11774 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 52 / Thursday, March 19, 2009 / Notices 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[Docket No. 03004530; NRC–2009–0123] 

Notice of Availability of Environmental 

Assessment and Finding of No 

Significant Impact for License 

Amendment to Byproduct Materials 

License No. 19–00915–03, Held by U.S. 

Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, 

MD, To Authorize Disposal of 

Contaminated Soil 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Issuance of Environmental 

Assessment and Finding of No 

Significant Impact for License 

Amendment. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

James Schmidt, Health Physicist, 

Decommissioning Branch, Division of 

Nuclear Materials Safety, Region 1, 475 

Allendale Road, King of Prussia, 

Pennsylvania; telephone 610–337–5276; 

facsimile 610–337–5269; or by e-mail: 

jim.schmidt@nrc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Introduction 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is considering the 

issuance of a license amendment to 

Byproduct Materials License No. 19– 

00915–03. This license is held by the 

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 

(the Licensee), for its facility located in 

Beltsville, Maryland (the Facility). 

License No. 19–00915–03 was issued by 

the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to 

the USDA in the mid-1950s and later by 

the NRC, pursuant to Title 10 Code of 

Federal Regulations part 30 (10 CFR part 

30) and has been amended periodically 

since that time. This license authorized 

USDA to use unsealed byproduct 

material with atomic numbers 1 through 

83 and sealed byproduct material with 

atomic numbers 1 through 95 for 

purposes of conducting research and 

development activities at specific USDA 

locations and facilities and at temporary 

job sites in the United States, as 

authorized by the Licensee’s Radiation 

Safety Committee. 

Pursuant to the provisions in 10 CFR 

20.2002, issuance of the license 

amendment would authorize the 

transfer and offsite disposal of 

approximately 4,500,000 kilograms 

(5,000 tons) of soil contaminated with 

small amounts of radionuclides that do 

not exceed the values listed in Table 1. 

The contaminated soil was or will be 

excavated from the Beltsville 

Agricultural Research Center waste 

burial site located in Beltsville, 

Maryland, as part of decommissioning 

activities at the USDA site. The 

contaminated soil would be disposed of 

at the U.S. Ecology Idaho’s Grand View 

(USEI Grand View) hazardous waste 

disposal facility located near Grand 

View, Idaho. The U.S. Ecology facility is 

a Subtitle C Resource Conservation and 

Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste 

disposal facility that is regulated by the 

State of Idaho, Department of 

Environmental Quality. Any disposal at 

this facility must comply with State 

requirements. This action, if approved, 

would exempt the contaminated 

material disposed of at the Idaho facility 

from further Atomic Energy Act (AEA) 

and NRC licensing requirements. 

TABLE 1—MAXIMUM CONCENTRATION

OF RADIONUCLIDES

Radionuclide 

Maximum 

concentration 

(picocurie per 

gram) 

H-3 .................................... 337.56 

C-14 .................................. 183.19 

Sr-90 ................................. 1.59 

Cl-36 ................................. 0.02 

Ni-63 ................................. 7.83 

Ra-226 .............................. 0.03 

Na-22 ................................ 0.04 

Fe-55 ................................ 0.16 

Pb-210 .............................. 5.42 

Cs-137 .............................. 0.8 

The licensee requested this action in 

a letter dated October 5, 2007. The NRC 

has prepared an Environmental 

Assessment (EA) in support of this 

proposed action in accordance with the 

requirements in 10 CFR part 51. Based 

on the EA, the NRC has concluded that 

a Finding of No Significant Impact 

(FONSI) is appropriate with respect to 

the proposed action. The requested 

amendment will be issued to the 

Licensee following the publication of 

this FONSI and EA in the Federal 

Register. 

II. Environmental Assessment 

Identification of Proposed Action 

The proposed action would approve 

the Licensee’s October 5, 2007, license 

amendment request to authorize the 

transfer of approximately 4,500,000 

kilograms of contaminated soil 

excavated from its Beltsville waste 

burial site to the USEI Grand View 

hazardous waste disposal facility 

located near Grand View, Idaho. In 

addition to granting the license 

amendment request, the proposed 

action would also grant, pursuant to 10 

CFR 30.11(a), an exemption to USEI 

Grand View from 10 CFR part 30 

licensing requirements. This site would 

receive soils contaminated with small 

amounts of radioactive material 

generated as part of the cleanup of the 

Beltsville waste disposal site. 10 CFR 

30.11(a) provides that the Commission 

may, upon application by an interested 

person or ‘‘upon its own initiative, grant 

such exemptions’’ from 10 CFR part 30 

requirements ‘‘as it determines are 

authorized by law and will not endanger 

life or property or the common defense 

and security and are otherwise in the 

public interest.’’ Under the exemption 

granted to USEI Grand View, any 

contaminated soil from the Facility 

would upon its receipt at USEI Grand 

View, no longer be subject to NRC 

regulations and would no longer be NRC 

licensed material. In a letter dated 

August 25, 2008, U.S. Ecology Idaho 

reported to the NRC staff that the waste, 

as characterized by the Licensee, meets 

the hazardous waste disposal facility 

waste acceptance criteria and therefore, 

pending NRC approval, would be 

acceptable for disposal at the USEI 

Grand View facility. 

Need for the Proposed Action 

The licensee needs this license 

amendment in order to dispose of 

approximately 4,500,000 kilograms of 

slightly contaminated soil at an 

appropriate waste disposal facility. This 

soil is being removed from a previously 

used waste facility being remediated at 

the USDA Beltsville location. NRC is 

fulfilling its responsibilities under the 

Atomic Energy Act and the National 

Environmental Policy Act to make a 

timely decision on a proposed license 

amendment that ensures protection of 

public health and safety and the 

environment. 

