[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 206 (Friday, October 24, 2003)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 60885-60886]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-26895]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
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This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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Federal Register / Vol. 68, No. 206 / Friday, October 24, 2003 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 60885]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 40
State of Utah: NRC Staff Assessment of Utah's Proposed
Alternative Standard to Use Utah's Existing Groundwater Regulation in
Lieu of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Regulations; Addition of
Supplementary Information, Notice of Availability of Documents, and
Extension of Comment Period
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Supplementary information on hearing process; availability of
documents; extension of comment period.
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SUMMARY: The NRC is supplementing the information provided in the
Notice and Opportunity for Public Hearing: ``State of Utah: NRC Staff
Assessment of Utah's Proposed Alternative Standard to Use Utah's
Existing Groundwater Regulation in Lieu of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission Regulations'' (68 FR 51516; August 27, 2003). This
supplement provides details about the hearing process discussed in the
August 27, 2003 notice. In addition, although already publicly
available from the National Technology Information Service (NTIS) where
they can be purchased, the two documents referenced in the August
notice, i.e., NUREG-0706, Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement
on Uranium Milling (September 1980), and EPA 520/1-83-008, Final
Environmental Impact Statement for Standards for the Control of
Byproduct Materials from Uranium Processing (September 1983), have been
placed into the NRC's Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of
NRC's document system (ADAMS). The NRC is also extending the date by
which interested persons may submit comments on this action.
DATES: The comment period expires on November 24, 2003. Comments
received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do
so, but the Commission cannot assure consideration of comments received
after the expiration date.
ADDRESSES: Written comments may be submitted to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention:
Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. Email comments to: [email protected].
If you do not receive a reply e-mail confirming that we have received
your comments, contact us directly at (301) 415-1966.
Hand deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland
20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. Federal workdays.
Fax comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at
(301) 415-1101.
The documents referenced in the Summary paragraph, as well as
copies of comments received by the NRC, the State's submittals, and the
correspondence between the State and the NRC staff, are accessible from
the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/html. The ADAMS
accession numbers for NUREG-0706, Final Generic Environmental Impact
Statement on Uranium Milling (September 1980) is ML032751661, and for
EPA 520/1-83-008, Final Environmental Impact Statement for Standards
for the Control of Byproduct Materials from Uranium Processing
(September 1983), is ML032751390. The documents, comments, submittals,
and correspondence are also available, and may be copied for a fee, at
the NRC Public Document Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Public File Area O-
1-F21, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
This notice, the August 27, 2003 (68 FR 51516) notice, and the
comments received on the August 27, 2003 notice, are available on the
NRC Web site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov under the information/comment
request category.
Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC after
November 1, 1999, are available electronically at the NRC's Electronic
Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/html. From this site, the
public can gain entry into the NRC's Agencywide Document Access and
Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's
public documents. Copies of documents cited in this section are
available through ADAMS. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there
are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the
NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-
415-4737 or by e-mail to [email protected].
The State has posted documents related to its amendment application
including the alternative groundwater regulations on the State's Web
site at: http://www.deq.state.ut.us/EQRAD/milllst.htm.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dennis M. Sollenberger, Office of
State and Tribal Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, Telephone (301) 415-2819 or e-mail
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
By letter dated October 23, 2002, to Paul Lohaus, Director, Office
of State and Tribal Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC),
William J. Sinclair, Director, Division of Radiation Control (the
State), State of Utah, submitted information on how the State proposes
to regulate a portion of the groundwater aspects of uranium milling in
the State of Utah. Utah's proposed approach is to use its existing
groundwater protection regulations, based on Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) drinking water limits, in lieu of a portion of the
specific groundwater requirements in Appendix A to 10 CFR part 40
(Appendix A).
The Commission has determined that Utah's proposal constitutes use
of alternative standards. The Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control
Act of 1978 which amended the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (Act), by
adding Section 274o, requires the Commission to make a determination
that such alternative standards will achieve a level of stabilization
and containment of the sites concerned, and a level of protection for
public health, safety, and the environment from radiological and non-
radiological hazards associated with such sites, that is equivalent to,
to the extent practicable, or more stringent than the level that would
be achieved by standards and requirements adopted and enforced by the
Commission for the same purpose, after notice and an opportunity for
hearing. However, neither the Act nor its legislative history, identify
the type of hearing the Commission must use. Therefore, the
[[Page 60886]]
Commission has the discretion to determine how to implement this
requirement in Section 274o of the Act. The August notice discusses
this issue but did not provide the specifics of the Subpart H-like
process that the Commission has adopted, based on Subpart H of 10 CFR
Part 2, to fulfill the notice and hearing requirement in Section 274o
of the Act. This notice is intended to supplement the August notice by
providing clarification of what is meant by the Subpart H-like process.
Discussion
The Commission has, in its discretion, adopted the notice and
comment process in Subpart H of 10 CFR Part 2 to fulfill its notice and
hearing requirement in Section 274o of the Act. The Subpart H-like
process described in this notice is similar to that in 10 CFR 2.804.
Specifically, notice for this Section 274o process provides for: (1) A
notice that includes the substance of the proposal or specifications of
the subject and issues involved (the August 27, 2003 notice as
supplemented by this notice); (2) the manner and time within which
interested members of the public may comment (the information regarding
the submittal of comments and the deadline, which has been extended to
November 24, 2003 for submitting comments), and an opportunity for
members of the public to examine those comments at the NRC Web site;
and (3) such explanatory statements as the Commission may consider
appropriate (which refers to the Supplemental Information provided in
the August 27, 2003 notice as supplemented by this notice). In
addition, the Subpart H-like process will (4) also provide, similar to
the provision in 10 CFR 2.805(a), that in such proceedings, the
Commission will afford interested persons the opportunity to
participate through the submission of statements, information,
opinions, and arguments in the manner stated in the notice, as well as
additional reasonable opportunity for the submission of comments.
Accordingly, the August 27, 2003 notice as supplemented by this
notice, constitute the notice required by Section 274o of the Act.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 20th day of October, 2003.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 03-26895 Filed 10-23-03; 8:45 am]
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