[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 36 (Monday, February 24, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8635-8637]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-4262]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[DOCKET NO. 70-734]


Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for 
General Atomics' Request To Amend Special Nuclear Material License SNM-
696

I. Introduction

    The NRC is considering an amendment to General Atomics' (GA's) NRC 
Special Nuclear Material License SNM-696. The proposed amendment will 
revise the material possession limits in its license to reflect the 
actual amount of inventory currently on its site. An Environmental 
Assessment (EA) was performed by the NRC staff in support of its review 
of GA's license amendment request, in accordance with the requirements 
of 10 CFR Part 51. The conclusion of the EA is a Finding of No 
Significant Impact (FONSI) for the proposed licensing action.

II. Supplementary Information

Background

    GA was formerly authorized by the NRC and its predecessor, the 
Atomic Energy Commission, to use special

[[Page 8636]]

nuclear material in nuclear fuel fabrication and research and 
development pursuant to its license SNM-696. However, following 
submittal by GA of applications dated September 26, 1995, and June 14 
and July 19, 1996, on September 26, 1996, the NRC amended GA's license 
to authorize only activities incident to decommissioning. On April 29, 
1998, the NRC further amended GA's license to incorporate the 
Decommissioning Plan. 63 FR 20671.
    Since issuance of these license amendments, GA has decommissioned a 
number of areas of its site and has removed a significant amount of 
licensed material. GA has removed this material by either transferring 
the material to licensed recipients or shipping the material to a 
licensed disposal facility.
    By license application dated October 31, 2002 (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML023160041), GA requested that its license SNM-696 be amended to 
reduce the limits in its license to reflect the reduction in its 
inventory of special nuclear material that has resulted from its 
ongoing decommissioning activities. The initial application indicated 
that the license authorized GA to acquire, deliver, receive, possess, 
use and transfer SNM. GA submitted a corrected application dated 
November 7, 2002 (ADAMS Accession No. ML023220032), deleting the words 
``acquire,'' ``receive,'' and ``use,'' from the initial application, to 
correctly reflect that GA is authorized only to possess, transfer, and 
ship special nuclear material.

Identification of the Proposed Action

    The proposed action would be to amend GA's license to reflect the 
reduced amount of special nuclear material remaining on its site. The 
previous and revised possession limits are listed in the following 
table:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                        Previous
             SNM               Chemical or physical    possession              Revised possession limit
                                       form               limit
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. Uranium...................  Enriched up to               \1\ 200  Less than 10 kilograms U-235.
                                19.99% U-235.
B. Uranium...................  Enriched 20-100% U-         \2\ 5000  Less than 1,000 gm.\3\
                                235.
C. U-233.....................  Any.................        \2\ 2000  Less than 100 gm U-233.\3\
D. Plutonium.................  Encapsulated and/or         \2\ 2000  Less than 100 gm total Pu.\3\
                                sealed sources.
E. Plutonium.................  Bred but unseparated        \2\ 1000  Less than 50 gm total Pu.\3\
F. Plutonium.................  Plated calibration             \2\ 5  Less than 5 grams total Pu.\3\
                                sources.
G. Plutonium.................  Solutions,                     \2\ 5  Less than 5 grams total Pu.\3\
                                precipitates,
                                solids.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Gram.
\2\ Kilogram.
\3\ The sum total quantity of strategic special nuclear material possessed at any one time must be less than
  1,000 grams computed by the formula: Grams = grams U-235 in uranium enriched to 20% or more plus 2 x (grams U-
  233 + grams plutonium).

Purpose and Need for the Proposed Action

    The proposed action would bring the possession limits section of 
GA's license into conformance with the amounts of special nuclear 
material actually remaining on site.

Cumulative Impacts

    NRC has found no other current or planned activities in the area 
that would result in cumulative impacts.

Alternatives to the Proposed Action

    An alternative to the proposed action would be for the NRC staff to 
deny the licensee's request. The licensee would then continue to be 
authorized to possess larger quantities of special nuclear material on 
the site; however, it would also continue to be prohibited from 
acquiring, receiving, or using special nuclear material, in accordance 
with its current license.

Affected Environment

    The affected environment is the GA site in La Jolla, California. It 
is described in the Site Decommissioning Plan, dated October 11, 1996. 
Since the Site Decommissioning Plan was approved, GA has decontaminated 
and decommissioned several areas of the site, and these areas have been 
released for unrestricted use and have been deleted from GA's license.

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action

    There are no environmental impacts of the proposed action. The 
license amendment revises the license to reflect the current condition 
of the site, and does not authorize any change in activities.

State Consultation

    NRC staff discussed this proposed action with Ms. Sudana Kwok, 
Project Manager of GA's byproduct material license with the California 
Department of Health Services, Radiologic Health Branch. The DHS/RHB is 
in agreement with the proposed action and has no comments.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    Based upon the foregoing environmental assessment, the staff 
concludes that the proposed action will not have a significant effect 
on the quality of the human environment. Accordingly, the staff has 
determined that preparation of an environmental impact statement is not 
warranted.

IV. Further Information

    The following documents are related to the proposed action.

References

    Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) title 10, chapter I--Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, part 51, Environmental Protection Regulations 
for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions.
    Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) title 10, chapter I--Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, part 70, Domestic Licensing of Special Nuclear 
Material.
    General Atomics, Docket No. 70-734; SNM-696; Submittal of Corrected 
Revised Section 1 (Material License Limits) of Part II ``Specifications 
Volume'' of SNM-696, November 7, 2002 (ADAMS Accession No. 023220032).
    Nuclear Regulatory Commission; General Atomics Amendment 75; 
December 9, 2002; NRC Form 374 Sections 6., 7., and 8 (ADAMS Accession 
No. ML023250261).
    These references may be examined and/or copied for a fee at the 
NRC's Public Document Room, located at One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The references with ADAMS 
accession numbers may also be viewed in the NRC's Electronic Public 
Document Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Any 
questions with respect to his action should be referred to Ms. Mary 
Adams, Fuel Cycle Facilities Branch, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and 
Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail Stop T-8

[[Page 8637]]

A33, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Telephone (301) 415-7249.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 14th day of February, 2003.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Daniel M. Gillen,
Fuel Cycle Facilities Branch, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and 
Safeguards, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 03-4262 Filed 2-21-03; 8:45 am]
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