[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 208 (Monday, October 28, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57777-57778]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-23419]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 70-1151; NRC-2015-0039]
Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC; Columbia Fuel Fabrication
Facility
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of withdrawal of environmental assessment; issuance of
draft environmental assessment and draft finding of no significant
impact; public meeting and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is withdrawing
its June 2018 final environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no
significant impact (FONSI) concerning the license renewal request from
Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC's (WEC) Columbia Fuel Fabrication
Facility (CFFF). Because of its withdrawal, the NRC is issuing for
public comment a new draft EA and draft FONSI concerning WEC's CFFF.
The draft EA, ``Environmental Assessment for the Renewal of SNM-1107,
Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in Richland County, South
Carolina,'' documents the NRC staff's new environmental review of the
license renewal application. The NRC is announcing a public meeting and
an open house. The public meeting will allow interested members of the
public to submit their comments on the draft EA.
DATES: Comments must be filed no later than November 27, 2019. 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 on or before this date. The NRC is announcing a
public meeting and an open house. The public meeting will allow
interested members of the public to submit their comments.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov/ and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0039. Address
questions about NRC docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Jennifer Borges;
telephone: 301-287-9127; email: [email protected]. For technical
questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT section of this document.
Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop:
TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.
Email comments to: [email protected].
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: 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-2015-0039 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 https://www.regulations.gov/ and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0039.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, 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 (if it is available in ADAMS) is provided the first
time that it is mentioned in 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.
B. Submitting Comments
Please include Docket ID NRC-2015-0039 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 https://www.regulations.gov/ as well as enter 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 into ADAMS.
II. Introduction
The NRC is considering a request from WEC (ADAMS Accession No.
ML14213A105) for the renewal of Special Nuclear Materials (SNM) license
SNM-1107, which if approved, would authorize WEC to continue to operate
the CFFF for an additional 40 years. The CFFF is located in Hopkins,
South Carolina in Richland County.
In June 2018, the NRC published a final EA that documented the
environmental impacts of continued operation of the CFFF for an
additional 40 years (ADAMS Accession No. ML18120A318). Based on the
results of the EA, the NRC issued a FONSI. The NRC noticed issuance of
the EA and FONSI on June 15, 2018 (83 FR 28014). Shortly thereafter, in
July 2018, there was an equipment leak at the CFFF that resulted in
uranium entering the subsurface under the main facility building. In
addition, WEC initiated an investigation, under the purview of the
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, into a
past leak from a buried pipe that also allowed uranium to enter the
subsurface. Because of that new information and public concern about
the releases, the NRC decided to re-open its environmental review.
Therefore, the EA and FONSI, issued in June 2018, have been withdrawn.
[[Page 57778]]
In accordance with the 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 new review of the environmental impacts of
continued operation for another 40 years. 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.
III. Summary of Draft Environmental Assessment
The draft EA is publicly available in ADAMS (ADAMS Accession No.
ML19228A278), or at this link: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1922/ML19228a278.pdf. A summary description of the proposed action and
expected environmental impacts is provided below.
Description of the Proposed Action
The proposed Federal action is approval of WEC's license renewal
request, which if granted would allow WEC to continue fabricating low-
enriched uranium fuel assemblies at the CFFF and continue to be a
source of nuclear fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. The
proposed action analyzed in the draft EA is a renewed license term of
40 years, which is the term WEC has requested.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action
In the draft EA, the NRC staff assessed the potential environmental
impacts from the proposed license renewal associated with the following
resource areas: land use; geology and soils; water resources;
ecological resources; cultural resources; air quality; socioeconomics;
environmental justice; noise and aesthetics; public and occupational
health; transportation; 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.
The NRC staff determined that continued CFFF operations would not
result in significant environmental impacts. The WEC is not proposing
changes in authorized operations or activities. Past and current
activities at CFFF have resulted in soil, surface water, and
groundwater contamination from radiological and nonradiological
contaminants onsite. The WEC has proposed changes to its NRC-required
environmental monitoring program, because of the contamination, that
would be implemented during the period of the renewed license. The WEC
will also implement actions related to the investigation and
remediation of contamination and response to future releases under a
Consent Agreement with South Carolina Department of Health and
Environmental Control.
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
As one alternative to the proposed action, the NRC staff considered
denial of WEC's license renewal request (i.e., the ``no-action''
alternative), where NRC would not approve the license renewal. The CFFF
would continue to operate under its current license until it expires in
2027. The NRC staff previously evaluated the environmental impacts of
WEC operating until 2027 when it approved WEC's license renewal in
2007. The NRC staff concluded in the 2007 EA that the continued
operation of the CFFF would not result in significant impact to the
environment (ADAMS Accession No. ML070510647).
As another alternative, the NRC considered approval of WEC's
renewal request, but for a duration of less than 40 years. The WEC
would continue operating for a period of less than 40 years, resulting
in potential impacts that would be similar to those of the proposed
action. The impacts from decommissioning would be similar but occur
earlier.
IV. Draft FONSI
In accordance with NEPA and 10 CFR part 51, the NRC staff has
conducted an environmental review of WEC's request to renew its NRC
license SNM-1107 to allow WEC to continue its fuel fabrication
operations at the CFFF. Based on its environmental review of the
proposed action, as documented in the draft EA, the NRC staff
preliminarily determined that granting the requested license renewal
would not significantly affect the quality of the human environment.
Therefore, the NRC staff makes its preliminary determination, pursuant
to 10 CFR 51.31, that the preparation of an environmental impact
statement (EIS) is not required for the proposed action and a draft
FONSI is appropriate.
The draft FONSI and supporting draft EA are a preliminary analysis
of the environmental impacts of the proposed action and its
alternatives. Based on comments received on the draft FONSI and draft
EA, the staff may publish a final FONSI and final EA, or instead may
find that preparation of an EIS is warranted should significant impacts
resulting from the proposed action be identified. Should an EIS be
warranted, a Notice of Intent to prepare the EIS will be published in
the Federal Register.
Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.33(a), the NRC staff is making the draft
FONSI and draft EA available for public review and comment.
V. Meeting Information
The NRC is announcing that staff will hold a public comment meeting
and open house to accept comments on the draft EA. The public meeting
will be held on Thursday, November 14, 2019, at the Medallion
Conference Center located at 7309 Garners Ferry Road in Columbia, South
Carolina. The open house will begin at 5:30 p.m. and the meeting will
run from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Persons interested in attending this
meeting should check the NRC's Public Meeting Schedule web page at
https://www.nrc.gov/pmns/mtg for additional information.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 22nd day of October, 2019.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
John R. Tappert,
Director, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support,
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2019-23419 Filed 10-25-19; 8:45 am]
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