96-17432. Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Assessment on the Proposed Sale of Surplus Natural and Low-Enriched Uranium

[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 [phone], or by facsimile at 
[phone].

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 [phone] or by calling [phone].

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]
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