Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 12 / Thursday, January 18, 2001 / Notices 4803

5. National Association of Nurse

Practitioners in Women’s Health,

Council on Accreditation.

6. Transnational Association of

Christian Colleges and Schools,

Accreditation Commission.

State Agencies Recognized for the

Approval of Public Postsecondary

Vocational Education

Interim Report

1. Kansas Board of Regents.

Federal Agency Seeking DegreeGranting Authority

In accordance with the Federal policy

governing the granting of academic

degrees by Federal agencies (approved

by a letter from the Director, Bureau of

the Budget, to the Secretary, Health,

Education, and Welfare, dated

December 23, 1954), the Secretary is

required to establish a review committee

to advise the Secretary concerning any

legislation that may be proposed that

would authorize the granting of degrees

by a Federal agency. The review

committee forwards its recommendation

concerning a Federal agency’s proposed

degree-granting authority to the

Secretary, who then forwards the

committee’s recommendation and the

Secretary’s recommendation to the

Office of Management and Budget for

review and transmittal to the Congress.

The Secretary uses the Advisory

Committee as the review committee

required for this purpose. Accordingly,

the Advisory Committee will review the

following institution at this meeting:

Proposed Master’s Degree-Granting

Authority

1. U.S. Marine Corps University,

Quantico, VA (request to award a

master’s degree in Strategic Studies).

Where Can I Inspect Petitions and

Third-Party Comments Before and After

the Meeting?

Subject to the provisions of 5 U.S.C.

522, petitions, interim reports, and

those third-party comments received in

advance of the meeting, will, upon

written request, be made available, on

appointment, for inspection and

copying at the U.S. Department of

Education, 1990 K Street, NW., 7th

Floor, Room 7105, Washington, DC

20006–8509, telephone (202) 219–7011

until May 4, 2001. They will be

available again after the May 23–25

Advisory Committee meeting.

Authority: 5 U.S.C. Appendix 2.

Dated: January 11, 2001.

A. Lee Fritschler,

Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary

Education.

[FR Doc. 01–1473 Filed 1–17–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Management of Certain Plutonium

Residues and Scrub Alloy Stored at

the Rocky Flats Environmental

Technology Site

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy.

ACTION: Amended Record of Decision.

SUMMARY: The Department of Energy

(DOE) has decided to revise its approach

to managing approximately 315 kg of

plutonium fluoride residues (containing

approximately 142 kg of plutonium) that

currently are stored at the Rocky Flats

Environmental Technology Site (Rocky

Flats Site). In an earlier Record of

Decision (63 FR 66136, December 1,

1998), DOE decided that these

plutonium fluoride residues would be

shipped to the Savannah River Site

(SRS) for processing and storage

pending disposition. Due to the opening

of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

in New Mexico on March 26, 1999, and

other circumstances, including delays in

securing shipping container certification

required prior to transporting the

plutonium fluoride residues to SRS,

DOE has now decided to prepare the

plutonium fluoride residues

appropriately and ship them to WIPP for

disposal. This will help avoid delays in

meeting the closure schedule for the

Rocky Flats Site.

ADDRESSES: The potential

environmental impacts of alternative

approaches for management of these

residues are analyzed in the Final

Environmental Impact Statement on

Management of Certain Plutonium

Residues and Scrub Alloy Stored at the

Rocky Flats Environmental Technology

Site (hereinafter referred to as the

Residues EIS) (DOE/EIS–0277F, August

1998) and were part of the basis for

three prior Records of Decision issued

for the plutonium-bearing residues at

the Rocky Flats Site. Copies of the

Residues EIS; the first and second

Records of Decision (63 FR 66136,

December 1, 1998, and 64 FR 8068,

February 18, 1999, respectively); the

first Amended Record of Decision (64

FR 47780, September 1, 1999); and this

Amended Record of Decision and the

Supplement Analysis (referenced

herein) can be accessed from the DOE’s

NEPA Web site at http://

www.tis.eh.doe.gov/nepa, under NEPA

Analyses, or can be obtained by

contacting the Center for Environmental

Management Information, P.O. Box

23769, Washington, DC 20026–3769,

telephone 1–800–736–3282 (in

Washington, DC: 202–863–5084).

For further information concerning

the management of plutonium residues

and scrub alloy currently stored at the

Rocky Flats Site, contact: Dr. W. Eric

Huang, Program Manager, Rocky Flats

Office (EM–33), Office of Site Closure,

Environmental Management, U.S.

Department of Energy, 19901

Germantown Road, Germantown, MD

20874, Telephone: 301–903–4630.

For further information concerning

DOE’s National Environmental Policy

Act (NEPA) process, contact: Ms. Carol

Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA

Policy and Compliance (EH–42), U.S.

