[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 148 (Friday, July 31, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46193-46194]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-16150]


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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: Intent to prepare an environmental impact statement and conduct 
a scoping process; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will conduct a 
scoping process to gather information necessary to prepare an 
environmental impact statement (EIS) related to the review of 
Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC's (WEC) request to renew its 
operating license for its Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF) in 
Hopkins, South Carolina. The NRC had published a draft environmental 
assessment (EA) but determined it was not able to conclude the review 
in a finding of no significant impact. Therefore, the NRC staff will 
prepare an EIS to document the potential environmental impacts from the 
proposed action (i.e., whether to renew WEC's CFFF operating license) 
and reasonable alternatives. As part of the EIS development process, 
the NRC is seeking comments on the scope of its environmental review.

DATES: Comments must be filed by August 31, 2020. 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.

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 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.
     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: Diana Diaz-Toro, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-0930; 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 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 reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by 
email to [email protected]. The ADAMS accession number for each 
document referenced is provided in a table at the end of this document.
     Project Website: Information related to the WEC project 
can be accessed on the NRC's project web page at: https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/fc/westinghouse-fuel-fab-fac-sc-lc.html.

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 posts all comment submissions at https://www.regulations.gov and will 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

[[Page 46194]]

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. Discussion

    The NRC intends to prepare an EIS for the WEC license renewal 
application for its CFFF in accordance with part 51 of title 10 of the 
Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) ``Environmental Protection 
Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions.'' 
The NRC will provide the public with an opportunity to participate in 
the environmental scoping process by inviting them to submit written 
comments in the scoping period.

III. Alternatives To Be Evaluated

    The EIS will analyze the environmental impacts of the proposed 
action, the no-action alternative, and reasonable alternatives. A brief 
description of each is provided below.
    Proposed action--The proposed Federal action is to renew WEC's CFFF 
operating license (SNM-1107) which will allow continued operation of 
the facility (i.e., fabricating nuclear fuel for nuclear reactors) for 
an additional 40 years.
    No-Action Alternative--The no-action alternative would be to not 
renew WEC's license. Under this alternative, the NRC would not issue 
the license renewal and CFFF would continue to operate under its 
current license until it expires in 2027.
    Other Alternatives to the Proposed Action--The NRC is considering 
other alternatives to the proposed action, including the granting of 
WEC's license renewal request, but for a period of less than 40 years. 
Other alternatives not listed here may be identified during scoping or 
through the EIS development process.

IV. Scoping

    The NRC staff is conducting a scoping process for the WEC CFFF EIS. 
In accordance with 10 CFR 51.29, the NRC seeks public input to help the 
NRC determine the appropriate scope of the EIS, including 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 previously accepted comments on the draft EA published in 
October 2019. Those comments can be found at https://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2015-0039 or in NRC's ADAMS 
Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html, and will be considered in the development of the EIS.
    After the close of the scoping period, the NRC staff will prepare a 
concise summary of its scoping process in accordance with 10 CFR 
51.29(b). The scoping summary report will be sent to each participant 
in the scoping process for whom the staff has a physical or email 
address.
    The WEC CFFF EIS will address the potential impacts from the 
proposed action, including both radiological and non-radiological 
impacts associated with the proposed project and its alternatives. The 
EIS 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 were addressed in the draft EA 
and, thus, will be addressed in the EIS: 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, accidents, and environmental justice.
    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 scoping period as 
described in the ADDRESSES and SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION sections of 
this document.
    The NRC staff will continue its environmental review of WEC's 
license renewal application, and with an NRC contractor, prepare a 
draft EIS and publish it for public comment as soon as practicable. The 
NRC staff plans to have a public comment period for the draft EIS. 
Availability of the draft EIS and the dates of the public comment 
period will be announced in a future Federal Register notice. The final 
EIS will include NRC's responses to public comments received on the 
draft EIS.

V. Availability of Documents

    The documents identified in this 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                       ADAMS accession No.
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Westinghouse license renewal             ML19234A077
 application (August 2019).
Environmental Report (March 2019)......  ML19088A100
NRC's Draft Environmental Assessment     ML19228A278
 (October 2019).
Final Interim Remedial Investigation     ML20063P321
 Data Summary Report (February 2020).
Letter to Westinghouse regarding         ML20150A289
 decision to pursue an EIS (June 2020).
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    Dated: July 20, 2020.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Jessie M. Quintero,
Acting Chief, Environmental Review Materials Branch, Division of 
Rulemaking, Environmental and Financial Support, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2020-16150 Filed 7-30-20; 8:45 am]
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