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed 

Action 

The NRC staff reviewed the license 

amendment request to allow disposal of 

the contaminated soil at the USEI Grand 

View hazardous waste facility and 

examined the impacts associated with 

this request. Potential impacts included 

dose to workers, dose to members of the 

public, and risks associated with 

transportation of the material to the 

Idaho disposal site. As part of its 

October 5, 2007, amendment request, 

the Licensee submitted a detailed safety 

assessment regarding the likely 

consequences associated with the rail 

transport and subsequent disposal of the 

USDA soil in the USEI Grand View 

facility. The licensee considered three 

distinct population groups: 

transportation workers, disposal site 

facility workers, and members of the 

public residing near the disposal site. 

The licensee estimated that for each 


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Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 52 / Thursday, March 19, 2009 / Notices 11775 

population group, the annual dose 

equivalent received from the proposed 

action would be less than 0.01 

millisievert (1 millirem). The NRC staff 

conducted an independent technical 

review of this estimate and concluded 

that the Licensee’s dose estimate was 

technically sound. This dose is far 

below the dose limits established in 10 

CFR part 20 for occupational workers 

and members of the public and is 

considered to be as low as is reasonably 

achievable. 

The risk to human health from the 

transportation of radioactive material in 

the U.S. was evaluated in NUREG–0586, 

‘‘Generic Environmental Impact 

Statement on Decommissioning of 

Nuclear Facilities.’’ As evaluated there, 

the impacts associated with rail 

transport of decommissioning wastes 

are not detectable, and the potential 

impacts are small. The NRC staff finds 

that the transportation impacts of the 

proposed action are bounded by those 

evaluated in NUREG–0586, and that the 

proposed action poses no danger to 

public heath and safety. The NRC staff 

finds that the proposed action will 

result in minimal risk to workers and 

the public. The NRC has identified no 

other radiological or non-radiological 

activities connected with the proposed 

action that would result in cumulative 

environmental impacts, and concludes 

that the proposed action will not have 

a significant effect on the quality of the 

human environment. 

Environmental Impacts of the 

Alternatives to the Proposed Action 

The only alternative to the proposed 

soil disposal action is no action. This no 

action alternative is unacceptable 

because it conflicts with 10 CFR 

30.36(d) which requires that 

decommissioning of byproduct material 

facilities be completed and approved by 

the NRC after license activities at a site 

cease. The no action alternative would 

keep radioactive material on site and 

halt the remediation activities 

associated with cleanup of the Beltsville 

Agricultural Research Center waste 

burial site. 

Conclusion 

The NRC staff has concluded that the 

proposed action is consistent with NRC 

guidance and regulations. 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 Idaho 

Department of Environmental Quality 

and the Maryland Radiological Health 

Program for review on October 1, 2008. 

On October 6, 2008, the Idaho 

Department of Environmental Quality 

responded by electronic mail. The State 

of Idaho agreed with the conclusions of 

the EA, and otherwise had no 

comments. On November 10, 2008, the 

Maryland Radiological Health Program 

responded by electronic mail. The State 

of Maryland agreed with the 

conclusions of the EA, and otherwise 

had no comments. 

The NRC staff has determined that the 

proposed action of authorizing disposal 

of material meeting the waste 

acceptance criteria of an existing 

approved RCRA hazardous waste 

disposal facility 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 EA in 

support of the proposed action. On the 

basis of this EA, 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 

this action are listed below, along with 

their ADAMS accession numbers. 

1. Title 10 Code of Federal 

Regulations, part 20, ‘‘Standards for 

Protection Against Radiation;’’ 

2. Title 10, Code of Federal 

Regulations, part 51, ‘‘Environmental 

Protection Regulations for Domestic 

Licensing and Related Regulatory 

Functions;’’ 

3. Title 10, Code of Federal 

Regulation, part 30, ‘‘Rules of General 

Applicability to Domestic Licensing of 

Byproduct Material;’’ and 

4. Letter dated October 5, 2007 from 

USDA to NRC [ML073110166] 

5. Letter dated August 25, 2008 from 

USEI to NRC [ML082480279] 

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 

pdr.resource@nrc.gov. These documents 

may also be viewed electronically on 

the public computers located at the 

NRC’s PDR, O 1 F21, One White Flint 

North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 

MD 20852. The PDR reproduction 

contractor will copy documents for a 

fee. 

Dated at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania this 

12th day of March, 2009. 

For The Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Randolph C. Ragland, Jr., 

Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of 

Nuclear Materials Safety, Region 1. 

[FR Doc. E9–6000 Filed 3–18–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

OFFICE OF PERSONNEL 

MANAGEMENT 

Excepted Service 

AGENCY: U.S. Office of Personnel 

Management (OPM). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This gives notice of OPM 

decisions granting authority to make 

appointments under Schedules A, B, 

and C in the excepted service as 

required by 5 CFR 6.6 and 213.103. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Glenda Haendschke, Acting Group 

Manager, Executive Resources Services 

Group, Center for Human Resources, 

Division for Human Capital Leadership 

and Merit System Accountability, 202– 

606–2246. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Appearing 

in the listing below are the individual 

authorities established under Schedules 

A, B, and C between January 1, 2009, 

and January 31, 2009. Future notices 

will be published on the fourth Tuesday 

of each month, or as soon as possible 

thereafter. A consolidated listing of all 

authorities as of September 30 is 

published each year. The following 

Schedules are not codified in the Code 

of Federal Regulations. These are agency 

specific exceptions. 

Schedule A 

Schedule A authorities in the month 

of January 2009. 


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