[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 140 (Friday, July 20, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38038-38040]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-18174]



[[Page 38038]]

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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 70-3073]


Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact 
Related to Amendment No. 13 to Material License No. SNM-1999 Release of 
Portion of Site for Unrestricted Use Kerr-McGee Corporation Cushing 
Refinery Site

1. Introduction

1.1  Background

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the 
Kerr-McGee Corporation's (Kerr-McGee or the licensee) request to have a 
portion of the property released, for unrestricted use, from the 
Cushing Refinery Site (Cushing) License, SNM-1999. This action is taken 
in response to Kerr-McGee's license amendment request, dated November 
10, 2000, and supplemented by letter dated January 19, 2001, to release 
the portions of site blocks 116, 117, 124, and 125 that are south of 
Skull Creek for unrestricted use and to remove the areas from the 
license. The proposed boundary of the licensed area is shown in Figure 
1, ``Cushing, Oklahoma Refinery Site, Proposed Licensed Site,'' of the 
January 19, 2001, letter.
    On April 6, 1993, NRC issued Materials License SNM-1999 authorizing 
possession of contaminated soil, sludge, sediment, trash, building 
rubble, and any other contaminated material, at the licensee's Cushing 
site. On March 26, 1999, NRC by license amendment released for 
unrestricted use and removed from the Cushing license Unaffected Area 
1, portions of Unaffected Areas 2--4 that are south of Skull Creek, and 
a portion of the haul road corridor area partially surrounded by 
Unaffected Areas 2--4. These areas were used for oil refining and 
storage during the years that nuclear processing and disposal took 
place and were not to be affected by the nuclear processing or 
disposal. On August 23, 1999, NRC approved Kerr-McGee's Cushing 
Refinery Site Decommissioning Plan by license amendment. As part of 
that approval NRC performed an environmental assessment of the 
activities necessary to remediate the Cushing site to meet NRC's 
unrestricted use criteria. As noted in that environmental assessment, 
NRC concluded that those activities would not adversely affect the 
environment. That Environmental Assessment, including a Finding of No 
Significant Impact, was published in the Federal Register on April 1, 
1999.\1\
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    \1\ 64 FR 15831
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    The licensee now requests that other portions of the Cushing site 
be released for unrestricted use and removed from the Cushing license 
as those areas can be demonstrated to meet NRC's criteria for release 
for unrestricted release. Kerr-McGee, in its letter dated November 10, 
2000, and supplemented by letter dated January 19, 2001, has requested 
that portions of site blocks 116, 117, 124, and 125 that are south of 
Skull Creek be released for unrestricted use and to remove this area 
from its license. The area that is being considered for release from 
the license encompasses a sediment pond located in Unaffected Area 2 
(UA-2). This sediment pond is normally used as a collection area for 
sediments generated during treatment of water removed from Pit 5. A 
routine discharge of treated wastewater to Skull Creek in June 1998 
resulted in the inadvertent release of some of the pond sediment not 
releasable under the licensee's discharge permit. Although Skull Creek 
was radiologically decontaminated in 1991, it is located within a 
radiologically affected area. Therefore, sediments removed from Skull 
Creek and placed into UA-2 Sediment Pond had a potential of containing 
licensed material.

1.2  Proposed Action

    The proposed action is the release for unrestricted use, and the 
removal from License SNM-1999, the portions of site blocks 116, 117, 
124, and 125 that are south of Skull Creek for unrestricted use and to 
remove the areas from the license. The proposed boundary of the 
licensed area is shown in Figure 1, ``Cushing, Oklahoma Refinery Site, 
Proposed Licensed Site,'' of the January 19, 2001, letter.

1.3  Need for Proposed Action

    The licensee seeks to release property that is currently under 
license for unrestricted use. This action was requested to remove the 
current limitations on the future use of this portion of the Cushing 
Refinery Site property.

2. Description of Cushing Refinery Site

2.1  Site Description

    The Cushing Refinery site is comprised of 1.78 square kilometers 
(km2) (440 acres) in Payne County, Oklahoma. The site is 
located 3.22 kilometers (km) (2 miles) north of the City of Cushing. 
The City of Cushing is located about midway between Tulsa and Oklahoma 
City on Highway 33. Neighboring communities include Yale (11.27 km (7 
miles north-northeast)), Ripley (12.88 km (8 miles west-northwest)), 
Agra (16.1 km (10 miles southwest)), Oilton (17.71 km (11 miles east-
northeast)), Quay (16.1 km (10 miles north-northeast)), Jennings (22.54 
km (14 miles northeast)), and Drumright (12.88 km (8 miles east)). The 
Cushing site terrain is rolling pasture land. The elevation of the site 
ranges from 250 meters (m) (820 feet) to 280 m (920 feet) above mean 
sea level (MSL). Skull Creek runs through the Cushing site before 
joining the Cimarron River 6.44 km (4 miles) east-northeast of the site 
at an elevation of 232 m (760 feet) MSL.

