[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 215 (Thursday, November 6, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65999-66002]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-26415]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 70-7005; NRC-2009-0283]
Waste Control Specialists LLC; Order Modifying Exemption
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact;
issuance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an
Environmental Assessment (EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact
(FONSI) in support of the NRC's consideration of the issuance of a new
order superseding an order previously issued to Waste Control
Specialists LLC (WCS) on October 20, 2009 (2009 Order). The 2009 Order
exempted WCS from the NRC's regulations concerning special nuclear
material (SNM). The current action is in response to a request by WCS
dated July 18, 2014, to temporarily store containers of transuranic
waste, originated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), in its
Federal Facility Waste Disposal Facility (FWF).
DATES: The EA and FONSI are available as of November 6, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2009-0283 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may obtain publicly-available information related to this document
using any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2009-0283. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-287-
3422; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact
the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of
this document.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection 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 document
(if that document is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time
that a document is referenced.
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: James Park, Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington
DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-6935; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The WCS operates a facility in Andrews County, Texas, that is
licensed to process and store certain types of radioactive material
contained in low-level waste (LLW) and mixed waste (MW). The facility
also disposes of hazardous and toxic waste. Under an Agreement
authorized by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (AEA), the NRC
can relinquish and a State can assume, regulatory authority over
radioactive material specified in an Agreement with the NRC. In 1963,
Texas entered into an Agreement and assumed regulatory authority over
source material, byproduct material, and SNM under critical mass.
On November 30, 1997, the State of Texas Department of Health (TDH)
issued WCS a radioactive materials license (RML) to possess, treat, and
store LLW (RML R04971). In 1997, WCS began accepting Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Toxic Substance Control Act
(TSCA) wastes for treatment, storage, and disposal. Later that year,
WCS received a license from the TDH for treatment and storage of MW and
LLW. The MW and LLW streams may contain quantities of SNM. In 2007, RML
R04971 was transferred to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
(TCEQ). In September 2009, the TCEQ issued RML R04100 to WCS for
disposal of LLW.
Section 70.3 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10
CFR) requires
[[Page 66000]]
persons who own, acquire, deliver, receive, possess, use, or transfer
SNM to obtain a license pursuant to the requirements of 10 CFR Part 70.
The licensing requirements in 10 CFR Part 70 apply to persons in
Agreement States possessing greater than critical mass quantities, as
defined in 10 CFR 150.11. However, pursuant to 10 CFR 70.17(a), ``the
Commission may grant such exemptions from the requirements of the
regulations in this part as it determines are authorized by law and
will not endanger life or property or the common defense and security
and are otherwise in the public interest.''
On September 25, 2000, WCS requested an exemption from the
licensing requirements in 10 CFR Part 70 (ADAMS Accession No.
ML003759584). On November 21, 2001, the NRC issued an order to WCS
(2001 Order) granting an exemption to WCS from certain NRC regulations
and permitted WCS, under specified conditions, to possess waste
containing SNM in greater quantities than specified in 10 CFR Part 150,
at the WCS storage and treatment facility in Andrews County, Texas,
without obtaining an NRC license pursuant to 10 CFR Part 70. The 2001
Order was published in the Federal Register on November 15, 2001 (66 FR
57489). The conditions specified in the 2001 Order are discussed in the
October 2001 EA and November 2001 Safety Evaluation Report (SER) that
supported the 2001 Order. The EA and SER are attachments to the
November 21, 2001, NRC letter to WCS (ADAMS Accession No. ML030130085).
By letters dated August 6, 2003, and March 14, 2004, WCS requested
a modification to the 2001 Order, which would allow it to use
additional reagents for chemical stabilization of mixed waste
containing SNM. The NRC issued the new order on November 4, 2004 (2004
Order), which superseded the 2001 Order. The 2004 Order was published
in the Federal Register on November 12, 2004 (69 FR 65468). The new
conditions specified in the 2004 Order are discussed in the October
2004 EA and SER that supported the 2004 Order (ADAMS Accession Nos.
ML043020614 and ML042250362). The 2004 Order changed the 2001 Order
conditions to allow WCS to use such chemical reagents as it deems
necessary for treatment and stabilization of mixed waste containing
SNM, provided that the SNM mass does not exceed specified concentration
limits.
