[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 52 (Thursday, March 19, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11774-11775]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-6000]



[[Page 11774]]

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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 03004530; NRC-2009-0123]


Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of 
No Significant Impact for License Amendment to Byproduct Materials 
License No. 19-00915-03, Held by U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
Beltsville, MD, To Authorize Disposal of Contaminated Soil

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Issuance of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No 
Significant Impact for License Amendment.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Schmidt, Health Physicist, 
Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region 1, 
475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; telephone 610-337-
5276; facsimile 610-337-5269; or by e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the 
issuance of a license amendment to Byproduct Materials License No. 19-
00915-03. This license is held by the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
(USDA) (the Licensee), for its facility located in Beltsville, Maryland 
(the Facility). License No. 19-00915-03 was issued by the U.S. Atomic 
Energy Commission to the USDA in the mid-1950s and later by the NRC, 
pursuant to Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations part 30 (10 CFR part 
30) and has been amended periodically since that time. This license 
authorized USDA to use unsealed byproduct material with atomic numbers 
1 through 83 and sealed byproduct material with atomic numbers 1 
through 95 for purposes of conducting research and development 
activities at specific USDA locations and facilities and at temporary 
job sites in the United States, as authorized by the Licensee's 
Radiation Safety Committee.
    Pursuant to the provisions in 10 CFR 20.2002, issuance of the 
license amendment would authorize the transfer and offsite disposal of 
approximately 4,500,000 kilograms (5,000 tons) of soil contaminated 
with small amounts of radionuclides that do not exceed the values 
listed in Table 1. The contaminated soil was or will be excavated from 
the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center waste burial site located 
in Beltsville, Maryland, as part of decommissioning activities at the 
USDA site. The contaminated soil would be disposed of at the U.S. 
Ecology Idaho's Grand View (USEI Grand View) hazardous waste disposal 
facility located near Grand View, Idaho. The U.S. Ecology facility is a 
Subtitle C Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous 
waste disposal facility that is regulated by the State of Idaho, 
Department of Environmental Quality. Any disposal at this facility must 
comply with State requirements. This action, if approved, would exempt 
the contaminated material disposed of at the Idaho facility from 
further Atomic Energy Act (AEA) and NRC licensing requirements.

             Table 1--Maximum Concentration of Radionuclides
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                             Maximum
                                                          concentration
                     Radionuclide                        (picocurie per
                                                              gram)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
H-3...................................................            337.56
C-14..................................................            183.19
Sr-90.................................................              1.59
Cl-36.................................................              0.02
Ni-63.................................................              7.83
Ra-226................................................              0.03
Na-22.................................................              0.04
Fe-55.................................................              0.16
Pb-210................................................              5.42
Cs-137................................................               0.8
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The licensee requested this action in a letter dated October 5, 
2007. The NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in support 
of this proposed action in accordance with the requirements in 10 CFR 
part 51. Based on the EA, the NRC has concluded that a Finding of No 
Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate with respect to the proposed 
action. The requested amendment will be issued to the Licensee 
following the publication of this FONSI and EA in the Federal Register.

II. Environmental Assessment

Identification of Proposed Action

    The proposed action would approve the Licensee's October 5, 2007, 
license amendment request to authorize the transfer of approximately 
4,500,000 kilograms of contaminated soil excavated from its Beltsville 
waste burial site to the USEI Grand View hazardous waste disposal 
facility located near Grand View, Idaho. In addition to granting the 
license amendment request, the proposed action would also grant, 
pursuant to 10 CFR 30.11(a), an exemption to USEI Grand View from 10 
CFR part 30 licensing requirements. This site would receive soils 
contaminated with small amounts of radioactive material generated as 
part of the cleanup of the Beltsville waste disposal site. 10 CFR 
30.11(a) provides that the Commission may, upon application by an 
interested person or ``upon its own initiative, grant such exemptions'' 
from 10 CFR part 30 requirements ``as it determines are authorized by 
law and will not endanger life or property or the common defense and 
security and are otherwise in the public interest.'' Under the 
exemption granted to USEI Grand View, any contaminated soil from the 
Facility would upon its receipt at USEI Grand View, no longer be 
subject to NRC regulations and would no longer be NRC licensed 
material. In a letter dated August 25, 2008, U.S. Ecology Idaho 
reported to the NRC staff that the waste, as characterized by the 
Licensee, meets the hazardous waste disposal facility waste acceptance 
criteria and therefore, pending NRC approval, would be acceptable for 
disposal at the USEI Grand View facility.

