[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 103 (Friday, May 27, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32198-32201]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-11430]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 70-7005; NRC-2022-0093]
Waste Control Specialists LLC
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact;
issuance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an
environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no significant impact
(FONSI) in support of the NRC's consideration of
[[Page 32199]]
a request from Waste Control Specialists LLC (WCS) to continue to store
certain transuranic waste, which originated from the Los Alamos
National Laboratory (LANL), without an NRC license under the terms of a
2014 Order. The 2014 Order exempted WCS from the NRC's regulations
concerning special nuclear material (SNM). The current action is in
response to a request by WCS dated March 18, 2022, to extend the
possession time to temporarily store certain waste at specific
locations at the WCS Site until December 31, 2024.
DATES: The EA and FONSI referenced in this document are available on
May 27, 2022.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2022-0093 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may obtain publicly available information related to this document
using any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2022-0093. Address
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann;
telephone: 301-415-0624; email: [email protected]. For technical
questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT section of this document.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS
Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public
Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or
by email to [email protected]. For the convenience of the reader,
instructions about obtaining materials referenced in this document are
provided in the ``Availability of Documents'' section.
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents, by appointment, at the NRC's PDR, Room P1 B35, One White
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. To make
an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to
[email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between
8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (ET), Monday through Friday, except Federal
holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Harry Felsher, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-6559, email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The NRC is considering modifying a previously issued exemption
order condition that would allow Waste Control Specialists LLC (WCS) to
continue storing certain transuranic waste, which originated from the
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), without an NRC license for
approximately another two years at its Andrews County, Texas site. WCS
stores the transuranic waste at issue under the terms of the 2014
Order. The 2014 Order includes certain conditions that the NRC staff
has modified over time. Based on the results of the EA that follows,
the NRC is issuing a FONSI and, therefore, does not need to prepare an
environmental impact statement.
WCS operates a facility in Andrews County, Texas (the WCS Site)
that is licensed to process and store certain types of radioactive
material contained in low-level waste (LLW) and mixed waste. The WCS
Site is also licensed to dispose of certain radioactive, hazardous, and
toxic waste. Under an agreement authorized by the Atomic Energy Act of
1954, as amended, a State can assume regulatory authority over
radioactive material. In 1963, Texas entered into such an agreement and
assumed regulatory authority over source material, byproduct material,
and SNM under critical mass. The WCS Site is licensed by the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for possession, treatment,
and storage of radioactive waste and disposal of LLW under Radioactive
Materials License (RML) R04100.
Section 70.3 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10
CFR) requires persons who own, acquire, deliver, receive, possess, use,
or transfer SNM to obtain a license pursuant to the requirements of 10
CFR part 70. The licensing requirements in 10 CFR part 70 apply to
persons in Agreement States possessing greater than critical mass
quantities. However, pursuant to 10 CFR 70.17(a), ``the Commission may
. . . grant such exemptions from the requirements of the regulations in
this part as it determines are authorized by law and will not endanger
life or property or the common defense and security and are otherwise
in the public interest.''
On September 25, 2000, WCS first requested an exemption from the
licensing requirements in 10 CFR part 70. On November 21, 2001, the NRC
issued an order to WCS (2001 Order) granting an exemption to WCS from
certain NRC regulations and permitting WCS, under specified conditions,
to possess waste containing SNM in greater quantities than specified in
10 CFR part 150, at the WCS storage and treatment facility on the WCS
Site in Andrews County, Texas, without obtaining an NRC license
pursuant to 10 CFR part 70. The 2001 Order was published in the Federal
Register on November 15, 2001. The NRC issued superseding Orders to WCS
in 2004 (i.e., modified list of reagents) and 2009 (i.e., modified
sampling requirements) that modified the conditions in the 2001 Order.
On February 14, 2014, a radiation release event occurred at the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)
Facility (WIPP incident). In response, the DOE suspended operations at
the WIPP Facility. In April 2014, WCS began receiving some specific
waste from DOE that both WCS and DOE understood to meet both the U.S.
