[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