[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 136 (Monday, July 18, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41241-41242]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-14026]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 40-8989]


Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of 
No Significant Impact for Exemption From Certain NRC Licensing 
Requirements for Special Nuclear Material for Envirocare of Utah, Inc.

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Park, Environmental and 
Performance Assessment Directorate, Division of Waste Management and 
Environmental Protection, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and 
Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555. 
Telephone: (301) 415-5835; fax number: (301) 415-5397; e-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering 
issuance of an Order pursuant to section 274f of the Atomic Energy Act 
that would modify an existing Order for Envirocare of Utah, Inc. 
(Envirocare). The existing order exempts Envirocare from certain NRC 
regulations and permits Envirocare, under specified conditions, to 
possess waste containing special nuclear material (SNM), in greater 
quantities than those specified in 10 CFR part 150, at Envirocare's 
low-level waste (LLW) disposal facility located in Clive, Utah, without 
obtaining an NRC license pursuant to 10 CFR part 70. The NRC has 
prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in support of this action in 
accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR part 51. Based on the EA, 
the NRC has concluded that a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) 
is appropriate. The modified Order will be issued following the 
publication of this notice.

II. Environmental Assessment

Background

    The NRC is considering issuance of an Order pursuant to section 
274f of the Atomic Energy Act that would modify an existing Order for 
Envirocare. The existing order exempts Envirocare from certain NRC 
regulations and permits Envirocare, under specified conditions, to 
possess waste containing SNM, in greater quantities than those 
specified in 10 CFR part 150, at Envirocare's LLW disposal facility 
located in Clive, Utah, without obtaining an NRC license pursuant to 10 
CFR part 70. Published in the Federal Register on May 21, 1999 (64 FR 
27826), the original Order was modified subsequently on January 30, 
2003, at the request of Envirocare and published in the Federal 
Register on February 13, 2003 (68 FR 7399).
    Envirocare is licensed by the State of Utah, an NRC Agreement 
State, under a 10 CFR part 61 equivalent license for the disposal of 
LLW. Envirocare also is licensed by Utah to dispose of mixed waste, 
hazardous waste, and 11e.(2) byproduct material (as defined under 
section 11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended).
    By letter dated July 8, 2003, Envirocare proposed that the NRC 
amend the January 30, 2003, Order. The NRC staff has evaluated this 
request in two phases. In the first phase, the NRC staff evaluated the 
following requested revisions: (1) Modify the table in Condition 1 to 
include limits for uranium and plutonium in waste without magnesium 
oxide; (2) modify the units of the table from picocuries of SNM per 
gram of waste material to gram of SNM per gram of waste material; and 
(3) revise the language of Condition 5 to be consistent with the 
revised units in the table in Condition 1. The NRC staff approved these 
revisions and published a modified Order in the Federal Register on 
December 29, 2003 (68 FR 74986). In the second phase, which is the 
subject of this EA, the NRC staff has evaluated the remaining revisions 
requested by Envirocare (the proposed action).

Review Scope

    The purpose of this EA is to assess the environmental impacts of 
Envirocare's requested modification to its December 2003 Order. This EA 
does not approve or deny the requested action. A separate Safety 
Evaluation Report (SER) also will be issued in support of the approval 
or denial of the requested action. This EA will determine whether to 
issue or prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Should the 
NRC issue a FONSI, no EIS will be prepared.

Proposed Action

    Envirocare proposes that the NRC amend the December 29, 2003, Order 
to: (1) Modify the table in Condition 1 to include criticality-based 
limits for uranium-233 and plutonium isotopes in waste containing up to 
20 percent of materials listed in Condition 2 (e.g., magnesium oxide); 
(2) include criticality-based limits in the table in Condition 1 for 
plutonium isotopes in waste with unlimited materials in Condition 2, 
and in waste with unlimited quantities of materials in Conditions 2 and 
3 (e.g., beryllium); (3) provide criticality-based limits for uranium-
235 as a function of enrichment in waste containing up to 20 percent of 
materials listed in Condition 2 and in waste containing none of the 
materials listed in Condition 2; and (4) include additional mixed waste 
treatment technologies.

Need for the Proposed Action

    In its July 8, 2003, request, Envirocare states that it is 
currently at a competitive disadvantage with another waste disposal 
company. Envirocare would like to expand its capabilities to

[[Page 41242]]

accept additional waste streams and treat waste using additional 
technologies. In order to do so, Conditions 1 and 5 of the Order would 
need to be revised.

