[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 175 (Monday, September 12, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53814-53815]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-17972]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 030-19526]


Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of 
No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Elan Operations, Inc., 
Princeton, NJ Facility

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of Availability.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John Nicholson, Commercial and R&D 
Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 475 Allendale 
Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, 19406, telephone (610) 337-5236, 
fax (610) 337-5269; or by e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Introduction

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a license 
amendment to Elan Operations, Inc. (formerly Elan Pharmaceuticals and 
The Liposome Company), Materials License No. 29-19918-01, to authorize 
release of its facility in Princeton, New Jersey for unrestricted use. 
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

[[Page 53815]]

Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate. The amendment will be issued 
following the publication of this Notice.

II. EA Summary

    The purpose of the action is to authorize the release of the 
licensee's Princeton, New Jersey facility for unrestricted use. Elan 
Operations, Inc. (known as The Liposome Company at the time) was 
authorized by NRC from April 23, 1982, to use radioactive materials for 
research and development purposes at the site. On February 26, 2005, 
Elan Operations, Inc. requested that NRC release the facility for 
unrestricted use. Elan Operations, Inc. has conducted surveys of the 
facility and provided information to the NRC to demonstrate that the 
site meets the license termination criteria in subpart E of 10 CFR part 
20 for unrestricted use.
    The NRC staff has prepared an EA in support of the license 
amendment. The facility was remediated and surveyed prior to the 
licensee requesting the license amendment. The NRC staff has reviewed 
the information and final status survey submitted by Elan Operations, 
Inc. Based on its review, the staff has determined that there are no 
additional remediation activities necessary to complete the proposed 
action. Therefore, the staff considered the impact of the residual 
radioactivity at the facility and concluded that since the residual 
radioactivity meets the requirements in subpart E of 10 CFR part 20, a 
Finding of No Significant Impact is appropriate.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    The staff has prepared the EA (summarized above) in support of the 
license amendment to terminate the license and release the facility for 
unrestricted use. The NRC staff has evaluated Elan Operations, Inc.'s 
request and the results of the surveys and has concluded that the 
completed action complies with the criteria in Subpart E of 10 CFR Part 
20. The staff has found that the radiological environmental impacts 
from the action are bounded by the impacts evaluated by NUREG-1496, 
Volumes 1-3, ``Generic Environmental Impact Statement in Support of 
Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for License Termination of NRC-
Licensed Facilities'' (ML042310492, ML042320379, and ML042330385). 
Additionally, no non-radiological or cumulative impacts were 
identified. On the basis of the EA, the NRC has concluded that the 
environmental impacts from the action are expected to be insignificant 
and has determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement for 
the action.

IV. Further Information

    Documents related to this action, including the application for the 
license amendment and supporting documentation, are 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: The 
Environmental Assessment (ML052450172); Letter dated November 5, 2003 
requesting the amendment and including the plan for decommissioning 
(ML033090192); Letter dated June 16, 2004 providing additional 
information (ML041820304); Letter dated February 26, 2005 
(ML050980018); Final Status Survey Volumes 1 and 2 (ML050980055 and 
ML050980057); and Letter dated April 19, 2005 providing additional 
information (ML051300383). Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or 
who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, 
should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at (800) 397-
4209 or (301) 415-4737, or by e-mail to [email protected].
    Documents related to operations conducted under this license not 
specifically referenced in this Notice may not be electronically 
available and/or may not be publicly available. Persons who have an 
interest in reviewing these documents should submit a request to the 
NRC under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Instructions for 
submitting a FOIA request can be found on the NRC's Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/foia-privacy.html.

    Dated at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania this 2nd day of 
September, 2005.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
James P. Dwyer,
Chief, Commercial and R&D Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety 
Region I.
[FR Doc. 05-17972 Filed 9-9-05; 8:45 am]
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