[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 193 (Wednesday, October 7, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51622-51625]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-24208]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2009-0440; Docket No. 40-8989]


Issuance of Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No 
Significant Impact for Modification of Exemption From Certain U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Licensing Requirements for Special 
Nuclear Material for EnergySolutions LLC, Clive, UT

AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No Significant 
Impact.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has prepared an 
Environmental Assessment for the issuance of an Order pursuant to 
Section 274f of the Atomic Energy Act that would modify an Order issued 
to EnergySolutions, LLC (EnergySolutions) on May 30, 2006. In 
accordance with 10 CFR 51.33, the NRC has also prepared a draft Finding 
of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for public review and comment. The 
current action is in response to a request by EnergySolutions dated 
September 26, 2006. The May 30, 2006 Order was published in the Federal 
Register on June 13, 2006 (71 FR 34165). The May 30, 2006 Order, which 
modified a previous Order issued to EnergySolutions on July 11, 2005, 
exempted EnergySolutions from certain NRC regulations and permitted 
WCS, under specified conditions, to possess waste containing special 
nuclear material (SNM), in greater quantities than specified in 10 CFR 
Part 150, at EnergySolutions's facility located in Clive, Utah, without 
obtaining an NRC license pursuant to 10 CFR Part 70.

DATES: The public comment period on the draft FONSI closes on November 
6, 2009. Written comments should be submitted as described in the 
ADDRESSES section of this notice. Comments received after this date 
will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission is 
able to assure consideration only for comments received on or before 
November 6, 2009.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods. 
Please include Docket ID NRC-2009-0440 in the subject line of your 
comments. Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be 
posted on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking website 
Regulations.gov. Because your comments will not be edited to remove any 
identifying or contact information, the NRC cautions you against 
including any information in your submission that you do not want to be 
publicly disclosed.
    The NRC requests that any party soliciting or aggregating comments 
received from other persons for submission to the NRC inform those 
persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to remove any 
identifying or contact information, and therefore, they should not 
include any information in their comments that they do not want 
publicly disclosed.
    Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and 
search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-2009-0440. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher 301-492-3668; e-mail 
[email protected].
    Mail comments to: Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rulemaking and 
Directives Branch (RDB), Division of Administrative Services, Office of 
Administration, Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax to RDB at (301) 492-
3446.
    You can access publicly available documents related to this notice 
using the following methods:
    NRC's Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine and have 
copied for a fee publicly available documents at the NRC's PDR, Public 
File Area O1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, 
Rockville, Maryland.
    NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): 
Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC are 
available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this page, the public can gain 
entry into ADAMS, which provides text and image files of NRC's public 
documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems 
in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC's PDR 
reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to 
[email protected].
    Federal Rulemaking Web site: Public comments and supporting 
materials related to this notice can be found at

[[Page 51623]]

http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID: NRC-2009-0440.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nishka Devaser, Project Manager, 
Environmental and Performance Assessment 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. Telephone: (301) 415-5196; 
Fax number: (301) 415-5369; E-mail: [email protected]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction:

