Jump to main content.

Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Molycorp, Inc.'s Facility in Washington, PA

Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.

 [Federal Register: March 8, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 44)]
[Notices]
[Page 11277-11278]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr08mr05-138]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 040-08778]

Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of
No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Molycorp, Inc.'s
Facility in Washington, PA

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom McLaughlin, Project Manager,
Decommissioning Directorate, Division of Waste Management and
Environmental Protection, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and
Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001; Telephone: (301) 415-5869; fax number: (301) 415-5398; e-mail:
tgm@nrc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The NRC is considering issuance of a license amendment to Molycorp,
Inc. (Molycorp or licensee) for Materials License No. SMB-1393, to
authorize an alternate decommissioning schedule for its facility in
Washington, Pennsylvania. NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment
(EA) in support of this action 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

    The purpose of this proposed action is to allow the licensee to
decommission its facility in a phased approach which will take longer
than the two year period identified in the approved decommissioning
plan (DP). 97Following an extensive supplemental characterization
study, Molycorp found that there is a large volume of contaminated
material in the subsurface. Molycorp will excavate the contaminated
soils and transport them off-site to an NRC approved facility.
Molycorp's proposed alternate decommissioning schedule shows that all
decommissioning activities will be completed by the end of 2007.
Molycorp's request is contained in a letter to NRC dated October 22, 2004.
    An earlier, and more extensive, Environmental Assessment (EA) was
prepared for License Amendment No. 5, in support of the NRC staff
evaluation of Molycorp's final DP. The NRC staff determined that all
steps in the proposed decommissioning could be accomplished in
compliance with the NRC public and occupational dose limits, effluent
release limits, and residual radioactive material limits. In addition,
the staff concluded that approval of the decommissioning of the
Molycorp Washington, PA, facility in accordance with the commitments in
NRC license SMB-1393 and the final DP would not result in a significant
adverse impact on the environment. The proposed action does not change
the impacts analyzed in detail in the EA prepared for License Amendment
No. 5.
    If the NRC approves the license amendment, the authorization will
be documented in an amendment to NRC License No. SMB-1393. However,
before approving the proposed amendment, the NRC will need to make the
findings required by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and
NRC's regulations. These findings will be documented in a Safety
Evaluation Report in addition to the EA.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    The staff has prepared the EA (summarized above) in support of
Molycorp's proposed alternate decommissioning schedule. The NRC staff
has concluded that there will be no adverse environmental impacts
associated with granting Molycorp an alternate decommissioning
schedule. The impacts associated with this proposed action do not
differ significantly from the impacts evaluated in the EA for approval
of the DP in License Amendment No. 5. On the basis of the EA, the NRC
has concluded that the environmental impacts from the action are
expected to be insignificant and has determined not to prepare an
environmental impact statement for the action.

[[Page 11278]]

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. Exit Disclaimer From this site, you can access the NRC's Agency-wide
Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and
image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS accession number for
the documents related to this notice are: Molycorp's letter to NRC
dated October 22, 2004, ML043090063; EA prepared for License Amendment
No. 5, ML003735909; EA prepared for this action, ML050330004;
Molycorp's final DP, ML010540178; Federal Register Notice for Amendment
No. 7, ML050030165. 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@nrc.gov.
    Any questions should be referred to Thomas McLaughlin, Division of
Waste Management and Environmental Protection, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington DC 20555, Mailstop T-7E18, telephone (301) 415-
5869, fax (301) 415-5397.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 18th day of February, 2005.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Daniel M. Gillen,
Deputy Director, Decommissioning Directorate, Division of Waste
Management and Environmental Protection, Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 05-4401 Filed 3-7-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
 

Local Navigation

Jump to main content.