[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 194 (Friday, October 7, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Page 58760]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-5528]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 030-34325]


Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of 
No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Release of Facility for 
Unrestricted Use for the Department of Veterans Affairs Chicago Health 
Care System Lakeside Campus--Lakeside Hospital Building, Chicago, IL

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William Snell, Senior Health 
Physicist, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials 
Safety, Region III, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 2443 
Warrenville Road, Lisle, Illinois 60532; telephone: (630) 829-9871; fax 
number: (630) 515-1259; or by e-mail at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering issuing a 
license amendment to Material License No. 03-23853-01VA issued to the 
Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) (the licensee), to authorize 
release of its Chicago Health Care System, Lakeside Campus--Lakeside 
Hospital Building in Chicago, Illinois for unrestricted use, and has 
prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in support of this amendment 
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.

II. EA Summary

    The purpose of the proposed amendment is to allow for the release 
of the licensee's Chicago, Illinois facility for unrestricted use. The 
DVA has occupied the Lakeside Hospital Building since it was built in 
about 1955, and was authorized to use byproduct, source, and special 
nuclear material for medical diagnosis, therapy, and research beginning 
in 1957. The Chicago, Illinois facility is a permittee under the DVA 
NRC Master Material License (MML) Number 03-23853-01VA, and on April 
27, 2005, requested the NRC approve the release of the facility for 
unrestricted use. The approval is consistent with a November 10, 2004, 
Letter of Understanding (LOU) between the NRC and the DVA for DVA 
permittees. The LOU requires the DVA to submit for NRC review, 
permittee requests for the release of buildings for unrestricted use 
where radioactive materials with a half-life greater than 120 days were 
used. The DVA identified six isotopes of concern with half-lives 
greater than 120 days that it used in the Lakeside Hospital Building 
since 1957: hydrogen-3, carbon-14, chlorine-36, cobalt-60, nickel-63, 
and cesium-137. The DVA has conducted surveys of the facility and 
provided information to the NRC to demonstrate that the site meets the 
licensee termination criteria in Subpart E of 10 CFR Part 20 for 
unrestricted release.
    The staff has prepared an EA in support of the proposed license 
amendment. Based on its review, the staff determined there were no 
radiological or non-radiological environmental impacts associated with 
the action since no radiological remediation activities were required 
to complete the proposed action. However, the proposed action excludes 
approval for the release of an area of the facility where nuclear 
medicine activities are being performed in compliance with 10 CFR 
35.100 and 35.200, an activity in which only short-lived radioactive 
isotopes are used (i.e., isotopes with a half-life less than 120 days). 
The licensee verified compliance with 10 CFR 20.1402 in this area for 
isotopes with half-lives longer than 120 days. Because the LOU allows 
the DVA to release facilities for unrestricted use without NRC approval 
if only isotopes of less than 120 days were used, when the VA ceases 
all licensable activities related to the diagnostic nuclear medicine 
operation, the VA may release that area for unrestricted use without 
NRC approval.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    The staff has prepared an EA in support of the proposed license 
amendment to release the site for unrestricted use. The staff has found 
that the radiological environmental impacts from the proposed amendment 
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, 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, 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 DVA letter dated April 
27, 2005 (Accession No. ML051190353); the Final Status Survey Report, 
VA Chicago--Lakeside Campus, Medical Sciences Building, December 8, 
2004 (Accession No. ML051190353); and the EA summarized above 
(Accession No. ML052690312). 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].
    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 at Lisle, Illinois, this 28th day of September 2005.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Jamnes L. Cameron,
Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety 
Region III.
 [FR Doc. E5-5528 Filed 10-6-05; 8:45 am]
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