[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 138 (Thursday, July 20, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33521-33523]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-15239]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 72-1050; NRC-2016-0231]


Waste Control Specialists LLC's Consolidated Interim Spent Fuel 
Storage Facility Project

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: License application; withdrawal of notice of opportunity to 
request a hearing.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is withdrawing 
the notice of opportunity to request a hearing for Waste Control 
Specialists LLC's application to construct and operate a Consolidated 
Interim Storage Facility (CISF) for spent nuclear fuel at WCS's 
facility in Andrews County, Texas.

DATES: July 20, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2016-0231 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-2016-0231. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463;

[[Page 33522]]

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]. For 
the convenience of the reader, the ADAMS accession numbers are provided 
in a table in the ``Availability of Documents'' Section II of this 
document.
     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: John-Chau Nguyen, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-0262; email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    By letter dated April 28, 2016, as supplemented on July 20, August 
19, August 31, September 27, October 7, November 16, December 16, 
December 22, 2016, and March 16, 2017, WCS submitted an application for 
a specific license pursuant to part 72 of title 10 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Licensing Requirements for the 
Independent Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel, High-Level Radioactive 
Waste, and Reactor-Related Greater Than Class C Waste.'' In its letter, 
WCS requested authorization to store up to 5,000 metric tons of uranium 
for a period of 40 years in a CISF.
    In addition, by letter dated July 21, 2016, WCS requested that the 
NRC initiate its environmental impact statement (EIS) process for the 
WCS CISF license application as soon as practicable. By letter dated 
October 7, 2016, the NRC informed WCS of its decision to start the EIS 
process in advance of making a decision on docketing the application. 
On November 14, 2016 (81 FR 79531), the NRC published a notice in the 
Federal Register announcing its intent to prepare an EIS and to open 
the scoping period for the EIS.
    By letter dated January 26, 2017, the NRC informed WCS of its 
decision to accept the application and proceed with the technical 
review. Subsequently, on January 30, 2017 (82 FR 8773), the NRC 
published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the acceptance 
for docketing and opportunity to request a hearing and to petition for 
leave to intervene of the WCS application.
    By letter dated March 16, 2017, WCS submitted Revision 1 to its 
license application. By letter dated April 18, 2017, WCS requested that 
the NRC temporarily suspend all safety and environmental review 
activities as well as public participation activities associated with 
WCS' license application. On April 19, 2017, WCS and the NRC staff 
jointly requested that the Commission withdraw the hearing notice, 
explaining that a new Federal Register notice to provide a fresh 
opportunity for interested persons to request a hearing would be issued 
if review of the application resumes. On May 10, 2017, the NRC staff 
granted WCS' request to temporarily suspend all safety and 
environmental review activities as well as public participation 
activities associated with its license application. On June 22, 2017, 
the Commission granted WCS's and the NRC staff's request and further 
directed that the NRC staff to publish a Federal Register notice 
withdrawing the opportunity to request a hearing on this license 
application and directed the NRC staff to publish a new notice of 
opportunity to request a hearing in the Federal Register if WCS 
requests that the NRC staff resume its review of WCS's application.

II. Availability of Documents

    The documents identified in the following table are available to 
interested persons through one or more of the following methods, as 
indicated.

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                Document                        ADAMS Accession No.
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WCS submittal of CISF license             ML16132A533
 application, with Environmental Report.
WCS letter with schedule for response to  ML16193A314
 NRC request for supplemental
 information.
WCS initial submittal in response to NRC  ML16229A537
 request for supplemental information.
WCS submittal of supplemental security    ML16235A467
 information.
WCS request for NRC to begin EIS process  ML16229A340
 as soon as practicable.
WCS second submittal in response to NRC   ML16265A454
 request for supplemental information.
WCS submittal of additional supplemental  ML16280A300
 security information.
NRC response to WCS request to begin EIS  ML16285A317
 process as soon as practicable.
WCS third submittal in response to NRC    ML16287A527
 request for supplemental information.
WCS fourth submittal in response to NRC   ML16330A116
 request for supplemental information.
WCS fifth submittal in response to NRC    ML16356A346
 request for supplemental information.
WCS sixth submittal in response to NRC    ML17018A292
 request for supplemental information.
NRC letter accepting application for      ML17018A168
 review.
WCS license application Revision 1        ML17082A007
 submittal.
WCS request NRC to temporarily suspend    ML17110A206
 all safety and environmental review
 activities.
NRC granting WCS request to temporarily   ML17129A314
 suspend all safety and environmental
 review activities.
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[[Page 33523]]

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 13th day of July 2017.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
John McKirgan,
Chief, Spent Fuel Licensing Branch, Division of Spent Fuel Management, 
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2017-15239 Filed 7-19-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P