[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 27 (Wednesday, February 9, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6401-6402]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-2930]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 72-22]


Private Fuel Storage, L.L.C., Independent Spent Fuel Storage 
Installation, Skull Valley Indian Reservation, Tooele County, UT; 
Notice of Intent To Cooperate in the Preparation of an Environmental 
Impact Statement

    Private Fuel Storage, L.L.C. (PFS or the applicant) proposes to 
construct and operate an independent spent fuel storage installation 
(ISFSI) at the reservation of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians, 
which is bordered on all sides by Tooele County, Utah. The proposed 
Private Fuel Storage Facility (PFSF) would be constructed on an 820-
acre site that would store spent nuclear fuel (SNF) received from 
commercial U.S. nuclear power plants. The applicant proposes to 
transport SNF from the reactor sites to the PFSF via rail. Currently 
the rail line stops approximately 25 miles north of the proposed site. 
The applicant has proposed the following two methods to transport the 
SNF the last 25 miles:
    (1) Construct an intermodal transfer facility on land managed by 
the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM). At 
the intermodal transfer facility, SNF would be transferred from rail to 
heavy/haul vehicles for transport to the site via Skull Valley Road, or
    (2) Construct a rail line on the western side of Skull Valley, 
along the base of the Cedar Mountains. The rail line would be 
constructed on land managed by BLM.
    Of the two methods identified above, construction of the rail line 
is the applicant's preferred approach.
    The project as proposed, requires approval from four Federal 
agencies, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the U.S. 
Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and BLM, and 
the Surface Transportation Board (STB). The applicant must obtain a 
license from NRC, a right-of-way (ROW) from BLM for either the proposed 
rail line or the proposed intermodal transfer facility, approval from 
BIA for a proposed lease agreement between the Skull Valley Band of 
Goshute Indians and PFS, and approval from the STB to construct the 
proposed rail line.
    On June 20, 1997, pursuant to 10 CFR part 72, PFS submitted an 
application to NRC for a license to receive, possess, store, and 
transfer SNF at an ISFSI to be constructed and operated on the 
Reservation of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians. A notice of 
consideration of issuance of an NRC materials license for the proposed 
PFSF and notice of opportunity for hearing were published in the 
Federal Register on July 31, 1997 (62 FR 41099). By letter dated August 
28, 1998, PFS submitted a revision to its application for an NRC 
license to reflect its proposal to construct and utilize a rail line 
over public lands managed by BLM for the transportation of SNF to its 
site.
    The applicant executed a lease agreement with the Skull Valley Band 
of Goshute Indians to permit construction and operation of its proposed 
facility on the Skull Valley Band Reservation. On May 23, 1997, BIA 
conditionally approved the lease agreement, contingent upon the 
completion of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the inclusion of 
mitigation measures identified in the Record of Decision, and the 
issuance of an NRC license to construct, maintain, and operate the 
PFSF. The lease includes 820 acres of land where the PFSF is proposed 
to be located, a 202-acre utility and road ROW from the Skull Valley 
Road to the PFSF, and a buffer zone adjacent to the PFSF to the south 
and east, including five sections of land (one section of land consists 
of one square mile or 640 acres).
    By letter dated August 28, 1998, PFS applied to BLM for a ROW to 
construct a rail line and related facilities for a distance of 
approximately 32 miles on the western side of Skull Valley, along the 
base of the Cedar Mountains from Skunk Ridge, Utah, to the PFSF. PFS 
also applied for a separate ROW to construct and operate an intermodal 
transfer facility 1.8 miles west of the intersection of Interstate 80 
and Skull Valley Road. The rail line would traverse land that is 
included within the BLM Pony Express Resource Management Plan (RMP). 
The current Pony Express RMP does not allow for major ROWs such as a 
rail line in this area, and the PFS proposal would, therefore, require 
an amendment to the RMP prior to granting the requested ROW. BLM 
published a notice of intent to prepare a RMP amendment in the Federal 
Register on April 15, 1999 (64 FR 18633).
    On January 5, 2000, PFS filed an application with STB to construct 
and operate the proposed rail line from Skunk Ridge, Utah, to the 
proposed storage facility. The application was filed in STB Finance 
Docket No. 33824, Great Salt Lake & Southern Railroad, L.L.C.--
Construction and Operations in Tooele County, Utah.
    The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 requires all Federal 
agencies to consider the environmental impacts of their actions. 
Because the NRC, BIA, BLM, and STB required actions for the 
construction and operation of the PFSF are related, the agencies have 
agreed to cooperate in the preparation of an EIS. In preparing the EIS, 
NRC will serve as the lead agency, and BLM, BIA, and STB will serve as 
cooperating agencies.
    NRC published a notice of intent to prepare an EIS and conduct a 
scoping process in the Federal Register on May 1, 1998 (63 FR 24197). 
As a part of the scoping process, a public scoping meeting was 
conducted on June 2, 1998, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The scoping process 
also provided interested parties with an opportunity to provide written 
comments. At the conclusion of that

[[Page 6402]]

initial scoping process, NRC issued a scoping report in September 1998.
    NRC's initial scoping process was based on the description of the 
PFSF contained in the applicant's submittal of June 20, 1997, which did 
not include the proposed rail line on public land administered by BLM. 
This rail line proposal was submitted to NRC on August 28, 1998, as an 
amendment to the PFS application. Similarly, BIA's conditional approval 
of the proposed lease agreement was issued prior to the applicant's 
proposal of the rail line.
    As a result of the applicant's August 28, 1998, revision of its 
transportation proposal, NRC, BIA, and BLM determined that additional 
scoping meetings should be conducted. Additional scoping meetings were 
held on April 29, 1999, in Salt Lake City, and Tooele City, Utah. The 
meetings were noticed in the Federal Register on April 14, 1999 (64 FR 
18451). Primarily, the scoping meetings focused on environmental issues 
associated with the rail line proposed in the applicant's August 28, 
1998, license application amendment, the request for issuance of a ROW 
over public lands managed by BLM, and environmental concerns associated 
with the proposed lease agreement that may not have been addressed in 
the NRC's initial scoping process. In addition, interested parties were 
also provided the opportunity to submit written comments. Following the 
additional scoping meetings and comment period, a supplemental scoping 
report was issued in November 1999.
    Although STB was not identified as a cooperating agency during the 
scoping process, the environmental issues related to its federal action 
(i.e., approving the construction and operation of the proposed rail 
line) were discussed during the scoping process. STB has determined 
that these scoping activities provided sufficient opportunity for the 
public to comment on the proposed action and the scope of the EIS. 
Interested parties will have an opportunity to provide comments on the 
draft EIS.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 27th day of January 2000.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
E. William Brach,
Director, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear Material Safety 
and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 00-2930 Filed 2-8-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P