[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 99 (Thursday, May 22, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28009-28014]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-13494]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Surplus Plutonium Disposition Environmental Impact Statement
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 Impact Statement (EIS) pursuant to the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on the disposition of United States'
weapons-usable surplus plutonium. This EIS is tiered from the Storage
and Disposition of Weapons-Usable Fissile Materials Programmatic
Environmental Impact Statement (Storage and Disposition PEIS) (DOE/EIS-
0229), issued in December 1996, and the associated Record of Decision
(62 FR 3014), issued on January 14, 1997.
The EIS will examine reasonable alternatives and potential
environmental impacts for the proposed siting, construction, and
operation of three types of facilities for plutonium disposition. The
first is a facility to disassemble and convert pits (a nuclear weapons
component) into plutonium oxide suitable for disposition. As explained
in the January 1997 Record of Decision, this pit disassembly and
conversion facility will be located at either DOE's Hanford Site, Idaho
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), Pantex
Plant, or Savannah River Site (SRS). The second is a facility to
immobilize surplus plutonium in a glass or ceramic form for disposition
in a geologic repository pursuant to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. This
second facility will be located at either Hanford or SRS, and include a
collocated capability to convert non-pit plutonium materials into a
form suitable for immobilization. The EIS will discuss various
technologies for immobilization. The third type of facility would
fabricate plutonium oxide into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. The MOX fuel
fabrication facility would be located at either Hanford, INEEL, Pantex
or SRS. MOX fuel would be used in existing commercial light water
reactors in the United States, with subsequent disposal of the spent
fuel in accordance with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Some MOX fuel
could also be used in Canadian deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactors
depending upon negotiation of a future international agreement between
Canada, Russia, and the United States. The EIS will also discuss
decommissioning and decontamination (D&D) of the three facilities.
This Notice of Intent describes the Department's proposed action,
solicits public input, and announces the schedule for the public
scoping meetings.
DATES: Comments on the proposed scope of the Surplus Plutonium
Disposition EIS (SPD EIS) are invited from the public. To ensure
consideration in the draft EIS, written comments should be postmarked
by July 18, 1997. Comments received after that date will be considered
to the extent practicable. DOE will hold interactive scoping meetings
near sites that may be affected by the proposed action to discuss
issues and receive oral and written comments on the scope of the EIS.
The locations, dates and times for these public meetings are included
in the Supplementary Information section of this notice and will be
announced by additional appropriate means.
ADDRESSES: Comments and questions concerning the plutonium disposition
program can be submitted by calling (answering machine) or faxing them
to the toll free number 1-800-820-5156, or by mailing them to: Bert
Stevenson, NEPA Compliance Officer, Office of Fissile Materials
Disposition, U.S. Department of Energy, Post Office Box 23786,
Washington, DC 20026-3786.
Comments may also be submitted electronically by using the Office
of Fissile Materials Disposition's web site. The address is http://
web.fie.com/fedix/fisl.html.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information on the DOE
NEPA process, please contact: Carol Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA
Policy and Assistance, U.S. Department of Energy 1000, Independence
Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20585, 202-586-4600 or 1-800-472-2756.
[[Page 28010]]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Storage and Disposition Programmatic Environmental Impact
Statement (PEIS) analyzed the potential environmental consequences of
alternatives for the long-term storage (up to 50 years) of weapons-
usable fissile materials and the disposition of surplus plutonium.
Surplus plutonium for disposition refers to that weapons-usable
plutonium that the President has declared surplus to national security
needs, as well as such plutonium that may be declared surplus in the
future. As stated in the Record of Decision for the Storage and
Disposition PEIS, the Department decided to pursue a hybrid approach
that allows immobilization of surplus plutonium in glass or ceramic
form and burning of some of the surplus plutonium as MOX fuel in
existing, commercial light water reactors in the United States (and
potentially in Canadian Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactors in Canada
depending on future international agreement). The Department decided
that the extent to which either or both of these disposition approaches
would ultimately be deployed would depend in part upon future NEPA
review, although the Department committed to immobilize at least 8
metric tons (tonnes) of currently declared surplus plutonium and
reserved the option of immobilizing all surplus weapons plutonium. In
the Record of Decision for the Storage and Disposition PEIS, the
Department further decided to: (1) locate the immobilization facility
(collocated with a plutonium conversion facility) at either Hanford or
SRS; (2) locate a potential MOX fuel fabrication facility at either
Hanford, INEEL, Pantex, or SRS; (3) locate a pit disassembly and
conversion facility at either Hanford, INEEL, Pantex, or SRS; and (4)
determine the specific technology for immobilization based in part on
this follow-on disposition EIS.
