[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 79 (Thursday, April 24, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20134-20137]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-10151]


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

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Surplus Plutonium Disposition Program

AGENCY: National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy.

ACTION: Amended record of decision.

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

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security 
Administration (DOE/NNSA) is amending the Record of Decision (ROD) for 
the Surplus Plutonium Disposition Environmental Impact Statement (SPD 
EIS) to allow for the disposition of up to 34 metric tons (MT) of 
surplus weapons-grade plutonium as mixed oxide (MOX) fuel to be 
irradiated in commercial nuclear reactors. The ROD for the SPD EIS 
indicated that DOE would dispose of up to 50 MT of weapons-usable 
surplus plutonium by making MOX fuel from 33 MT and immobilizing the 
remaining 17 MT. However, on April 19, 2002, DOE/NNSA amended that ROD 
to cancel the immobilization portion of the surplus plutonium 
disposition program due to budgetary constraints. DOE/NNSA also noted 
in the April 19, 2002 ROD that in response to a statutory directive, it 
had submitted to Congress a report on a strategy for the disposal of 
surplus plutonium currently located at, or to be shipped to the 
Savannah River Site (SRS). That strategy involved converting this 
plutonium to MOX fuel and irradiating it in commercial power reactors. 
DOE/NNSA stated in the April 19, 2002 ROD that it was evaluating the 
changes to the MOX fuel portion of the surplus plutonium disposition 
program that would be entailed by such a MOX-only strategy, including 
the need for additional environmental reviews pursuant to the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and that it would make no final 
decisions regarding the MOX portion of the program until these reviews 
were completed.
    In accordance with the April 19, 2002 amended ROD, DOE/NNSA has now 
evaluated the changes to the MOX fuel portion of the program that would 
be entailed by pursuit of such a MOX-only disposition strategy and the 
impacts of those changes. This evaluation is presented in a Supplement 
Analysis (SA) prepared pursuant to DOE procedures implementing NEPA (10 
CFR 1021.314), Supplement Analysis for Changes Needed to the Surplus 
Plutonium Disposition Program (DOE/EIS-0283-SA1). It concludes that the 
potential environmental impacts of the changes in the MOX program are 
not significantly different from the impacts analyzed in the SPD EIS. 
Therefore, DOE/NNSA will now pursue a MOX-only surplus plutonium 
disposition program. The program will dispose of 34 MT of surplus 
plutonium, including approximately 6.5 MT of the 17 MT of surplus 
plutonium originally intended for immobilization.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information concerning the 
disposition of surplus plutonium, copy of the Supplement Analysis for 
Changes Needed to the Surplus Plutonium Disposition Program or this 
amended ROD, contact Hitesh Nigam, Deputy NEPA Compliance Officer, 
Office of Fissile Materials Disposition, National Nuclear Security 
Administration, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585, or 
leave a message at 800-820-5134.
    For further information concerning DOE's NEPA process, contact Ms. 
Carol Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance (EH-
42), U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., 
Washington, DC 20585, Telephone (202) 586-4600, or leave a message at 
(800) 472-2756. Additional information regarding the DOE NEPA process 
and activities is also available on the Internet through the NEPA home 
page at http://tis.eh.doe.gov/nepa.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    On April 19, 2002, DOE/NNSA issued an amended ROD (67 FR 19432) for 
the Surplus Plutonium Disposition Environmental Impact Statement (SPD 
EIS) (DOE/EIS-0283, November 1999) and the Storage and Disposition of 
Weapons-Usable Fissile Materials Final Programmatic Environmental 
Impact

[[Page 20135]]

