[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 132 (Tuesday, July 9, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36042-36043]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-17432]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Assessment on the
Proposed Sale of Surplus Natural and Low-Enriched Uranium
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of Intent.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE) announces its intent to prepare
an Environmental Assessment (EA) on the sale of natural uranium and
low-enriched uranium located at the gaseous diffusion plants in
Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky. DOE will prepare the EA
pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), the
Council on Environmental Quality's NEPA regulations, and the
Department's NEPA regulations. The EA will describe: (1) the purpose
and need for action by the Department; (2) the Department's proposed
action; (3) alternatives (including a no-action alternative) to the
proposed action; and (4) the potential impacts of the proposed action
and alternatives.
ADDRESSES: Questions regarding this Environmental Assessment should be
addressed to: Mr. John Kotek, Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and
Technology, NE-1, Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave., SW,
Washington, DC 20585. Requests to receive copies of the draft EA, when
available for review, should also be directed to Mr. Kotek. Mr. Kotek
may be contacted by telephone at (202) 586-6823, or by facsimile at
(202) 586-0698.
DATES: DOE anticipates that it will issue a draft EA by July 30, 1996,
which it will forward for review by affected states, Indian tribes, and
other parties who have expressed an interest in the proposed action or
requested a copy of the draft for review. The Department will accept
comments on the EA for 30 days following issuance of the draft EA.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information on DOE's NEPA
process, contact Ms. Carol M. Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA
Policy and Assistance, EH-42, Department of Energy, 1000 Independence
Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20585. Ms. Borgstrom may be contacted by
leaving a message at (800) 472-2756 or by calling (202) 586-4600.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
DOE owns substantial amounts of natural uranium and low-enriched
uranium (LEU) in excess of the Department's current needs. The
Department has declared about 21.5 million pounds of these materials to
be surplus. About 20.3 million pounds of these materials contain the
uranium isotope U-235 in concentrations (0.711 percent) equivalent to
natural uranium; about 1.2 million pounds contain U-235 concentration
of 4.5 percent, and are therefore classified as LEU. The LEU is stored
at the gaseous diffusion plant in Portsmouth, Ohio; the 20.3 million
pounds of natural uranium are stored at Paducah, Kentucky. In addition
to these 21.5 million pounds, the Department will receive title to
another 14.2 million pounds of natural uranium associated with the
United States/Russia Highly Enriched Uranium Purchase Agreement
(Russian HEU Agreement).1 These 14.2 million pounds are located at
the Paducah gaseous diffusion plant and will remain under the control
and ownership of the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) until
ownership is transferred to DOE before the end of 1996.
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\1\ In the U.S./Russia HEU Agreement, the United States and
Russia agreed that USEC, as the United States' Executive Agent,
would purchase low-enriched uranium derived from 500 metric tons of
highly enriched uranium extracted from nuclear weapons dismantled in
Russia.
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Congress has imposed a number of requirements on the sale and use
of these materials. Section 3112(b)(1) of the United States Enrichment
Corporation Privatization Act of 1996 (USEC Privatization Act, Public
Law 104-134) requires that DOE sell within seven years the 14.2 million
pounds of natural uranium associated with the U.S./Russia HEU
Agreement. Under section 3112(b)(2), DOE may sell this natural uranium:
(1) for overfeeding of enrichment operations in the United States at
any time; (2) for end use outside of the United States at any time; (3)
to the Russian Executive Agent in 1995 and 1996 for use in matched
sales pursuant to the Suspension Agreement; 2 or (4) in 2001 for
end use in the United States beginning in 2002 in amounts not to exceed
3 million pounds annually.
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\2\ The Suspension Agreement, also referred to as the
``Agreement to Suspend Investigation on Uranium from the Russia
Federation, as amended,'' settled an investigation into whether
Russia was dumping uranium into the United States market. It
established a mechanism known as ``matched sales arrangements'' in
which imports of Russian uranium are linked with sales of uranium
newly produced in the United States. In a matched sale, one-half of
the uranium sold is Russian and the other one-half is new domestic
production. There are annual quotas on the amount of matched sales
through 2004, when the Suspension Agreement expires.
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As to the 21.5 million pounds of natural uranium and low-enriched
uranium DOE already has in its inventory, Congress did not mandate
[[Page 36043]]
that the Department sell these materials within a particular period of
time. However, Congress anticipated in the Energy and Water Development
Appropriations Act of 1996 that DOE would sell about $35 million worth
of these materials in fiscal year 1996 and use the proceeds to offset
some of the costs of maintaining and improving the gaseous diffusion
plants. The Department believes that it will need to sell additional
amounts of these materials beginning in 1996 in order to continue
financing maintenance and other activities at the gaseous diffusion
plants.
