Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 113 / Tuesday, June 12, 2001 / Notices 31697

applications for obtaining information

about the delivery of legal services by

LSC grantees, the identification and

collection of information about the civil

legal needs of eligible clients, and the

sharing of that information with LSC

staff, grantee staff, and other interested

parties.

Office of Government Relations and

Public Affairs

The Office of Governmental Relations

and Public Affairs is responsible for

managing LSC’s communications and

requests for information from Congress,

the Executive Branch, the media, and

the general public. The office

coordinates the production of LSC’s

Fact Book and Annual Report.

Office of the Inspector General

The Office of the Inspector General

(OIG) has two principal missions: to

assist management in identifying ways

to promote efficiency and effectiveness

in the activities and operations of LSC

and its grantees; and to prevent and

detect fraud and abuse. The OIG’s

primary tool for achieving these

missions is fact-finding through

financial, performance and other types

of audits and reviews, as well as

investigations into allegations of

wrongdoing. Its fact-finding activities

enable the OIG to develop

recommendations to LSC and grantee

management for actions or changes that

will correct problems, better safeguard

the integrity of funds, improve

procedures or otherwise increase

efficiency or effectiveness.

III. Availability of Information

As an independent Corporation

created by public law, LSC is governed

by statute. The LSC Act and regulations

provide guidance on the operation and

responsibilities of LSC and its grantees.

The Act can be found at 42 U.S.C. 2996

et. seq. and the regulations at 45 CFR

part 1600 et. seq. Furthermore, both the

Act and regulations are posted at LSC’s

website, which is given below. LSC is

further subject to restrictions contained

in its annual appropriations legislation.

The current Appropriations Act for FY

2001 is located at Pub. L. 106–553, 114

Stat. 2762 (2000). In addition to the LSC

Act, regulations, and appropriations

legislation, other rules and instructions,

governing LSC and its recipients, may

be found in the Corporation’s Program

Letters, Audit Guide, Property Manual

and formal legal opinions issued by the

OLA. These documents are available to

the public either online or upon request.

The LSC Act subjects the Corporation

to both the Government in the Sunshine

Act (5 U.S.C. 552b) and the Freedom of

Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). LSC’s

implementing regulations provide that

meetings of the Board of Directors and

of committees of the Board will be open

to the public, except that certain

meetings or portions thereof may be

closed to public as provided by law and

regulation. See 45 C.F.R. 1622.3 and

1622.5. LSC’s FOIA regulations require

that the Corporation make records

concerning its operations, activities, and

business available to the public to the

maximum extent reasonably possible.

45 C.F.R. 1602.3. Thus, LSC maintains

a public reading room at its offices and

any person has the right to request LSC

records in writing. The Corporation

must release requested records to the

requester unless they are protected from

disclosure by the Freedom of

Information Act (FOIA). Requests for

records must be made in writing, with

the envelope and the letter or the e-mail

request clearly marked ‘‘Freedom of

Information Request.’’ All such requests

should be addressed to LSC’s Office of

Legal Affairs, 750 First Street, NE,

Washington, DC, 20002. In addition,

LSC maintains a ‘‘FOIA electronic

reading room.’’ For further information

on this electronic reading room, please

visit LSC online at http://www.lsc.gov.

Other information regarding LSC’s

staff, location, functions, rules of

procedure, substantive rules, statements

of general policy or how the public may

obtain information, make submissions

or requests will also be found on the

LSC website, as will links to legal

services providers across the country. In

addition, information about the OIG can

be found at http://www.oig.lsc.gov.

Victor M. Fortuno,

General Counsel and Vice President for Legal

Affairs.

[FR Doc. 01–14627 Filed 6–11–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7050–01–P

NUCLEAR REGULATORY

COMMISSION

[Docket No. 40–9027]

License No. SMC–1562 Cabot

Corporation’s Revere Site;

Environmental Assessment and

Finding of No Significant Impact

Related to Approval of Site

Decommissioning Plan

AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission.

ACTION: Finding of No Significant

Impact; Notice of Opportunity for

Hearing.

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission (NRC) proposes to approve

Cabot Corporation’s (Cabot’s or the

licensee’s), Decommissioning Plan (DP)

for its Revere, Pennsylvania, site and

amend NRC Source Material License

SMC–1562 to remove the Revere site

from the license. Cabot is authorized to

store up to 91,000 kilograms (100 tons)

of elemental, natural uranium and

thorium, in any form, at its Reading and

Revere, Pennsylvania, sites. This

proposed action pertains only to the

Revere site; the Revere site will be

removed, and the Reading site will

remain on the license. The Revere site

(Revere) is located approximately 60

kilometers (36 miles) north of

Philadelphia and about 26 kilometers

(16 miles) southeast of Allentown,

Pennsylvania. The NRC staff has

evaluated Cabot’s request and has

developed an Environmental

Assessment (EA) to support the review

of Cabot’s proposed DP and license

amendment request, in accordance with

the requirements of 10 CFR part 51.

