[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 104 (Tuesday, May 31, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31379-31381]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-13362]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 030-03754; NRC-2011-0033]
Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of
No Significant Impact for License Amendment for ABB, Inc., Windsor, CT
AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John Nicholson, Project Manager,
Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania,
19406. Telephone: 610-337-5236; fax number: 610-337-5269; e-mail:
John.Nicholson@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a license
amendment to Material License No. 06-00217-06 issued to ABB, Inc. (ABB
or, ``the licensee''), to authorize a revision to the previously
approved (June 1, 2004) Decommissioning Plan (DP) for its CE Windsor
Site (Facility) located at 2000 Day Hill Road, Windsor, Connecticut.
The NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in support of
this amendment in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR Part 51.
Based on the EA, the NRC has concluded that a Finding of No Significant
Impact (FONSI) is appropriate. The amendment will be issued following
the publication of this Notice.
II. EA Summary
Identification of Proposed Action
The purpose of the proposed amendment is to approve a revision,
Decommissioning Plan Revision (DP) 2, to the previously approved site
DP for the licensee's facility. The original DP was approved on June 1,
2004, and revision 1 was approved on July 8, 2009. Specifically, this
Revision 2 to the approved DP expands the scope of the DP and provides
the radiological status and remediation plans for select Formerly
Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) areas, including the
Site Brook and the adjacent Debris Pile. In addition, site-specific
derived concentration guideline limits (DCGLs) for thorium-232 (Th-232)
and radium-226 (Ra-226) are provided in the revised DP. Small
quantities of Th-232 and Ra-226 were identified during investigational
sampling of the Burning Grounds area, and DCGLs have been developed and
submitted for approval as an addendum to the DP, Revision 2 (Derivation
of the Site-Specific Soil DCGLs Addendum Soil DCGLs for Thorium and
Radium). The revised DP does not change any previously approved
remediation activities or DCGLs for uranium or cobalt-60 (Co-60) at the
site. On February 26, 2010, and as supplemented on August 6, 2010, ABB,
Inc. requested that NRC approve the proposed amendment. The licensee's
request for the proposed change, including an opportunity to request a
hearing or provide comments, was previously noticed in the Federal
Register on February 15, 2011 (76FR8785).
The staff has prepared the EA in support of the proposed license
amendment. The proposed actions will allow the licensee to continue to
remediate the remainder of the site for eventual unrestricted use
pending final status survey results. The licensee has obtained the
proper permits from the State of Connecticut Department of
Environmental Protection for the planned remediation activities
[[Page 31380]]
impacting the Site Brook. The DCGLs established in the DP Revision 2
for Ra-226 and Th-232 do not exceed the trigger levels requiring
consultation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under
the Memorandum of Understanding between the EPA and the NRC.
Need for the Proposed Action
The proposed action would allow ABB to complete the remaining
Facility remediation and decommissioning activities, thereby reducing
residual radioactivity at the Facility to a level that permits release
of the entire property for unrestricted use and termination of the
license. The licensee has been successfully remediating and
decommissioning the Facility since 2004 under the previously-approved
DP. In order to complete remediation of the entire Facility, the FUSRAP
areas must be remediated. NRC is fulfilling its responsibilities under
the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, to make a decision on a
proposed license amendment for decommissioning that ensures safety and
protection of the public and the environment.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action
In preparing this EA, the NRC staff reviewed the 2004 EA issued in
connection with the initial DP; the 2009 EA issued in conjunction with
the DP Revision 1; the licensee's Environmental Report submitted on
February 28, 2010; and the revised DP submitted in February 2010 and
supplemented in August 2010. Additionally, the staff has continuously
reviewed the performance of the decommissioning activities conducted by
the licensee and their contractors through periodic inspections. The
staff concluded that the bases for the findings of the 2004 and 2009
EAs remain valid, and are applicable to the revised DP. Regarding
remediation of the FUSRAP areas, decommissioning methodologies are
unchanged from the initial approved DP and remain appropriate for the
contaminant concentrations found in the FUSRAP area soils. The same
isotopes that were present in the Facility's non-FUSRAP areas (namely,
those associated with enriched uranium and cobalt-60) exist in the
FUSRAP areas as well. The FUSRAP areas requiring remediation are
similar to those already successfully remediated and decommissioned at
the Facility. The amount of waste in FUSRAP areas that will need to be
packaged and shipped to a licensed disposal facility is similar to the
amounts evaluated in the 2004 and 2009 EAs, and this waste will be
packaged and transported to the same disposal facility previously used
for non-FUSRAP area remediation activities.
The revised DP includes new site-specific soil DCGLs for Ra-226 and
Th-232, to support the unrestricted release of the impacted areas of
the Burning Grounds. The staff's technical review confirmed that the
licensee's requested site specific Ra-226 and Th-232 soil DCGLs of 4.5
and 4.0 picocuries/gram, respectively, would result in a maximum annual
dose of less than 19 millirem of total effective dose equivalent,
considering a resident farmer scenario and using the RESRAD 6.4
computer code to model the input parameters of the scenario and compute
the dose to an individual. Because this dose is less than 25 millrem
per year, use of these DCGLs will meet the radiological criteria for
unrestricted release specified in 10 CFR 20.1402. The conclusions of
the 2004 and 2009 EAs thus remain valid for the proposed action.