Statement (Storage and Disposition PEIS) (DOE/EIS-0229, December 1996). 
That amended ROD canceled the immobilization component of the U.S. 
surplus plutonium disposition program for surplus weapons-usable \1\ 
(weapons-grade \2\ and non-weapons-grade) plutonium described in the 
two EISs. The amended ROD selected the alternative of immediate 
implementation of consolidated long-term storage at the SRS of surplus 
non-pit plutonium now stored separately at the Rocky Flats 
Environmental Technology Site (RFETS). DOE has begun shipping the RFETS 
surplus non-pit plutonium to SRS pursuant to that ROD, and anticipates 
that the shipping campaign will be completed by late summer of 2003.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ Weapons-usable plutonium is plutonium in forms (e.g., metals 
or oxides) that can be readily converted for use in nuclear weapons. 
Weapons-grade, fuel-grade, and power-reactor-grade plutonium are all 
weapons-usable.
    \2\ Weapons-grade plutonium is plutonium with an isotopic ratio 
of plutonium-240 to plutonium-239 of no more than 0.10.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The April 19 amended ROD also explained that in response to a 
Congressional directive set out in Section 3155(c) of The National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002, on February 15, 2002 
DOE/NNSA submitted a Report to Congress: Disposition of Surplus Defense 
Plutonium at Savannah River Site (supplemented by letter on March 5, 
2002). That report stated that DOE/NNSA's current disposition strategy 
involves a MOX-only approach, under which DOE/NNSA would dispose of up 
to 34 MT of surplus weapons-grade plutonium by converting it to MOX 
fuel and irradiating it in commercial power reactors. The April 19 ROD 
noted that implementation of this strategy would allow the successful 
completion of the September 2000 Agreement Between the Government of 
the United States and the Government of the Russian Federation 
Concerning the Management and Disposition of Plutonium Designated as No 
Longer Required for Defense Purposes and Related Cooperation (U.S.-
Russia Agreement). It also stated, however, that DOE was in the process 
of analyzing the changes to the MOX fuel portion of the surplus 
plutonium disposition program that would be entailed by such a 
strategy, including analysis conducted pursuant to NEPA, and that no 
final decisions regarding the MOX portion of the surplus plutonium 
disposition program would be made until DOE/NNSA completed this 
analysis.
    DOE has previously prepared a number of NEPA documents regarding 
the surplus plutonium disposition program. The Storage and Disposition 
PEIS evaluated the potential environmental consequences of alternative 
strategies for the long-term storage of weapons-usable plutonium and 
highly enriched uranium and the disposition of weapons-usable plutonium 
that has been or may be declared surplus to national security needs. 
The ROD for the Storage and Disposition PEIS, issued on January 21, 
1997 (62 FR 3014), outlined DOE's decision to pursue a hybrid 
disposition strategy that allowed for both the immobilization of some 
(and potentially all) of the surplus plutonium and the fabrication of 
some of the surplus plutonium into MOX fuel to be irradiated in 
existing domestic, commercial reactors. Subsequent to issuing the ROD 
for the Storage and Disposition PEIS, DOE conducted a competitive 
procurement and in March 1999 selected the team of Duke Cogema Stone & 
Webster (DCS) to design, construct and operate a potential MOX facility 
in accordance with U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 
regulations.
    The SPD EIS, which tiered from the Storage and Disposition PEIS, 
