[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