In summary, NRC staff has reviewed the revised decommissioning plan
for the Facility, and examined the impact of the proposed additional
decommissioning activities. Based upon its review, the staff has
determined that environmental impacts associated with the proposed
action are not greater than the impacts found in the 2004 and 2009 EAs,
and are bounded by the impacts discussed in NUREG-1496, ``A Generic
Environmental Impact Statement in Support of Rulemaking on Radiological
Criteria for License Termination of NRC-Licensed Nuclear Facilities,''
Volumes 1-3. The staff finds that there have been no significant
environmental impacts to date from the use and cleanup of radioactive
material at the Facility. The NRC staff reviewed the docket file
records to identify any non-radiological hazards that may impact the
environment surrounding the Facility, and no such hazards or impacts to
the environment were identified. The NRC has identified no other
radiological or non-radiological activities in the area that could
result in cumulative environmental impacts.
The staff has considered the impact of the proposed FUSRAP area
remediation at the Facility, and finds that the proposed action will
not have a significant impact on the quality of the human environment.
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
The Facility is in the process of being decommissioned under an
approved DP. Although the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has
responsibility for coordinating the radiological clean up in the FUSRAP
areas, ABB entered into a formal agreement with the USACE and the NRC
to conduct the clean up due to extensive comingling of FUSRAP and NRC
licensed materials from past commercial operations in order to
facilitate the efficient and effective decommissioning and clean up of
the Facility. Therefore, the only alternative to the proposed action to
continue the decommissioning process at the Facility is no action. The
no-action alternative is not acceptable because it is inconsistent with
NRC's Timeliness Rule (10 CFR 30.36), which requires licensees to
decommission their facilities when licensed activities cease and to
request termination of their radioactive materials license. Although
termination of the NRC and USACE agreement would result in unnecessary
remediation and decommissioning delay, the environmental impacts
created by the action would be unchanged. Additionally, denying the
amendment request would result in no change in current environmental
impacts. The environmental impacts of the proposed action and the no-
action alternative are therefore similar, and the no-action alternative
is, accordingly, not considered further.
Conclusion
The NRC staff reviewed the environmental impacts of the proposed
action in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR 51 and NRC's
unrestricted release criteria specified in 10 CFR 20.1402. The NRC
staff has determined that incorporating the Facility's remaining FUSRAP
areas into the site-wide DP would not significantly affect the quality
of the human environment, and a FONSI is appropriate. Therefore, an
environmental impact statement is not warranted for the proposed
action, and pursuant to 10 CFR 51.32.
Agencies and Persons Consulted
This EA was prepared by NRC staff and coordinated with the
following agencies: Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection
and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. NRC provided a draft of this
EA to the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection for review
on April 29, 2011. On May 16, 2011, Michael Firsick of the Connecticut
Department of Environmental Protection responded by e-mail. The State
agreed with the conclusions of the EA.
III. Finding of No Significant Impact
On the basis of the EA, NRC has concluded that there are no
significant
[[Page 31381]]
environmental impacts from the proposed amendment and has determined
not to prepare an environmental impact statement.
IV. Further Information
Documents related to this action, including the application for
amendment and supporting documentation, are available electronically
through the NRC Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.
From this site, you can access the NRC's Agencywide Document 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:
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Document PDR Web ADAMS NRC staff
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ABB, Inc. Decommissioning Plan, Revision 2, CE X X ML102310473...................... X
Windsor Site (Previously Identified FUSRAP
Areas Including Debris Piles & Site Brook).
August 2010.
ABB, Inc. Decommissioning Plan, Revision 2, CE X X ML102310512...................... X
Windsor Site--Figures. August 2010.
ABB, Inc. Decommissioning Plan, Revision 2, CE X X ML102310479...................... X
Windsor Site--Tables. August 2010.
ABB, Inc. Decommissioning Plan, Revision 2, CE X X ML102310548...................... X
Windsor Site--Appendix A: RESRAD Reports--
Resident Farmer Thorium and Radium. August
2010.
ABB, Inc. Decommissioning Plan, Revision 2, CE X X ML102310553...................... X
Windsor Site--Appendix B: Probabilistic
Evaluation Graphical Summary. August 2010.
ABB, Inc. Derivation of the Site Specific Soil X X ML102310539...................... X
DCGLs, Addendum, Soil DCGLs for thorium and
radium. August 2010.
Memorandum of Understanding Between the X X ML022830208...................... X
Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Consultation and
Finality on Decommissioning and Decontamination
of Contaminated Sites. October 2002.
Letter to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from U.S. X X ML072210979...................... X
Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Proposed
Process to Decommission and Clean Up the ABB
Windsor Site. August 15, 2007.
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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 (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or
by e-mail to pdr.resource@nrc.gov.
These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public
computers located at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), O 1 F21, One
White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR
reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee.
Dated at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania this 18th day of May
2011.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Judith A. Joustra,
Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety,
Region I.
[FR Doc. 2011-13362 Filed 5-27-11; 8:45 am]
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