1710 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 8 / Tuesday, January 13, 2009 / Notices 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[NRC–2009–0024; DOCKET NO. 030–29462] 

Notice of Availability of Environmental 

Assessment and Finding of No 

Significant Impact for License 

Amendment to Materials License No. 

45–23645–01na, To Incorporate the 

Decommissioning Plan for the 

Hypervelocity Gun Facility at the Naval 

Research Laboratory in Chesapeake 

Beach, MD 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Issuance of Environmental 

Assessment and Finding of No 

Significant Impact for License 

Amendment. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Orysia Masnyk Bailey, Health Physicist, 

Decommissioning Branch, Division of 

Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 475 

Allendale Road, King of Prussia, 

Pennsylvania 19406; telephone (864) 

427–1032; fax number (610) 680–3497; 

or by e-mail: 

Orysia.MasnykBailey@nrc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Introduction 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is considering the 

issuance of a license amendment to 

Materials License No. 45–23645–01NA. 

The license is held by the Department 

of the Navy (Navy). This is a Master 

Materials License and covers many sites 

around the country. The proposed 

action pertains to the Hypervelocity 

Gun Facility at the Naval Research 

Laboratory, located about 2 miles south 

of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland. By 

letter dated May 22, 2008, the Navy 

submitted for NRC approval a 

decommissioning plan regarding the 

Hypervelocity Gun Facility. Granting 

the amendment request would 

incorporate the decommissioning plan 

into the license authorizing 

decommissioning activities at the site 

and eventual unrestricted release of the 

Facility. The NRC has evaluated and 

approved the Navy’s decommissioning 

plan. The findings of this evaluation are 

documented in a Safety Evaluation 

Report which will be issued along with 

the amendment. The NRC has prepared 

an Environmental Assessment in 

support of this proposed action in 

accordance with the requirements of 

Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations 

(CFR), Part 51 (10 CFR part 51). Based 

on the Environmental Assessment, the 

NRC has concluded that a Finding of No 

Significant Impact is appropriate with 

respect to the proposed action. The 

amendment will be issued to the Navy 

following the publication of this 

Finding of No Significant Impact and 

Environmental Assessment in the 

Federal Register. 

II. Environmental Assessment 

Identification of Proposed Action 

The proposed action would approve 

the Navy’s May 22, 2008, license 

amendment request to incorporate the 

decommissioning plan into the license, 

resulting in final decommissioning of 

the Facility and subsequent release of 

the Facility for unrestricted use. The 

Hypervelocity Gun Facility was used to 

test the impact of high velocity 

projectiles on depleted uranium targets. 

The testing was conducted from the 

early 1970s until the early 1990s. 

Testing was authorized under NRC 

License No. SMB–448, and 

subsequently, by Naval Radioactive 

Materials Permit No. 08–00173–E1NP. 

The Naval Radioactive Materials Permit 

No. 08–00173–E1NP remains active 

under the Navy’s Master Materials 

License. Depleted uranium was stored 

and used in the Building 218C target 

chamber and Building 227 vault, and 

these areas are included within the 

decommissioning plan’s scope. 

The Hypervelocity Gun Facility is 

located at the Naval Research 

Laboratory on a 168 acre site. The 

Facility is located against a hillside, 

approximately 1,000 feet from the 

Chesapeake Bay. The city of Chesapeake 

Beach is approximately two miles to the 

north of the Facility, and North Beach 

is approximately six miles to the north 

of the Facility. The region surrounding 

the Naval Research Laboratory is 

sparsely populated. 

The Hypervelocity Gun Facility 

consists of a light gas gun, a blast tank 

at the gun muzzle, a shadowgraph tube 

with optics to measure the projectile 

velocity, an orthogonal room and the 

target chamber, and a spherical target 

chamber that is 12 feet in diameter. All 

components are steel except for 

aluminum in a quick closing valve and 

the shadowgraph tube. Part of the gas 

gun is enclosed by concrete walls and 

ceilings and buried in the hill. The 

entire blast tube is buried in the hillside 

with a small access to crawl into the 

tube. The optics room containing the 

shadowgraph tube and orthogonal room 

are surrounded by concrete walls and 

ceilings and partly buried in a hill. The 

target chamber is contained in a 

structure called the environmental 

room, and it is this part of the Facility 

that contains the areas of residual 

contamination from past operations. 