2.2  Site Operating History

    The Cushing site was operated as a refinery from approximately 1915 
to 1972, when the refinery was closed and dismantled. The licensee 
operated the refinery site from 1956 to 1972. The licensee also 
processed nuclear fuel material at the Cushing site from 1963 to 1966, 
under two AEC licenses. AEC Source Material License SMB-664 authorized 
Kerr-McGee to possess unlimited quantities of natural uranium, depleted 
uranium, and thorium. AEC Special Nuclear Material License SNM-695 
authorized Kerr-McGee to possess any enrichment of uranium, but limited 
it to 1,000 kilograms (2,205 pounds) of uranium-235. Kerr-McGee 
received, possessed, and processed these materials for the AEC. Both 
AEC licenses were terminated in 1966.

3. Environmental Impact of Proposed Action

    An unaffected area, as defined in NUREG/CR-5849, ``Manual for 
Conducting Radiological Surveys in Support of License Termination,'' is 
an area not expected to contain residual radioactivity from licensed 
operations. The unrestricted use criteria for enriched uranium and 
natural thorium are the Option 1 values in the 1981 Branch Technical 
Position on ``Disposal or Onsite Storage of Thorium or Uranium Wastes 
From Past Operations.'' \2\ The Option 1 criteria are 30 picoCuries per 
gram (pCi/g) for natural, depleted, and enriched uranium and 10 pCi/g 
for natural thorium.
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    \2\ 46 FR 52061.
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    The licensee performed final status surveys in the four unaffected 
areas and submitted the results to NRC in the ``Final Radiation Survey 
of Four Unaffected Areas of the Cushing Refinery Site,'' dated April 
17, 1995. Gamma radiation scans, gamma exposure rate measurements, soil 
radioactivity concentration

[[Page 38039]]