The processes, materials and technologies involved in surplus
plutonium disposition are depicted in Figure 1.
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Proposed Action
The Department proposes to determine whether to continue with both
the immobilization and MOX approaches for surplus plutonium disposition
and if so, to site, construct, and operate and ultimately D&D three
types of facilities for plutonium disposition at one or more of four
DOE sites, as follows:
A collocated non-pit plutonium conversion and
immobilization facility at either Hanford, near Richland, Washington,
or SRS, near Aiken, South Carolina, with sub-alternatives for the
technology and facilities used to form the immobilized plutonium.
A pit disassembly/conversion facility at either Hanford;
SRS; INEEL, near Idaho Falls, Idaho; or the Pantex Plant, near
Amarillo, Texas.
A MOX fuel fabrication facility at either Hanford, INEEL,
Pantex, or SRS, with sub-alternatives for fabrication of Lead Test
Assemblies for use in fuel qualification demonstrations.
Construction of these facilities would be on previously disturbed
land and could include the modification of existing facilities where
practicable, to reduce local environmental impacts, reduce costs, and
shorten schedules. In the pit disassembly and conversion facility, the
Department proposes to disassemble surplus pits and convert the
plutonium in them to an unclassified oxide form suitable for
disposition. The Department also proposes to convert most non-pit
plutonium materials to plutonium oxide at the plutonium conversion
facility, which will be collocated with the immobilization facility.
Plutonium Disposition Decisions
The Department expects to make the following decisions based upon
the results of this EIS and other information and considerations:
Whether to construct and operate collocated plutonium
conversion and immobilization facilities, and if so, where (including
selection of the specific immobilization technology).
Whether to construct and operate a pit disassembly/
conversion facility, and if so, where.
Whether to construct and operate a MOX fuel fabrication
facility, and if so, where (including selection of the site for
fabrication of Lead Test Assemblies).
The exact extent to which the MOX approach would ultimately be
deployed will depend on a number of factors, in addition to
environmental impacts. These are likely to include cost, contract
negotiations, and international agreements.
Alternatives
No Action
A No Action alternative will be analyzed (Alternative 1) in the SPD
EIS. Implementation of the No Action alternative would mean that
disposition would not occur, and surplus weapons-usable plutonium,
including pits, metals and oxides, would remain in storage in
accordance with the Storage and Disposition PEIS Record of Decision.
Plutonium Disposition Alternatives
The SPD EIS will analyze alternatives for the siting, construction
and operation of the three facilities at various candidate sites as
described in the Proposed Action. These facilities would be designed so
that they could collectively disposition surplus plutonium (existing
and future) over their operating lives. Although the exact quantity of
plutonium that may be declared surplus over time is not known, for
purposes of analysis a nominal 50 tonnes of surplus plutonium will be
used for assessing the environmental impacts of plutonium disposition
activities at the various candidate sites. Under alternatives involving
the ``hybrid'' (immobilization and MOX) approach selected in the
Storage and Disposition Record of Decision, the SPD EIS will analyze
the same distribution of surplus plutonium that was analyzed in the
Storage and Disposition PEIS, which is fabrication of pits and pure
plutonium metal or oxide (approximately 33 tonnes) into MOX fuel, and
immobilization of the remaining non-pit plutonium (approximately 17
tonnes). The Record of Decision on the Storage and Disposition PEIS
states, ``DOE will immobilize at least eight tonnes of currently
declared surplus plutonium materials that DOE has already determined
are not suitable for use in MOX fuel.'' Since the issuance of that
decision, the Department has further determined that a total of about
17 tonnes of surplus plutonium is not suitable for use in MOX fuel
without extensive processing. Thus, an alternative for fabricating all
surplus plutonium into MOX fuel will not be analyzed. However,
converting the full 50 tonnes of surplus plutonium into an immobilized
form will be analyzed as a reasonable alternative.
Under each disposition approach, DOE could in principle locate one,
two, or all three facilities at a candidate site. However, locating one
facility at each of three sites would mean conducting disposition
activities at three widely separated locations around the country. This
would substantially increase transportation cost, unnecessarily
increase exposure of workers and the public, and increase
transportation risks, without any apparent compensating benefit.
