[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]


 ========================================================================
 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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