By letter dated December 10, 2007, WCS requested additional
modifications to the 2004 Order, which would allow it to discontinue
confirmatory sampling of waste streams with certain SNM characteristics
and to meet the confirmatory sampling requirements of Condition 7 of
the order for sealed sources by using surface smear surveys. The NRC
issued the new order to WCS on October 20, 2009 (2009 Order), which
superseded the 2004 Order. The 2009 Order was published in the Federal
Register on October 26, 2009 (74 FR 55071). The new conditions
specified in the 2009 Order are discussed in the October 2009 EA and
SER that supported the 2009 Order (ADAMS Accession Nos. ML092460509 and
ML093070307). The 2009 Order changed the 2004 Order conditions
regarding sampling of waste, what is allowed to be in the waste, and
the amount of highly water soluble SNM in each waste package.
In July 2013, by Amendment No. 22 of RML R04100, the TCEQ began to
merge the license requirements in RML R04971 (for the radioactive waste
treatment, storage, and processing facility) with the requirements in
RML R04100 (for the LLW land disposal facility). In Amendment No. 22 of
RML R04100, the TCEQ license requirements related to the 2009 Order in
RML R04971 for the WCS treatment, storage, and processing facility were
transferred to RML R04100. Previous orders referred to that location as
the treatment, storage, and processing facility. Subsequently, WCS
began referring to that location as the ``Treatment, Storage and
Disposal Facility.'' The NRC will use the name ``Treatment, Storage,
and Disposal Facility'' and the abbreviation TSDF to reference that
location in this October 2014 EA and the 2014 Order.
The previous NRC orders (2001, 2004, and 2009) addressed the issue
that 10 CFR 70.3 requires persons who own, acquire, deliver, receive,
possess, use, or transfer SNM to obtain an NRC license pursuant to the
requirements in 10 CFR Part 70. However, 10 CFR 150.10 exempts a person
in an Agreement State who possesses SNM in quantities not sufficient to
form a critical mass from the NRC's imposed licensing requirements and
regulations. The method for calculating the quantity of SNM not
sufficient to form a critical mass is set out in 10 CFR 150.11.
Therefore, prior to the 2001 Order, WCS was required to comply with NRC
regulatory requirements and obtain an NRC specific license to possess
SNM in quantities greater than amounts established in 10 CFR 150.11.
The 2001 WCS exemption request, to the NRC, proposed to use
concentration-based limits rather than mass-based limits at a specific
location at the WCS facility. The 2001 Order granted, and the
subsequent NRC orders (2004 and 2009) continued, the use of
concentration-based limits with conditions at a specific location at
the WCS facility. The TCEQ incorporated the concentration-based limits
and conditions from each respective order (2001, 2004, and 2009) into
the WCS license for the specific location at the WCS facility where the
concentration-based limits instead of mass-based limits are applicable.
By letter dated July 18, 2014, WCS requested an exemption from the
NRC's regulations to possess SNM in excess of the critical mass limits
specified in 10 CFR 150.11 while temporarily storing specific waste at
a different location at the WCS facility other than the TSDF (ADAMS
Accession No. ML14209A660). The WCS exemption request referenced the
WCS June 20, 2014, letter to the NRC that notified the NRC of actions
that WCS had taken in response to the on-going U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) investigation of an unplanned radiation release event at
the DOE Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) facility (i.e., the WIPP
incident) (ADAMS Accession No. ML14171A554). The specific waste
includes some of the transuranic waste that originated at the DOE Los
Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), which are destined to be disposed of
at the DOE WIPP facility (i.e., LANL waste). Due to the February 14,
2014, WIPP incident, the DOE suspended operations at the WIPP facility.