In the Hypervelocity Gun Facility, 

various metallic projectiles were fired 

against depleted uranium shapes and 

depleted uranium with explosives 

(targets) in a completely enclosed 

containment system. Depleted uranium 

targets were located in the spherical 

target chamber with target debris 

contained in the target chamber and 

flight tube. In a few tests, the quick 

closing valve did not function and 

allowed target debris from explosive 

tests to blow back through the flight 

tube into the orthogonal room, 

shadowgraph tube, and blast tank as far 

as the muzzle of the projectile launch 

tube. Depleted uranium remains 

embedded in some walls of the blast 

tank. It is possible that depleted 

uranium is lodged in inaccessible areas 

that were not affected by the routine 

cleaning and decontamination 

performed during testing. The 

decommissioning plan submitted by the 

Navy addresses the residual 

contamination in Buildings 218C and 

227. 

Need for the Proposed Action 

The proposed action is to approve the 

decommissioning plan so that the Navy 

may complete Facility decommissioning 

activities. Completion of the 

decommissioning activities will reduce 

residual radioactivity at the facility. 

NRC regulations require licensees to 

begin timely decommissioning of their 

sites, or any separate buildings that 

contain residual radioactivity, upon 

cessation of licensed activities, in 

accordance with 10 CFR Part 30.36(d). 

The proposed licensing action will 

support such a goal. NRC is fulfilling its 

responsibilities under the Atomic 

Energy Act to make a decision on a 

proposed license amendment for 

decommissioning that ensures 

protection of the public health and 

safety. 

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed 

Action 

The historical review of licensed 

activities conducted at the facility 

shows that such activities involved the 

test firing of various metallic projectiles 

against depleted uranium shapes and 

depleted uranium targets and the 

storage of contaminated targets and 

debris. 

The NRC staff has reviewed the 

Navy’s amendment request for the 

facility and examined the impacts of 

granting this license amendment 

request. Potential impacts include water 

resource impact (e.g. water may be used 

for dust control), air quality impacts 

from dust emissions, temporary local 

traffic impacts resulting from 

Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 8 / Tuesday, January 13, 2009 / Notices 1711 

transporting debris, human health 

impacts, noise impacts from equipment 

operations, scenic quality impacts, and 

waste management impacts. 

Based on its review, the staff has 

determined that no surface or ground 

water impacts are expected from the 

decommissioning activities. 

Additionally, the staff has determined 

that significant air quality, noise, land 

use, and off-site radiation exposure 

impacts are also not expected. No 

significant air quality impacts are 

anticipated because of the 

contamination controls that will be 

implemented by the Navy during 

decommissioning activities. In addition, 

the environmental impacts associated 

with the decommissioning activities are 

bounded by impacts evaluated by 

NUREG–1496, ‘‘Generic Environmental 

Impact Statement in Support 

Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for 

License Termination of NRC Licensed 

Nuclear Facilities.’’ Generic impacts for 

this type of decommissioning process 

were previously evaluated and 

described in NUREG–1496, which 

concludes that the environmental 

consequences are small. 

The Navy estimates that 

approximately 78 cubic yards of solid 

radioactive waste will be generated 

during decommissioning activities. The 

risk to human health from the 

transportation of all radioactive material 

in the United States was evaluated in 

NUREG–0170, ‘‘Final Environmental 

Statement on the Transportation of 

Radioactive Materials by Air and Other 

Modes.’’ The principal radiological 

environmental impact during normal 

transportation is direct radiation 

exposure to nearby persons from 

radioactive material in the package. The 

average annual individual dose from all 

radioactive material transportation in 

the United States was calculated to be 

approximately 0.5 mrem, well below the 

10 CFR part 20.1301 limit of 100 mrem 

for a member of the public. 

This proposed action will not 

significantly increase the probability or 

consequences of accidents, no changes 

are being made in the types of effluents 

that may be released off site, and there 

is no significant increase in 

occupational or pubic radiation 

exposure. Thus, waste management and 

transportation impacts from the 

decommissioning will not be 

significant. 

Occupational health was also 

considered in the ‘‘Final Environmental 

Impact Statement of the Transportation 

of Radioactive Material by Air and 

Other Modes.’’ Shipment of the 78 cubic 

yards of materials from the facility 

would not affect the assessment of 

environmental impacts or the 

conclusions in the ‘‘Final 

Environmental Impact Statement of the 

Transportation of Radioactive Material 

by Air and Other Modes.’’ 

The staff also finds that the proposed 

license amendment will meet the 

radiological criteria for unrestricted 

release as specified in 10 CFR part 

20.1402. The Navy demonstrated this 

through the development of building 

surface derived concentration guideline 

limits for its Facility. The Navy 

conducted site specific dose modeling 

using parameters specific to the Facility 

that adequately bounded the potential 

dose. The release limits for soil at the 

Facility will be that published in the 

Federal Register on December 7, 1999 

(Volume 64, Number 234, Pages 

68395—68396). 

