[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 210 (Wednesday, October 31, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61693-61694]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-21429]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 40-8943]


Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of 
No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Crow Butte Resources, 
Inc., Crawford, NE

AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen J. Cohen, Project Manager, 
Uranium Recovery Licensing Branch, 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) 415-7182; fax number: (301) 
415-5369; e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a license 
amendment to Material License No. SUA-1534, issued to Crow Butte 
Resources, Inc. (the licensee), to authorize an upgrade to the central 
processing plant (CPP) and an increase in the CPP flow rate at its main 
in situ leach (ISL) facility near Crawford, Nebraska. NRC 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 is 
appropriate. The amendment will be issued following the publication of 
this Notice.

II. EA Summary

    The purpose of the proposed amendment is to authorize an upgrade to 
the CPP and increase the plant flow rate at the licensee's Crawford, 
Nebraska, facility. Specifically, the licensee is authorized to install 
a maximum of six ion exchange columns and four ancillary tanks that 
would support a plant flow rate increase of 4,000 gallons per minute 
(gpm). The total allowable plant flow rate will increase to 9,000 gpm. 
On October 17, 2006, the licensee requested that NRC approve the 
proposed amendment.
    The staff has prepared the EA in support of the proposed license 
amendment. The staff considered impacts to water resources, public and 
occupational exposures, socio-economic conditions, endangered and 
threatened fauna and flora, historic and cultural resources, geology, 
soils, transportation, and air quality. This licensing action involves 
installing new equipment within the existing footprint of the CPP. 
Consequently, no building construction or surface disturbance is 
required to implement this action. Furthermore, the licensee will not 
open any new wellfields as a result of this licensing action, beyond 
those currently addressed by its license. The staff, therefore, does 
not expect the proposed action to impact geology, surface water, 
endangered and threatened fauna and flora, transportation, and historic 
and cultural resources.
    NRC staff also does not expect significant environmental impacts to 
groundwater, socio-economic conditions, soil, air quality, and public 
and occupational exposures. The use of pressurized downflow columns 
minimizes the releases of radon, thus, no significant impacts to air 
quality or public and occupational exposures are expected. Also, the 
licensee maintains procedures for cataloging and addressing system 
leaks, which minimizes the impacts of such occurrences; therefore, no 
significant impacts to groundwater and soils are expected. No 
significant impacts to socio-economic conditions are expected because 
implementing this action would not result in significant staff 
increases.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    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:

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               Document title                                   Date                         Accession number
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Request for License Amendment for Plant      October 17, 2006..........................              ML063390348
 Upgrade.
License Amendment for Plant Upgrade,         April 27, 2007............................              ML071290026
 Response to Request for Additional
 Information.
NRC Inspection Report......................  September 8, 2006.........................              ML062540084
NRC Environmental Assessment for Renewal of  February 1998.............................              ML071520242
 Source Materials License No. SUA-1534.
Environmental Assessment for the Plant       October 23, 2007..........................              ML072360287
 Upgrade.
NRC Request for Additional Information.....  September 8, 2006.........................              ML070540341
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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's Public 
Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or 
by e-mail to [email protected].

[[Page 61694]]

    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 Rockville, Maryland, this 24th day of October, 2007.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Stephen J. Cohen,
Project Manager, Uranium Recovery Licensing Branch, 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. E7-21429 Filed 10-30-07; 8:45 am]
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