In April 2014, WCS began receiving some of the LANL waste from DOE,
which met the conditions in the 2009 Order. The WCS intended to
temporarily store the LANL waste at the TSDF at the WCS facility until
WCS ships the waste.
Based on the DOE investigation of the WIPP incident, DOE
subsequently informed WCS that some of the LANL waste being temporarily
stored at the WCS TSDF could, under certain conditions, react and
potentially result in a release of transuranic radionuclides to the
environment. On June 12, 2014, WCS responded to DOE's information by
starting to voluntarily move the identified LANL waste to the Federal
Waste Disposal Facility (FWF) at the WCS facility for temporary
storage.
To move the identified LANL waste from the TSDF to the FWF, WCS
first loaded the LANL waste containers onto pallets and then using a
crane, moved the container-bearing pallets into Modular Concrete
Canisters (MCCs). The WCS then filled the void space within each loaded
MCC with washed river rock. The WCS moved the loaded MCCs to the FWF
and placed the MCCs in a single array. The WCS then poured
[[Page 66001]]
a 1-foot, flowable sand layer around and over the MCCs.
The MCCs, washed river rock, and sand layer are intended to reduce
the likelihood of an incident similar to the one that happened at the
WIPP facility and to provide protection in case such an incident was to
occur at the WCS facility. The WCS placed the identified LANL waste for
temporary storage in a specific area within the FWF that will be
separate from other wastes disposed of at the FWF. That placement will
also allow easier accessibility and monitoring of the identified LANL
waste temporarily stored at the FWF.
The WCS currently plans for the identified LANL waste at the FWF to
be shipped from the FWF. In preparation for that shipment, WCS would
need to retrieve the identified LANL waste containers from the MCCs. To
gain access to the MCC lids, WCS would remove the sand layer. The WCS
would then open each MCC and, using a vacuum truck, remove the washed
river rock. The WCS would then use a crane to lift the LANL waste
container-bearing pallets from the MCC.
II. Environmental Assessment
Description of the Proposed Action
The proposed action is to decide whether to grant or deny the WCS
July 18, 2014, request to modify the conditions of the 2009 Order to
reflect the WCS actions already taken in moving the identified LANL
waste from temporary storage at the TSDF to temporary storage in the
FWF, and, in the future, to prepare the waste for shipment from the
FWF.
Need for the Proposed Action
The WCS is making this request so that a new Order to WCS would
reflect the actions that WCS has already taken and is expected to take
in the future regarding the identified LANL waste at WCS in response to
the DOE investigation of the WIPP incident.
The purpose of this EA is to assess the potential environmental
impacts of the WCS actions already taken in moving the identified LANL
waste from the TSDF to the FWF, temporarily storing the identified LANL
waste at the FWF, and preparing for the future shipments of the waste
from the FWF. This EA does not approve or deny the requested action. A
separate SER has been prepared in support of approval or denial of the
requested action.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action
The NRC does not expect that significant changes in radiation
hazards to workers occurred from the movement of the identified LANL
waste from the TSDF to the FWF or will occur in the future while
temporarily storing the identified LANL waste at the FWF or future
preparation of the identified LANL waste for shipment from the FWF. To
perform those actions, WCS would need to have in place the necessary
radiation protection procedures to keep potential radiological doses to
workers within regulatory limits. The WCS conducts its radiation
protection program with an emphasis on maintaining doses as low as is
reasonably achievable.
To address the potential for an incident similar to that which had
occurred at the WIPP facility, WCS packed the identified LANL waste-
bearing containers into the MCCs, filled the void space with washed
river rock, moved the MCCs to the FWF, and is temporarily storing the
MCCs in the FWF in a separate placement and arrangement amenable to
monitoring in the FWF. All LANL waste while at the WCS facility is
covered by both the material control and accounting and security
programs for the WCS facility.
If the WCS exemption request is approved by the NRC staff, then the
NRC would issue a new order that would supersede the 2009 Order.