Alternatives to the Proposed Action

    The only alternative to the proposed action that the NRC staff 
considered was the no-action alternative. Under the no-action 
alternative, the Order would not be revised.

Affected Environment

    The NRC staff has prepared an environmental impact statement (EIS) 
(NUREG-1476; August 1993), EAs, and SERs for its previous actions. The 
affected environment for the Envirocare site is described in detail in 
NUREG-1476.

Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives

    No-Action Alternative: For the no-action alternative, the 
environmental impacts would be the same as those evaluated in the EAs 
that support the May 21, 1999, Order (64 FR 26463, May 14, 1999), the 
January 30, 2003, modification of the Order (68 FR 3281, January 23, 
2003), and the December 29, 2003, modification of the Order (68 FR 
59645, October 16, 2003). The regulations regarding SNM possession in 
10 CFR part 150 set mass limits whereby a licensee is exempted from the 
licensing requirements of 10 CFR part 70 and can be regulated by an 
Agreement State. The licensing requirements in 10 CFR part 70 apply to 
persons possessing greater than critical mass quantities (as defined in 
10 CFR 150.11). The principal emphasis of 10 CFR part 70 is criticality 
safety and safeguarding SNM against diversion or sabotage. The NRC 
staff considers that criticality safety can be maintained by relying on 
concentration limits, under the specified conditions. These 
concentration limits are considered an alternative definition of 
quantities not sufficient to form a critical mass to the weight limits 
in 10 CFR 150.11, thereby assuring the same level of protection. The 
1999 and the two 2003 EAs concluded that issuance of the Order would 
have no significant radiological or non-radiological environmental 
impacts.
    Proposed Action: For the proposed action, the environmental impacts 
are not expected to be significant. Effluent releases and potential 
doses to the public are regulated by the State of Utah and are not 
anticipated to change as a result of this revision. The NRC staff 
previously determined in the 1999 EA that there would be no significant 
radiological or non-radiological impacts resulting from the proposed 
limits of uranium and plutonium. In addition, these revisions to the 
Order are not expected to significantly change environmental impacts 
from current operations at Envirocare.
    For Envirocare, the changes to the limits will allow the site to 
accept new waste streams, which may increase the number of waste 
shipments to the site. It is estimated that this may result in 
approximately 100 additional shipments per year to the site, which 
equates to about two shipments per week. It is not expected that the 
small increase in shipments would have a significant environmental 
impact to the local area.
    In addition, it is not expected that Envirocares's use of the new 
waste processing technologies would have significant environmental 
impacts. These technologies would be used in treating and stabilizing 
waste containing SNM, and any effluents from these processes would be 
collected and managed to prevent release. As stated previously, 
potential radiological doses are not anticipated to change as a result 
of the use of these new technologies.

Conclusion

    Based on its review, the NRC staff finds that the environmental 
impacts from the proposed action and the no-action alternative are 
similar. Since the proposed action will not significantly impact the 
quality of the human environment, the NRC staff concludes that the 
proposed action is the preferred alternative.

Agencies and Persons Consulted

    Officials from the State of Utah, Department of Environmental 
Quality, Division of Radiation Control were contacted about this EA for 
the proposed action and had no comments. Because the proposed action is 
not expected to have any impact on threatened or endangered species or 
historic resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the State of 
Utah Historic Preservation Officer were not contacted.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    On the basis of the EA, The NRC has concluded that there are no 
significant environmental impacts from the proposed amendment and has 
determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement.

IV. Further Information

    Documents related to this action, including the application for 
amendment and supporting documentation, will be available 
electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.NRC.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can access the 
NRC's Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), which 
provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS 
accession numbers for the documents related to this notice are: 
Envirocare's June 8, 2003, request (ADAMS Accession No. ML031950334) 
and the NRC staff's June 2005 SER (ADAMS Accession No. ML041190003). If 
you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing 
the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC's Public Document Room 
(PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, (301) 415-4737, or by e-mail 
to [email protected].
    These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public 
computers located at the NRC's PDR, O 1 F21, One White Flint North, 
11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction 
contractor will copy documents for a fee.

    Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 11th day of July, 2005.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Scott C. Flanders,
Deputy Director, Environmental & Performance Assessment Directorate, 
Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection, Office of 
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 05-14026 Filed 7-15-05; 8:45 am]
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