[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 43 (Monday, March 4, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15565-15566]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-04397]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

National Nuclear Security Administration


Record of Decision for Adoption of Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission's (NRC) Environmental Impact Statement Related to the 
Operating License for the SHINE Medical Isotope Production Facility

AGENCY: National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy.

ACTION: Record of decision.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security 
Administration (DOE/NNSA) intends to issue a modification to its 
cooperative agreement with SHINE Technologies, DE-NA0004010, to revise 
the scope of the agreement to include cost-shared funding for facility 
construction. Issuance of the modification is subject to satisfactory 
completion of pricing and other technical reviews. The environmental 
impacts of this proposed action have been addressed in the U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) 
NUREG-2183 and NUREG-2183, Supplement 1.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on NNSA's National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, please contact Mr. James 
Sanderson, NEPA Compliance Officer, National Nuclear Security 
Administration, Office of General Counsel, at 
[email protected] or (202) 586-1402. This Record of Decision 
is available at https://energy.gov/nepa. The NRC EIS and supplement are 
available at: https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr2183/index.html (titles: NUREG-2183--Environmental Impact 
Statement for the Construction Permit for the SHINE Medical 
Radioisotope Production Facility Final Report and NUREG-2183, 
Supplement 1, ``Environmental Impact Statement Related to the Operating 
License for the SHINE Medical Isotope Production Facility'' Final 
Report).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. medical community depends on a 
reliable supply of the radioisotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) for nuclear 
medical diagnostic procedures. Mo-99's decay product, technetium-99m 
(Tc-99m), is used in over 40,000 medical procedures in the United 
States each day to diagnose heart disease and cancer, to study organ 
structure and function, and to perform other important medical 
applications. In 2012, Congress passed the American Medical Isotopes 
Production Act, which directed NNSA to establish a technology-neutral 
program to support the establishment of domestic supplies of Mo-99 
without the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU). NNSA has implemented 
this by competitively awarding 50/50 percent cost-shared cooperative 
agreements to commercial entities and providing funds to DOE's National 
Laboratories to support development of non-HEU Mo-99 production 
technologies. Currently, the scope of NNSA's cooperative agreement with 
SHINE Technologies includes activities such as equipment procurement 
but does not include facility construction.
    In 2015, the NRC and NNSA issued NUREG-2183, ``Environmental Impact 
Statement for the Construction Permit for the SHINE Medical 
Radioisotope Production Facility'' (NRC 2015), which discussed the 
environmental impacts of constructing, operating, and decommissioning 
the SHINE Medical Isotope Production Facility (SHINE facility) in 
Janesville, Wisconsin. In 2016, at the conclusion of its safety and 
environmental reviews, the NRC issued a construction permit for the 
SHINE facility (NRC 2016). In July 2019, SHINE Medical Technologies, 
LLC (SHINE) submitted to the NRC an application for an operating 
license for the SHINE facility. When a final environmental impact 
statement (FEIS) has been prepared in connection with the issuance of a 
construction permit for a facility, the NRC is required to prepare a 
supplement to the FEIS in connection with any issuance of an operating 
license for that facility in accordance with 10 Code of Federal 
Regulations (CFR) 51.95(b). This supplement updates the prior 
environmental review and only covers matters that differ from those or 
that reflect significant new information relative to that discussed in 
the FEIS. Accordingly, in response to SHINE's operating license 
application, NRC and NNSA staff issued NUREG-2183, Supplement 1, which 
considered

[[Page 15566]]

whether there is any new information with respect to the environment or 
the environmental impacts of the SHINE facility, including information 
that is different from that considered in NUREG-2183. NRC staff did not 
identify any information that presented a considerably different 
picture of the environmental consequences of constructing, operating, 
and decommissioning the SHINE facility. After weighing the 
environmental, economic, technical, and other benefits against 
environmental and other costs, NRC staff's recommendation, unless 
safety issues mandate otherwise, was that the operating license be 
issued as proposed. NRC staff based its recommendation on the 
following: the application, including SHINE's supplemental 
environmental report; consultation with Federal, State, Tribal, and 
local agencies; the staff's independent review; and the consideration 
of public comments.

Decision

    NNSA intends to issue a modification to its cooperative agreement 
with SHINE Technologies, DE-NA0004010, to revise the scope of the 
agreement to include cost-share funding for facility construction to 
support deployment of this non-HEU Mo-99 production technology. 
Issuance of the modification is subject to satisfactory completion of 
pricing and other technical reviews. This modification reflects a 
reallocation of funding previously awarded to DE-NA0004010 and does not 
increase the agreement's total funding level.

Basis for Decision

    The environmental impacts of this proposed action have been 
previously addressed in NUREG-2183, ``Environmental Impact Statement 
for the Construction Permit for the SHINE Medical Radioisotope 
Production Facility,'' and NUREG-2183, Supplement 1, ``Environmental 
Impact Statement Related to the Operating License for the SHINE Medical 
Isotope Production Facility.'' NNSA was a cooperating agency for both 
the EIS and supplement and after an independent review and determined 
that its comments and suggestions were satisfied per 40 CFR 
1506.3(b)(2). NNSA's proposed action is substantially the same as the 
proposed action analyzed in NRC's EIS and supplement.

Signing Authority

    This document of the Department of Energy was signed on January 31, 
2024 by Jill Hruby, Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and 
Administrator, NNSA, pursuant to delegated authority from the Secretary 
of Energy. That document with the original signature and date is 
maintained by DOE. For administrative purposes only, and in compliance 
with requirements of the Office of the Federal Register, the 
undersigned DOE Federal Register Liaison Officer has been authorized to 
sign and submit the document in electronic format for publication, as 
an official document of the Department of Energy. This administrative 
process in no way alters the legal effect of this document upon 
publication in the Federal Register.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on February 27, 2024.
Treena V. Garrett,
Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2024-04397 Filed 3-1-24; 8:45 am]
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