[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 79 (Wednesday, April 24, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20183-20185]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-9991]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION


Notice of Delay in Issuance of the Draft and Final Environmental 
Impact Statements for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility

AGENCY: United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of change in schedule.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: On March 7, 2001, pursuant to the National Environmental 
Policy Act (NEPA), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 
published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to Prepare an Environmental Impact 
Statement (EIS) for a proposed Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication 
Facility (66 FR 13794). NRC staff subsequently held scoping meetings, 
and issued a Scoping Summary Report in connection with preparing the 
EIS. NRC staff planned to issue a Draft Environmental Impact Statement 
(DEIS) on February 27, 2002. NRC staff decided this schedule needed to 
be changed when, in January 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 
announced its decision to alter its planned hybrid approach for surplus 
weapons plutonium disposition [65 FR 1608]. The Plutonium 
Immobilization Plant (PIP) that DOE had planned to build and operate as 
part of its hybrid

[[Page 20184]]

approach will not be built. Instead, DOE decided that 34 metric tons of 
surplus weapons plutonium would be converted into MOX fuel at the 
proposed MOX facility. During the scoping process, immobilization of 
plutonium was identified as one of the No Action Alternatives to be 
evaluated in the EIS for the proposed MOX facility. DOE's decision not 
to build the PIP and convert all of the plutonium into MOX fuel 
requires design changes to the proposed MOX facility. These design 
changes were generally described in a February 13, 2002, public meeting 
between the NRC staff and the applicant, Duke COGEMA Stone & Webster 
(DCS). The NRC staff found that due to these changes, DCS would be 
required to submit a supplemental Environmental Report (ER), and that 
the DEIS should not be issued until after the supplemental ER is 
received and reviewed. The supplemental ER is expected to be submitted 
in July 2002, and the NRC staff anticipates issuing the DEIS in 
February 2003.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general or technical information 
associated with the proposed MOX facility, please contact: Tim Johnson 
at (301) 415-7299, or Drew Persinko at (301) 415-6522. For general 
information on the NRC NEPA process, please contact: Tim Harris at 
(301) 415-6613.
    Availability of Documents for Review: Information and documents 
associated with the MOX project are available for public review through 
our electronic reading room: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html. 
Documents may also be obtained from NRC's Public Document Room at U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Public Document Room, Washington, DC 
20555.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Background: In January 2000, DOE issued its Record of Decision 
(ROD) for the Surplus Plutonium Disposition Final EIS (65 FR 1608). The 
fundamental purpose of the DOE program is to ensure that plutonium 
produced for nuclear weapons and declared excess to national security 
needs is converted to forms that are inaccessible and unattractive for 
nuclear weapons. In its ROD, DOE announced that it had decided to use a 
hybrid approach for the disposition of surplus weapons plutonium, and 
that the facilities would be located at DOE's Savannah River Site (SRS) 
in South Carolina. The first approach described in the ROD was 
immobilization of approximately 17 metric tons of surplus plutonium. 
Immobilization would involve placing the weapons plutonium into 
canisters at the PIP, and filling the canisters with vitrified waste 
from the SRS high-level waste (HLW) tanks. The second approach would 
have converted up to 33 metric tons of surplus plutonium into MOX fuel 
at the proposed MOX facility.
    DOE selected DCS to design, build, and operate the proposed MOX 
fuel fabrication facility. DCS submitted its ER for the MOX facility to 
NRC on December 19, 2000, and submitted its construction authorization 
request (CAR) to NRC on February 28, 2001. The NRC staff has been 
reviewing the CAR and ER to determine whether DCS should be authorized 
to begin constructing the proposed MOX facility.
    NRC staff held scoping meetings to gather comments from members of 
the public in April and May 2001, and issued a Scoping Summary Report 
of those comments in August 2001. However, because of the changes in 
the project (summarized above and discussed below), NRC has decided to 
delay issuance of the DEIS.
    Cancellation of Plutonium Immobilization Plant: In DOE's 2003 
Fiscal Year budget, it stated that the immobilization approach will not 
be pursued. The Plutonium Immobilization Plant (PIP) was one of the 
