58576 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 190 / Friday, September 29, 2000 / Notices

4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA

22230.

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURES:

The NSF Privacy Act Officer should

be contacted in accordance with

procedures found at 45 CFR part 613.

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURES:

See ‘‘Notification Procedures’’ above.

CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURES:

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individual and from the NSF Personnel

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SYSTEM EXEMPTED FROM CERTAIN PROVISIONS

OF THE ACT:

None.

Dated: September 18, 2000.

D. Matthew Powell,

Assistant General Counsel.

[FR Doc. 00–25032 Filed 9–28–00; 8:45 am]

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NUCLEAR REGULATORY

COMMISSION

[Docket No.: 040–02253]

Army Research Laboratory, Watertown

Mall Area Site

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory

Commission.

ACTION: Notice of removal of the

Watertown Mall Area Site from the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Site

Decommissioning Management Plan in

Watertown, Massachusetts.

SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory

Commission (NRC) has removed the

Watertown Mall Area site in Watertown,

Massachusetts, from the NRC Site

Decommissioning Management Plan

(SDMP). In 1990, NRC developed the

SDMP program for approximately 50

sites that warranted additional NRC

oversight to ensure the timely and safe

decommissioning of sites with residual

radioactive material in excess of NRC’s

criteria for release for unrestricted use

and license termination. One of these

sites was the Watertown Arsenal/Mall

area site. In 1997, the Army Research

Laboratory (ARL) portion of the

Watertown Arsenal Mall site was

removed from the SDMP, having met

the SDMP Action Plan criteria (as

specified in 57 FR 13389) for release for

unrestricted use. At the time the

Watertown Arsenal was removed from

the SDMP, radiological assessments had

been completed for a majority of the

Mall Area, which indicated that it could

be released for unrestricted use.

However, these assessments also

indicated that there was the potential

for residual radioactive material in

excess of NRC SDMP criteria to be

present in buried drain/sewer lines on

the site that had not yet been evaluated.

The Watertown Mall Area is currently

authorized under the Source Material

License SUB–238 as a storage-only

license. In a letter dated July 10, 2000,

ARL, the licensee, requested removal of

the Mall Area from the SDMP and

provided a dose assessment and

demonstration that residual radioactive

material in the buried drain/sewer lines

satisfy NRC’s and the Commonwealth of

Massachusetts’s criteria for release for

unrestricted use.

This administrative action removes

the Watertown Mall site from the SDMP.

There is no licensing action before NRC

at this time. The SUB–238 license will

not be terminated, as the ARL, the U.S.

General Services Administration (GSA),

and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

(hereafter, the Corps) are evaluating

whether to request an amendment to

SUB–238 to add another SDMP site, the

GSA property in Watertown, rather than

terminating the license with the removal

of the Watertown Mall. The GSA

property is currently not licensed by

NRC, but the radiological assessment

and remediation of the GSA property is

managed by the Corps under the

Formerly Utilized Defense Sites

program. The GSA property had been

part of the Watertown Arsenal/Mall

before 1968.

Background

In 1967–1968, the eastern half of the

Watertown Arsenal (referred to as the

Watertown Mall area site),

encompassing 24 hectares (59 acres) and

21 buildings, including three buildings

involved in licensed material use

(Buildings 34, 41, and 421), was

declared excess government property,

transferred to the GSA, and

subsequently sold to the Watertown

Redevelopment Authority. The area

where two of the buildings involved in

licensed material use were located are

now parking lots for retail stores. The

concrete pads for two of the buildings

were broken up and left in place during

redevelopment of the Watertown Mall

Area. The concrete pad for the third

building is a foundation for tennis

courts. In 1990, the Watertown Mall was

added to the SDMP, because records

available to the U.S. Army and NRC did

not clearly demonstrate that necessary

decontamination occurred before the

property was released for unrestricted

use. During the past 10 years, ARL and

the Corps have performed historical

record reviews, surveys, and

radiological assessments to address the

concerns regarding residual radioactive

material at the site. NRC staff has

completed its review of these records

and assessments, and has determined

that no additional remediation is

required. Radiation levels above ground

are consistent with levels of natural

background radiation, and residual

radioactive material levels in the soil are

generally consistent with natural

background levels. A few areas have

been identified that contain residual

radioactive material in excess of

background levels, but most are less

than the SDMP Action Plan criteria.

One sewer line, an inactive line from

the former Building 41, has residual

fixed contamination in excess of the

SDMP Action Plan criteria. The dose

assessment developed by the ARL and

validated by NRC indicated that

potential radiological doses to the

public would not be in excess of the

NRC criteria for release for unrestricted

use. Also, an evaluation of the historical

records indicated that doses from the

relatively small spots of contamination

identified on the concrete pads from

Buildings 34 and 421 that are below the

parking lot and tennis courts,

respectively, were well below the

current NRC dose-based release criteria

at 10 CFR part 20, Subpart E.

Accordingly, the staff has concluded

that the Watertown Mall Area site is

acceptable for unrestricted use.

The ARL July 10, 2000, request is

available for review in the NRC’s Public

Electronic Reading Room on the NRC

Web site at: http//NRC.GOV/ADAMS/

INDEX/HTML (ARL Letter dated July 10,

2000, ML003733963). Persons wishing

to review this document at the Region

I Office should call Ms. Sheryl Villar at

(610) 337–5239 several days in advance,

to assure that the document will be

readily available for review. For

questions regarding this administrative

action to remove the Watertown Mall

Area site from the SDMP, please contact

Marie Miller, Decommissioning and

Laboratory Branch, Division of Nuclear

Materials Safety, Region I, at (610) 337–

5205.

Dated at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania this

21st day of September 2000.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Francis M. Costello,

Deputy Director, Division of Nuclear Materials

Safety Region I.

[FR Doc. 00–25035 Filed 9–28–00; 8:45 am]

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