[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 220 (Friday, November 13, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72706-72707]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-25048]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 40-8907; NRC-2019-0026]


United Nuclear Corporation Church Rock Project

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft environmental impact statement; request for comment and 
public comment meetings.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for United 
Nuclear Corporation (UNC) license amendment request. UNC is requesting 
authorization to amend its license (SUA-1475) to excavate approximately 
1 million cubic yards of mine waste from the Northeast Church Rock Mine 
Site and dispose of it at the existing mill site in McKinley County, 
New Mexico.

DATES: The NRC staff will hold two public meeting through online 
webinars on the draft EIS at 4:00 p.m. (EST) on December 2, 2020 and at 
4:00 p.m. (EST) December 9, 2020. The staff will present the 
preliminary findings and receive public comments during these 
transcribed public meetings. Members of the public are invited to 
submit comments by December 28, 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 before this 
date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods; 
however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the 
Federal Rulemaking website:
     Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov/ and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0026. Address 
questions about Docket IDs 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, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff, 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
     Email comments to: [email protected].
     Leave comments by voicemail at: 888-672-3425.
    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: Ashley Waldron, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-7317; email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2019-0026 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 Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0026.
     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.'' The draft EIS can be found by searching for ADAMS Accession 
No. ML20289A621. 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].
     Attention: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies 
of public documents is currently closed. You may submit your request to 
the PDR via email at [email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 
between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (EST), Monday through Friday, except 
Federal holidays.
     Project Website: Information related to the UNC Church 
Rock project can be accessed on the NRC's project website at: https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/uranium/united-nuclear-corporation-unc-.html.
     Public Library: A copy of the draft EIS can be accessed at 
the Octavia Fellin Public Library, 110 West Aztec Avenue, Gallup, NM 
87301

B. Submitting Comments

    The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the 
Federal Rulemaking website (https://www.regulations.gov). Please 
include Docket ID NRC-2019-0026 in your comment submission. Written 
comments may be submitted during the draft EIS comment 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 https://www.regulations.gov and enters all 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 because the NRC does not 
routinely edit comment submissions before making the comment 
submissions available to the public or entering the comment submissions 
into ADAMS.

II. Meeting Information

    The NRC is announcing that staff will hold two public meetings as 
online webinars to receive comments on the draft EIS. A court reporter 
will record and transcribe all comments received during the webinar and 
the transcript of the meeting will be made publicly available. The 
dates and times for the public webinars are as follow:

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             Meeting                       Date                    Time                       Location
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Public Webinar...................  December 2, 2020....  4:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.       Webinar Information: https://
                                                          (EST).                    usnrc.webex.com.
                                                                                   Event number: 199 946 2983.
                                                                                   Telephone bridge line: 888-
                                                                                    454-7496.
                                                                                   Participant passcode:
                                                                                    7838183.

[[Page 72707]]

 
Public Webinar...................  December 9, 2020....  4:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.       Webinar Information: https://
                                                          (EST).                    usnrc.webex.com.
                                                                                   Event number: 199 047 2797.
                                                                                   Telephone bridge line: 888-
                                                                                    454-7496.
                                                                                   Participant passcode:
                                                                                    7838183.
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    Persons interested in attending these meetings should monitor the 
NRC's Public Meeting Schedule website at https://www.nrc.gov/pmns/mtg 
for additional information, agendas for the meetings, and access 
information for the webinar and telephone bridge line.

III. Discussion

    The NRC is issuing for public comment the draft EIS for the 
proposed United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) license amendment to excavate 
approximately 1 million cubic yards of mine waste from the Northeast 
Church Rock Mine Site and dispose of it at the existing mill site in 
McKinley County, New Mexico.
    The draft EIS for UNC's license amendment application includes the 
NRC's preliminary analysis that evaluates the environmental impacts of 
the proposed action and alternatives to the proposed action. After 
comparing the impacts of the proposed action to the No-Action 
alternative, the NRC staff, in accordance with the requirements in part 
51 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, preliminarily 
recommends that the NRC proceed with the proposed action, which would 
be to authorize UNC to transfer and dispose of the Northeast Church 
Rock (NECR) mine waste on top of the UNC tailings impoundment. This 
recommendation is based on (i) the license application request, which 
includes the Environmental Report (ER) and supplemental documents and 
the licensee's responses to the NRC staff's requests for additional 
information; (ii) consultation with Federal, State, Tribal, and local 
agencies and input from other stakeholders; and (iii) independent NRC 
staff review as documented in the assessments summarized in this EIS.

    Dated: November 6, 2020.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Jessie M. Quintero,
Chief, Environmental Review Materials Branch, Division of Rulemaking, 
Environmental, and Financial Support, Office of Nuclear Material Safety 
and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2020-25048 Filed 11-12-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P