[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 8, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12143-12146]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-05127]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 40-9091; NRC-2011-0148]
Strata Energy, Inc, Kendrick Expansion Area In Situ Uranium
Recovery Project
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement
and conduct a scoping process; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) received a
license amendment application for License SUA-1601, by letters dated
March 20, 2015, and April 24, 2015, from Strata Energy, Inc. (Strata).
The amendment application requested authorization to expand its Ross In
Situ Uranium Recovery (ISR) Project (Ross) to include the Kendrick
expansion area (Kendrick). The requested amendment would allow Strata
to construct and operate additional uranium recovery wells at Kendrick.
Kendrick covers approximately 3,186 hectares (7,784 acres) adjacent to
Ross. Ross is located in Crook County, Wyoming, 43 kilometers (27
miles) northeast of Gillette, Wyoming and 46 kilometers (29 miles)
northwest of Sundance, Wyoming. A notice of license
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amendment request and opportunity to request a hearing was published in
the Federal Register on February 29, 2016.
DATES: The scoping period begins March 8, 2016 and ends April 22, 2016.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2011-0148 when providing
scoping comments or contacting the NRC about the availability of
information regarding this document. You may submit scoping comments by
the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2011-0148. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact
the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of
this document.
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration,
Mail Stop: OWFN-12-H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
Email Comments to: You may email scoping comments to the
Project's email address: [email protected].
Comments must be submitted by April 22, 2016 to ensure
consideration. For additional direction on accessing information and
submitting comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting
Comments'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jessie Muir Quintero, Office of
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-7476; email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2011-0148 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information regarding this document. You may
obtain 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-2011-0148.
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]. For
the convenience of the reader, instructions about obtaining materials
referenced in this document are provided in a table in the section of
this notice entitle, Availability of Documents.
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.
Project Web page: Information related to the Kendrick
project can be accessed on the NRC's Kendrick Project Web page at:
http://www.nrc.gov/materials/uranium-recovery/license-apps/kendrick.html.
B. Submitting Comments
Please include Docket ID NRC-2011-0148 in your comment submission.
Written comments may be submitted during the 45-day scoping period as
described in the ADDRESSES section of the document.
The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact
information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your
comment submission. The NRC posts all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as entering the comment submissions into
ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove
identifying or contact information.
If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons
for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to
include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be
publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should
state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to
remove such information before making the comment submissions available
to the public or entering the comment submissions into ADAMS.
II. Background
On April 24, 2014, the NRC staff issued Strata a source and
byproduct material license, SUA-1601, pursuant to part 40 of title 10
of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR). License SUA-1601
authorizes Strata to construct and operate its Ross ISR project, which
includes ISR wellfields, a central processing plant (CPP), and
ancillary facilities within the 696-hectare (1,721-acre) Ross site
located in Crook County, Wyoming. Prior to granting Strata SUA-1601,
the NRC staff conducted an environmental review of the proposed project
and issued a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the
Ross ISR Project (Ross SEIS, NUREG-1910, Supplement 5), in February
2014. The Ross SEIS tiered off the ISR Generic Environmental Impact
Statement (GEIS, NUREG-1910).
By letters dated March 20, 2015, and April 24, 2015, Strata
requested that the NRC amend License SUA-1601. The requested amendment,
if granted, would expand the area of ISR activities to include the
Kendrick expansion area, which is adjacent to Ross, and allow Strata to
construct and operate additional uranium ISR wellfields at Kendrick.
The NRC accepted the license amendment application for technical
review on January 14, 2016, and published a notice of opportunity to
request a hearing in the Federal Register on February 29, 2016 (81 FR
10285). Strata's license amendment application, including an
Environmental Report, can be found on the NRC's Kendrick project Web
page at: http://www.nrc.gov/materials/uranium-recovery/license-apps/kendrick.html.
The purpose of this notice is to: (1) Inform the public that the
NRC staff will prepare a SEIS to the GEIS as part of its review of the
license amendment request, and (2) provide the public with an
opportunity to participate in the environmental scoping process as
defined in 10 CFR 51.29.
III. Environmental Review
Although the NRC typically prepares Environmental Assessments for
source material license amendments, the NRC staff is preparing a SEIS
for Kendrick because the Ross SEIS identified several potential
significant impacts related to historic and cultural resources,
groundwater, transportation, and visual resources. Therefore, the NRC
has considered it prudent to prepare a SEIS for this particular license
amendment. The SEIS for Kendrick will be prepared pursuant to the NRC's
regulations that implement NEPA. These regulations are located in ``10
CFR part 51.''