Therefore, the Department is proposing to consider only alternatives
that locate two or more facilities at one site, with the possibility of
one facility at a separate site. Further, certain combinations of
facilities and sites are not being considered as reasonable
alternatives, because they would also substantially increase
transportation cost, unnecessarily increase exposure to workers and the
public, and increase transportation risks, without any apparent
compensating benefit.
Based on the above considerations and the candidate site selections
in the Storage and Disposition Record of Decision, the following
alternatives have been developed in addition to the No Action
alternative. Table 1 summarizes the alternatives by site. Alternatives
2 through 10 (see Table 1) would involve immobilization of
approximately 17 tonnes of low purity (non-pit) plutonium, and
fabrication of approximately 33 tonnes of high purity plutonium (pits
and plutonium metal) into MOX fuel. The differences among alternatives
2 through 10 are the locations of the proposed facilities. Alternatives
11 and 12 would involve immobilization of all 50 tonnes of plutonium at
either Hanford or SRS.
The Department has identified existing facilities that can be
modified for use in plutonium disposition at various candidate sites. A
summary of the existing and new facilities (shown in the parentheses in
Table 1) to be used in the SPD EIS analyses is given in Table 1, where
FMEF is the Fuel and Materials Examination Facility, FPF is the Fuel
Processing Facility, and DWPF is the Defense Waste Processing Facility.
Lead Test Assemblies
With respect to the MOX alternatives, the Department would qualify
MOX fuel forms for use in existing commercial reactors. DOE will
analyze two sub-alternatives for the fabrication of the lead test
assemblies needed to qualify the fuel. In one sub-alternative, the lead
test assemblies would be fabricated in the United States. Fabrication
in the United States would involve constructing a pilot capability in
conjunction with the fuel fabrication facility. Therefore, the
potential sites include the candidate sites for the fuel fabrication
facility (i.e., Hanford, INEEL, Pantex, and SRS). The pilot capability
could also be located in an existing small facility at the Los Alamos
National Laboratory (LANL). The
[[Page 28013]]
second alternative would be for fabrication in existing European
facilities; three potential fabrication sites exist (Belgium, France,
and the United Kingdom) that would allow fabrication of the Lead Test
Assemblies sooner than with any facility under the United States
alternative.
Table 1.--Disposition Alternatives
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Alternative/Site/Disposition Facility
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Plutonium conversion
Alt. No. Pit disassembly MOX plant and immobilization Amounts of plutonium
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1................
(3)No Action
2................ Hanford (FMEF)....... Hanford (FMEF)....... Hanford (FMEF)........ 17t Immobilization /
33t MOX.
3................ SRS (New)............ SRS (New)............ SRS (New, or Bldg 17t Immobilization /
221F, and DWPF). 33t MOX.
4................ Pantex (New)......... Hanford (FMEF)....... Hanford (FMEF)........ 17t Immobilization /
33t MOX.
5................ Pantex (New)......... SRS (New)............ SRS (New, or Bldg 17t Immobilization /
221F, and DWPF). 33t MOX.
6................ Hanford (FMEF)....... Hanford (FMEF)....... SRS (New, or Bldg 17t Immobilization /
221F, and DWPF). 33t MOX.
7................ INEEL (FPF).......... INEEL (New).......... SRS (New, or Bldg 17t Immobilization /
221F, and DWPF). 33t MOX.
8................ INEEL (FPF).......... INEEL (New).......... Hanford (FMEF)........ 17t Immobilization /
33t MOX.
9................ Pantex (New)......... Pantex (New)......... SRS (New, or Bldg 17t Immobilization /
221F, and DWPF). 33t MOX.
10................ Pantex (New)......... Pantex (New)......... Hanford (FMEF)........ 17t Immobilization /
33t MOX.
11................ Hanford (FMEF)....... N/A.................. Hanford (FMEF)........ 50t Immobilization /
0t MOX.
12................ SRS (New)............ N/A.................. SRS (New, or Bldg 50t Immobilization /
221F, and DWPF). 0t MOX.
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Immobilization Technology
The Record of Decision on the Storage and Disposition PEIS stated,
``Because there are a number of technology variations that could be
used for immobilization, DOE will also determine the specific
immobilization technology based upon the follow-on EIS * * *'' (i.e.,
the SPD EIS). The technologies to be considered are those identified as
variants in the Storage and Disposition PEIS.