Department of Transportation (DOT) shipping requirements and the
conditions in the 2009 Order. WCS began storing that waste at the
Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility (TSDF), identified as the
storage and processing facility in RML R04100, WCS' TCEQ-issued
license. The waste was DOE transuranic waste that originated at the
LANL that was destined to be disposed of at the DOE WIPP Facility
(i.e., ``LANL Waste''). In June 2014, WCS received information from DOE
that some of the LANL Waste being temporarily stored at the TSDF may be
similar to the waste that might be the cause of the WIPP Incident. In
response, WCS moved some of the LANL Waste from the TSDF to the Federal
Waste Facility (FWF) disposal cell for temporary storage.
By letter dated July 18, 2014, WCS requested an exemption from the
NRC's regulations to possess SNM in excess of the critical mass limits
specified in 10 CFR 150.11 while temporarily storing some LANL Waste in
the FWF disposal cell. The NRC issued a new order to WCS on December 3,
2014 (2014 Order) that superseded the 2009 Order. The 2014 Order was
published in the Federal Register on December 11, 2014. The 2014 Order
added new conditions, primarily related to the temporary storage of the
LANL Waste both at the TSDF and in the FWF disposal cell. The State of
Texas incorporated the 2014 Order Conditions into RML R04100.
By letters dated March 28, 2016, August 30, 2018, and August 24,
2020, WCS requested the modification of Condition 8.B.4 of the 2014
Order to
[[Page 32200]]
extend the timeframe for temporarily allowing storage of the LANL Waste
at the WCS Site from ``two years'' to ``until December 23, 2018,''
``until December 23, 2020,'' and ``until December 23, 2022.'' By
letters dated September 23, 2016, December 19, 2018, and December 7,
2020, the NRC approved modifications of the 2014 Order Condition 8.B.4,
extending WCS' authorization to store the LANL Waste at the WCS Site
without a license under 10 CFR part 70 to ``until December 23, 2018,''
``until December 23, 2020,'' and until ``December 23, 2020'' by citing
the closed status of operations at the WIPP Facility in 2016 and the
safe temporary storage status of the LANL Waste at the TSDF and in the
FWF disposal cell in 2016, 2018, and 2020.
By letter dated March 18, 2022, WCS requested that the
effectiveness of its exemption from NRC requirements in 10 CFR part 70
be extended with the modification of Condition 8.B.4 of the 2014 Order
to extend the timeframe for temporarily allowing storage of the LANL
Waste at the WCS Site to ``until December 31, 2024.'' That proposal is
the subject of this EA.
II. Environmental Assessment
Description of the Proposed Action
The proposed action is the WCS request to modify the 2014 Order
Condition 8.B.4 to allow WCS to continue to store the LANL Waste at
specific locations at the WCS Site until December 31, 2024, without an
NRC license.
Need for the Proposed Action
WCS is making this request to continue to store the LANL Waste
while the DOE-led Interagency Project Team (including WCS, DOE, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, NRC, the State of Texas, and the State
of New Mexico) works to recommend a path forward for disposition of the
LANL Waste. While the WIPP Facility has resumed operations, some of the
LANL Waste at the WCS Site cannot be shipped off the WCS Site at this
time because it does not meet DOT shipping requirements. WCS has
indicated that it will not be able to ship the LANL Waste to another
appropriate location by the timeframe specified in the 2014 Order
Condition 8.B.4, as modified by the NRC letter dated December 7, 2020.
The purpose of this EA is to assess the potential environmental impacts
of the WCS request to modify the 2014 Order Condition 8.B.4 to allow
WCS to store the LANL Waste at specific locations at the WCS Site until
December 31, 2024. This EA does not approve or deny the requested
action.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action
The NRC does not expect changes in radiation hazards to workers or
to the environment. WCS will continue to be required to ensure that the
LANL Waste in both the FWF disposal cell and the TSDF remain stored
safely and securely and notify the NRC of any events as appropriate, as
set out in the 2014 Order. No changes to its handling or associated
hazards would occur as a result of granting the requested change. Other
environmental impacts would be the same as evaluated in the EA that
supported the 2014 Order, as applicable to the activities associated
with the continued safe storage of the LANL Waste.
