[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 39 (Friday, February 27, 2004)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 9387-9388]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E4-413]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 72-25]


Foster Wheeler Environmental Corporation's Proposed Idaho Spent 
Fuel Facility; Notice of Availability of Final Environmental Impact 
Statement

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of Availability of Final Environmental Impact Statement.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) is issuing a Final Environmental Impact Statement 
(FEIS), ``Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Idaho Spent 
Fuel Facility at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental 
Laboratory in Butte County, Idaho,'' NUREG-1773, January 2004. This 
FEIS was prepared to evaluate the environmental impacts of the Foster 
Wheeler Environmental Corporation (FWENC) proposal to construct and 
operate an independent spent fuel storage installation as described in 
it's license application dated November 19, 2001, and docketed on June 
27, 2002 (67 FR 43358). If approved, the proposed facility would be 
licensed in accordance with NRC regulations found at 10 CFR Part 72.
    The FEIS discusses the purpose and need for the proposed facility 
and reasonable alternatives to the proposed action, including the no-
action alternative. The FEIS also discusses the environment potentially 
affected by the proposed facility, presents and compares the potential 
environmental impacts resulting from the proposed action and its 
alternatives, and identifies mitigation measures that could eliminate 
or lessen the potential environmental impacts.
    The FEIS is being issued as part of the NRC's decision-making 
process on whether to issue a license to FWENC. Based on the evaluation 
in the FEIS, the NRC environmental review staff have concluded that the 
proposed action will have small effects on the public and existing 
environment. This FEIS reflects the final analysis of environmental 
impacts of FWENC's proposal and it's alternatives, including the 
consideration of public comments received by the NRC. In addition, the 
FEIS provides summaries of the substantive public comments on the draft 
EIS, and responses, as appropriate.

ADDRESSES: The NRC maintains an Agencywide Documents Access and 
Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's 
public documents. The FEIS and its appendices may be accessed through 
the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. 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 email to [email protected]. The FEIS is also 
available for inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room, U.S. 
NRC's Headquarters Building, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), 
Rockville, Maryland. Upon written request and to the extent supplies 
are available, a single copy of the FEIS can be obtained for a fee by 
writing to the Office of the Chief Information Officer, Reproduction 
and Distribution Services Section, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001; by electronic mail at [email protected]; 
or by fax at (301) 415-2289.
    Information and documents associated with the Idaho Spent Fuel 
Facility project may also be obtained from the Internet on NRC's Idaho 
Spent Fuel Facility Web page: http://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage.html (case sensitive).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For environmental review questions, 
please contact Matthew Blevins at (301) 415-7684. For questions related 
to the safety review or overall licensing of the Idaho Spent Fuel 
Facility, please contact Randall Hall at (301) 415-1336.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A Settlement Agreement dated October 17, 
1995, among the Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Navy, and the 
State of Idaho requires, among other things, the transfer and dry 
storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) until it can be removed from Idaho. 
As part of it's efforts to meet the Settlement Agreement, the DOE has 
contracted with FWENC to design, license, construct, and operate the 
proposed Idaho Spent Fuel Facility for portions of the SNF currently in 
storage at the Idaho National Environmental and Engineering Laboratory 
(INEEL). Subsequently, FWENC submitted a license application to the NRC 
for the receipt, transfer, and storage of SNF at the proposed facility. 
The proposed facility would provide the ability to remove the SNF from 
existing canisters, place it in specially designed storage containers, 
then seal and place the loaded containers into interim storage. The new 
containers are designed to be compatible with transportation systems 
and with future permanent disposal systems. The proposed facility would 
store SNF and associated radioactive material from the Peach Bottom 
Unit 1 High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor, the Shippingport Atomic 
Power Station, and various Training, Research, and Isotope reactors 
built by General Atomics (TRIGA) reactors. The majority of this SNF is 
currently in storage at the Idaho Nuclear Technology Center located on 
the INEEL immediately adjacent to the proposed facility. DOE plans to 
transfer the SNF to the proposed facility using existing INEEL and DOE 
procedures. The transfers from DOE to the proposed facility would take 
place completely within the boundaries of the INEEL. Upon arrival at 
the proposed facility, the SNF would be (1) remotely removed from the 
containers in which it is currently stored, (2) visually inspected, (3) 
inventoried, (4) placed into new storage canisters, and (5) placed into 
interim dry storage.
    The FEIS for the proposed Idaho Spent Fuel Facility was prepared by 
the staff of the NRC and its contractor, Center for Nuclear Waste 
Regulatory Analyses, in compliance with the National Environmental 
Policy Act (NEPA), and the NRC's regulations for implementing NEPA (10 
CFR part 51). The proposed action involves a decision by NRC of whether 
to issue a license under the provisions of 10 CFR part 72 that would 
authorize FWENC to receive, transfer, and store SNF and associated 
radioactive materials at the proposed facility.
    The NRC published a Notice of Intent to prepare an environmental 
impact statement (EIS) for the proposed Idaho Spent Fuel Facility and 
to hold a public scoping period in the Federal Register on July 26, 
2002 (67 FR 48953). The NRC accepted scoping comments through September 
16, 2002, and subsequently issued a Scoping Summary Report on December 
2, 2002. The NRC published a draft EIS on June 26, 2003, and provided 
an opportunity to comment until August 18, 2003 (68 FR 38105, 68 FR 
39940).

