[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 162 (Wednesday, August 21, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51753-51754]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-20386]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 040-09092; [NRC-2013-0164]
AUC, LLC Reno Creek, In Situ Project, New Source Material License
Application
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact
statement.
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SUMMARY: By letter dated October 3, 2012, AUC, LLC (AUC) submitted to
the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) an application for a new
source material license. The requested license, or the proposed action,
would authorize the construction and operation, and decommissioning of
AUC's proposed in-situ uranium recovery (ISR, also known as in-situ
leach) facilities, and would require restoration of the aquifer from
which the uranium would be extracted. The proposed facility will be
located near the town of Wright, Wyoming in Campbell County. The
application was accepted for review by NRC on June 18, 2013. A notice
of receipt and availability of the license application, including the
Environmental Report (ER), and opportunity to request a hearing was
published in the Federal Register on August 5, 2013 (78 FR 47427).
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2013-0164 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may access publicly-available information related to this action by the
following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2013-0164. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-287-
3422; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact
the individual(s) listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section
of this document.
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]. Information and documents
associated with the Reno Creek ISR Project, including the license
application, are available for public review through our electronic
reading room: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html and on the NRC's
Reno Creek ISR Project Web page: http://www.nrc.gov/materials/uranium-recovery/license-apps/reno-creek.html.
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: Jill Caverly, Senior Project Manager,
Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management
Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001; telephone: 301-415-6699; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
1.0 Background
The purpose of this notice of intent is to inform the public that
the NRC will be preparing a site-specific Supplemental Environmental
Impact Statement (SEIS) regarding the proposed action in accordance
with NRC's regulations in part 51 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (10 CFR), ``Environmental Protection Regulations for
Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions,'' that implement
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA) (42
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.). The SEIS will tier off of the Generic
Environmental Impact Statement for In-Situ Leach Uranium Milling
Facilities (ISR GEIS) (NUREG-1910) that was published in 2009. The SEIS
will examine the potential environmental impacts of the proposed
construction, operation, and decommissioning of the Reno Creek ISR
facility. The SEIS will also include an analysis of impacts from the
proposed action to historic and cultural resources. The NRC staff will
coordinate compliance with the Section 106 of the National Historic
Preservation Act of 1966, as amended (NHPA) in parallel with the NEPA
process using the process set forth in 36 CFR 800.8(c).
AUC submitted its application for a 10 CFR part 40 license by
letter dated October 3, 2012. A notice of receipt and availability of
the license application, including the ER, and opportunity to request a
hearing was published in the Federal Register on August 5, 2013 (73 FR
47427).
The NRC will prepare a SEIS for the issuance of the ISR license to
possess and use source material for uranium milling to fulfill 10 CFR
51.20(b)(8) requirements. The purpose of this Notice of Intent is to
inform the public that the NRC staff, as part of its review of AUC's
application, is preparing a draft SEIS for public comment that will
tier off of the ISR GEIS. The GEIS identifies specific areas for
consideration on a site specific basis that form the staff's intended
scope for this site specific SEIS. While NRC's part 51 regulations do
not require scoping for SEISs, the NRC staff is planning to place ads
in newspapers serving communities near the proposed site, requesting
information and comments from the public regarding the proposed action
as well as information about other resources, such as historic and
cultural resources, that could be affected by the proposed action. In
preparing the SEIS, the NRC staff will also consult with Environmental
Protection Agency Region 8, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Wyoming
Department of Environmental Quality; Wyoming State Historic
Preservation Office; potentially interested Tribes and public interest
groups; and Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
The NRC will evaluate the potential environmental impacts
associated with the proposed ISR facility in parallel with the safety
review of the license application. The environmental evaluation will be
documented in draft and final SEISs in accordance with NEPA and NRC's
implementing regulations contained in 10 CFR part 51.
2.0 Reno Creek ISR Facilities
The facilities, if licensed, would use ISR technology to extract
uranium from the 6,057-acre project site. The facility
[[Page 51754]]
would include a central processing plant, consisting of pressurized
down flow ion exchange columns, accompanying wellfields (including
injection and production wells), and horizontal and vertical excursion
monitoring well networks. The ISR process involves the dissolution of
the water-soluble uranium from the mineralized host sandstone rock by
pumping oxidants and chemical compounds through a series of injection
wells. The uranium-rich solution is transferred from production wells
to the central processing plant for uranium concentration using ion
exchange columns. Final processing is conducted in the central
processing plant to produce yellowcake, which would be sold to offsite
facilities for further processing and eventual use as commercial fuel
in nuclear power reactors.
3.0 Alternatives To Be Evaluated
No-Action--the no-action alternative would be to deny the license
application. Under this alternative, the NRC would not issue the
license. This serves as a baseline for comparison.
Proposed Action--the proposed federal action is to issue a license
authorizing the possession and use of source material at the proposed
ISR facilities. The license review process analyzes the safety and
environmental issues related to the construction, operation, and
decommissioning of the ISR facilities, and the restoration of the
aquifer from which the uranium would be extracted. The applicant would
be issued an NRC license under the provisions of 10 CFR part 40.
Other alternatives not listed here may be identified through the
environmental review process.
4.0 Environmental Impact Areas To Be Analyzed
The following areas have been tentatively identified for analysis
in the SEIS:
Land Use: Plans, policies, and controls;
Transportation: Transportation modes, routes, quantities,
and risk estimates;
Geology and Soils: Physical geography, topography,
geology, and soil characteristics;
Water Resources: Surface and groundwater hydrology, water
use and quality, and the potential for degradation;
Ecology: Wetlands, aquatic, terrestrial, economically and
recreationally; Important species, and threatened and endangered
species;
Air Quality: Meteorological conditions, ambient
background, pollutant sources, and the potential for degradation;
Noise: Ambient, sources, and sensitive receptors;
Historical and Cultural Resources: Historical,
archaeological, and traditional cultural resources;
Visual and Scenic Resources: Landscape characteristics,
manmade features and viewshed;
Socioeconomics: Demography, economic base, labor pool,
housing, transportation, utilities, public services/facilities, and
education;
Environmental Justice: Potential disproportionately high
and adverse impacts to minority and low-income populations;
Public and Occupational Health: Potential public and
occupational consequences from construction, routine operation,
transportation, and credible accident scenarios (including natural
events);
Waste Management: Types of wastes expected to be
generated, handled, and stored; and
Cumulative Effects: Impacts from past, present, and
reasonably foreseeable actions at and near the site(s).
This list is not intended to be all inclusive, nor is it a
predetermination of potential environmental impacts.
5.0 The NEPA Process
The SEIS for the Reno Creek ISR Project will be prepared pursuant
to the NRC's NEPA regulations at 10 CFR Part 51. The NRC will conduct
its environmental review of the application and as soon as practicable,
the NRC will prepare and publish a draft SEIS. The NRC currently plans
to have a 45-day public comment period for the draft SEIS. Availability
of the draft SEIS and the dates of the public comment period will be
announced in the Federal Register and the NRC Web site: www.nrc.gov.
The final SEIS will include responses to public comments received on
the draft SEIS.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 12th day of August, 2013.
For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Aby Mohseni,
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. 2013-20386 Filed 8-20-13; 8:45 am]
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