[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 8 (Thursday, January 12, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1920-1923]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-445]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Second Amended Notice of Intent To Modify the Scope of the 
Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental Environmental Impact 
Statement and Conduct Additional Public Scoping

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security 
Administration.

ACTION: Amended Notice of Intent.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces its intent to 
modify the scope of the Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental 
Environmental Impact Statement (SPD Supplemental EIS, DOE/EIS-0283-S2) 
and to conduct additional public scoping. DOE issued its Notice of 
Intent (NOI) to prepare the SPD Supplemental EIS on March 28, 2007, and 
issued an Amended NOI on July 19, 2010. DOE now intends to further 
revise the scope of the SPD Supplemental EIS primarily to add 
additional alternatives for the disassembly of pits (a nuclear weapons 
component) and the conversion of plutonium metal originating from pits 
to feed material for the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility 
(MFFF), which DOE is constructing at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in 
South Carolina. Under the proposed new alternatives, DOE would expand 
or install the essential elements required to provide a pit disassembly 
and/or conversion capability at one or more of the following locations: 
Technical Area 55 (TA-55) at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) 
in New Mexico, H-Canyon/HB-Line at SRS, K-Area at SRS, and the MFFF at 
SRS. In addition, DOE has decided not to analyze an alternative, 
described in the 2010 Amended NOI, to construct a separate Plutonium 
Preparation (PuP) capability for non-pit plutonium because the 
necessary preparation activities are adequately encompassed within the 
other alternatives.
    The MOX fuel alternative is DOE's preferred alternative for surplus 
plutonium disposition. DOE's preferred alternative for pit disassembly 
and the conversion of surplus plutonium metal, regardless of its 
origins, to feed for the MFFF is to use some combination of facilities 
at TA-55 at LANL, K-Area at SRS, H-Canyon/HB-Line at SRS and MFFF at 
SRS, rather than to construct a new stand-alone facility. This would 
likely require the installation of additional equipment and other 
modifications to some of these facilities. DOE's preferred alternative 
for disposition of surplus plutonium that is not suitable for MOX fuel 
fabrication is disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in 
New Mexico.

DATES: DOE invites Federal agencies, state and local governments, 
Native American tribes, industry, other organizations, and members of 
the public to submit comments to assist in identifying environmental 
issues and in determining the appropriate scope of the SPD Supplemental 
EIS. The public scoping period will end on March 12, 2012. DOE will 
consider all comments

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received or postmarked by March 12, 2012. Comments received after that 
date will be considered to the extent practicable. Also, DOE asks that 
Federal, State, local, and tribal agencies that desire to be designated 
cooperating agencies on the SPD Supplemental EIS contact the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Document Manager at the addresses 
listed under ADDRESSES by the end of the scoping period. The Tennessee 
Valley Authority (TVA) is a cooperating agency for sections of the EIS 
as described below. DOE will hold a public scoping meeting:
     February 2, 2012 (5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.) at Cities of Gold 
Hotel, 10-A Cities of Gold Road, Pojoaque, NM 87501.
    The scoping period announced in this second Amended NOI will allow 
for additional public comment and for DOE to consider any new 
information that may be relevant to the scope of the SPD Supplemental 
EIS. Because the additional alternatives do not involve new locations 
except for LANL, and because there have been two previous scoping 
periods for this SPD Supplemental EIS, DOE does not intend to hold 
additional scoping meetings except at Pojoaque, NM, or to extend the 
scoping period beyond that announced herein.