The Kendrick SEIS will examine the potential environmental impacts
of the proposed construction, operation, decommissioning, and aquifer
restoration of the Kendrick expansion area. The Kendrick SEIS will tier
from and incorporate by reference the GEIS and the Ross SEIS. The
techniques of tiering and incorporation by reference are described in
40 CFR 1502.20 and 1508.28, and 40 CFR 1502.21, respectively, of the
Council on
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Environmental Quality's NEPA regulations. Accordingly, the SEIS will
rely on information and analyses in the GEIS and Ross SEIS where
appropriate and focus its more detailed discussions on the issues
specific to Kendrick.
The SEIS will analyze potential impacts of the proposed action on
historic and cultural resources. In accordance with 36 CFR 800.8, the
NRC staff is using the NEPA process to comply with its obligations
under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The NRC
initiated Section 106 consultations beginning in July 2015, with 26
Indian Tribes, the U.S. National Park Service--Devils Tower, the U.S.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation, and the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office.
In parallel with the environmental review, the NRC will be
conducting a safety review. Its findings will be published in a Safety
Evaluation Report.
IV. Kendrick Expansion Area
The NRC's Federal action is to either grant or deny Strata's
request for a license amendment. If the NRC approves Strata's request
to amend License SUA-1601, then Strata could proceed with the proposed
project--the Kendrick expansion--as described in its license amendment
application. With this expansion, Strata would extract uranium from the
ore body at Kendrick through the ISR process.
The ISR process involves the mobilization of uranium from the
mineralized host sandstone rock by pumping native groundwater
containing oxidants (oxygen or hydrogen peroxide) and other chemical
compounds (e.g., sodium bicarbonate) through a series of injection
wells, passing the fluids through the ore body and then being extracted
to the surface through a series of production wells. After extraction,
the solution, called ``lixiviant,'' would be transported by pipelines
to the Ross CPP for processing. Strata does not propose to construct or
operate processing plants at Kendrick. After removal of the uranium by
an ion-exchange process at the Ross CPP, the resulting solution would
be transported back to Kendrick by pipeline for re-use in ISR
operations. Uranium removed at the Ross CPP would be further processed
to produce ``yellowcake,'' either at the Ross CPP should the dryers be
installed in the future or through the transfer of uranium-bearing
resins for processing at another licensed facility. The yellowcake
would then be shipped to a uranium conversion facility which is the
next step in the fuel cycle process for developing fuel for commercial
nuclear power plants. Kendrick wellfields that have completed
operations would be decommissioned and the affected aquifers restored
concurrently with operation of other active wellfields.
V. Alternatives To Be Evaluated
The Kendrick SEIS will analyze the environmental impacts of the
proposed action, the no-action alternative, and reasonable
alternatives. A brief description of each is provided below.
No-Action--The no-action alternative would be to deny the license
amendment application. Under this alternative, the NRC would not issue
the license amendment and no ISR activities would occur at Kendrick.
This serves as a baseline for comparison.
Proposed action--The proposed Federal action is to issue a license
amendment authorizing the expansion of Ross ISR activities to Kendrick.
If the NRC approves the amendment request, it would issue Strata an
amended license (SUA-1601) under the provisions of 10 CFR part 40, and
Strata would proceed with the proposed activities at Kendrick as
described in its license amendment application and summarized in
Section IV.
Alternatives--In its Environmental Report, Strata identified a
potential alternative involving the construction of a satellite ion-
exchange facility within Kendrick. Under this alternative, lixiviant
from the proposed Kendrick wellfields would be pumped to a satellite
facility within Kendrick rather than to the Ross CPP. At the Kendrick
satellite facility, uranium would be extracted in ion-exchange columns
and transported to either the Ross CPP or another licensed facility for
processing into yellowcake. Other alternatives not listed here may be
identified during scoping or through the environmental review process.
VI. Scope of the Environmental Review
The NRC will first conduct a scoping process for the SEIS and as
soon as practicable thereafter, will publish a draft SEIS, pursuant to
the NRC's NEPA regulations at 10 CFR part 51, for public comment. The
NRC staff is conducting a 45-day scoping process for the Kendrick SEIS.