Conditions 1 through 7 would remain the same as in the 2009 Order, and
a new Condition 8 would be created in a new order to address WCS'
exemption request. The new Condition 8 would apply to the LANL waste
stored in either the TSDF or the FWF. Condition 8 in the 2009 Order
would be renumbered as Condition 9 in a new order, and Condition 9 in
the 2009 Order would be renumbered as Condition 10 in a new order. A
new Condition 11 would be added in a new order to provide the authority
for the Director of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and
Safeguards at NRC (or their designee), to, in writing, relax or rescind
any of the new order's conditions upon demonstration by the WCS of good
cause. The WCS would continue to be permitted to possess SNM at the
TSDF that meets the concentration limits and controls. The WCS would
continue to be permitted to possess highly water soluble forms of SNM
limited to amounts of SNM less than SNM of low strategic significance,
as defined in 10 CFR 73.2 at the TSDF.
The State of Texas regulates effluent releases and potential doses
to the public under the WCS license. The superseding NRC order would
not change the State of Texas' regulation of the WCS facility.
The proposed action would not result in substantive changes to the
transportation impacts identified in prior EAs. Movement of the
identified LANL waste from the TSDF to the FWF was restricted to the
WCS facility and involved the use of on-site cranes. Any increase in
the number of trucks entering and leaving the WCS facility in support
of the proposed action is expected to have been minimal. The trucks
potentially would have supplied the washed river rock and flowable sand
layer. That activity took place over a few days to a week, with the
consequent impacts (i.e., primarily fugitive dust, exhausts, and
traffic load on travelled roads) being temporary in nature. All other
environmental impacts would be the same as those evaluated in the EAs
that supported the 2001 Order, the 2004 Order, and the 2009 Order.
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
As an alternative to the proposed action, the NRC staff considered
denial of the WCS' July 18, 2014, request and therefore, to not issue a
new order that would supersede the 2009 Order (i.e., the ``no action''
alternative). Under that alternative, WCS would need to remove the
identified LANL waste from its temporary storage location at the FWF
and return it to the TSDF. The impacts of doing so would be similar to
those experienced for the proposed action because the actions to move
the identified LANL waste back to the TSDF from the FWF would be the
reverse of those taken to move it from the TSDF to the FWF.
Additionally, temporary storage of the identified LANL waste at the
TSDF may increase the potential for impacts on the environment at the
WCS facility, if an event similar to the WIPP incident were to occur.
Agencies and Persons Consulted
On October 1, 2014, the staff consulted with the TCEQ, providing a
copy of the draft EA for review and comment (ADAMS Accession No.
ML14280A246). By email dated October 3, 2014, the TCEQ stated they had
no substantive comments on the EA, recommending only two minor
grammatical changes (ADAMS Accession No. ML14280A246). The NRC staff
modified the EA to address the TCEQ comments.
The proposed action does not involve the development or disturbance
of additional land. Hence, the NRC has determined that the proposed
action will not affect listed endangered or threatened species or their
critical habitat. Therefore, no further
[[Page 66002]]
consultation is required under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act.
Likewise, the NRC staff has determined that the proposed action does
not have the potential to cause effects on historic properties even if
they were present. The identified LANL waste is being stored in the
FWF, the bottom of which is more than 100 feet below grade, and no
ground disturbing activities are associated with the proposed action.
Therefore, no consultation is required under Section 106 of the
National Historic Preservation Act.
III. Finding of No Significant Impact
The NRC has reviewed WCS's July 18, 2014, request to amend the 2009
Order. The NRC has found that effluent releases and potential
radiological doses to the public are not anticipated to change as a
result of this action and that occupational exposures are expected to
remain within regulatory limits and as low as reasonably achievable. On
the basis of the environmental assessment, the NRC concludes that the
proposed action did not have a significant effect on the quality of the
human environment. Accordingly, the NRC has determined not to prepare
an environmental impact statement for the proposed action.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 30th day of October 2014.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Marissa Bailey,
Director, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety, Safeguards and Environmental
Review, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2014-26415 Filed 11-5-14; 8:45 am]
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