ADDRESSES: Please direct written comments on the scope of the SPD 
Supplemental EIS to Ms. Sachiko McAlhany, SPD Supplemental EIS NEPA 
Document Manager, U.S. Department of Energy, P.O. Box 2324, Germantown, 
MD 20874-2324. Comments on the scope of the SPD Supplemental EIS may 
also be submitted via email to [email protected] or by toll-
free fax to (877) 865-0277. DOE will give equal weight to written, 
email, fax, telephone, and oral comments. Questions regarding the 
scoping process and requests to be placed on the SPD Supplemental EIS 
mailing list should be directed to Ms. McAlhany by any of the means 
given above or by calling toll-free (877) 344-0513.
    For general information concerning the DOE NEPA process, contact: 
Carol Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance (GC-
54), U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW., 
Washington, DC 20585-0103; telephone (202) 586-4600, or leave a message 
toll-free (800) 472-2756; fax (202) 586-7031; or send an email to 
[email protected]. This second Amended NOI will be available on the 
Internet at http://energy.gov/nepa.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    To reduce the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation, DOE is 
engaged in a program to disposition its surplus, weapons-usable 
plutonium in a safe, secure, and environmentally sound manner, by 
converting such plutonium into proliferation-resistant forms not 
readily usable in nuclear weapons. The U.S. inventory of surplus 
plutonium is in several forms. The largest quantity is plutonium metal 
in the shape of pits (a nuclear weapons component). The remainder is 
non-pit plutonium, which includes plutonium oxides and metal in a 
variety of forms and purities.
    DOE already has decided to fabricate 34 metric tons (MT) of surplus 
plutonium into MOX fuel in the MFFF (68 FR 20134, April 24, 2003), 
currently under construction at SRS, and to irradiate the MOX fuel in 
commercial nuclear reactors used to generate electricity, thereby 
rendering the plutonium into a spent fuel form not readily usable in 
nuclear weapons.
    DOE announced its intent to prepare a SPD Supplemental EIS in 2007 
to analyze the potential environmental impacts of alternatives to 
disposition about 13 MT of surplus plutonium (72 FR 14543; March 28, 
2007). DOE issued an Amended NOI in 2010 ``to refine the quantity and 
types of surplus weapons-usable plutonium material, evaluate additional 
alternatives, and no longer consider in detail one alternative 
identified'' in the 2007 NOI (75 FR 41850; July 19, 2010).\1\ The 2007 
NOI and 2010 Amended NOI are available at http://www.nnsa.energy.gov/nepa/spdsupplementaleis and details from them are not reproduced in 
this second Amended NOI.
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    \1\ The 2010 Amended NOI describes changes in the inventory of 
surplus plutonium to be analyzed in the SPD Supplemental EIS, though 
the total quantity remained about 13 MT. On March 30, 2011, DOE made 
an amended interim action determination to disposition approximately 
85 kilograms (0.085 MT) of surplus, non-pit plutonium via the 
Defense Waste Processing Facility at SRS or disposal at the Waste 
Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. On October 17, 2011, DOE 
made another interim action determination to dispose of 500 
kilograms (0.5 MT) of surplus, non-pit plutonium at WIPP. These 
determinations do not affect the range of reasonable alternatives to 
be analyzed in the SPD Supplemental EIS.
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    In the 2010 Amended NOI, DOE proposed to revisit its decision to 
construct and operate a new Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility 
(PDCF) in the F-Area at SRS (65 FR 1608; January 11, 2000) and analyze 
an alternative to install and operate the pit disassembly and 
conversion capabilities in an existing building in K-Area at SRS. With 
this second Amended NOI, DOE is proposing to analyze additional 
alternatives for pit disassembly and conversion, which could involve 
the use of TA-55 at LANL, H-Canyon/HB-Line at SRS, K-Area at SRS, and 
the MFFF at SRS. These alternatives are described below under Potential 
Range of Alternatives.

Purpose and Need for Agency Action

    DOE's purpose and need remains to reduce the threat of nuclear 
weapons proliferation worldwide by conducting disposition of surplus 
plutonium in the United States in an environmentally safe and timely 
manner. Comprehensive disposition actions are needed to ensure that 
surplus plutonium is converted into proliferation-resistant forms.

Potential Range of Alternatives

    Since the 2010 Amended NOI, DOE has reconsidered the potential 
alternatives for pit disassembly and conversion. DOE now is proposing 
to analyze additional alternatives.
    The EIS analysis will account for the possibility that DOE could 
use some combination of facilities at TA-55 at LANL, K-Area at SRS, H-
Canyon/HB-Line at SRS, and MFFF at SRS to disassemble pits, and produce 
feed for the MFFF.
    DOE has determined that the construction of a separate Plutonium 
Preparation (PuP) capability would not be required because the 
alternatives that are being considered for the disposition of non-pit 
plutonium include any necessary preparation activities.
    The complete list of alternatives that DOE proposes to analyze in 
detail in the SPD Supplemental EIS is provided below.

Surplus Plutonium Disposition

    DOE will analyze four alternative pathways to disposition surplus 
plutonium. There are constraints on the type or quantity of plutonium 
that may be dispositioned by each pathway. For example, there are 
safety (criticality) limits on how much plutonium can be sent to the 
Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at SRS, and some plutonium is 
not suitable for fabrication into MOX fuel. Accordingly, DOE expects to 
select two or more alternatives following completion of the SPD 
Supplemental EIS.
     H-Canyon/DWPF--DOE would use the H-Canyon at SRS to 
process surplus non-pit plutonium for disposition. Plutonium materials 
would be dissolved, and the resulting plutonium-bearing solutions would 
be sent to a sludge batch feed tank and then to DWPF at SRS for 
vitrification. Depending on the quantity, adding additional plutonium 
to the feed may