Preferred Alternative
For immobilization, the Department prefers to use the ``can-in-
canister'' technology at the DWPF at SRS. Under the can-in-canister
approach, cans containing plutonium in glass or ceramic form would be
placed in DWPF canisters, which would be filled with borosilicate glass
containing high-level waste.
Classified Information
The Department plans to prepare the SPD EIS as an unclassified
document with a classified appendix. The classified information in the
SPD EIS will not be available for public review. However, the
classified information will be considered by DOE in reaching a decision
on the disposition of surplus plutonium. DOE will provide as much
information as possible in unclassified form to assist public
understanding and comment.
Research and Development Activities
The Department recently announced its intent to prepare two
environmental assessments (EAs) for proposed research and development
activities that DOE would conduct prior to completion of the SPD EIS
and ROD. One EA will analyze the potential environmental impacts of a
proposed pit disassembly and conversion integrated systems test at
LANL. In addition, to further the purposes of NEPA, this EA will
describe other research and development activities currently on-going
at various sites, including work related to immobilization and to MOX
fuel fabrication. The other EA will be prepared for the proposed
shipment of special MOX fuel to Canada for an experiment involving the
use of United States and Russian fuel in a Canadian test reactor, for
development of fuel for the CANDU reactors. This EA will analyze the
prior and future fabrication and proposed shipment of the fuel pellets
needed for the experiment.
Relationships With Other DOE NEPA Activities
In addition to the SPD EIS and the EAs discussed above, the
Department is currently conducting NEPA reviews of other activities
that have a potential relationship with the SPD EIS. They include:
1. Waste Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for
Managing Treatment, Storage and Disposal of Radioactive and Hazardous
Waste (DOE/EIS-0200D) (Draft issued: September 22, 1995; 60 FR 49264).
2. Management of Certain Plutonium Residues and Scrub Alloy Stored
at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site EIS (Notice of Intent
to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement: November 19, 1996; 61 FR
58866).
Invitation To Comment
DOE invites comments on the scope of this EIS from all interested
parties, including potentially affected Federal, State, and local
agencies, and Indian tribes. Comments can be provided by any of the
means listed in the Address Section of this notice and by providing
oral and written comments at the scoping meetings.
The Department is requesting, by separate correspondence, that
Federal agencies 1 desiring to be designated as cooperating
agencies on the SPD EIS inform DOE by July 18, 1997.
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\1\ Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; Department of Defense;
Department of State; Environmental Protection Agency; and Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.
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Scoping Meetings
Public scoping meetings will be held near each site that may be
affected by the proposed action. The interactive scoping meetings will
provide the public with the opportunity to present comments, ask
questions, and discuss concerns regarding plutonium disposition
activities with DOE officials, and for the Department to receive oral
and written comments on the scope of the EIS. Written and oral comments
will be given equal weight in the scoping process. Input from the
scoping meetings along with comments received by other means (phone,
mail, fax, web-site) will be used by the Department in refining the
scope of the EIS. The locations and dates for these public meetings are
as shown below. All meetings will consist of two sessions (1:00 pm to
4:00 pm and 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm).
Hanford Site:
July 1, 1997
Shilo Inn
50 Comstock
Richland, WA 99352
509-946-4661
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Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory
June 10, 1997
Shilo Inn
780 Lindsay Boulevard
Idaho Fall, ID 83402
208-523-0088
Pantex Plant
June 12, 1997
Radisson Inn Airport
7909 I-40 East at Lakeside
Amarillo, TX 79104
806-373-3303
Savannah River Site
June 19, 1997
North Augusta Community Center
495 Brookside Avenue
North Augusta, SC 29841
803-441-4290
Advanced registration for the public meetings is requested but not
required. Please call 1-800-820-5134 and leave your name and the
location of the meeting(s) you plan to attend. This information will be
used to determine the size and number of rooms needed for the meeting.
Scoping Meeting Format:
The Department intends to hold a plenary session at the beginning
of each scoping meeting in which DOE officials will more fully explain
the framework for the plutonium disposition program, the proposed
action, preliminary alternatives for accomplishing the proposed action
and public participation in the NEPA process. Following the plenary
session, the Department intends to discuss relevant issues in more
detail, answer questions, and receive comments. Each scoping meeting
for the Surplus Plutonium Disposition EIS will have two sessions, with
each session lasting approximately three to four hours.
Issued in Washington, DC this 16 day of May, 1997, for the
United States Department of Energy.
Peter N. Brush,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Environment, Safety and Health.
[FR Doc. 97-13494 Filed 5-21-97; 8:45 am]
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