    EnergySolutions is authorized by license from the State of Utah, an 
NRC Agreement State, to operate a disposal facility for LLW. 
EnergySolutions is also licensed by Utah to dispose of mixed waste, 
hazardous waste, and 11(e).2 byproduct material.
    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering 
issuance of the fifth amendment to an Order that was initially issued 
to Envirocare of Utah, Inc. on May 24, 1999 (64 FR 27826), pursuant to 
Section 274f of the Atomic Energy Act. NRC previously amended the Order 
in January 2003 (68 FR 7400), December 2003 (68 FR 59645), August 2005 
(70 FR 44123), and June 2006 (71 FR 34165). The amended Order would 
continue to grant EnergySolutions (formerly Envirocare of Utah, Inc.) 
an exemption from the requirements for an NRC license under 10 CFR Part 
70. The amendment is required to allow EnergySolutions to receive steel 
piping waste containing residual special nuclear material (SNM). The 
steel piping waste will be generated by the Department of Energy as it 
decommissions the K-25 gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment facility in 
Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
    The 1999 Order exempted Envirocare (now EnergySolutions) from 
certain NRC regulations and permitted the company, under specified 
conditions, to possess waste containing SNM, in greater quantities than 
specified in 10 CFR Part 150, at the Envirocare low-level waste (LLW) 
disposal facility located in Clive, Utah, without obtaining an NRC 
license pursuant to 10 CFR Part 70. The 1999 Order permitted Envirocare 
to possess SNM below specified concentrations, without regard for mass. 
The January 2003 amendment to the Order addressed certain waste 
treatment processes; a change in the homogeneous contiguous mass limit 
from 145 kg to 600 kg; clarified certain language of the Order; and 
removed the confirmatory testing requirements for debris waste. The 
December 2003 amendment to the Order: Amended Condition 1, to include 
criticality-based concentration limits without magnesium oxide; 
modified the units of the table in Condition 1 from picocuries of SNM 
per gram of waste material to gram of SNM per gram of waste material; 
and (3) revised the language of Condition 5 to be consistent with the 
revised units in the table in Condition 1. A July 2005 amendment to the 
Order: modified the table in Condition 1 to include criticality-based 
limits for uranium-233 and plutonium isotopes in waste containing up to 
20 percent of materials listed in Condition 2 (e.g., magnesium oxide); 
included criticality-based limits in the table in Condition 1 for 
plutonium isotopes in waste with unlimited materials in Condition 2, 
and in waste with unlimited quantities of materials in Conditions 2 and 
3 (e.g., beryllium); provided criticality-based limits for uranium-235 
as a function of enrichment in waste containing up to 20 percent of 
materials listed in Condition 2 and in waste containing none of the 
materials listed in Condition 2; and authorized additional mixed waste 
treatment technologies under the Order. The most recent amendment to 
the Order, issued in May 2006, was an administrative change to 
accommodate a change in the name of the company from Envirocare of 
Utah, Inc. to EnergySolutions LLC.
    The NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) 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 for the proposed action, as modified.

II. Environmental Assessment (EA)

Proposed Action

    By letters dated September 26, 2006, December 4, 2006, July 16, 
2007, September 13, 2007, and January 15, 2009, EnergySolutions 
requested an amendment to its 2006 Order. EnergySolutions requests an 
amendment of the package mass limits contained in Condition 4 of the 
Order, and the addition or revision of other conditions, as necessary. 
As described in its September 2007 nuclear criticality safety 
evaluation, EnergySolutions requests these additional changes to the 
Order so that it may receive and dispose of Oak Ridge K-25 gaseous 
diffusion plant piping from the Department of Energy (DOE) in larger 
containers than would be allowable under the 2006 Order. 
EnergySolutions proposes to receive piping waste from the 
decommissioning of the K-25 facilities in gondola railcars, each 
containing up to 3.6 kg (7.9 lbs) of uranium-235 in the form of highly 
water soluble uranyl fluoride. EnergySolutions also proposed that 
certain additional conditions be added to the Order for the purposes of 
criticality safety during receipt, on-site storage, movement, 
emplacement, and disposal of K-25 waste. Upon consideration of 
EnergySolutions' request, the NRC is considering similar conditions to 
those proposed by EnergySolutions that restrict: the areal density of 
highly water soluble SNM in disposal embankments at the Clive, UT site; 
and the amount of water which should be present during receipt, on-site 
storage, movement, emplacement, and disposal of K-25 waste.