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increase the amount of plutonium in some DWPF canisters above 
historical levels.
     Glass Can-in-Canister Immobilization--DOE would install a 
glass can-in-canister immobilization capability in K-Area at SRS. The 
analysis will assume that both surplus pit and non-pit plutonium would 
be vitrified within small cans, which would be placed in a rack inside 
a DWPF canister and surrounded with vitrified high-level waste. This 
alternative is similar to one evaluated in the 1999 Surplus Plutonium 
Disposition EIS (SPD EIS; DOE/EIS-0283), except that the capability 
would be installed in an existing rather than a new facility. Inclusion 
of cans with vitrified plutonium would substantially increase the 
amount of plutonium in some DWPF canisters above historical levels.
     WIPP--DOE would provide the capability to prepare and 
package non-pit plutonium using existing facilities at SRS for disposal 
as transuranic waste at WIPP, provided that the material would meet the 
WIPP waste acceptance criteria. This alternative may include material 
that, because of its physical or chemical configuration or 
characteristics, could not be prepared for MFFF feed material and 
material that could be disposed at WIPP with minimal preparation.
     MOX Fuel--Plutonium feed material, beyond the 34 MT for 
which a decision already has been made, would be fabricated into MOX 
fuel at the MFFF, and the resultant MOX fuel would be irradiated in 
commercial nuclear power reactors. For purposes of analyzing this 
alternative, the EIS will assume all the surplus pit and some of the 
surplus non-pit plutonium would be dispositioned in this manner.

Pit Disassembly and Conversion Capability

    Plutonium pits must be disassembled prior to disposition and, for 
the MOX alternative, plutonium metal from pits or non-pit material must 
be converted to an oxide form to be used as feed in producing MOX Fuel. 
DOE will analyze the potential environmental impacts of conducting pit 
disassembly and/or conversion activities in five different facilities 
to support its prior decision to disposition 34 MT of surplus plutonium 
by fabrication into MOX fuel and also any decision subsequent to this 
SPD Supplemental EIS to disposition additional surplus plutonium as MOX 
fuel. The Pit Disassembly and Conversion Capability Alternatives that 
NNSA proposes to analyze are:
     PDCF in F-Area at SRS--DOE would construct, operate, and 
eventually decommission a stand-alone PDCF to disassemble pits and 
convert plutonium pits and other plutonium metal to an oxide form 
suitable for feed to the MFFF, as described in the SPD EIS and 
consistent with DOE's record of decision for that EIS (65 FR 1608; 
January 11, 2000).
     Pit Disassembly and Conversion Capability in K-Area at 
SRS--DOE would construct, operate, and eventually decommission 
equipment in K-Area at SRS necessary to perform the same functions as 
the PDCF. The alternative would include reconfiguration of ongoing K-
Area operations necessary to accommodate construction and operation of 
the pit disassembly and conversion capability.
     New alternatives for pit disassembly and conversion:
    [cir] LANL/MFFF--DOE would expand existing capabilities in the 
plutonium facility (PF-4) in Technical Area-55 at LANL to disassemble 
pits and provide plutonium metal and/or oxide for use as feed material 
in MFFF at SRS. DOE also may add a capability to the MFFF to oxidize 
plutonium metal.
    [cir] LANL/MFFF/K-Area/H-Canyon/HB-Line at SRS--DOE would expand 
existing capabilities in the plutonium facility (PF-4) in Technical 
Area-55 at LANL to disassemble pits and provide plutonium metal and 
potentially oxide for use as feed material in MFFF at SRS. DOE also may 
add a capability to the MFFF to oxidize plutonium metal. To augment the 
capability to provide feed material to the MFFF, DOE also would 
disassemble pits in K-Area at SRS and process plutonium metal to an 
oxide form at the H-Canyon/HB-Line at SRS.

Reactor Operations

    MOX fuel will be irradiated in commercial nuclear reactors used to 
generate electricity, thereby rendering the plutonium into a spent fuel 
form not readily usable in nuclear weapons.
     DOE and TVA will analyze the potential environmental 
impacts of any reactor facility modifications necessary to accommodate 
MOX fuel operation at up to five TVA reactors--the three boiling water 
reactors at Browns Ferry, near Decatur and Athens, AL, and the two 
pressurized water reactors at Sequoyah, near Soddy-Daisy, TN. DOE and 
TVA will analyze the potential environmental impacts of operating these 
reactors using a core loading with the maximum technically and 
economically viable number of MOX fuel assemblies.
     DOE will analyze the potential environmental impacts of 
irradiating MOX fuel in a generic reactor in the United States to 
provide analysis for any additional future potential utility customers.