Department of Energy, 1000

Independence Avenue, SW.,

Washington, DC 20585, Telephone (202)

586–4600, or leave a message at 1–800–

472–2756.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

In August 1998, DOE issued the

Residues EIS that assessed the potential

environmental impacts of processing

certain plutonium residues and scrub

alloy stored at the Rocky Flats Site near

Golden, Colorado, in preparation for

disposal or other disposition. These

materials were produced in conjunction

with nuclear weapons activities

conducted by DOE during the Cold War

and the materials are no longer needed.

Currently, DOE is cleaning up and

disposing of (where appropriate) such

materials. The plutonium residues

analyzed in the Residues EIS included

approximately 315 kg of plutonium

fluoride residues containing

approximately 45 percent plutonium by

weight (approximately 142 kg of

plutonium). In the Residues EIS, the

plutonium fluoride residues were

included as part of a category called

‘‘wet residues,’’ having an average of

approximately 7 percent plutonium by

weight. (Residues EIS Table 2–1.)

The Residues EIS analyzed three

alternative technologies and a no-action

alternative for processing plutonium

fluoride residues stored at the Rocky

Flats Site. The selected alternative for

the plutonium fluoride residues in the

first Record of Decision in 1998 was the

preferred alternative in the Residues

EIS, which is Purex processing and

storage at SRS pending disposition

(italicized below).

• Alternative 1. Dissolving the

plutonium fluoride residues in acid and

precipitating the plutonium with oxalic

acid, at the Rocky Flats Site. The

4804 Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 12 / Thursday, January 18, 2001 / Notices

1The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, located near

Carlsbad, New Mexico, is DOE’s geologic repository

for disposal of defense-related transuranic wastes.

Transuranic waste contains alpha-emitting

radionuclides with half-lives greater than 20 years

in concentrations greater than 100 nanocuries per

gram of waste at time of assay.

2Blend down is a process in which an inert

material is mixed with a plutonium-bearing residue

to reduce its plutonium concentration.

3The Protected Area is the area at the Rocky Flats

Site that is encompassed by physical barriers,

subject to access control, surrounding a material

access area or area containing special nuclear

material.

recovered plutonium would be

packaged for storage at the Rocky Flats

Site. (This is the no-action alternative.)

• Alternative 2. Blending down the

plutonium fluoride residues at the

Rocky Flats Site with an inert material

so that each container would meet the

safeguards termination limit for

plutonium fluorides (0.2 percent

plutonium by weight). The blended

material would then be packaged into

pipe overpack components and

subsequently packaged into 55-gallon

drums for transportation and disposal at

the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant1 (WIPP).

• Alternative 3. Two technologies for

separation of plutonium from

plutonium fluoride residues were

analyzed.

—Repackaging the plutonium fluoride

residues at the Rocky Flats Site for

transportation to SRS and separation

of the plutonium there using the

Purex process. The processed

plutonium would be stored at SRS

pending disposition as mixed oxide

nuclear fuel or disposed of as vitrified

high-level waste in a geologic

repository.

—Dissolving the plutonium fluoride

residues in acid and precipitating the

plutonium with oxalic acid at the

Rocky Flats Site (this is the same as

the no-action alternative). The

recovered plutonium then would be

dispositioned as mixed oxide nuclear

fuel or disposed of as vitrified highlevel waste in a geologic repository.

II. Original Decision

In addition to this amended Record of

Decision, DOE has issued two Records

of Decision and an earlier amended

Record of Decision for the final

Residues EIS. The first Record of

Decision, issued on November 25, 1998

(63 FR 66136, December 1, 1998),

addressed materials from each of the

categories of Rocky Flats plutonium

residues (i.e., ash, salt, wet, and direct

repackage) and scrub alloy. This first

Record of Decision (Section VII.D.1)

stated that DOE had decided to

transport the plutonium fluoride

residues to SRS and use the F-Canyon,

where the Purex plutonium separation

process is located, to separate

plutonium (i.e., one of the two subalternatives of Alternative 3 in the

Residues EIS). The separated plutonium

would then have been subject to

disposition as mixed oxide fuel or

disposed of as vitrified high-level waste

pursuant to decisions that DOE made

after completion of the Surplus

Plutonium Disposition Environmental

Impact Statement (DOE/EIS–0283,

November 1999; Record of Decision, 65

FR 1608, January 11, 2000).

The first Record of Decision (Section

VII.D.2) explained that the Purex

plutonium separation process at SRS

was selected for the plutonium fluoride

residues because it posed less technical

risk and would cost less than the

establishment of a new acid dissolution/

plutonium oxide recovery capability at

the Rocky Flats Site (Alternative 1). The

Record of Decision further explained

that blend down 2 (to meet the

safeguards termination limit)

(Alternative 2) would result in a very

large increase in the amount of

transuranic waste requiring disposal,

which would increase the cost of

disposing of the material.

