[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 170 (Friday, September 1, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52175-52177]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-14519]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 040-08980]


Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of 
No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Heritage Minerals, 
Inc.; Manchester Township, NJ

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marjorie McLaughlin, Project Manager, 
Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 475 Allendale Road, King of 
Prussia, Pennsylvania, 19406-1415. Telephone: (610) 337-5240; fax 
number: (610) 337-5269; e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the

[[Page 52176]]

issuance of a license amendment to Materials License No. SMB-1541 
issued to Heritage Minerals, Inc. (HMI or the licensee), to authorize 
release of the NRC-licensed areas of its facility in Manchester 
Township, New Jersey (the Heritage site) for unrestricted use and 
license termination, 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. The amendment will be 
issued following the publication of this Notice.

II. EA Summary

    The purpose of the proposed amendment is to allow the release of 
the NRC-licensed areas of the licensee's Manchester Township, New 
Jersey, facility for unrestricted use and license termination. HMI was 
authorized by the NRC on January 2, 1991, to possess radioactive source 
materials resulting from past minerals processing operations at the 
site. The facility was used by HMI and previous owners from 1973-1989 
for the mechanical processing of dredged native sand to extract various 
heavy minerals (zirconium and titanium). The native sand also contained 
natural uranium and thorium, which were concentrated in the waste 
tailings of the processing operation.
    The processing operation involved two stages, with each stage 
producing a separate tailings waste stream that was immediately 
combined and stockpiled on site. In 1987, HMI began reprocessing the 
stockpiled tailings to extract any remaining heavy minerals, producing 
a more concentrated combined waste stream. This more concentrated waste 
was then further processed by HMI starting in 1989. With this further 
reprocessing, HMI also installed a process change, by which the waste 
streams from the two stages were no longer combined, but were instead 
maintained separate. The resultant waste tailings from one stage of 
this process contained a concentration of uranium and thorium in excess 
of 0.05% by weight, meeting the 10 CFR part 40 definition of 
radioactive source material (10 CFR 40.4). This concentration exceeds 
the unimportant quantity exemption for source material stated in 10 CFR 
40.13(a), and therefore required an NRC license. HMI separated the 
source material from all other waste material, and stored this sand 
within a stockpile area that was later enclosed by a fence. On March 
10, 1989, HMI submitted an application for an NRC source material 
license. Before the license was issued, reduced demand and price for 
zircon caused HMI to cease processing activities, and no additional 
source material was added. On January 2, 1991, the NRC issued Materials 
License No. SMB-1541 authorizing HMI to possess the stockpiled source 
material and to perform decommissioning of the impacted areas of the 
site (two mill buildings and the ground beneath the stockpile), 
comprising approximately one acre.
    The ground (approximately 287 acres) between and surrounding the 
impacted areas contains uranium and thorium concentrations that are 
above background but below 0.05% by weight. The above-background 
concentrations of source material in these regions resulted from 
staging and regrading waste sands from previous (unlicensed) processing 
activities. Because the source material concentration of this material 
is below 0.05% by weight, it remains exempt from NRC regulations, and 
is not part of the license. Removal of this material may be required by 
the State of New Jersey. Within this region, however, NRC confirmatory 
surveys identified several pockets of material exceeding 0.05% source 
material concentration by weight. NRC staff determined that these 
pockets were inadvertently formed from the staging and grading of the 
exempt material described above. Consequently, the staff determined 
that this material was ``licensable,'' in that it met the 10 CFR part 
40 definition of source material. The staff required HMI to remediate 
all pockets of licensable material in the same manner as the licensed 
material.
    On March 4, 2005, HMI requested that NRC release the facility for 
unrestricted use. Both mill buildings have been demolished and only the 
concrete pads remain. The stockpiled licensed material has been 
disposed and the ground beneath the pile excavated. The pockets of 
licensable material identified between the impacted areas have also 
been excavated and disposed offsite. The HMI has conducted surveys of 
the impacted areas and the remediated pockets and provided information 
to the NRC demonstrating these areas meet the license termination 
criteria for unrestricted release in its approved Decommissioning Plan 
(DP). HMI's DP was previously noticed in the Federal Register on 
September 1, 1999 (64 FR 47872-47877), along with a notice of an 
opportunity to request a hearing.
    The 10 CFR 20 Subpart E, ``The License Termination Rule'' (LTR), 
bases termination of NRC licenses and release of facilities for 
unrestricted use on meeting residual radioactivity levels 
distinguishable from background, that do not result in a Total 
Effective Dose Equivalent (TEDE) to an average member of the critical 
group above 25 millirem (mrem) per year. The rule was a change from 
past practice, which based release of a site for unrestricted use on 
meeting specific concentration-based cleanup levels. When the LTR was 
published (62 FR 39088), a provision was included in 10 CFR 
20.1401(b)(3) to ``grandfather'' sites with DPs submitted to the NRC 
before August 20, 1998, and approved by August 20, 1999, (the approval 
date was extended to August 20, 2000, for 12 sites, including Heritage 
Minerals, by SECY-99-195). Grandfathered sites are decommissioned under 
the criteria in their approved DPs, using the previous concentration-
based cleanup levels. These cleanup standards were considered to result 
in a dose less than the public dose limit of 100 mrem/yr, specified in 
10 CFR 20.1301.
    The NRC staff has prepared an EA in support of the proposed action 
of terminating HMI's Materials License No. SMB-1541, and releasing the 
NRC-licensed areas of the Heritage site for unrestricted use. The staff 
evaluated the request from HMI and the results of their surveys, 
performed independent, confirmatory measurements, and performed a 
quantitative dose assessment of the licensed areas. The mill pads were 
modeled with the assumption of reuse of the structures for residential 
occupancy. The highest resultant TEDE for this scenario is 1.6 mrem/yr. 
The stockpile area was modeled for a suburban resident, resulting in a 
maximum possible TEDE of 40 mrem/yr.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    The staff has prepared an EA in support of the proposed license 
amendment to terminate HMI's license and release the NRC-licensed areas 
of the Heritage site for unrestricted use. The staff has found that the 
radiological environmental impacts from the proposed action would not 
exceed the public dose limit of 100 mrem/yr. Surface and groundwater 
analyses performed at the site confirm that no significant radionuclide 
transport or elevated concentrations are occurring in the surface water 
or aquifer system. The NRC staff has determined that the proposed 
action would have no impact on site geology, ecology, or water. The 
staff has also found that the proposed action is procedural in nature 
because HMI has completed all NRC-required remediation at the site. On 
the basis of the EA, NRC has concluded that there