Congress imposed three conditions on the sale of material from
DOE's inventory in section 3112(d) of the USEC Privatization Act; two
of these conditions are relevant to the 21.5 million pounds of
inventory material considered in this Environmental Assessment. Before
selling materials from DOE's inventory, the Secretary of Energy must
make a determination that: (1) the sale will not have an ``adverse
material impact'' on the domestic uranium industry and (2) the
Department will receive a price that is at least equal to the fair
market value of the materials.
Proposed Action
DOE proposes to sell the 21.5 million pounds of surplus material in
its inventory and the 14.2 million pounds of material associated with
the Russian HEU Agreement that the Department will receive from USEC.
All of the 35.7 million pounds are in the form of uranium hexafluoride
(UF6). DOE proposes to sell these 35.7 million pounds of uranium
over six or more years beginning in 1996. The potential buyers are
entities that already purchase or manage inventories of uranium for use
in commercial applications: USEC, utilities, convertors, brokers and
uranium producers. Accordingly, the proposed action would not result in
new or different uses of uranium.
DOE would comply with sections 3112 (b) and (d) of the USEC
Privatization Act in making the sales it is proposing. In 1996, DOE
proposes to sell some of the 14.2 million pounds it will receive under
the Russian HEU Agreement to the Russian Executive Agent, or the
Agent's representative, for use in matched sales pursuant to the
Suspension Agreement. The Department would sell, to the extent
practical, the remainder of this 14.2 million pounds for end use
outside the United States or for overfeeding the gaseous diffusion
plants during the period 1997 through 2000. Any remaining material
would be sold in 2001 for consumption by domestic end users beginning
in 2002 at a rate not to exceed 3 million pounds per year. As to the
21.5 million pounds from DOE's inventory, the Department proposes to
sell the one million pounds of LEU in 1996 in order to obtain the
revenue Congress anticipated DOE would receive in the Energy and Water
Development Appropriations Act of 1996. DOE would sell the remaining
20.3 million pounds of inventory materials during the period 1997
through 2002 in order to continue financing maintenance and other
activities at the gaseous diffusion plants. All sales of inventory
materials would be contingent on the Secretary making the
determinations required by section 3112(d)(2) of the USEC Privatization
Act.
The sales proposed and evaluated in this Environmental Assessment
would be in addition to sales evaluated in two other NEPA analyses: (1)
the Disposition of Surplus Highly Enriched Uranium Final EIS (DOE/EIS--
0240, June 1996), and (2) the Environmental Assessment for the Purchase
of Russian Low Enriched Uranium Derived from the Dismantlement of
Nuclear Weapons in the Countries of the Former Soviet Union (USEC/EA--
94001, DOE/EA--0837, January 1994). The Department will analyze the
cumulative effects of the sales proposed in this environmental
assessment, those proposed in the two other NEPA analyses, and those
scheduled under the Russian HEU Agreement and the Suspension Agreement.
Alternatives
DOE has identified alternatives to its proposed sale of these
materials, and may identify others during the preparation of the EA.
All alternatives will be evaluated against the purpose and need for
action by the Department, and those that are reasonable and meet the
need for action by the Department will be evaluated in the EA.
No Action
The Council on Environmental Quality's NEPA regulations require
that federal agencies analyze the impacts of not taking the proposed
action (the ``No Action Alternative''). In this case, the No Action
Alternative would be that DOE would continue to store the 35.7 million
pounds of uranium at Portsmouth and Paducah rather than selling it.
Alternatives that Satisfy the Need for Department Action
Alternatives that are under consideration for evaluation in the EA
include:
(1) Different schedules for the sale of this uranium; and
(2) Selling amounts other than 21.5 million pounds of inventory
material.
Preliminary Identification of Potential Environmental Impacts
The Department has tentatively identified the following potential
impacts for evaluation in the EA. This list is not intended to be all-
inclusive or to predetermine the potential impacts of any of the
alternatives.
(1) Potential health and safety impacts to on-site workers and to
the public from storage, handling, and transport of uranium, including
accidents;
(2) Socioeconomic impacts on the uranium industry in the United
States;
(3) Potential cumulative impacts of these and other sales; and
(4) Considerations of environmental justice.
DOE anticipates that it will issue a draft EA by July 30, 1996,
which it will forward for review by affected states, Indian tribes, and
other parties who have expressed an interest in the proposed action or
requested a copy of the draft for review. The Department will accept
comments on the EA for 30 days following issuance of the draft EA.
Based on the EA and any comments it receives, DOE will then determine
whether it will prepare an environmental impact statement or issue a
finding of no significant impact.
Issued in Washington, D.C., this 1st day of July, 1996, for the
United States Department of Energy.
Ray A. Hunter,
Deputy Director, Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology.
[FR Doc. 96-17432 Filed 7-8-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P