[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 150 (Friday, August 5, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48044-48045]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-16627]
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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: Environmental impact statement; issuance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a
final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), NUREG- 2248,
``Environmental Impact Statement for the License Renewal of the
Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility In Richland County, South Carolina''
for Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC's (WEC) license renewal
application to renew its special nuclear material (SNM) license SNM-
1107 to continue to operate its Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility
(CFFF) for an additional 40 years. The CFFF is located in Hopkins,
South Carolina, and manufactures nuclear fuel assemblies for commercial
nuclear power plants. If the WEC's license renewal request is granted,
as proposed, the license would be effective for 40 years from the date
the NRC approves the renewal.
DATES: The final EIS referenced in this document is available on August
5, 2022.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2015-0039 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may obtain publicly available information related to this document
using 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 to Stacy Schumann; telephone: 301-415-0624;
email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact the
individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of
this document.
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 final EIS is available in ADAMS
under Accession No. ML22201A131.
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents, by appointment, at the NRC's PDR, Room P1 B35, One White
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. To make
an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to
[email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between
8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
Project Website: Information related to the WEC project
can be accessed on the NRC's WEC website at https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/fc/westinghouse-fuel-fab-fac-sc-lc.html. Under the section
titled ``Operating,'' scroll down to ``Key Documents'' and click on
final EIS, NUREG-2248.
Public Libraries: A copy of the final EIS will be made
available at the following public libraries:
Richland Public Library--Main; 1431 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC 29201
Richland Public Library--Lower Richland; 9019 Garners Ferry Road,
Hopkins, SC 29061
Richland Public Library--Eastover; 608 Main Street, Eastover, SC 29044
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stacey Imboden, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-2462; email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
In accordance with section 51.118 of title 10 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Final environmental impact statement--
notice of availability,'' the NRC is making available NUREG-2248, which
concerns the NRC's final EIS for the proposed renewal of WEC's license
SNM-1107 for an additional 40 years. A Notice of Availability of the
draft EIS (NUREG-2248) was published in the Federal Register (FR) on
August 6, 2021, by the NRC (86 FR 43276) and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (86 FR 43236). The public comment period on the draft
EIS closed on September 20, 2021. On September 28, 2021, the NRC re-
opened the public comment period until November 19, 2021 to allow more
time for the public to submit comments (86 FR 53694). The comments
received are addressed in the final EIS. The final EIS is available as
indicated in the ADDRESSES section of this document.
II. Discussion
The NRC is issuing the final EIS for an application from WEC
requesting to renew its SNM license SNM-1107 to continue operating the
CFFF for an additional 40 years. The CFFF is located in Hopkins, South
Carolina, and has been operating since 1969. The WEC's license (SNM-
1107) was last renewed by the NRC in 2007 for 20 years and will expire
in September 2027. The proposed action is the renewal of the SNM-1107
license to allow the WEC to continue licensed operations and activities
at the CFFF site for an additional 40 years from the date the NRC
approves the license renewal request.
The final EIS is being issued as part of the NRC's process to
decide whether to renew the SNM-1107 license pursuant to 10 CFR part
70. In this final EIS, the NRC staff has assessed the potential
environmental impacts of the license renewal for an additional 40
years. The NRC staff assessed the impacts of the proposed action, the
no-action alternative, and a 20-year license
[[Page 48045]]
renewal alternative on land use; transportation; geology and soils;
water resources; ecological resources; air quality; noise; historical
and cultural resources; visual and scenic resources; socioeconomics;
environmental justice, public and occupational health, and waste
management. Additionally, the final EIS analyzes and compares the
benefits and costs of the proposed action and the alternatives. In
preparing this final EIS, the NRC staff also considered, evaluated, and
addressed the public comments received on the draft EIS. Appendix D of
the final EIS summarizes the public comments received and the NRC's
responses.
After comparing the impacts of the proposed action to those of the
No-Action alternative and the 20-year license renewal alternative, the
NRC staff, in accordance with the requirements in 10 CFR part 51,
recommends the proposed action. This recommendation is based on (i)
review of the license renewal application request, which includes the
environmental report, supplemental documents, and the licensee's
responses to the NRC staff's requests for additional information; (ii)
consultation with Federal, State, and Tribal agencies and input from
other stakeholders; (iii) the NRC staff's independent review; and (iv)
the NRC staff's assessments in the final EIS.
Dated: July 29, 2022.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Christopher M. Regan,
Director, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental and Financial Support,
Office of Nuclear Material Safety, and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2022-16627 Filed 8-4-22; 8:45 am]
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