evaluated site-specific alternatives for the construction and operation 
of three facilities to dispose of up to 50 MT \3\ of surplus plutonium. 
The ROD for the SPD EIS, issued on January 11, 2000 (65 FR 1608), 
affirmed DOE's decision to implement a hybrid approach for the safe and 
secure disposition of up to 50 MT of surplus plutonium. Clean metals 
and clean oxides were identified as feed for the MOX fuel fabrication 
facility (MOX facility). Impure metals, plutonium alloys, impure 
oxides, uranium/plutonium oxides, alloy reactor fuel, and oxide reactor 
fuel were identified as feed for the immobilization facility. In 
addition, SRS was selected as the site for construction and operation 
of the three disposition facilities: the pit disassembly and conversion 
facility, the MOX facility, and the plutonium conversion and 
immobilization facility (immobilization facility).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \3\ This amount (50 MT) accommodates the potential declaration 
of additional surplus plutonium in the future. To date, 38 MT of 
weapons-grade plutonium have been declared surplus. Of this amount, 
approximately 4 MT is already in the form of waste or spent nuclear 
fuel.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In 2001, the schedule for design, construction and operation of the 
immobilization facility was delayed due to budgetary constraints. In 
its February 15, 2002 Report to Congress, DOE/NNSA stated that after 
evaluating the feasibility of implementing two disposition approaches, 
it believed that the best way to make the most progress with available 
funds while maintaining Russian interest in and commitment to surplus 
plutonium disposition was to pursue a MOX-only disposition strategy. On 
April 19, 2002, DOE/NNSA issued an amended ROD revising the earlier 
decisions announced in the RODs for the Storage and Disposition PEIS 
and the SPD EIS. With respect to surplus plutonium disposition, the 
amended ROD announced DOE/NNSA's decision to cancel the immobilization 
program and conduct additional NEPA analyses, as appropriate, before 
making any final decisions regarding the MOX portion of the surplus 
plutonium disposition.
    In addition to these various NEPA documents that DOE has prepared, 
DOE/NNSA notes that the NRC is preparing an EIS for the MOX facility 
based on an Environmental Report submitted by DCS in support of its 
application, pursuant to 10 CFR part 70, for an NRC license to possess 
and use special nuclear material in the MOX facility.
    Finally, DOE/NNSA takes note of Division C, Title XXXI, Subtitle E 
of the recently enacted Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act 
for Fiscal Year 2003 (Pub. L. 107-314, December 2, 2002). That 
Subtitle, entitled ``Disposition of Weapons-Usable Plutonium at 
Savannah River, South Carolina,'' directs the Secretary to submit to 
Congress a plan for and series of reports regarding construction and 
operation of a MOX facility at SRS under a specific timetable. It also 
directs the Secretary to take certain actions if that schedule is not 
being met, which depending on the circumstance may include preparation 
of a corrective action plan, cessation of further transfers of weapons-
usable plutonium to SRS until the Secretary certifies that the MOX 
production objective can be met, removal of weapons-usable plutonium 
transferred to SRS, and payment of economic assistance to SRS from 
funds available to the Secretary. In DOE/NNSA's view, enactment of this 
legislation demonstrates strong congressional interest in seeing DOE/
NNSA proceed with the MOX facility as promptly as is reasonably 
possible, and DOE/NNSA is proceeding accordingly.