Potential Decisions

    The SPD Supplemental EIS will not reconsider decisions already made 
to disposition surplus plutonium, other than the decision to construct 
and operate the PDCF. DOE already has decided to fabricate 34 MT of 
surplus plutonium into MOX fuel in the MFFF (68 FR 20134; April 24, 
2003), currently under construction at SRS, and to irradiate the MOX 
fuel in commercial nuclear reactors used to generate electricity. 
Subsequent to completion of the SPD Supplemental EIS, DOE will decide, 
based on programmatic, engineering, facility safety, cost, and schedule 
information, and on the environmental impact analysis in the SPD 
Supplemental EIS, which pit disassembly and conversion alternative(s) 
to implement to provide feed to the MFFF, which alternative(s) to 
implement for preparation of non-pit plutonium for disposition, whether 
to use the MOX alternative to disposition additional surplus plutonium 
(beyond 34 MT), and which alternative(s) disposition path(s) to 
implement for surplus plutonium that will not be dispositioned as MOX 
fuel. DOE may determine that it can best meet its full range of 
requirements in each of these areas by implementing two or more of the 
alternatives analyzed in the SPD Supplemental EIS. It is also possible 
that DOE may determine that its full range of requirements may be best 
met by implementing a composite set of actions that would be drawn from 
within the scope of the set of alternatives proposed and analyzed in 
the SPD Supplemental EIS.
    DOE considers those alternatives that would avoid extensive 
construction and/or facility modification for the pit disassembly and 
conversion capability and non-pit plutonium preparation capability as 
having particular merit and, thus, has identified its preferred 
alternative for this proposed action. For non-pit plutonium preparation 
and pit disassembly and conversion of plutonium metal to MFFF feed for 
the manufacture of MOX fuel, DOE's preferred alternative is to use some 
combination of existing facilities, with additional equipment or 
modification, at TA-55 at LANL, K-Area at SRS, H-Canyon/HB-Line at SRS, 
and MFFF at SRS, rather than to construct a new, standalone facility. 
The MOX fuel alternative is DOE's preferred alternative for surplus 
plutonium disposition. DOE's preferred alternative for disposition of 
surplus plutonium

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that is not suitable for MOX fuel fabrication is disposal at WIPP.
    As stated in the 2010 Amended NOI, DOE and TVA are evaluating use 
of MOX fuel in up to five TVA reactors at the Sequoyah and Browns Ferry 
Nuclear Plants. TVA will determine whether to pursue irradiation of MOX 
fuel in TVA reactors, and will determine which reactors to use 
initially for this purpose, should TVA and DOE decide to use MOX fuel 
in TVA reactors.

Potential Environmental Issues for Analysis

    DOE has tentatively identified the following environmental issues 
for analysis in the SPD Supplemental EIS. The list is presented to 
facilitate comment on the scope of the SPD Supplemental EIS, and is not 
intended to be comprehensive or to predetermine the potential impacts 
to be analyzed.
     Impacts to the general population and workers from 
radiological and nonradiological releases, and other worker health and 
safety impacts.
     Impacts of emissions on air and water quality.
     Impacts on ecological systems and threatened and 
endangered species.
     Impacts of waste management activities, including storage 
of DWPF canisters and transuranic waste pending disposal.
     Impacts of the transportation of radioactive materials, 
reactor fuel assemblies, and waste.
     Impacts that could occur as a result of postulated 
accidents and intentional destructive acts (terrorist actions and 
sabotage).
     Potential disproportionately high and adverse effects on 
low-income and minority populations (environmental justice).
     Short-term and long-term land use impacts.
     Cumulative impacts.

NEPA Process

    The first scoping period for the SPD Supplemental EIS began on 
March 28, 2007, and ended on May 29, 2007, with scoping meetings in 
Aiken and Columbia, SC. DOE began a second public scoping period with 
publication of an Amended NOI on July 19, 2010, and continuing through 
September 17, 2010. Public scoping meetings were held in Tanner, AL; 
Chattanooga, TN; North Augusta, SC; and Carlsbad and Santa Fe, NM.
    Following the scoping period announced in this second Amended NOI, 
and after considering all scoping comments received, DOE will prepare a 
Draft SPD Supplemental EIS. DOE will announce the availability of the 
Draft SPD Supplemental EIS in the Federal Register and local media 
outlets. Comments received on the Draft SPD Supplemental EIS will be 
considered and addressed in the Final SPD Supplemental EIS. DOE 
currently plans to issue the Final SPD Supplemental EIS in late 2012. 
DOE will issue a record of decision no sooner than 30 days after 
publication by the Environmental Protection Agency of a Notice of 
Availability of the Final SPD Supplemental EIS.

Other Agency Involvement

    The Tennessee Valley Authority is a cooperating agency with DOE for 
preparation and review of the sections of the SPD Supplemental EIS that 
address operation of TVA reactors using MOX fuel assemblies. DOE 
invites Federal and non-Federal agencies with expertise in the subject 
matter of the SPD Supplemental EIS to contact the NEPA Document Manager 
(see ADDRESSES) if they wish to be a cooperating agency in the 
preparation of the SPD Supplemental EIS.

    Issued at Washington, DC, on January 6, 2012.
Thomas P. D'Agostino,
Undersecretary for Nuclear Security.
[FR Doc. 2012-445 Filed 1-11-12; 8:45 am]
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