[[Page 9388]]

    The FEIS describes the proposed action and alternatives to the 
proposed action, including the no-action alternative. The FEIS assesses 
the impacts of the proposed action and its alternatives on human 
health, air quality, water resources, waste management, geology, noise, 
ecology, land use, cultural resources, socioeconomics, accident 
impacts, and environmental justice. Additionally, the FEIS analyzes and 
compares the costs and benefits of the proposed action.
    After weighing the impacts, costs, and benefits of the proposed 
action and comparing alternatives (see Sections 2.6, 4.15, and 7 of the 
FEIS), the NRC staff, in accordance with 10 CFR 51.91 (d), sets forth 
its final NEPA recommendation regarding the proposed action. The NRC 
staff recommend that, unless safety issues mandate otherwise, the 
action called for is the issuance of the proposed license to FWENC. In 
this regard, the NRC staff concludes (i) the applicable environmental 
monitoring program described in Section 6 of the FEIS, and (ii) the 
proposed mitigation measures discussed in Section 5 of the FEIS would 
eliminate or substantially lessen any potential adverse environmental 
impacts associated with the proposed action.
    The NRC staff has concluded that the overall benefits of the 
proposed Idaho Spent Fuel Facility outweigh the disadvantages and 
costs, based on consideration of the following:

--The proposed Idaho Spent Fuel Facility will have small impacts on the 
physical environment and human communities in the vicinity. Long-term 
impacts of the no-action alternative are likely to be similar to the 
impacts of the proposed action.
--The proposed action is designed to support the INEEL mission and 
comply with agreements and commitments negotiated by DOE, including the 
1995 Settlement Agreement among DOE, the State of Idaho, and the U.S. 
Navy to remove SNF from Idaho by 2035.
--Currently, most of the SNF to be received by the proposed Idaho Spent 
Fuel Facility is stored at the Idaho Nuclear Technology Center. 
Transfer distances from current storage locations to the proposed 
facility are relatively short.
--The current storage configuration does not prepare the SNF for 
shipment from INEEL to a national HLW repository.

    NRC staff in the Spent Fuel Project Office are currently completing 
the licensing and safety review of FWENC's proposed action. The final 
licensing decision is currently scheduled for the Spring of 2004.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 3rd day of February 2004.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Lawrence E. Kokajko,
Chief, Environmental and Performance Assessment Branch, Division of 
Waste Management, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. E4-413 Filed 2-26-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P