three facilities planned as part of DOE's hybrid approach for surplus 
weapons plutonium disposition (65 FR 1608). Under DOE's new plan, 
approximately 6 metric tons of plutonium previously destined for 
immobilization would be processed in the re-designed proposed MOX 
facility. Plutonium that is too costly to convert to MOX fuel would be 
disposed of as waste by DOE.
    During EIS scoping, immobilization of all surplus plutonium was 
identified as one of the No Action Alternatives for the MOX facility 
EIS. DOE's cancellation of the PIP requires that discussions of this No 
Action Alternative in the DEIS be reconsidered.
    The NRC staff believes that it would be difficult for the public to 
comment effectively on the DEIS if it were issued in its current form, 
since the immobilization No Action Alternative arose from public 
comments received during the scoping process. The NRC is reviewing how 
it will present the second No Action Alternative in the DEIS.
    Additional Changes in the Proposed DOE Action: As a result of the 
PIP cancellation, 6 metric tons of plutonium, originally slated for 
immobilization (designated as alternate feedstock), and 2 metric tons 
from additional sources, would now be processed in a re-designed 
proposed MOX facility. The alternate feedstock includes impurities that 
would require more processing than the plutonium already scheduled for 
conversion into MOX fuel. In addition, the amount of high-alpha waste 
produced from the MOX facility would be greater, due to processing of 
the alternate feedstock. The current MOX facility design will be 
updated to include new or additional equipment and processing steps to 
accommodate the additional plutonium.
    In addition to the changes in the proposed MOX fuel fabrication 
facility prompted by the PIP cancellation, DOE plans to construct and 
operate a new waste processing building at the SRS to solidify the MOX 
waste streams (high-alpha and uranium) that were originally planned to 
go to DOE's HLW tanks at the SRS.
    Resulting Changes in the Proposed NRC MOX DEIS: The DEIS will be 
revised to include and evaluate the proposed changes to the MOX fuel 
fabrication facility, including new and/or altered equipment plans, 
additional processing steps and the consequent hazards, and the 
additional waste generated. The DEIS will also evaluate the changes to 
the waste processing plans, including construction and operation of a 
new DOE facility. Finally, the DEIS will be revised to evaluate the 
impacts of transporting and using the additional MOX fuel. The impacts 
related to reactor use of MOX fuel, as described in the ER, consider 
only fuel converted from 25.5 metric ton of surplus plutonium, and not 
the 34 metric ton now scheduled to be converted into MOX fuel at the 
proposed MOX facility.
    Your Comments are Requested: The NRC is hereby soliciting comments 
on our plans for the DEIS to accommodate the changes in the DOE and DCS 
programs. We would specifically like you to comment on:
    (1) How the immobilization of surplus plutonium as a No Action 
Alternative should be discussed in the DEIS, since DOE has canceled 
plans to build the Plutonium Immobilization Plant.
    (2) Whether there are additional reasonable alternatives not 
identified during scoping that should be considered in the DEIS, in 
light of the changes described above. As discussed in the Scoping 
Summary Report, NRC is considering the environmental impacts of the 
proposed action (construction and operation of the proposed MOX fuel 
fabrication facility), continued storage of surplus plutonium at 
existing DOE sites, and immobilization of surplus plutonium. If the 
immobilization alternative is not considered, then the DEIS would only 
evaluate the proposed action and one No Action Alternative.

[[Page 20185]]

    Please submit your comments on or before August 30, 2002. Written 
comments should be mailed to Mike Lesar, Chief, Rules and Directives 
Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, 
Mail Stop T-6D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555. Comments will also be accepted by e-mail. Interested parties may 
e-mail their comments to [email protected]. Comments will also be accepted by 
fax at (301) 415-5398, Attention: Tim Harris.
    Tentative Schedule: Based on available information, and assuming 
DCS submits a supplemental ER in July 2002, NRC has revised the EIS 
schedule as follows:
Conduct Acceptance Review of DCS Supplemental Environmental Report--
August 2002
Conduct Informational Meetings--September 2002
Issue Draft Environmental Impact Statement--February 2003
Public Comment on DEIS--February-April 2003
Issue Final Environmental Impact Statement--August 2003

    Signed in Rockville, MD, this 17th day of April, 2002.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Thomas H. Essig,
Chief, Environmental and Performance Assessment Branch, Division of 
Waste Management, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 02-9991 Filed 4-23-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P