[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 17 (Friday, January 25, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5514-5516]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-01581]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 040-08502; NRC-2009-0036]
Supplemental Environmental Assessment and Finding of No
Significant Impact for License Renewal for Uranium One USA, Inc.,
Willow Creek Uranium In-Situ Recovery Project, Johnson and Campbell
Counties, WY, License SUA-1341
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2009-0036 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may access information related to this document, which the NRC
possesses and are publicly-available, using any of the following
methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2009-0036. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-492-
3668; email: [email protected].
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may access publicly-available documents online in the NRC
Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the
search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and then select ``Begin Web-
based ADAMS Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's
Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-
4737, or by email to [email protected]. The ADAMS accession number
for each document referenced in this notice (if that document is
available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that a document is
referenced. In addition, for the convenience of the reader, the ADAMS
accession numbers are provided in a table in Section IV of this notice.
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ron C. Linton, Project Manager, Office
of
[[Page 5515]]
Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone:
301-415-7777; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the
renewal of Source Materials License SUA-1341 for continued uranium
production operations and in-situ recovery (ISR) of uranium at the
Willow Creek Project (formally known as Irigaray and Christensen Ranch
Project) in Johnson and Campbell Counties, Wyoming. The NRC has
prepared a Supplemental Environmental Assessment (SEA) to the
Environmental Assessment (EA) published in July 2011, in support of
this proposed license renewal in accordance with the requirements in
part 51 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR). Based
on the SEA, the NRC has concluded that a Finding of No Significant
Impact (FONSI) is appropriate. The NRC is also conducting a safety
evaluation of the proposed license renewal, pursuant to 10 CFR part 40.
The results of the safety evaluation will be documented in a separate
Safety Evaluation Report. If approved, the NRC will issue the renewed
license following the publication of this notice.
II. Supplemental Environmental Assessment Summary
On May 30, 2008, Cogema Mining, Inc. submitted an application to
the NRC, requesting license renewal of Source Materials License SUA-
1341. On December 17, 2009, the NRC consented to a change of control of
the license and Uranium One, USA, Inc. (Uranium One) became the
licensee for Source Materials License SUA-1341. The NRC completed a
Final EA and FONSI for the license renewal request on July 7, 2011.
This SEA was prepared after publication of the EA due to the licensee's
request to increase the flow rate of operations from 4,000 gallons per
minute (gpm) to 9,000 gpm. The proposed action in this SEA is to
increase the Christensen Ranch satellite plant throughput from 4,000
gpm to 9,000 gpm.
The NRC staff has determined that this increase in flow rate will
not change the licensed boundary, and will only require minor
modifications to the satellite plant resulting in an increase in the
satellite plant footprint of approximately 660 square feet. The
increase in flow rate will allow the licensee to operate more
wellfields simultaneously, but will not change production rates from
already approved wellfields because the production unit geologic
properties control the flow rate at which each wellfield can be
operated, which has not changed from previous evaluations. In the SEA,
the staff considered the following environmental resource areas in its
evaluation: Air quality, public and occupational doses; soil and
groundwater; waste management and transportation. Public and
occupational exposures are expected to remain below the limits
established in 10 CFR part 20. Soil and groundwater are not expected to
be impacted beyond what has already been evaluated, as the proposed
action will allow the licensee to produce at a faster rate, but not
from more production areas. Uranium One maintains acceptable waste
management practices and procedures and even with the increase in flow
rate, the waste management impacts are expected to be small. The
increase in flow rate will result in one additional transfer of resin
daily and one additional truck transporting resin daily to the Irigaray
central processing plant. This increase does not affect the previous
analysis discussed in the EA. The staff concluded that the proposed 10-
year renewal of Source Materials License SUA-1341 will not result in a
significant impact to the environment.
During development of the SEA, NRC staff requested comments from
the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (WDEQ) on the increase
in flow rate; none were provided.
III. Finding of No Significant Impact
The NRC staff has prepared an SEA in support of the proposed
action. On the basis of this SEA, the NRC finds that there are no
significant environmental impacts from the proposed action, and that
the 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
amendment and supporting documentation, are available electronically at
the NRC Library 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 provided in the following table:
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Document ADAMS Accession No.
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Final Environmental Assessment, July ML103270681
7, 2011.
License Renewal Revision (LRA), ML120820095
Revision and Request for Flow Rate
Increase, March 7, 2012.
Acceptance For Review And Request For ML12152A159
Additional Information, Supplemental
Information to 2008 License Renewal
Application, June 7, 2012.
Response to RAIs for Supplemental ML12206A436
Information to 2008 License Renewal
Application, July 7, 2012.
LRA Revision, July 10, 2012........... ML12206A436
Letter to WDEQ, Request for Comments.. ML12230A086
Email response from WDEQ.............. ML12285A074
Supplemental Environmental Assessment. ML12289A522
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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, 301-415-4737 or
by email to [email protected].
These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public
computers located at the NRC's Public Document Room (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, 16th day of January 2013.
[[Page 5516]]
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Andrew Persinko,
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. 2013-01581 Filed 1-24-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P