III. Events Since Issuance of the First

Record of Decision

Since issuance of the first Record of

Decision in 1998, DOE has been

preparing to ship the plutonium

fluoride residues to SRS for separation

and has not undertaken any activity that

would alter the chemical or physical

conditions of these residues. Initially,

DOE had planned to begin shipment of

the plutonium fluoride residues to SRS

by January 2000 and to complete these

shipments by September 2000. Removal

of these materials from the Rocky Flats

Site by September 2000 would have

supported near-term closure of the

Protected Area 3 of the Site and,

subsequently, closure of the entire Site

by 2006.

Before shipping plutonium fluoride

residues to SRS, however, DOE must

certify the shipping container for

plutonium fluoride residues, and

additional testing required before

certification would take at least 15

months to complete. Further delay in

implementing the earlier decision (i.e.,

plutonium separation using the Purex

process at SRS) would in turn delay

closure of the Protected Area and

associated buildings, extend

decommissioning schedules, and

ultimately delay closure of the entire

Rocky Flats Site. A delay in the closure

of the Rocky Flats Site would be costly

due to extended site security needs and

site services, eliminating the cost

advantages of implementing the earlier

decision.

At the time the Residues EIS was

being prepared, DOE believed that it

was impractical to apply a variance to

safeguards termination limits for

plutonium fluoride residues due to the

high plutonium concentration and the

relative ease of recovering the

plutonium from the residue matrix.

Although the amount of the plutonium

fluoride residues was small (315 kg), the

amount of plutonium present in these

residues (about 142 kg) subjected them

at that time to a set of safeguards

requirements to maintain control of the

residues and to ensure that the

plutonium in them was not stolen or

diverted for illicit use (e.g., to construct

a nuclear weapon). Therefore, the

Residues EIS only analyzed the impacts

of blending and repackaging the

plutonium fluorides to meet the

safeguards termination limits for them

(0.2 weight percent), and did not

analyze an alternative to blend these

particular residues down to less than 10

weight percent plutonium.

The Rocky Flats Site has since

developed a blending matrix of inert

material that would result in a blended

material from which plutonium

recovery is difficult. This development,

in addition to the application of other

conditions, has allowed the Rocky Flats

Site to obtain a ‘‘variance’’ to the

safeguards termination limits from

DOE’s Office of Defense Nuclear

Nonproliferation. The other conditions

applied include a modification of the

packaging components of the pipe

overpack container to make it more

difficult to divert any plutonium and a

re-evaluation of the recovery processing

steps required to separate plutonium

from the plutonium fluoride residues in

their present condition. All these

special conditions have made the

application of a variance for the

plutonium fluoride residues and their

shipment to WIPP practical.

WIPP’s opening in March 1999 and

the issuance of WIPP’s hazardous waste

permit by the New Mexico Environment

Department in November 1999 provided

DOE with the option to dispose of a

blended-down plutonium fluoride

residues matrix at WIPP. Because the

plutonium fluoride residues contain

hazardous constituents, these residues

would be subject to the requirements of

WIPP’s hazardous waste permit.

IV. Decision

After consideration of the potential

environmental impacts identified in the

Residues EIS, the new circumstances

discussed above, and a Supplement

Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 12 / Thursday, January 18, 2001 / Notices 4805

Analysis (DOE/EIS–0277–SA–1),

discussed below, DOE has decided to

blend down the plutonium fluoride

residues with inert material to less than

10 percent, apply a variance to the

safeguards termination limits, and

dispose of these residues at WIPP.

V. Basis for the Decision

The delay in obtaining the

certification for the shipping container

needed to transport the plutonium

fluoride residues to SRS could prevent

DOE from closing the Rocky Flats Site

by 2006. DOE now has the ability to

blend down this category of residues to

less than 10 weight percent of

plutonium and meet the variance

requirements for safeguards termination

limits. For the reasons described below

in Section VI, DOE has concluded that

blending the plutonium fluoride

residues down to less than 10%

plutonium by weight and shipping them

to WIPP for disposal would have low

impacts, well within those analyzed in

the Residues EIS.

DOE’s decision complies with Section

309 of the Fiscal Year 2001 Energy and

Water Development Appropriations Act

(Pub. L. 106–377), which specifies that:

‘‘None of the funds in this Act may be

used to dispose of transuranic waste in

WIPP which contains concentrations of

plutonium in excess of 20 percent by

weight for the aggregate of any material

category on the date of enactment of this

Act, or is generated after such date. For

the purposes of this section, the material

categories of transuranic waste at the

Rocky Flats Environmental Technology

Site include: (1) Ash residues, (2) salt

residues, (3) wet residues, (4) direct

repackage residues, and (5) scrub alloy

as referenced in the ‘Final

Environmental Impact Statement on

Management of Certain Plutonium

Residues and Scrub Alloy Stored at the

Rocky Flats Environmental Technology

Site.’ ’’ (Plutonium fluoride residues are

part of the ‘‘wet residues’’ category,

which overall contains approximately 7

percent plutonium by weight.)

