[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 233 (Monday, December 6, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 75704-75705]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-30488]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 30-36974; NRC-2010-0374]


Notice of Availability of Draft Supplement to the Environmental 
Assessment for the Proposed Pa'ina Hawaii, LLC Irradiator in Honolulu, 
HI

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) is issuing and publishing for public comment a Draft 
Supplement to the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the irradiator 
proposed by Pa'ina Hawaii, LLC (Pa'ina). On June 23, 2005, Pa'ina 
submitted an application to NRC requesting a license to possess and use 
byproduct material in connection with a proposed underwater irradiator. 
NRC completed the Final EA and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) 
for this action on August 10, 2007, and subsequently issued a license 
to Pa'ina on August 17, 2007. The license authorizes Pa'ina to possess 
and use byproduct material (sealed sources) in a commercial underwater 
irradiator to be located adjacent to Honolulu International Airport on 
Palekona Street near Lagoon Drive. NRC is issuing this Draft Supplement 
to the EA in response to a decision of the Atomic Safety and Licensing 
Board (Board) from the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel 
(ASLBP). As directed by the Board, this Draft Supplement addresses the 
following three areas: (1) Environmental impacts of accidents that 
might occur during the transport of cobalt-60 sources to and from 
Pa'ina's irradiator, (2) electron-beam technology as an alternative to 
cobalt-60 irradiation, and (3) alternative sites for Pa'ina's 
irradiator.

DATES: The public comment period on the Draft Supplement begins on the 
date of publication of this notice and ends on January 6, 2011. Written 
comments should be submitted as described in the ADDRESSES section of 
this notice. Comments submitted by mail should be postmarked by January 
6, 2011, to ensure consideration. Comments received or postmarked after 
January 6, 2011 will be considered to the extent practical, but the 
Commission is able to assure consideration only for comments received 
on or before this date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods. 
Please include the Docket ID NRC-2010-0374 in the subject line of your 
comments. Because your comments will not be edited to remove any 
identifying or contact information, the NRC cautions you against 
including any information in your submission that you do not want to be 
publicly disclosed.
    The NRC requests that any party soliciting or aggregating comments 
received from other persons for submission to the NRC inform those 
persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to remove any 
identifying or contact information, and therefore, they should not 
include any information in their comments that they do not want 
publicly disclosed.
    Electronic Mail: Comments may be sent by electronic mail to the 
following address: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#b4e4d5dddad5f1f5f4dac6d79ad3dbc2"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="3b6b5a52555a7e7a7b554958155c544d">[email protected]</span></a>.
    Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and 
search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-2010-0374. Comments may 
be submitted electronically through this Web site. Address questions 
about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher, 301-492-3668, e-mail 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#9ddefceff2f1b3dafcf1f1fcfaf5f8efddf3effeb3faf2eb"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="9cdffdeef3f0b2dbfdf0f0fdfbf4f9eedcf2eeffb2fbf3ea">[email protected]</span></a>.
    Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements, and 
Directives Branch (RADB), Division of Administrative Services, Office 
of Administration, Mail Stop: TWB5-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax to RADB at 301-492-
3446.
    Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted 
on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site http://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Johari Moore, Project Manager, 
Environmental Review Branch A, Division of Waste Management and 
Environmental Protection, Office of Federal and State Materials and 
Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Rockville, Maryland 20852. Telephone: 301-415-7694; fax number: 301-
415-5369; e-mail: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f3b99c9b92819addbe9c9c8196b39d8190dd949c85"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="efa580878e9d86c1a280809d8aaf819d8cc1888099">[email protected]</span></a>.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Introduction