[[Page 52177]]

are no significant environmental impacts from the proposed action of 
terminating HMI's license and releasing for unrestricted use the NRC-
licensed areas of the Heritage site, 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:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                        ADAMS  Accession
                      Summarized document description         No.
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1..................  Environmental Assessment for the        ML062350098
                      Proposed Termination of U.S.
                      Nuclear Regulatory Commission
                      Materials License No. SMB-1541,
                      Issued to Heritage Minerals,
                      Inc. in Manchester Township,
                      New Jersey, and Release for
                      Unrestricted Use.
2..................  ``Five Options for NRC Approval         ML033630718
                      of Disposal or Onsite Storage
                      of Thorium or Uranium Wastes
                      From Past Nuclear Operations,''
                      dated 10/23/81.
3..................  FC 83-23 ``Termination of               ML003745523
                      Byproduct, Source, and Special
                      Nuclear Materials Licenses,''
                      dated 11/4/83.
4..................  Letter terminating Heritage             ML030370350
                      plant activities, dated 8/23/90.
5..................  Additional Information for              ML030370324
                      License Application, dated 7/25/
                      90.
6..................  Environmental Assessment and            ML003721778
                      Finding of No Significant
                      Impact for HMI DP, dated 10/19/
                      99.
7..................  HMI Final Status Survey, dated          ML021150357
                      11/25/01.
8..................  NRC Confirmatory Survey Report,         ML021060589
                      dated 4/10/02.
9..................  HMI proposed additional                 ML030830547
                      remediation activities, dated 3/
                      10/03.
10.................  HMI amendment to proposed               ML031320537
                      additional remediation
                      activities, dated 5/6/03.
11.................  NRC Confirmatory Survey Phase 2,        ML040250070
                      dated 12/31/03.
12.................  HMI proposed final remediation          ML041910222
                      activities, dated 6/30/04.
13.................  NRC letter accepting proposed           ML043240049
                      final remediation activities,
                      dated 11/17/04.
14.................  HMI Termination Request, dated 3/       ML050960109
                      04/05.
15.................  Soil Sample Results from HMI,           ML050960038
                      dated 2/14/05.
16.................  NJDEP comments on draft HMI EA,         ML052000408
                      dated 7/12/05.
17.................  Dose Assessment for Unrestricted        ML052410061
                      Future Use Scenarios of the HMI
                      site, dated 8/25/05.
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    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 King of Prussia, Pennsylvania this 23rd day of August, 
2006.
    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Marie Miller,
Chief Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, 
Region I.
 [FR Doc. E6-14519 Filed 8-31-06; 8:45 am]
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