II. Changes to the MOX Facility and Program

    There are two sets of changes that are relevant to evaluating the 
environmental impacts of a MOX facility that would be used in the MOX 
program currently being contemplated as compared with the impacts of 
the MOX facility evaluated in the SPD EIS. First, entirely 
independently of the fact that the

[[Page 20136]]

revised strategy contemplates the fabrication of additional material 
into MOX, as the detailed design for the MOX facility has progressed in 
conjunction with the NRC licensing process, some of the facility design 
parameters originally assumed in preparing the SPD EIS have changed.
    Second, the MOX-only program DOE is now contemplating would entail 
fabricating into MOX slightly more plutonium than previously analyzed 
(34 MT rather than 33 MT, a difference of approximately 3%). It would 
also include in the MOX program a portion (approximately 6.5 MT) of the 
17 MT of plutonium originally destined for immobilization.\4\ This 
latter plutonium, referred to as ``alternate feedstock,'' is currently 
in storage at various sites around the DOE complex. The majority of 
this material is now at RFETS, and DOE/NNSA is in the process of 
shipping it to SRS.\5\ The remainder is located primarily at the 
Hanford Reservation, SRS, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 
and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. This alternate feedstock has 
more impurities and some larger particles sizes than the plutonium 
originally analyzed. This means additional equipment will need to be 
incorporated into the MOX facility to homogenize and reduce the 
particle size of some of the new feedstock and to remove the additional 
impurities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \4\ In its original February 15, 2002 Report to Congress, DOE/
NNSA indicated that it believed that 6.4 MT of impure surplus 
plutonium, previously intended for immobilization, could reasonably 
be purified and used as feedstock for MOX fuel fabrication. That 
report also indicated that an additional 2 MT of impure surplus 
plutonium was too heavily contaminated to be cost-effectively used 
as MOX feedstock, and would therefore be disposed of as waste. A 
March 5, 2002 letter supplementing the February 15 Report noted 
that, while disposal of the 2 MT as waste remains a possibility, DOE 
was evaluating other disposal options, including additional 
processing that might result in the recovery of additional plutonium 
suitable for fabrication as MOX fuel. DOE recently determined that a 
small portion of this material, currently stored at RFETS, would 
most appropriately be disposed of as waste at the Waste Isolation 
Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. See Supplement Analysis for 
the Disposal of Certain Rocky Flats Plutonium-Bearing Materials at 
the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (DOE/EIS-0026-SA-3, November 2002); 
Amendment to the Record of Decision on Waste Isolation Pilot Plant 
Disposal Phase Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (67 FR 
69512, November 18, 2002). DOE is still evaluating options to 
determine the most cost-effective manner for disposing of the 
remainder of the 2 MT of impure plutonium, and at present this 
plutonium is not included in the surplus plutonium that will be used 
to implement the U.S.-Russia Agreement. If that remains the case, 
this 2 MT would be replaced with an equivalent amount of additional 
weapons-grade plutonium to be identified in a future surplus 
declaration.
    \5\ In the April 19, 2002 amended ROD, DOE decided to transfer 
the non-pit surplus plutonium at RFETS to SRS for long-term storage, 
in order to facilitate the closure of RFETS. It otherwise left 
unmodified its earlier decision to continue to store the non-pit 
material at the sites where it is currently located. Today's 
decision likewise leaves unmodified that earlier decision to leave 
that material in place.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

III. NEPA Process for Amending ROD

    The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations implementing 
NEPA at 40 CFR 1502.9(c) require Federal agencies to prepare a 
supplement to an EIS when an agency makes substantial changes in the 
proposed action that are relevant to environmental concerns or when 
there are significant new circumstances or information relevant to 
environmental concerns and bearing on the proposed action or its 
impacts. DOE regulations at 10 CFR 1021.314(c) direct that when it is 
unclear whether a supplement to an EIS is required, an SA be prepared 
to assist in making that determination. DOE/NNSA has recently prepared 
the Supplement Analysis for Changes Needed to the Surplus Plutonium 
Disposition Program (DOE/EIS-0283-SA1) in accordance with these CEQ and 
DOE regulations.
    In the SPD EIS ROD, DOE selected the Preferred Alternative (SPD EIS 
Alternative 3), which involves the construction and operation of three 
disposition facilities at SRS. The SA evaluates the proposed changes to 
the MOX facility within the context of the SPD EIS Preferred 
Alternative, and recognizes that, with the cancellation of the 
immobilization facility, only two disposition facilities are to be 
constructed and operated at SRS. The analysis also reflects the design 
changes in the MOX facility proposed during the NRC licensing process. 
The SA also evaluates the proposed processing of 34 MT of surplus 
plutonium, including the alternate feedstock, and compares the impacts 
of that proposal to the associated impacts presented in the SPD EIS. 
The conclusions from the SA are summarized in Section IV of this 
amended ROD. Section IV also discusses the effect of using the 
alternate feedstock to fabricate MOX fuel on DOE/NNSA's decision in the 
April 19, 2002 amended ROD to consolidate long-term storage at SRS of 
surplus non-pit plutonium stored separately at RFETS (see Section I).