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
As an alternative to the proposed action, the NRC staff could deny
the WCS request and, therefore, not issue a modification to the Order
Condition 8.B.4 that would authorize continued storage of the LANL
Waste at the WCS Site (i.e., the ``no action'' alternative). Upon
expiration of the timeframe in the 2014 Order Condition 8.B.4, as
modified by the December 7, 2020, NRC letter to WCS, WCS would still be
required to maintain the material safely. In addition, the NRC
authorization of any change to the current storage of the LANL Waste at
the WCS Site would still be required. As a result, under this
alternative, there would be no environmental impacts different from the
proposed action, although WCS would be required to secure a license or
other regulatory authorization for the storage of the material or
potentially be in violation of 10 CFR part 70 upon the expiration of
the term in the 2014 Order Condition 8.B.4.
Thus, the ``no action'' alternative would not result in changes to
the environmental impacts evaluated in the NRC's prior EAs that
supported the 2014 Order or the previous NRC orders. Those prior EAs
concluded that there would be no significant radiological or non-
radiological environmental impacts associated with the storage of SNM
at the WCS Site, consistent with the conditions in those NRC orders.
Agencies and Persons Consulted
On May 12, 2022, the staff consulted with TCEQ by providing a draft
of the EA for review and comment. By email dated May 19, 2022, TCEQ
provided comments on and recommended corrections to the draft of the
EA. The NRC staff modified the EA to appropriately address the TCEQ
comments and recommended corrections.
The proposed action does not involve the development or disturbance
of additional land. Hence, the NRC has determined that the proposed
action will not affect listed endangered or threatened species or their
critical habitat. Therefore, no further consultation is required under
Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. Likewise, the NRC staff has
determined that the proposed action does not have the potential to
adversely affect cultural resources because no ground disturbing
activities are associated with the proposed action. Therefore, no
consultation is required under Section 106 of the National Historic
Preservation Act.
III. Finding of No Significant Impact
The NRC has reviewed the WCS March 18, 2022, request to supplement
the 2014 Order again to extend the possession time of the LANL Waste at
specific locations at the WCS Site. The NRC has found that effluent
releases and potential radiological doses to the public are not
anticipated to change as a result of this action and that occupational
exposures are expected to remain within regulatory limits and as low as
reasonably achievable. On the basis of this EA, the NRC concludes that
the proposed action will not have a significant effect on the quality
of the human environment. Accordingly, the NRC has determined not to
prepare an environmental impact statement for the proposed action.
IV. Availability of Documents
The documents identified in the following table are available to
interested persons through one or more of the following methods, as
indicated.
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ADAMS Accession No./
Document Federal Register
citation
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2022 WCS Request to Modify Condition 8.B.4 of ML22081A181
2014 NRC Order, dated March 18, 2022.
2022 TCEQ Comments and Recommended Corrections ML22139A189
to 2022 NRC Draft of the Environmental
Assessment, dated May 19, 2022.
2020 NRC Letter of Modification of Condition ML20252A182
8.B.4 of 2014 NRC Order, dated December 7,
2020.
Environmental Assessment and Finding of No 79 FR 65999
Significant Impact for 2014 NRC Order.
2014 NRC Order................................. 79 FR 73647
2020 WCS Request to Modify Condition 8.B.4 of ML20237F462
2014 NRC Order, dated August 24, 2020.
2018 NRC Letter of Modification of Condition ML18269A318
8.B.4 of 2014 NRC Order, dated December 19,
2018.
2018 WCS Request to Modify Condition 8.B.4 of ML18250A289
2014 NRC Order, dated August 30, 2018.
2016 NRC Letter of Modification of Condition ML16097A265
8.B.4 of 2014 NRC Order, dated September 23,
2016.
2016 WCS Request to Modify Condition 8.B.4 of ML16095A361
2014 NRC Order, dated March 28, 2016.
Environmental Assessment and Final Finding of 74 FR 52981
No Significant Impact for 2009 NRC Order.
2009 NRC Order................................. 74 FR 55071
Environmental Assessment and Finding of No 69 FR 61697
Significant Impact for 2004 NRC Order.
2004 NRC Order................................. 69 FR 65468
Environmental Assessment and Finding of No 66 FR 56358
Significant Impact for 2001 NRC Order.
2001 NRC Order................................. 66 FR 57489
2000 WCS Request for NRC Order, dated September ML003759584
25, 2000.
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Dated: May 24, 2022.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Jane E. Marshall,
Director, Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste
Programs, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2022-11430 Filed 5-26-22; 8:45 am]
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