The purpose of this scoping process is to seek public input to help the
NRC determine the appropriate scope of the SEIS, including the
alternatives and significant environmental issues to be analyzed in
depth, as well as those that should be eliminated from detailed study
because they are peripheral or are not significant. The NRC staff is
planning to publish information related to this action in newspapers
serving communities near the Kendrick site, requesting information and
comments during the scoping period from the public. At this time, the
NRC is not planning to hold a public scoping meeting. The NRC will
prepare a concise summary of its scoping process, the comments
received, as well as the NRC's responses. The Scoping Summary Report
will be included in the draft SEIS as an appendix and sent to each
participant in the scoping process for whom the staff has an address.
The Kendrick SEIS will cover the potential impacts from all project
phases: construction, operations, aquifer restoration, and
decommissioning. The scope of the Kendrick SEIS will consider both
radiological and nonradiological (including chemical) impacts
associated with the proposed project and its alternatives. The Kendrick
SEIS will also consider unavoidable adverse environmental impacts, the
relationship between short-term uses of resources and long-term
productivity, and irreversible and irretrievable commitments of
resources. The following resource areas have been tentatively
identified for analysis in the Kendrick SEIS: land use, transportation,
geology and soils, water resources, ecological resources, air quality
and climate change, noise, historical and cultural resources, visual
and scenic resources, socioeconomics, public and occupational health,
waste management, environmental justice, and cumulative impacts. This
list is not intended to be exhaustive, nor is it a predetermination of
potential environmental impacts. The Kendrick SEIS will describe the
NRC's approach and methodology undertaken to determine the resource
areas that will be studied in detail.
The NRC encourages members of the public, local, State, Tribal, and
Federal government agencies to participate in the scoping process.
Written comments may be submitted during the 45-day scoping period as
described in the ADDRESSES and SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of
this document. To ensure that comments will be considered in the
scoping process, written comments must be postmarked or delivered by
April 22, 2016. The NRC staff may, at its discretion, consider comments
after the end of the comment period. Participation in the scoping
process for the Kendrick SEIS does not entitle participants to become
parties to any proceeding to which the SEIS relates.
In addition to requesting scoping comments through this Federal
Register notice, the NRC staff also intends to
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reach out to interested parties, including those identified during the
environmental review for the Ross SEIS, as well as other Federal and
State agencies and Indian Tribes identified during the Kendrick SEIS
process. The NRC staff seeks to identify, among other things, all
review and consultation requirements related to the proposed action,
and agencies with jurisdiction by law or special expertise with respect
to any environmental impact involved or which is authorized to develop
and enforce relevant environmental standards. The NRC invites such
agencies to participate in the scoping process and, as appropriate,
cooperate in the preparation of the SEIS.
The BLM has accepted the NRC's request to participate as a
cooperating agency in the preparation of the SEIS. The BLM has
expertise in mineral management and was a cooperating agency for the
Ross SEIS. The agencies will cooperate according to the process set
forth in the memorandum of understanding signed by the NRC and BLM and
published in the Federal Register on April 01, 2013 (78 FR 19540).
The NRC will continue its environmental review of Strata's license
amendment application and, as soon as practicable, the NRC and its
contractor 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 a future Federal Register notice. The final
SEIS will include responses to public comments received on the draft
SEIS.
VII. Availability of Documents
The documents identified in this Federal Register notice are
accessible to interested persons by the means indicated in either the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice or in the table below.
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Document Access
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NUREG-1910, Generic Environmental http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/
Impact Statement for In-Situ Leach doc-collections/nuregs/staff/
Uranium Milling Facilities (GEIS). sr1910/.
NUREG-1910, Supplement 5, Environmental ML14056A096 or http://
Impact Statement for the Ross ISR www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-
Project in Crook County, Wyoming (Ross collections/nuregs/staff/
SEIS). sr1910/s5/.
Memorandum of Understanding between NRC 78 FR 19540.
and BLM.
Federal Register Notice of License (81 FR 10285).
Amendment Request and Opportunity to
Request a Hearing.
Strata Energy, LLC's Source Materials ML14069A315, ML15181A246, and
License SUA-1601 and Amendments. ML15202A143 or http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/materials/uranium/licensed-facilities/ross.html.
Kendrick License Amendment Application. ML15096A141 and ML15152A154 or
http://www.nrc.gov/materials/uranium-recovery/license-apps/kendrick/kendrick-app-docs.html.
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Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 1st day of March, 2016.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Craig G. Erlanger,
Acting Director, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety, Safeguards and
Environmental Review, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2016-05127 Filed 3-7-16; 8:45 am]
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