IV. Summary of Impacts

    None of the changes to the program described above would result in 
impacts significantly different from, or significantly greater than, 
those described in the SPD EIS. For most of the resource areas 
analyzed, no differences or only very minor differences in impacts were 
identified. Where there are differences in impacts, they are relatively 
small and are well within DOE's capacity to manage.
    Increased impacts result from increases in the volume of low-level 
radioactive waste, transuranic (TRU) waste, and nonradioactive, 
nonhazardous wastewater from the MOX facility over levels identified in 
the SPD EIS. However, there is sufficient capacity within the waste 
management infrastructure at SRS, and available disposal capacity 
within the DOE complex, to accommodate the additional waste. Moreover, 
the total number of shipments of TRU waste from SRS to the Waste 
Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) remains within the number of shipments 
evaluated in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Disposal Phase Final 
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (WIPP SEIS) when the 
additional shipments of TRU waste generated by MOX facility operations 
are included. Finally, from a programmatic perspective (i.e., 
construction and operation of only two facilities rather than three), 
overall generation of non-radioactive, non-hazardous wastewater 
decreases.
    The amount of land estimated to be temporarily and permanently 
disturbed for construction of the MOX facility would increase from that 
identified in the SPD EIS. However, construction of the MOX facility in 
F-Area is consistent with other SRS uses and with the surrounding 
industrial land use.
    Changes to the MOX facility and associated operations would result 
in only minor additional impacts on other resource areas, including an 
overall decrease in water use and a small positive socioeconomic 
benefit from the need for a slightly larger workforce. No new or 
different bounding accident scenarios or impacts have been identified, 
and operation of the MOX facility continues to pose no more than a 
small risk to human health and the environment.
    Prior to issuing the April 19 amended ROD to provide for the 
transfer of RFETS surplus non-pit plutonium to SRS, DOE prepared an SA 
entitled Supplement Analysis for Storage of Surplus Plutonium Materials 
in the K-Area Material Storage Facility at the Savannah River Site 
(KAMS SA), DOE/EIS-0229-SA-2, February 2002. That SA analyzed the 
impacts of storing up to 15 MT of plutonium in the KAMS facility for up 
to 50 years. Like the rest of the non-pit plutonium, this material will 
have to be sampled before any final decision can be made whether it can 
be fabricated into MOX, but DOE/NNSA anticipates that, depending on 
system performance and actual material

[[Page 20137]]

characteristics, almost all of the RFETS plutonium will be included in 
the approximately 6.5 MT of alternate feedstock, meaning that this 
material would not require long-term storage.
    Based on these analyses, DOE/NNSA has determined that the potential 
environmental impacts associated with the proposed changes to the 
revised disposition program, including facility design changes, a small 
increase in the total amount of material to be fabricated into MOX 
fuel, and the processing of approximately 6.5 MT of surplus plutonium 
originally intended for immobilization, would not constitute 
significant new circumstances or information relevant to environmental 
concerns and bearing on the action and impacts previously analyzed in 
the SPD EIS. Therefore, pursuant to 10 CFR 1021.314, no additional NEPA 
analysis is required for DOE/NNSA to move forward with the design 
changes and modify its disposition program so that it will entail 
processing 34 MT of surplus plutonium, including approximately 6.5 MT 
of plutonium originally intended for immobilization, into MOX fuel.

V. Amended Decision

    DOE/NNSA is modifying its previous surplus plutonium disposition 
decisions in order to implement the U.S.-Russia Agreement using a 34-MT 
MOX-only approach. DOE/NNSA is modifying its decisions on the 
disposition of surplus plutonium as follows:
    [sbull] Pursue a program of fabricating into MOX fuel (after 
appropriate sampling to determine actual material characteristics) 
approximately 6.5 MT of surplus weapons-grade plutonium originally 
intended for immobilization, including the material transferred from 
RFETS to SRS for storage that after appropriate sampling is determined 
to meet the MOX fabrication facility's specifications.
    [sbull] Increase the total amount of surplus plutonium to be 
fabricated into MOX fuel under that program from 33 MT to 34 MT.

    Issued in Washington, DC, this 17th day of April, 2003.
Linton F. Brooks,
Acting Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration.
[FR Doc. 03-10151 Filed 4-23-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P