The Navy will maintain an 

appropriate level of radiation protection 

staff, procedures, and capabilities, and 

will implement an acceptable program 

to keep exposure to radioactive 

materials as low as reasonably 

achievable. Work activities are not 

anticipated to result in radiation 

exposures to the public in excess of 10 

percent of the 10 CFR Part 20.1301 

limits. 

The NRC also evaluated whether 

cumulative environmental impacts 

could result from an incremental impact 

of the proposed action when added to 

other past, present, or reasonably 

foreseeable future actions in the area. 

The proposed NRC approval of the 

license amendment request, when 

combined with known effects on 

resource areas at the Naval Research 

Laboratory site, including further site 

remediation, are not anticipated to 

result in any cumulative impacts at the 

site. 

Environmental Impacts of the 

Alternatives to the Proposed Action 

Due to the largely administrative 

nature of the proposed action, its 

environmental impacts are small. 

Therefore, the only alternative the staff 

considered is the no-action alternative, 

under which the staff would leave 

things as they are by simply denying the 

amendment request. This no-action 

alternative is not feasible because it 

conflicts with 10 CFR part 30.36(d), 

requiring that decommissioning of 

byproduct material facilities be 

completed and approved by the NRC 

after licensed activities cease. The no 

action alternative would keep 

radioactive material on-site without 

disposal. Additionally, denying the 

amendment request would result in no 

change in current environmental 

impacts. The environmental impacts of 

the proposed action and the no-action 

alternative are therefore similar, and the 

no-action alternative is accordingly not 

further considered. 

Conclusion 

The NRC staff has concluded that the 

proposed action is consistent with the 

NRC’s unrestricted release criteria 

specified in 10 CFR part 20.1402. 

Because the proposed action will not 

significantly impact the quality of the 

human environment, the NRC staff 

concludes that the proposed action is 

the preferred alternative. 

Agencies and Persons Consulted 

NRC provided a draft of this 

Environmental Assessment to the 

Radiological Health Program in the Air 

and Radiation Management 

Administration of the Maryland 

Department of the Environment on 

November 17, 2008. On December 16, 

2008, the State of Maryland responded 

by e-mail. The State agreed with the 

conclusions of the Environmental 

Assessment, and otherwise had no 

comments. 

The NRC staff has determined that the 

proposed action is of a procedural 

nature, and will not affect listed species 

or critical habitat. Therefore, no further 

consultation is required under Section 7 

of the Endangered Species Act. The 

NRC staff has also determined that the 

proposed action is not the type of 

activity that has the potential to cause 

effects on historic properties. Therefore, 

no further consultation is required 

under Section 106 of the National 

Historic Preservation Act. 

III. Finding of No Significant Impact 

The NRC staff has prepared this 

Environmental Assessment in support 

of the proposed action. On the basis of 

this Environmental Assessment, the 

NRC finds that there are no significant 

environmental impacts from the 

proposed action, and that preparation of 

an environmental impact statement is 

not warranted. Accordingly, the NRC 

has determined that a Finding of No 

Significant Impact is appropriate. 

IV. Further Information 

Documents related to this action, 

including the application for license 

amendment 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, 

you can access the NRC’s Agencywide 

Document Access and Management 

System (ADAMS), which provides text 

and image files of NRC’s public 

documents. The documents related to 

1712 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 8 / Tuesday, January 13, 2009 / Notices 

this action are listed below, along with 

their ADAMS accession numbers. 

1. NUREG–1757, ‘‘Consolidated 

NMSS Decommissioning Guidance;’’ 

2. Title 10, Code of Federal 

Regulations, Part 20, Subpart E, 

‘‘Radiological Criteria for License 

Termination;’’ 

3. Title 10, Code of Federal 

Regulations, Part 51, ‘‘Environmental 

Protection Regulations for Domestic 

Licensing and Related Regulatory 

Functions;’’ 

4. NUREG–1496, ‘‘Generic 

Environmental Impact Statement in 

Support of Rulemaking on Radiological 

Criteria for License Termination of NRCLicensed Nuclear Facilities;’’ 

5. NUREG–1720, ‘‘Re-evaluation of 

the Indoor Resuspension Factor for the 

Screening Analysis of the Building 

Occupancy Scenario for NRC’s License 

Termination Rule—Draft Report;’’ 

6. NRC License No. 45–23645–01NA 

inspection and licensing records; 

7. Department of the Navy, 

Decommissioning of the Hypervelocity 

Gun Facility at NavalResearch 

Laboratory, Chesapeake Beach 

Detachment, dated January 19, 2007 

(ML070330468); and 

8. Department of the Navy, 

Decommissioning Plan for 

Hypervelocity Gun Facility at 

NavalResearch Laboratory, Chesapeake 

Beach Detachment, dated May 22, 2008 

(ML081640631). 

