[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 166 (Friday, August 26, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53500-53501]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-21927]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 04009068; NRC-2008-0391]


Notice of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Issuance of Materials 
License SUA-1598 and Record of Decision for Lost Creek ISR, LLC Lost 
Creek In-Situ Recovery Project

AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of issuance of materials license SUA-1598.

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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC 
or the Commission) has issued a license to Lost Creek ISR, LLC (LCI) 
for its Lost Creek uranium in-situ recovery (ISR) project in Sweetwater 
County, Wyoming. Materials License SUA-1598 authorizes LCI to operate 
its facilities as proposed in its license application, as amended, and 
to possess uranium source and byproduct material at the Lost Creek 
Project. Furthermore, LCI will be required to operate under the 
conditions listed in Materials License SUA-1598.
    This notice also serves as the record of decision for the NRC 
decision to approve LCI's license application for the Lost Creek 
Project and to issue Materials License SUA-1598. This record of 
decision satisfies the regulatory requirement in Section 51.102(a) of 
Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), which requires a 
Commission decision on any action for which a final environmental 
impact statement has been prepared to be accompanied by or to include a 
concise public record of decision.
    The NRC considers the entire publicly available record for a 
license application to constitute the agency's record of decision. 
Documents related to this application carry Docket Number 04009068. You 
can access the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS), which provides text and image files of the NRC's public 
documents in the NRC Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. These documents for the Lost Creek Project include the 
license application (including the applicant's environmental report) 
[ADAMS Accession No. ML081060502], the Commission's Safety Evaluation 
Report (SER) published in August 2011 [ADAMS Accession No. 
ML112231724], and the Commission's Final Supplemental Environmental 
Impact Statement (FSEIS) (NUREG-1910, Supplement 3) published in June 
2011 [ADAMS Accession No. ML11125A006]. The record of decision also 
includes the applicable portions of the Generic Environmental Impact 
Statement for In-Situ Leach Uranium Milling Facilities (NUREG-1910), as 
incorporated by reference in the FSEIS.
    As discussed in the Lost Creek FSEIS, the Commission considered a 
range of alternatives. The reasonable alternatives discussed in detail 
were the applicant's proposal as described in its license application 
to conduct in-situ uranium recovery on the site, the no-action 
alternative, and the dry yellowcake alternative. Under the proposed 
action, yellowcake slurry would be produced, but not dried, onsite, 
whereas the dry yellowcake alternative considered the impacts of 
installing a dryer onsite to produce dry yellowcake from the yellowcake 
slurry produced onsite. Before a dryer could be installed on the Lost 
Creek Project site, the licensee would be required to submit a license 
amendment request, and the NRC would need to approve such a request. 
Other alternatives considered, but eliminated from detailed analysis, 
include conventional uranium mining and milling, conventional mining 
and heap leach processing, alternate lixiviants, and alternative 
wastewater disposal options. The Lost Creek FSEIS also discussed the 
factors considered when evaluating the alternatives, a comparison among 
the alternatives, and license conditions and monitoring programs. The 
FSEIS also contained the NRC staff recommendation to the Commission, 
related to the environmental aspects of the proposed action that the 
source material license should be issued as requested, unless safety 
issues mandate otherwise.

[[Page 53501]]

    The NRC has found that the application for the source materials 
license complied with the standards and requirements of the Atomic 
Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), and the Commission's 
regulations. As required by the Act and the Commission's regulations in 
10 CFR 40.32(b)-(c), the staff has found that LCI is qualified by 
reason of training and experience to use source material for the 
purpose that it requested, and that LCI's proposed equipment and 
procedures for use at its Lost Creek Project are adequate to protect 
public health and minimize danger to life or property. The NRC staff's 
review supporting these findings is documented in the SER. The NRC 
staff also concluded, in accordance with 10 CFR 40.32(d), that issuance 
of Materials License SUA-1598 to LCI will not be inimical to the common 
defense and security or to the health and safety of the public. The 
staff also found in accordance with 10 CFR 40.32(e), after weighing the 
environmental, economic, technical, and other benefits against 
environmental costs and considering available alternatives, that the 
appropriate action is to issue Materials License SUA-1598.
    LCI's request for a materials license was previously noticed in the 
Federal Register on July 10, 2008 (73 FR 39728), with a notice of an 
opportunity to request a hearing. The NRC did not receive any requests 
for a hearing on the license application.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's 
``Rules of Practice,'' the details with respect to this action, 
including the SER and accompanying documentation and license, are 
available electronically in the NRC Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. The ADAMS accession numbers for the documents 
related to this notice are:

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1..................  Applicant's Application, March 20, 2008.............  ML081060525
2..................  Response to Request for Additional Information,       ML090080451
                      December 12, 2008.
3..................  Response to Request for Additional Information,       ML090360163
                      January 16, 2009.
4..................  Response to Request for Additional Information,       ML090840399
                      February 27, 2009.
5..................  Generic Environmental Impact Statement for In-Situ    ML091530075
                      Leach Uranium Milling Facilities, May 2009.
6..................  Response to Request for Additional Information,       ML092310728
                      August 5, 2009.
7..................  Applicant's Notification of Monitoring Well Network,  ML091740295
                      May 22, 2009.
8..................  Lost Creek Project Exemption Request, July 2, 2009..  ML091940438
9..................  Exemption to 10 CFR 40.42(e), April 6, 2010.........  ML093350365
10.................  Response to Open Issues in Safety Evaluation Report,  ML102100241
                      April 22, 2010.
11.................  Revisions to Application, April 22, 2010............  ML102420249
12.................  Clarifications to Technical Report, May 14, 2010....  ML101600528
13.................  Replacement Pages to Application, June 24, 2010.....  ML101820155
14.................  Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the   ML11125A006
                      Lost Creek ISR Project in Sweetwater County,
                      Wyoming, June 2011.
15.................  NRC Safety Evaluation Report, August 2011...........  ML112231724
16.................  Source Materials License for Lost Creek, August 17,   ML111940049
                      2011.
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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 or 301-415-4737, 
or via 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tanya Palmateer Oxenberg, Ph.D., 
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, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555. Telephone: (301) 415-6142; fax number: (301) 415-
5369; e-mail: [email protected].

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 17th day of August 2011.

    For the 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. 2011-21927 Filed 8-25-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P