERDA's Environmental 
Impact Statement (EIS) and selection of its preferred alternative, the 
NRC will verify that the specific criteria identified by DOE is within 
the LTR and will prescribe the use of this specific criteria for the 
WVDP.

Decommissioning Criteria for the NDA and SDA

    NRC will apply the criteria in the LTR to the NRC-licensed 
radioactive waste disposal area (NDA) within the WVDP site boundary 
since the NDA is under NRC jurisdiction. NRC will not apply the 
criteria in the LTR to the State-licensed radioactive waste disposal 
area (SDA) adjacent to the WVDP site boundary since the SDA is not 
under NRC jurisdiction.

Decommissioning Criteria for License CSF-1

    The criteria in the LTR will also apply to the termination of 
NYSERDA's NRC license on the West Valley site once that license is 
reactivated.

Policy Implications

    The policy of applying NRC's existing LTR to the decommissioning of 
the WVDP and West Valley site is consistent with the decommissioning 
requirements for all NRC licensees. Therefore, no policy implications 
are foreseen with the application of the LTR to the decommissioning of 
the WVDP and West Valley site.

[[Page 67954]]

Environmental Analysis

    The environmental impact of applying the LTR to NRC licensees was 
evaluated in a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS, NUREG-
1496) that supports the LTR. When the particular criteria permitted by 
the LTR are selected, the environmental impacts from the application of 
the criteria will be considered. The NRC intends to rely on the DOE/
NYSERDA's EIS for this purpose. The DOE is considered for NEPA purposes 
as the lead federal agency. DOE is developing a decommissioning plan 
and is responsible for its preparation and implementation. The NRC, in 
view of its responsibilities under the WVDP Act, is considered a 
cooperating agency for this EIS and is participating in the development 
of the DOE/NYSERDA EIS. The NRC does not anticipate the need to prepare 
its own duplicative EIS as the NRC can consider the environmental 
impacts described in the DOE/NYSERDA EIS in approving the particular 
decommissioning criteria for the WVDP under the LTR. Under this 
arrangement, the DOE/NYSERDA EIS will fulfil the NEPA responsibilities 
for the NRC.

Availability of Documents

    The NRC's draft policy statement on decommissioning criteria for 
West Valley is also available at NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room 
link (http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html) on the NRC's home page 
(http://www.nrc.gov). Copies of documents cited in this section are 
available for inspection and/or reproduction for a fee in the NRC 
Public Document Room, 2120 L Street, NW (Lower Level), Washington, DC 
20003. The NRC Public Document Room is open from 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except on Federal holidays. Reference 
service and access to documents may also be requested by telephone 
(202-634-3273 or 800-397-4209), between 8:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m.; or by 
e-mail ([email protected]); fax (202-634-3343); or a letter (NRC Public 
Document Room, LL-6, Washington, DC 20555-0001). In addition, copies 
of: (1) SECY-98-251, ``Decommissioning Criteria for West Valley''; (2) 
the transcript of the public meeting held January 12, 1999; (3) the 
Commission's SRM of January 26, 1999, concerning the January 12, 1999, 
public meeting on SECY-98-251; (4) SECY-99-057, ``Supplement to SECY-
98-251, ``Decommissioning Criteria for West Valley''; (5) the 
Commission's vote sheets on SECY-98-251 and SECY-99-057; and (6) the 
Commission's SRM of June 3, 1999, on SECY-98-251 and SECY-99-057, can 
be obtained electronically on NRC's home page at the Commission's 
Activities link (http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/COMMISSION/activities.html).

Public Meeting

    NRC will conduct a public meeting at the Ashford Office Complex, 
9030 Route 219, West Valley, New York, conference room C1, on January 
5, 2000, to discuss the draft policy statement for the decommissioning 
criteria for West Valley with interested members of the public. The 
meeting is scheduled for 7:00-9:00 p.m., and will be facilitated by 
Francis X. Cameron, Special Counsel for Public Liaison, NRC. There will 
be an opportunity for members of the public to ask questions of NRC 
staff and make comments related to the West Valley decommissioning 
criteria. The meeting will be transcribed. For more information on the 
public meeting, please contact Jack D. Parrott, Project Scientist, 
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Mail Stop T-8F37, 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; 301-415-
6700; e-mail: [email protected].

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 29th day of November, 1999.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 99-31375 Filed 12-2-99; 8:45 am]
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