[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 80 (Tuesday, April 28, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19240-19241]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-9624]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 040-8027; NRC-2008-0300]
Notice of License Amendment for the Sequoyah Fuels Corporation's
Facility at Gore, OK
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of Action.
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ken Kalman, Project Manager,
Decommissioning and Uranium Recovery Licensing Directorate, Division of
Waste Management and Environmental Protection, Office of Federal and
State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; Telephone: (301) 415-
6664; fax number: (301) 415-5369; e-mail: kenneth.kalman@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The NRC is considering issuance of a license amendment to Sequoyah
Fuels Corporation (SFC or licensee) for License No. SUB-1010. This
action will approve the licensee's Reclamation Plan for its Gore,
Oklahoma site, thereby authorizing (1) the excavation of contaminated
soil and buried waste located there; and (2) the construction of an
onsite disposal cell to isolate these wastes from the environment. In
cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency, the NRC in May
2008 published NUREG-1888, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in
support of this site reclamation action.
II. Proposed Action
Approval of the Reclamation Plan will facilitate decommissioning
and the eventual termination of License No. SUB-1010. Remediation of
existing ground water contamination is not part of the proposed action.
SFC has submitted a ground water corrective action plan that is still
under NRC staff review. However, implementation of the Reclamation Plan
will facilitate the subsequent clean-up of the site's ground water.
As identified by SFC, the proposed reclamation consists of the
following elements:
Construction of an above-grade, engineered disposal cell
on the SFC site for permanent disposition of the SFC decommissioning
and reclamation wastes;
Removal of sludges and sediments from the ponds and
lagoons, excavation of buried low-level wastes, removal of stored soils
and debris, and placement of these materials into the disposal cell;
Dismantlement of process equipment, followed by recovery
of gross quantities of contained uranium;
Size reduction/compaction of process equipment, piping,
and structural materials (including scrap metal, empty drums, and
packaged wastes that will accumulate before decommissioning) to satisfy
disposal requirements for maximum void volume;
Dismantlement/demolition of structures except for the new
SFC administrative office building and the storm water impoundment;
Demolition of concrete floors, foundations, and storage
pads and asphalt or concrete paved roadways outside the footprint of
the cell;
Removal of clay liners and/or contaminated soils from
under impoundments;
Excavation of underground utilities, contaminated sand
backfill from utility trenches and building foundation areas, and more
highly contaminated soils under the cell footprint;
Excavation of contaminated soils lying outside the
footprint of the disposal cell that exceed site-specific radiological
cleanup criteria;
Handling and treatment of produced ground water and storm
water during cell construction;
Placement of all SFC decommissioning wastes into the
onsite disposal cell, followed by capping and closure of the cell; and
Regrading of the site, backfilling of excavations to the
finished grade, and revegetation.
III. NRC Review
The NRC staff reviewed the licensee's reclamation plan in
accordance with NUREG-1620, ``Standard Review Plan for the Review of a
Reclamation Plan for Mill Tailings Sites Under Title II of the Uranium
Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978,'' Final Revision 1, issued
June 2003. The review is a comprehensive assessment of SFC's
reclamation plan. Most of the contaminated material is classified under
Appendix A to 10 CFR part 40 as Section 11e.(2) byproduct material.
Appendix A to 10 CFR part 40 contains the technical requirements for
disposition of Section 11e.(2) byproduct material. Following the
guidance provided in NUREG-1620, the NRC staff's review of SFC's
reclamation plan was organized by the technical disciplines involved in
the assessment of the reclamation plan to ensure compliance with
Appendix A. The staff's review covered such considerations as geologic,
seismic, geotechnical, and surface erosional aspects of long-term
stability, the compliance with ground water standards, radiation
protection including radon emanation controls, and SFC's proposal to
include placing the onsite radioactive waste that cannot be classified
as 11e.(2) byproduct material in the disposal cell.
SFC's request for the proposed amendment was previously noticed in
the Federal Register on May 28, 2008 (73 FR 30646-30647) with a Notice
of an Opportunity to Request a Hearing. No comments or request for a
hearing were received.
The EIS documented the NRC staff's determination that all steps in
the proposed reclamation could be accomplished in compliance with the
NRC public and occupational dose limits, effluent release limits, and
residual radioactive material limits. In addition, the EIS concluded
that approval of the proposed action, in accordance with the
commitments in NRC License SUB-1010 and the final reclamation plan,
would not result in a significant adverse impact on the environment.
The safety findings (required by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as
amended) necessary to support the approval of the Reclamation Plan are
documented in a Safety Evaluation Report (SER) that will be issued in
connection with this license amendment.
IV. Further Information
Documents related to this action, including the application for
amendment and supporting documentation, are available electronically at
the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can access the NRC's Agencywide
Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and
image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS accession numbers for
the documents related to this notice are: SFC's letter to NRC dated
January 4, 2008, ML080220345; Final EIS prepared for this action,
ML081300103; Federal Register Notice
[[Page 19241]]
for this license amendment, ML090780157, and Safety Evaluation Report,
ML090260323. If you do not have access to ADAMS, or if there are
problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC
Public Document Room reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737,
or by e-mail to pdr.resource@nrc.gov.
Any questions should be referred to Kenneth Kalman, Division of
Waste Management and Environmental Protection, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington DC 20555, Mailstop T-8F5, telephone (301) 415-
6664, fax (301) 415-5369.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 20th day of April 2009.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Keith I. McConnell,
Deputy Director, Decommissioning and Uranium Recovery Licensing
Directorate, Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection,
Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management
Programs.
[FR Doc. E9-9624 Filed 4-27-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P