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 

Reference staff at 1–800–397–4209, 301– 

415–4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. 

These documents may also be viewed 

electronically on the public computers 

located at the NRC’s Public Document 

Room, O 1 F21, One White Flint North, 

11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 

20852. The Public Document Room 

reproduction contractor will copy 

documents for a fee. 

Dated at Region I, 475 Allendale Road, 

King of Prussia, PA this 6th day of January 

2009. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Eugene Cobey, 

Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of 

Nuclear Materials Safety Region I. 

[FR Doc. E9–457 Filed 1–12–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

Biweekly Notice; Applications and 

Amendments to Facility Operating 

Licenses Involving No Significant 

Hazards Considerations 

I. Background 

Pursuant to section 189a.(2) of the 

Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended 

(the Act), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (the Commission or NRC 

staff) is publishing this regular biweekly 

notice. The Act requires the 

Commission publish notice of any 

amendments issued, or proposed to be 

issued and grants the Commission the 

authority to issue and make 

immediately effective any amendment 

to an operating license upon a 

determination by the Commission that 

such amendment involves no significant 

hazards consideration, notwithstanding 

the pendency before the Commission of 

a request for a hearing from any person. 

This biweekly notice includes all 

notices of amendments issued, or 

proposed to be issued from December 

18, 2008 to December 30, 2008. The last 

biweekly notice was published on 

December 30, 2008 (73 FR 79928). 

Notice of Consideration of Issuance of 

Amendments to Facility Operating 

Licenses, Proposed No Significant 

Hazards Consideration Determination, 

and Opportunity for a Hearing 

The Commission has made a 

proposed determination that the 

following amendment requests involve 

no significant hazards consideration. 

Under the Commission’s regulations in 

10 CFR 50.92, this means that operation 

of the facility in accordance with the 

proposed amendment would not (1) 

involve a significant increase in the 

probability or consequences of an 

accident previously evaluated; or (2) 

create the possibility of a new or 

different kind of accident from any 

accident previously evaluated; or (3) 

involve a significant reduction in a 

margin of safety. The basis for this 

proposed determination for each 

amendment request is shown below. 

The Commission is seeking public 

comments on this proposed 

determination. Any comments received 

within 30 days after the date of 

publication of this notice will be 

considered in making any final 

determination. 

Normally, the Commission will not 

issue the amendment until the 

expiration of 60 days after the date of 

publication of this notice. The 

Commission may issue the license 

amendment before expiration of the 60- 

day period provided that its final 

determination is that the amendment 

involves no significant hazards 

consideration. In addition, the 

Commission may issue the amendment 

prior to the expiration of the 30-day 

comment period should circumstances 

change during the 30-day comment 

period such that failure to act in a 

timely way would result, for example in 

derating or shutdown of the facility. 

Should the Commission take action 

prior to the expiration of either the 

comment period or the notice period, it 

will publish in the Federal Register a 

notice of issuance. Should the 

Commission make a final No Significant 

Hazards Consideration Determination, 

any hearing will take place after 

issuance. The Commission expects that 

the need to take this action will occur 

very infrequently. 

Written comments may be submitted 

by mail to the Chief, Rulemaking, 

Directives and Editing Branch, Division 

of Administrative Services, Office of 

Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission, Washington, DC 20555– 

0001, and should cite the publication 

date and page number of this Federal 

Register notice. 

Within 60 days after the date of 

publication of this notice, person(s) may 

file a request for a hearing with respect 

to issuance of the amendment to the 

subject facility operating license and 

any person whose interest may be 

affected by this proceeding and who 

wishes to participate as a party in the 

proceeding must file a written request 

via electronic submission through the 

NRC E-Filing system for a hearing and 

a petition for leave to intervene. 

Requests for a hearing and a petition for 

leave to intervene shall be filed in 

accordance with the Commission’s 

‘‘Rules of Practice for Domestic 

Licensing Proceedings’’ in 10 CFR Part 

2. Interested person(s) should consult a 

current copy of 10 CFR 2.309, which is 

available at the Commission’s PDR, 

located at One White Flint North, Public 

File Area 01F21, 11555 Rockville Pike 

(first floor), Rockville, Maryland. 

Publicly available records will be 

accessible from the Agencywide 

Documents Access and Management 

System’s (ADAMS) Public Electronic 

Reading Room on the Internet at the 

NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/ 

reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/. If a 

request for a hearing or petition for 

leave to intervene is filed within 60 

days, the Commission or a presiding 

officer designated by the Commission or 

by the Chief Administrative Judge of the 

Atomic Safety and Licensing Board 

Panel, will rule on the request and/or 

petition; and the Secretary or the Chief