[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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