    By letter dated August 17, 2007, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) issued Materials License No. 53-29296-01 to Pa'ina 
authorizing possession and use of byproduct material (sealed sources) 
in a commercial underwater irradiator to be located immediately 
adjacent to Honolulu International Airport on Palekona Street near 
Lagoon Drive. Also on August 17, 2007, NRC published a Notice of 
Availability in the Federal Register for the EA and FONSI prepared in 
support of this licensing action (72 FRN 46249). On September 4, 2007, 
Concerned Citizens of Honolulu filed contentions challenging the NRC 
staff's analysis in the Final EA. In an August 27, 2009 decision, the 
Board found that the staff needed to supplement the Pa'ina EA in order 
to address (1) environmental impacts of accidents that might occur 
during the transport of cobalt-60 sources to and from Pa'ina's 
irradiator, (2) electron-beam technology as an alternative to cobalt-60 
irradiation, and (3) alternative sites for Pa'ina's irradiator. The 
Board's findings on these issues were affirmed in a July 8, 2010 
decision by the NRC's Commission. In the Draft Supplement issued today, 
the NRC staff addresses each of the issues identified by the Board.

[[Page 75705]]

II. Summary of Draft Supplement to the EA

    Pa'ina's license authorizes it to use byproduct material (sealed 
radioactive sources) in a pool irradiator to be located adjacent to 
Honolulu International Airport, Honolulu, Hawaii. The irradiator would 
be used for the production and research irradiation of food, cosmetic, 
and pharmaceutical products. Pa'ina's license request was previously 
noticed in the Federal Register on August 2, 2005 (70 FR 44396), with a 
notice of an opportunity to request a hearing.
    The staff prepared an EA in support of its review of the license 
application. The staff considered impacts to areas such as public and 
occupational health, transportation, socioeconomics, ecology, water 
quality, and the effects of aircraft crashes and natural phenomena.
    The staff has prepared a Draft Supplement to the EA as directed by 
the Board. In the first area identified by the Board, the staff found 
that accidents occurring during the transport of cobalt-60 to or from 
Pa'ina's proposed irradiator will not cause a significant impact to the 
environment. This is due primarily to the very low likelihood cobalt-60 
will be released from a shipping package. The low likelihood of release 
is due to several factors, including the small number of cobalt-60 
shipments to Pa'ina's irradiator and the stringent safety requirements 
for the design of cobalt-60 shipping packages. In the second area 
identified by the Board, the staff found that the environmental impacts 
of an electron-beam irradiator will be small for each resource area. 
The staff also found that the impacts will not be significantly 
different than those associated with construction and operation of a 
cobalt-60 irradiator. In the third area identified by the Board, the 
staff found that impacts associated with construction and operation of 
a cobalt-60 irradiator at alternative sites will be small and will not 
be significantly different than those at the proposed site. In 
particular, the staff found that aircraft crashes involving the 
alternative sites will have no significant impact on public health and 
safety. The staff also found that environmental impacts from 
earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes at the alternative locations will 
be small.

III. Further Information

    Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC, 
including the Draft Supplement to the EA, the August 10, 2007, EA, and 
the Pa'ina license and supporting documentation, are available 
electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, the public can 
access the NRC's Agencywide Document Access and Management System 
(ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. 
The ADAMS accession number for the Draft Supplement to the EA is 
ML103220072. The ADAMS accession numbers for the August 10, 2007, EA 
and the August 17, 2007, license are ML071150121 and ML072320269, 
respectively. 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 <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#1b6b7f6935697e68746e69787e5b756978357c746d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6c1c081e421e091f03191e0f092c021e0f420b031a">[email protected]</span></a>
    The public may examine and have copied for a fee publicly available 
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. In addition, documents relating to 
the administrative litigation associated with Pa'ina's application may 
be found in the Electronic Hearing Docket maintained by the NRC's 
Office of the Secretary at http://ehd1.nrc.gov/EHD/.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 29th day of November, 2010.

    For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

David Skeen,
Acting Deputy Director, Environmental Protection and Performance 
Assessment Directorate, Division of Waste Management and Environmental 
Protection, Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental 
Management Programs.
[FR Doc. 2010-30488 Filed 12-3-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P


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