[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 69 (Wednesday, April 11, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18282-18283]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-6835]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 040-08778]


Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of 
No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Molycorp, Inc.'s 
Facility in Washington, PA

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of Availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Webb, Project Manager, 
Decommissioning and Uranium Recovery Licensing Directorate, Division of 
Waste Management and Environmental Protection, Office of Federal and 
State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; Telephone: (301) 415-
6252; fax number: (301) 415-5398; e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The NRC is considering issuance of a license amendment to Molycorp, 
Inc. (Molycorp or licensee) for Materials License No. SMB-1393, to 
authorize an alternate decommissioning schedule for its facility in 
Washington, Pennsylvania. 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 amendment will be 
issued following the publication of this Notice.

II. EA Summary

    The purpose of this proposed action is to allow the licensee to 
decommission its facility in a phased approach which will take longer 
than the two year period identified in the approved decommissioning 
plan (DP). Following an extensive supplemental characterization study, 
Molycorp found that there is a large volume of contaminated material in 
the subsurface. Molycorp will excavate the contaminated soils and 
transport them off-site to an NRC approved facility. Molycorp's 
proposed alternate decommissioning schedule shows that all 
decommissioning activities will be completed by the end of 2008. 
Molycorp's request is contained in a letter to NRC dated October 11, 
2006.
    An earlier, and more extensive, EA was prepared for License 
Amendment No. 5, in support of the NRC staff evaluation of Molycorp's 
final DP. The NRC staff determined that all steps in the proposed 
decommissioning could be accomplished in compliance with the NRC public 
and occupational dose limits, effluent release limits, and residual 
radioactive material limits. In addition, the staff concluded that 
approval of the decommissioning of the Molycorp Washington, PA, 
facility in accordance with the commitments in NRC license SMB-1393 and 
the final DP would not result in a significant adverse impact on the 
environment. The proposed action does not change the impacts analyzed 
in detail in the EA prepared for License Amendment No. 5.
    If the NRC approves the license amendment, the authorization will 
be documented in an amendment to NRC License No. SMB-1393. However, 
before approving the proposed amendment, the NRC will need to make the 
findings required by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and 
NRC's regulations. These findings will be documented in a Safety 
Evaluation Report in addition to the EA.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    The staff has prepared the EA (summarized above) in support of 
Molycorp's proposed alternate decommissioning schedule. The NRC staff 
has concluded that there will be no adverse environmental impacts 
associated with granting Molycorp an

[[Page 18283]]

alternate decommissioning schedule. The impacts associated with this 
proposed action do not differ significantly from the impacts evaluated 
in the EA for approval of the DP in License Amendment No. 5. 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 
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 Agency-wide 
Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and 
image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS accession number for 
the documents related to this notice are: Molycorp's letter to NRC 
dated October 11, 2006, ML062970401; EA prepared for License Amendment 
No. 5, ML003735909; EA prepared for this action, ML070250014; 
Molycorp's final DP, ML010540178; Federal Register Notice for Amendment 
No. 8, ML050030165. 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 Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, (301) 415-4737, 
or by e-mail to [email protected].
    Any questions should be referred to James Webb, Division of Waste 
Management and Environmental Protection, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington DC 20555, Mailstop T-7E18, telephone (301) 415-
6252, fax (301) 415-5397.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 5th day of April, 2007.

    For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Keith I. McConnell,
Deputy Director, Decommissioning and Uranium Recovery Licensing 
Directorate, Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection, 
Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management 
Programs.
 [FR Doc. E7-6835 Filed 4-10-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P