Site and Facility Description

    The EnergySolutions LLW disposal facility at Clive, UT is located 
128 kilometers (80 miles) west of Salt Lake City, UT. The site is arid, 
and receives about 20 centimeters (8 inches) of precipitation annually. 
A description of the site and its history is available in the Utah 
Division of Radiation Control safety evaluation report for the 
EnergySolutions license renewal.
    All low-level radioactive waste received at the Clive facility must 
contain radioactive constituents. The low-level radioactive waste 
embankment is constructed from materials native to the site or 
available in close proximity to the site. Due to requirements regarding 
the long-term stability of the embankment, the principal design 
features of the embankment do not rely upon synthetic materials to 
provide stability and isolation of the wastes from the environment. The 
principal construction materials are the naturally low-permeability 
clay taken from between the ground surface and the unconfined aquifer 
and the rock riprap and filter material taken from pits located within 
16 kilometers (10 miles) of the facility. The vertical minimum 
separation between the bottom of the disposed LLW and the historic high 
water table is determined as being 4 meters (13 feet).
    After a liner is constructed over a specific area of the Class A 
LLW disposal embankment, at least 30 centimeters (12 inches) of debris-
free soil is placed on top of the liner; followed by another 30 
centimeters (12 inches) of waste as a protection to the integrity of 
the liner. Both of these layers of protective soil are compacted with 
rubber tired equipment. Thereafter, the area is available for placement 
of

[[Page 51624]]

waste containers and materials. Waste that is removed from the shipping 
container is typically compacted into 61 centimeter (24 inch) waste 
lifts. Waste that consists of debris items that do not have a dimension 
less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) is disposed of using controlled 
low strength material (CLSM) in a different disposal area.
Need for the Proposed Action
    Condition 4 of the 2006 Order limits the mass of highly water 
soluble SNM that may be contained in individual waste packages. For 
example, the 2006 Order limits the amount of highly water soluble 
uranium-235 in each waste package to 350 grams. Relatively small waste 
packages that contain highly water soluble uranium compounds in which 
the uranium-235 concentration limits of Condition 1 are met (e.g., 6.2 
x 10-\4\ gram uranium-235 per gram waste), would normally 
contain small mass quantities of uranium-235 such that the 350 gram 
package mass limit would not be exceeded. However, in order to cost-
effectively receive and process large quantities of K-25 steel piping 
waste containing highly water soluble uranyl fluoride, EnergySolutions 
proposes to use 100-ton capacity gondola railcars. Therefore, even 
though the concentration of residual uranyl fluoride in K-25 piping 
waste is expected to remain a fraction of the concentration limits 
contained in Condition 1 of the 2006 Order, the amount of uranium-235 
in each railcar could exceed the current package mass limits in 
Condition 4. However, EnergySolutions believes that it is not cost-
effective to package K-25 waste in sufficiently small quantities to 
meet Condition 4 of the 2006 Order. For this reason, EnergySolutions 
requests an amendment to Condition 4 of the 2006 Order in order to 
receive K-25 steel piping waste in large gondola railcars. In addition, 
EnergySolutions proposes additional conditions to ensure criticality 
safety of large quantities of steel piping waste containing highly 
water soluble uranyl fluoride during waste receipt, unloading, on-site 
storage, emplacement and disposal of the waste.
Alternatives to the Proposed Action
    The NRC staff considered one alternative to the proposed action. 
The alternative to the proposed action is denial of the request to 
amend the 2006 Order (no-action alternative).
Affected Environment
    NRC has prepared an environmental impact statement (EIS) (NUREG-
1476) for its licensing action at the EnergySolutions site to authorize 
disposal of 11e.(2) byproduct material. The affected environment is 
discussed in detail in NUREG-1476.

Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives

No Action Alternative
    For the no-action alternative, the environmental impacts would be 
the same as evaluated in the Environmental Assessments that supported 
the issuance of original Order (64 FR 26463, May 14, 1999) and its 
amendments (68 FR 3281; January 23, 2003, 68 FR 59645; October 16, 
2003, 70 FR 4124; July 18, 2005). In these prior EAs, the staff 
concluded that the issuance of the Order would have no significant 
adverse environmental impacts.
Proposed Action
    For the proposed action, the environmental impacts would be similar 
to those described in previous EAs noted above, with the exception of 
environmental impacts associated with: Receipt and unloading of 100-ton 
capacity gondola railcars containing K-25 piping waste, each of which 
contains residual deposits of highly water soluble uranyl fluoride in 
quantities in excess of the limits in Condition 4 of the 2006 Order 
(i.e., up to 3.6 kilograms of uranium-235); and placement in disposal 
embankments of piping waste containing highly water soluble uranyl 
fluoride at areal densities of up to 1 kilogram uranium-235 per square 
meter.
    The proposed action would not significantly alter land or water 
usage at the Clive facility, or result in new construction. Facility 
effluents would remain essentially unchanged, since this action would 
not alter the types or quantities of waste that EnergySolutions is 
currently authorized to receive and dispose of. Disposal of Class A LLW 
is currently authorized by license from the State of Utah, for which no 
significant changes are anticipated other than incorporation into the 
radioactive materials license of a revision to Condition 4 to impose an 
areal density limit for highly water soluble SNM, including 
requirements to minimize water intrusion into the waste containing 
highly water soluble forms of uranium during receipt, unloading, onsite 
storage and waste emplacement operations.
    The proposed action, which allows the use of large waste packages, 
will result in a reduction of the use of waste packaging, and thus 
generate less packaging waste. Also, fewer transportation consignments 
would be required to transport waste from Oak Ridge, TN to the Clive, 
UT disposal facility, reducing transportation-related impacts from what 
would otherwise occur if smaller packages were required. The proposed 
action also further reduces the risk of accidental nuclear criticality, 
and resulting worker and public radiation doses, from the proposed 
action by imposing an areal density limit on disposal of highly water 
soluble forms of uranium, which is not currently required by the 2006 
Order.
    The proposed action would not significantly alter available 
disposal capacity at the Clive facility, or significantly change the 
performance of disposed waste. The radiation dose rates from K-25 
decommissioning waste, which contains uranium and trace amounts of 
other radioactive material, are low compared to other forms of Class A 
waste, which may contain source, byproduct and special nuclear material 
up to the limits allowed by the State of Utah radioactive materials 
license. Therefore, the proposed action is not likely to significantly 
change worker and public doses resulting from waste operations.
Preferred Alternative
    The staff has concluded in the March 2009 safety evaluation report 
for this proposed action that the proposed action provides sufficient 
protection of public health and safety, and the environment, and is not 
inimical to common defense and security, and is otherwise in the public 
interest. Therefore, staff's preferred alternative is to amend the 2006 
Order.
Agencies and Persons Consulted
    Officials from the State of Utah, Department of Environmental 
Quality, Division of Radiation Control were consulted about this EA for 
the proposed action and had no comments. Because the proposed action is 
not expected to have any impact on threatened or endangered species or 
historic resources, the Fish and Wildlife Service and State of Utah 
Historic Preservation Officer were not consulted.

III. Draft Finding of No Significant Impact

    The environmental impacts of the proposed action have been reviewed 
in accordance with the requirements set forth in 10 CFR Part 51. Based 
upon the foregoing EA, the NRC finds that the preferred alternative of 
amending the 2006 Order will not significantly impact the quality of 
the human environment. The NRC also concludes that the proposed action 
to grant a modification to EnergySolutions' exemption from the 
requirements of 10 CFR Part 70 is,

[[Page 51625]]

pursuant to 10 CFR 70.17, authorized by law and will not endanger life 
or property or the common defense and security and is otherwise in the 
public interest. On this basis of this EA, NRC concludes that there are 
no significant environmental impacts and the issuance of a modified 
Order does not warrant the preparation of an Environmental Impact 
Statement. Accordingly, the NRC has determined that a Finding of No 
Significant Impact is appropriate.
    Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.33(e), a final determination to prepare an 
environmental impact statement or a final FONSI for the proposed action 
will not be made until the last day of the public comment period has 
expired on November 6, 2009.

IV. Further Information

    Documents related to this action, including the letter requesting 
the amendment and supporting documentation, will be 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 Documents 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:
    1. September 29, 2006 authorization request (ML063040029).
    2. July 16, 2007 letter response to request for additional 
information (ML073520212).
    3. September 13, 2007 letter response to request for additional 
information (ML073440260).
    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].
    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 29th day of September 2009.

    For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Patrice M. Bubar,
Deputy Director, Environmental Protection and Performance Assessment 
Directorate, Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection, 
Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management 
Programs.
[FR Doc. E9-24208 Filed 10-6-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P