measurements, and surface radioactivity survey were performed in each 
of the four unaffected areas. As a result of the surveys and soil 
sample analysis, one area of about one meter in diameter on the surface 
of the ground was found to be contaminated with Th-232. This spot was 
designated as a radioactive materials area and was removed from the 
areas that the licensee considered part of the four unaffected areas. 
The licensee's survey report provided data that indicated that the four 
unaffected areas meet NRC's criteria for unrestricted use.
    The portions of site blocks 116, 117, 124, and 125 that are south 
of Skull Creek that are being considered for release for unrestricted 
use were surveyed as part of the four unaffected site areas. The 
results of the earlier four unaffected areas survey found that 
concentrations of radionuclides in the soil samples from survey units 
are as follows: less than 0.1 to 0.5 pCi/g for U-235; 0.3 to 3.0 pCi/g 
for U-238; 0.6 to 9.0 pCi/g for Th-228; and less than 0.8 to 10.0 pCi/g 
for Th-232. One small area of thorium, in excess of the criteria (9.0 
pCi/g of Th-228 and 10.0 pCi/g of Th-232), is in unaffected area number 
2. This area of elevated thorium levels, surveyed by Oak Ridge 
Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), an independent NRC 
contractor, is the same area that the licensee designated as a 
radioactive materials area (about 400 m2) after it performed 
its final radiation survey. Thus, this small radioactive material area 
is not part of the licensee's request for unrestricted release. Of the 
areas that ORISE surveyed that were part of the licensee's request for 
unrestricted release, the concentrations of radionuclides in soil 
samples are as follows: 0.6 to 3.8 pCi/g for Th-228; and less than 0.8 
to 3.0 pCi/g for Th-232. The soil samples are within the Option 1 soil 
criteria for uranium (natural, enriched and depleted) and natural 
thorium.
    The licensee performed a final status survey of the sediment pond 
and submitted the results to NRC in the ``Final Status Survey Report 
for Cushing Refinery Site UA-2 Sediment Pond,'' dated May 2, 2000, and 
supplemented by letters dated November 10, 2000, and January 19, 2001. 
The results of the exposure rate surveys of the sediment pond indicated 
that no location was more than 10 micoRoentgen per hour (R/hr) 
above background. The soil samples yielded results indicating only 
background or slightly above background concentrations of uranium and 
thorium. The maximum concentration of each of the two radionuclides in 
the soil samples from the sediment pond survey were 10.84 pCi/g for 
total uranium and 2.72 pCi/g for total thorium. Soil sample 
concentration results are within the Option 1 criteria for both uranium 
and thorium. This licensee survey report provided data that indicated 
that the sediment pond area meets NRC's criteria for unrestricted use.
    Groundwater under the Cushing site can be found in one of three 
water-bearing zones. The water-bearing zones are the shallow water-
bearing zone (unconsolidated soil and the upper portion of the Vanoss 
Group), the lower portion of the Vanoss Group, and Vamoosa-Ada aquifer. 
The Vamoosa-Ada aquifer is the regional groundwater aquifer. The 
licensee notes that it appears that there is not a significant 
groundwater flow between the shallow water-bearing zone and the lower 
portion of the Vanoss Group. Further the licensee notes that the 
Vamoosa-Ada aquifer is isolated from the uppermost water-bearing zone 
by low-permeability strata within the Vanoss. Thus, the Vamoosa-Ada 
aquifer is unaffected by surface activities. The licensee based this 
finding on an evaluation of the dispersion of environmental tritium in 
the aquifer. The State of Oklahoma, Department of Environmental Quality 
(DEQ) \3\ found the following: (1) The shallow groundwater unit yields 
low quantities of poor quality water; (2) it is highly unlikely that 
future residential or commercial drinking water wells will be 
established from the shallow groundwater at this site; and (3) no known 
drinking water wells are screened in the Vanoss within a one-mile 
radius of the site. Further, DEQ stated that the Vanoss should not be 
considered a viable drinking water source for the area and that DEQ 
would consider water quality standards other than maximum contamination 
levels as set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as 
appropriate for the shallow groundwater at this site. Further, based on 
EPA's guidance \4\ the Vanoss groundwater would be classified as a 
Class III--Groundwater Not a Potential Source of Drinking Water and of 
Limited Beneficial Use.
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    \3\ Letter to Jeff Lux, Kerr McGee Corporation, from Darrell 
Shults, DEQ, dated September 19, 1997.
    \4\ ``Guidelines for Ground-Water Classification Under the EPA 
Ground-Water Protection Strategy'', Final Draft, dated November 
1986, Office of Water, EPA.
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    The staff has reviewed the site potentiometeric surface map of the 
upper zone.\5\ Based on this review the staff determined that: (1) The 
portions of site grid blocks 116, 117, 124, and 125 are up-gradient of 
any known sources of contamination; (2) the sediment pond does not 
contain any radioactive material that exceeds NRC's unrestricted 
release criteria; and (3) there are no known sources of radioactive 
contamination up-gradient of this area. Consequently, it is very 
unlikely that the groundwater in these areas could have been 
contaminated.
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    \5\ Figure 2.5, ``Potentiometeric Surface Map of the Upper 
Zone,'' Kerr-McGee Corporation's Site Decommissioning Plan Cushing, 
Oklahoma, dated August 1998.
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    The Other Industrial Waste (OIW) disposal cell is located up-
gradient of this area. Material from the remediation of Waste Acid 
Sludge Pit 4 (Pit 4) that meets NRC's Option 1 criteria for 
unrestricted release will be disposed of in the OIW. NRC reviewed this 
disposal activity as part of its review of the Pit 4 remediation plan. 
On September 3, 1998, NRC approved the Pit 4 remediation plan, License 
Amendment No. 8.
    Based on the above NRC staff finds that because the NRC's 
unrestricted release criteria have been met for these areas, there is 
no significant impact on the environment, and this portion of the 
property can be released for unrestricted use.

4. Alternatives to Proposed Action

    The only alternative to the proposed action is to not release this 
area for unrestricted use and keep the area under license until all 
site radiological remediation is completed and the Cushing license is 
terminated. The environmental benefit of maintaining an NRC license for 
this portion of the Cushing Refinery Site is negligible, but would 
reduce options for future use of the property.

5. Other Agencies or Persons Consulted

    This environmental assessment was prepared entirely by NRC staff. 
No other sources were used beyond those referenced in this 
environmental assessment. NRC staff provided a draft of this 
environmental assessment to DEQ for review. DEQ had no comments or 
suggestions on this environmental assessment.

6. Conclusions

    The NRC finds that because the Commission's unrestricted release 
criteria have been met, there is no significant impact on the 
environment, and the property can be released for unrestricted use.

Finding of No Significant Impact

    The Commission has prepared an Environmental Assessment related to 
the proposed unrestricted release, and removal from License SNM-1999, 
of

[[Page 38040]]

portions of site blocks 116, 117, 124, and 125 that are south of Skull 
Creek on the Cushing Refinery Site, in Cushing, Oklahoma. On May 11, 
2001, the Commission provided notice of this proposed action and 
offered an opportunity for a hearing.\6\ There were no requests for a 
hearing received. On the basis of the Environmental Assessment, the 
Commission has concluded that this licensing action would not 
significantly effect the quality of human environment and has 
determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement for this 
proposed action.
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    \6\ 66 FR 24167
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    The above documents related to this proposed action are available 
for inspection on the Commission's Public Electronic Reading Room at 
http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html. 

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 13th day of July 2001.

    For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Larry W. Camper,
Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Waste Management, Office of 
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 01-18174 Filed 7-19-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P