[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 240 (Friday, December 15, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 59665-59666]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-26934]
[[Page 59665]]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 40-8943; NRC-2012-0281]
Crow Butte Resources, Inc.; Marsland Expansion Area
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft environmental assessment and draft finding of no
significant impact; notice of availability and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for
public comment a draft environmental assessment (EA) and draft finding
of no significant impact (FONSI) for a proposed amendment of NRC source
materials license SUA-1534 that would authorize Crow Butte Resources,
Inc., to construct and operate an in situ uranium recovery (ISR)
expansion area at the Marsland Expansion Area (MEA) site in Dawes
County, Nebraska. The draft EA, ``Environmental Assessment for the
Marsland Expansion Area License Amendment Application,'' documents the
NRC staff's environmental review of the license amendment application.
DATES: Submit comments by January 29, 2018. Comments received after
this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the
Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments received
before this date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking website: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2012-0281. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact
the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards individual listed
in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.
Mail comments to: May Ma, Office of Administration, Mail
Stop: OWFN-2-A13, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001.
For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jean Trefethen, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301-415-0867, email:
[email protected], U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
1. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2012-0281 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain
publicly-available information related to this action by any of the
following methods:
Federal Rulemaking website: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2012-0281.
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. The ADAMS Accession Number for the MEA
draft EA is ML17334A870.
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.
B. Submitting Comments
Please include Docket ID NRC-2012-0281 in your comment submission.
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 will post all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as enter the comment submissions into the
ADAMS Public Documents collection. 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 into the ADAMS Public Documents
collection.
I. Introduction
The NRC is considering a request for an amendment to NRC source
materials license SUA-1534, issued to Crow Butte Resources, Inc. (CBR
or the licensee), to authorize construction and operation of the MEA,
an ISR expansion facility that would be located in Dawes County,
Nebraska. 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 NRC staff has prepared a
draft EA documenting its environmental review of the license amendment
application that included an environmental report (ADAMS Accession No.
ML17325B322) and technical report, as amended (ADAMS Accession Nos.
ML15328A422, ML16155A267, ML16155A268, and ML17193A314). Based on the
environmental review, the NRC has made a preliminary determination that
the proposed action will not significantly affect the quality of the
human environment and that a FONSI is therefore appropriate.
By this notice, the NRC is requesting public comment on the draft
FONSI and supporting draft EA.
II. Summary of Draft Environmental Assessment.
The draft EA is publicly available in ADAMS using ADAMS Accession
No. ML17334A870. A summary description of the proposed action and
expected environmental impacts is provided below. The draft EA and the
draft FONSI for the proposed MEA will also be available at the
following public libraries: Crawford Public Library, 601 2nd Street,
Crawford, NE 69339, and Chadron Public Library, 507 Bordeaux Street,
Chadron, NE 69337.
Description of the Proposed Action
The proposed Federal action is approval of CBR's license amendment
application, which would authorize the expansion of CBR's commercial-
scale uranium recovery operations to the MEA. Under the proposed
action, the licensee would perform construction, uranium recovery
operations, aquifer restoration, and decommissioning activities at the
proposed MEA, which would encompass approximately 4,622 acres (1,870
hectares). CBR has proposed eleven production units in the MEA, which
is located 11.1 miles (17.9
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kilometers) south-southeast of the central processing facility (CPF) at
the existing Crow Butte license area. Uranium recovery operations at
the MEA would include injection of lixiviant into and pumping of water
from the uranium-bearing aquifer, removal of uranium from the pumped
water using ion exchange, and transport of loaded ion exchange resin to
the existing Crow Butte CPF for further processing into yellowcake.
Approval of the proposed action would authorize CBR to conduct uranium
recovery operations at the MEA in accordance with its license amendment
application, NRC source materials license SUA-1534, and the
requirements in 10 CFR part 40, ``Domestic Licensing of Source
Material.''
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action
In the draft EA, the NRC staff assessed the potential environmental
impacts from the construction, operation, aquifer restoration, and
decommissioning of the proposed MEA on the following resource areas:
land use; geology and soils; water resources; ecological resources;
climatology, meteorology, and air quality; historic and cultural
resources; demographics and socioeconomics; environmental justice;
transportation; noise; scenic and visual resources; public and
occupational health; and hazardous materials and waste management. The
NRC staff also considered the cumulative impacts from past, present,
and reasonably foreseeable future actions when combined with the
proposed action.
All long-term impacts were determined to be SMALL. The NRC staff
concluded that approval of the proposed action would not result in a
significant increase in short-term or long-term radiological risk to
public health or the environment. The NRC staff identified a potential
for MODERATE short-term impacts to a few resource areas, including
noise (temporary impacts to the nearest resident to the MEA during
construction), ecological resources (localized and temporary impacts
resulting from the loss and slow recovery of forest habitat), and
groundwater resources (short-term lowering of the potentiometric
surface of the Basal Chadron Sandstone aquifer). While potential
MODERATE impacts would be expected for specific aspects of these
resource areas, the impacts are short-term and temporary. Therefore,
the NRC staff concluded that the overall impacts related to these
resource areas would be SMALL. Furthermore, the NRC staff found that
there would be no significant negative cumulative impact to any
resource area from the MEA when added to other past, present, and
reasonably foreseeable future actions, and that a potential positive
cumulative socioeconomic impact could result from additional tax
revenue, employment, and local purchases.
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
As an alternative to the proposed action, the staff considered
denial of the proposed action (i.e., the ``no-action'' alternative).
Under the no-action alternative, the NRC would not authorize CBR to
construct and operate the MEA. In situ uranium recovery activities
would not occur within the MEA and the associated environmental impacts
also would not occur.
III. Finding of No Significant Impact (Draft).
In accordance with the NEPA and 10 CFR part 51, the NRC staff has
conducted an environmental review of a request for a license amendment
to NRC source materials license SUA-1534 that would authorize
construction and operation of the MEA. Based on its environmental
review of the proposed action, as documented in the draft EA, the NRC
staff has preliminarily determined that granting the requested license
amendment would not significantly affect the quality of the human
environment. Therefore, the NRC staff has preliminarily determined,
pursuant to 10 CFR 51.31, that preparation of an environmental impact
statement is not required for the proposed action and a FONSI is
appropriate.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 8th day of December 2017.
For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Brian W. Smith,
Acting Director, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety, Safeguards, and
Environmental Review, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2017-26934 Filed 12-14-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P