Furthermore, disposal of the

plutonium fluoride residues at WIPP

now provides the least technical risk

and most cost-effective approach to the

management of plutonium fluoride

residues, and supports the Rocky Flats

closure schedule of 2006. Therefore,

there are no longer cost, waste

management, or schedule advantages in

shipping the plutonium fluoride

residues to SRS for separation.

VI. Prior NEPA Analysis

DOE prepared a Supplement Analysis

for the Final Environmental Impact

Statement on Management of Certain

Plutonium Residues and Scrub Alloy

Stored at the Rocky Flats Environmental

Technology Site (DOE/EIS–0277–SA–1).

This Supplement Analysis was

developed to determine whether the

activities and impacts associated with

blending down the plutonium fluoride

residues to less than 10 percent

plutonium by weight with a matrix of

inert material, applying a safeguard

termination limit variance, and

disposing of the resulting blend at WIPP

were encompassed within previous

NEPA reviews or would present any

significant new information or

circumstances relevant to

environmental concerns.

The results of this Supplement

Analysis indicated that the activities

and potential environmental impacts

associated with the new action are

encompassed within the activities and

impacts analyzed under Alternative 2

(blend down) of the Residues EIS. In

addition, the overall impacts for the

new action will be very small for both

the public and workers and within the

levels of impacts considered in the

Residues EIS. Worker exposure during

the new blend down activities would be

reduced to 8 person-rem from 365

person-rem estimated in the Residues

EIS. The number of Latent Cancer

Fatalities (LCF) for the total worker

population would be smaller for the

new action (0.003) than for Alternative

2 (0.142). The difference in LCF for the

total worker population between

Alternative 2 and the new action is a

result of two factors. The first is a

reduced duration of the blend down

operation as blending down to less than

10 weight percent plutonium rather

than 0.2 weight percent plutonium will

result in a shorter period in which the

material is handled. Secondly,

enhanced worker shielding will reduce

worker exposure during the blend-down

activities. Additionally, the new action

has fewer drums for transportation

reducing the potential for traffic

accidents during transportation of

plutonium fluoride residues to WIPP.

Accordingly, DOE determined that

carrying out the new action would not

constitute a substantial change in

actions previously analyzed and would

not constitute significant new

circumstances or information relevant to

environmental concerns and bearing on

the previously analyzed action or its

impacts. Therefore, DOE did not need to

undertake additional NEPA analysis

before issuing this amendment to the

1998 Record of Decision.

VII. Conclusion

This Amended Record of Decision is

effective upon being made public, in

accordance with DOE’s NEPA

implementation regulations (10 CFR

1021.315).

Issued in Washington, D.C., this 11th day

of January 2001.

Carolyn L. Huntoon,

Assistant Secretary for Environmental

Management.

[FR Doc. 01–1478 Filed 1–17–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Environmental Management SiteSpecific Advisory Board, Rocky Flats

AGENCY: Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of open meeting.

SUMMARY: This notice announces a

meeting of the Environmental

Management Site-Specific Advisory

Board (EM SSAB), Rocky Flats. The

Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub.

L. 92–463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that

public notice of these meetings be

announced in the Federal Register.

DATES: Thursday, February 1, 2001, 6

p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

ADDRESSES: Arvada Center for the Arts

and Humanities, 6901 Wadsworth

Boulevard, Arvada, CO.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ken

Korkia, Board/Staff Coordinator, Rocky

Flats Citizens Advisory Board, 9035

North Wadsworth Parkway, Suite 2250,

Westminster, CO, 80021; telephone

(303) 420–7855; fax (303) 420–7579.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Purpose of the Board: The purpose of

the Board is to make recommendations

to DOE and its regulators in the areas of

environmental restoration, waste

management, and related activities.

Tentative Agenda:

1. Quarterly update by the

Environmental Protection Agency.

2. Presentation and discussion on

recent worker contamination and safety

violations at the site.

3. Draft recommendations on

Radionuclide Soil Action Level review

process.

4. Other Board business may be

conducted as necessary.

Public Participation: The meeting is

open to the public. Written statements

may be filed with the Board either

before or after the meeting. Individuals

who wish to make oral statements

pertaining to agenda items should

contact Ken Korkia at the address or

telephone number listed above.

Requests must be received at least five

days prior to the meeting and reasonable

provisions will be made to include the

presentation in the agenda. The Deputy