Need for the Proposed Action

    The licensee needs this license amendment in order to dispose of 
approximately 4,500,000 kilograms of slightly contaminated soil at an 
appropriate waste disposal facility. This soil is being removed from a 
previously used waste facility being remediated at the USDA Beltsville 
location. NRC is fulfilling its responsibilities under the Atomic 
Energy Act and the National Environmental Policy Act to make a timely 
decision on a proposed license amendment that ensures protection of 
public health and safety and the environment.

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action

    The NRC staff reviewed the license amendment request to allow 
disposal of the contaminated soil at the USEI Grand View hazardous 
waste facility and examined the impacts associated with this request. 
Potential impacts included dose to workers, dose to members of the 
public, and risks associated with transportation of the material to the 
Idaho disposal site. As part of its October 5, 2007, amendment request, 
the Licensee submitted a detailed safety assessment regarding the 
likely consequences associated with the rail transport and subsequent 
disposal of the USDA soil in the USEI Grand View facility. The licensee 
considered three distinct population groups: transportation workers, 
disposal site facility workers, and members of the public residing near 
the disposal site. The licensee estimated that for each

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population group, the annual dose equivalent received from the proposed 
action would be less than 0.01 millisievert (1 millirem). The NRC staff 
conducted an independent technical review of this estimate and 
concluded that the Licensee's dose estimate was technically sound. This 
dose is far below the dose limits established in 10 CFR part 20 for 
occupational workers and members of the public and is considered to be 
as low as is reasonably achievable.
    The risk to human health from the transportation of radioactive 
material in the U.S. was evaluated in NUREG-0586, ``Generic 
Environmental Impact Statement on Decommissioning of Nuclear 
Facilities.'' As evaluated there, the impacts associated with rail 
transport of decommissioning wastes are not detectable, and the 
potential impacts are small. The NRC staff finds that the 
transportation impacts of the proposed action are bounded by those 
evaluated in NUREG-0586, and that the proposed action poses no danger 
to public heath and safety. The NRC staff finds that the proposed 
action will result in minimal risk to workers and the public. The NRC 
has identified no other radiological or non-radiological activities 
connected with the proposed action that would result in cumulative 
environmental impacts, and concludes that the proposed action will not 
have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment.

Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action

    The only alternative to the proposed soil disposal action is no 
action. This no action alternative is unacceptable because it conflicts 
with 10 CFR 30.36(d) which requires that decommissioning of byproduct 
material facilities be completed and approved by the NRC after license 
activities at a site cease. The no action alternative would keep 
radioactive material on site and halt the remediation activities 
associated with cleanup of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center 
waste burial site.

Conclusion

    The NRC staff has concluded that the proposed action is consistent 
with NRC guidance and regulations. Because the proposed action will not 
significantly impact the quality of the human environment, the NRC 
staff concludes that the proposed action is the preferred alternative.

Agencies and Persons Consulted

    NRC provided a draft of this Environmental Assessment to the Idaho 
Department of Environmental Quality and the Maryland Radiological 
Health Program for review on October 1, 2008. On October 6, 2008, the 
Idaho Department of Environmental Quality responded by electronic mail. 
The State of Idaho agreed with the conclusions of the EA, and otherwise 
had no comments. On November 10, 2008, the Maryland Radiological Health 
Program responded by electronic mail. The State of Maryland agreed with 
the conclusions of the EA, and otherwise had no comments.
    The NRC staff has determined that the proposed action of 
authorizing disposal of material meeting the waste acceptance criteria 
of an existing approved RCRA hazardous waste disposal facility is of a 
procedural nature, and will not affect listed species or critical 
habitat. Therefore, no further consultation is required under Section 7 
of the Endangered Species Act. The NRC staff has also determined that 
the proposed action is not the type of activity that has the potential 
to cause effects on historic properties. Therefore, no further 
consultation is required under Section 106 of the National Historic 
Preservation Act.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    The NRC staff has prepared this EA in support of the proposed 
action. On the basis of this EA, the NRC finds that there are no 
significant environmental impacts from the proposed action, and that 
preparation of an environmental impact statement is not warranted. 
Accordingly, the NRC has determined that a Finding of No Significant 
Impact is appropriate.

IV. Further Information

    Documents related to this action, including the application for 
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 documents 
related to this action are listed below, along with their ADAMS 
accession numbers.
    1. Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations, part 20, ``Standards for 
Protection Against Radiation;''
    2. Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, part 51, ``Environmental 
Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory 
Functions;''
    3. Title 10, Code of Federal Regulation, part 30, ``Rules of 
General Applicability to Domestic Licensing of Byproduct Material;'' 
and
    4. Letter dated October 5, 2007 from USDA to NRC [ML073110166]
    5. Letter dated August 25, 2008 from USEI to NRC [ML082480279]
    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 12th day of March, 
2009.

    For The Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Randolph C. Ragland, Jr.,
Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, 
Region 1.
[FR Doc. E9-6000 Filed 3-18-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P