[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 173 (Thursday, September 8, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53396-53398]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-4878]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 70-7004]
USEC Inc.'s Proposed American Centrifuge Plant; Notice of
Availability of Draft Environmental Impact Statement
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of availability of Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) is issuing a Draft Environmental Impact Statement
(DEIS) for the USEC Inc. (USEC) license application, dated August 23,
2004, for the possession and use of source, byproduct and special
nuclear materials at its proposed American Centrifuge Plant (ACP)
located near Piketon, Ohio.
The DEIS is being issued as part of the NRC's decision-making
process on whether to issue a license to USEC, pursuant to Title 10 of
the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Parts 30, 40, and 70. The scope of
activities conducted under the license would include the construction,
operation, and decommissioning of the ACP. Specifically, USEC proposes
to use gas centrifuge technology to enrich the uranium-235 isotope
found in natural uranium up to 10-weight percent. The enriched uranium
would be used to
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manufacture nuclear fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors.
The NRC staff will hold a public meeting to present an overview of
the DEIS and to accept oral and written public comments. The meeting
date, time and location are listed below:
Meeting Date: Thursday, September 29, 2005.
Meeting Location: Vern Riffe Career Technology Center, 175 Beaver
Creek Road, Piketon, OH 45661.
Informal Open House: 6-7 p.m.
DEIS Comment Meeting: 7-9:45 p.m.
Prior to the public meeting, the NRC staff will be available to
informally discuss the proposed USEC project and answer questions in an
``open house'' format. This ``open house''' format provides for one-on-
one discussions with the NRC staff involved with the preparation of the
DEIS. The DEIS meeting officially begins at 7 p.m. and will include:
(1) A presentation summarizing the contents of the DEIS and (2) an
opportunity for interested government agencies, organizations, and
individuals to provide comments on the DEIS. This portion of the
meeting will be transcribed by a court reporter. Persons wishing to
provide oral comments will be asked to register at the meeting
entrance. Individual oral comments may have to be limited by the time
available, depending upon the number of persons who register. If
special equipment or accommodations are needed to attend or present
information at the public meeting, the need should be brought to the
attention of Mr. Matthew Blevins no later than September 22, 2005, to
provide NRC staff with adequate notice to determine whether the request
can be accommodated. Please note that comments do not have to be
provided at the public meeting and may be submitted at any time
throughout the comment period, through October 24, 2005, as described
in the DATES and ADDRESSES sections of this notice.
DATES: The public comment period on the DEIS begins with publication of
this notice and continues until October 24, 2005. Written comments
should be submitted as described in the ADDRESSES section of this
notice. Comments submitted by mail should be postmarked by that date to
ensure consideration. Comments received or postmarked after that date
will be considered to the extent practical. A public meeting to discuss
the DEIS will be held on September 29 as described in the SUMMARY
section of this notice.
ADDRESSES: Members of the public are invited and encouraged to submit
comments to the Chief, Rules Review and Directives Branch, Mail Stop
T6-D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
Please note Docket No. 70-7004 when submitting comments. Comments will
also be accepted by e-mail at [email protected] or by facsimile to (301)
415-5397, Attention: Mr. Matthew Blevins.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions related to the safety
review or overall licensing of the USEC facility, please contact Mr.
Yawar Faraz at at (301) 415-8113. For environmental review questions,
please contact Mr. Matthew Blevins at (301) 415-7684.
The DEIS may be accessed on the Internet at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/ by selecting ``NUREG-1834.''
Additionally, the NRC maintains an Agencywide Documents Access and
Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's
public documents. The DEIS and its appendices may also 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 e-mail to [email protected].
The DEIS 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 DEIS can be
obtained for a fee by writing to the Office of Information Services,
Reproduction and Distribution Services Branch, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; by electronic mail at
[email protected]; or by fax at (301) 415-2289.
A selected group of documents associated with the USEC facility may
also be obtained from the Internet on NRC's USEC Web page: http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/usecfacility.html. In addition,
all comments of Federal, State and local agencies, Indian tribes or
other interested persons will be made available for public inspection
when received.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This DEIS was prepared in response to an
application submitted by USEC dated August 23, 2004, for the possession
and use of source, byproduct and special nuclear materials at its
proposed ACP located near Piketon, Ohio. The DEIS for the proposed ACP
was prepared by the NRC staff and its contractor, ICF Consulting, Inc.,
in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the
NRC's regulations for implementing NEPA (10 CFR Part 51).
The DEIS is being issued as part of the NRC's decision-making
process on whether to issue a license to USEC, pursuant to Title 10 of
the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Parts 30, 40, and 70. The scope of
activities conducted under the license would include the construction,
operation, and decommissioning of the ACP. Specifically, USEC proposes
to use gas centrifuge technology to enrich the uranium-235 isotope
found in natural uranium up to 10-weight percent. The enriched uranium
would be used to manufacture nuclear fuel for commercial nuclear power
reactors. USEC proposes to locate the ACP in leased portions of the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reservation in Piketon, OH. This is the
same site as DOE's Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The ACP would
consist of refurbished existing facilities and newly constructed
facilities, primarily located in the southwestern portion of the
central DOE reservation.
The NRC staff published a Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS for
the proposed ACP and to conduct a scoping process, in the Federal
Register on October 15, 2004 (69 FR 61268). The NRC staff accepted
comments through February 1, 2005, and subsequently issued a Scoping
Summary Report in April 2005 (ADAMS Accession Number: ML050820008). The
DEIS describes the proposed action and alternatives to the proposed
action, including the no-action alternative. The NRC staff assesses the
impacts of the proposed action and its alternatives on public and
occupational health, air quality, water resources, waste management,
geology and soils, noise, ecology resources, land use, transportation,
historical and cultural resources, visual and scenic resources,
socioeconomics, accidents and environmental justice. Additionally, the
DEIS analyzes and compares the costs and benefits of the proposed
action.
Based on the preliminary evaluation in the DEIS, the NRC
environmental review staff has concluded that the proposed action would
have small effects on the physical environment and human communities
with the exception of: (1) Short-term moderate impacts associated with
increases in particulate matter released to the air during the
construction phase, (2) short-term moderate impacts related to
increased
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traffic congestion during the construction phase, (3) potential
moderate impacts due to transportation accidents, (4) potential
moderate impacts from facility operation accidents, (5) moderate
impacts associated with a potential operating extension of the DOE
depleted uranium tails conversion facility, and (6) moderate employment
impacts on the local communities associated with the construction and
operation phases.
After weighing the impacts, costs, and benefits of the proposed
action and comparing alternatives, the NRC staff, in accordance with 10
CFR 51.71(e), set forth their preliminary recommendation regarding the
proposed action. The NRC staff recommend that, unless safety issues
mandate otherwise, the action called for is the approval of the
proposed action (i.e., issue a license). The DEIS is a preliminary
analysis of the environmental impacts of the proposed action and its
alternatives. The Final EIS and any decision documentation regarding
the proposed action will not be issued until public comments on the
DEIS have been received and evaluated. Notice of the availability of
the Final EIS will be published in the Federal Register.
The NRC staff in the Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards
are currently completing the safety review for USEC's license
application and is currently scheduled for completion in the Spring of
2006.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 30th day of August, 2005.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Scott C. Flanders,
Deputy Director, Environmental and Performance Assessment Directorate,
Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection, Office of
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. E5-4878 Filed 9-7-05; 8:45 am]
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