Based on staff evaluation, the

conclusion of the EA is a Finding of No

Significant Impact (FONSI) on human

health nor the environment for the

proposed licensing action.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Mr.

Theodore Smith, Decommissioning

Branch, Division of Waste Management,

Office of Nuclear Material Safety and

Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission, Mail Stop T7–F27,

Washington, DC 20555. Telephone (301)

415–6721.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The Kawecki Chemical Company—

Penn Rare Division (Cabot’s

predecessor), was first licensed to store

uranium and thorium at the Revere site

in October 1969, by NRC’s predecessor,

the Atomic Energy Commission. The

license was amended in June 1970,

authorizing the licensee [then known as

Kawecki Berylium Industries (KBI)] to

process up to 1,800 kilograms (4,000

pounds) of ore concentrates containing

up to 2 percent natural thorium and 1.5

percent natural uranium.

The uranium and thorium were

contained in pyrochlore-bearing ores

purchased for production of columbium

and tantalum. The end product from the

licensee’s process was purified

columbium and tantalum used for

manufacturing high-strength metals and

electronic components. At the Revere

site, columbite and pyrochlore ores

were blended with aluminum and iron

powder. The mixture was ignited in a

crucible wherein the aluminum reduced

the columbium oxide in the ore by a

thermite process. The iron alloyed to

31698 Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 113 / Tuesday, June 12, 2001 / Notices

form ferrocolumbium, while the spent

aluminum and other oxides, and the

uranium and thorium from the ore, were

melted into process slag. The thoriumand uranium-bearing slag was stored on

site in four different locations.

Processing of source material-bearing

ores ceased in 1978, although the

license was not changed until December

1983, when it was amended to authorize

only possession of uranium and thorium

at Revere. KBI maintained the Revere

site for source material possession-only,

with no activity until 1987, at which

time Cabot Corporation became the

licensee of record through acquisition of

KBI.

In 1988, Cabot began onsite

decommissioning activities for Revere,

including site characterization,

determination of slag leach rates,

surface gamma measurements, and

radiological analysis of surface and

subsurface samples. Contaminated areas

were remediated in a series of clean-up

actions and site surveys in the early

1990s. The first site DP submitted to

NRC in August 1996, was replaced in

November 1997 by a DP that analyzed

the site in accordance with current

license termination requirements. This

DP was amended in March 2001, in

response to additional questions from

NRC staff.

In the March 2001 DP, the licensee

demonstrated that the Revere site is in

compliance with requirements for

license termination with no further

remediation. The DP (as amended in

April 2001) and accompanying

Radiological Assessment assert that

residual radioactivity distinguishable

from background at Revere meets the

unrestricted release criteria established

in 10 CFR 20.1402 of the License

Termination Rule (LTR). The LTR

requires that the total effective dose

equivalent to an average member of the

critical group, as determined by licensee

analysis and NRC review, does not

exceed 0.25 millisieverts per year (mSv/

yr) [25 millirem (mrem/yr)], from all

exposure pathways, and that the

residual radioactivity has been reduced

to levels that are as low as is reasonably

achievable (ALARA). Although Cabot’s

Revere site is a Site Decommissioning

Management Plan (SDMP) site, Cabot

decided to demonstrate compliance

with the newer LTR requirements and

not the SDMP action criteria.

Site production records, quality

assurance documents, and inspection

reports indicate that a total of about

23,000 kilograms (50,000 pounds) of

uranium and thorium-bearing ores were

stored and processed at the Revere site.

Subsurface contamination reports and

remediation reports indicate a total

contaminated volume (clean slag, soil

and building debris intermixed with

contaminated slag) of 23,186 cubic

meters (m3) [818,700 cubic feet (ft3)] at

the site. Cabot later revised the volume

estimate to be 15,180 m3 (536,010 ft3) by

using the minimum values for each area

in the reports. Cabot estimated the

average concentration of the

contaminated volume to be 0.052

Becquerels per gram (Bq/g) [picocuries

per gram (0.14 pCi/g)] for total thorium

and 0.013 Bq/g (0.34 pCi/g) for total

uranium using a volume of 23,186 m3,

although it considered concentrations

based on the minimum reported

volume, which would be approximately

50 percent more.

Summary of the EA

The NRC staff performed an

assessment of the environmental

impacts associated with implementation

of Cabot’s DP for the Revere site, in

accordance with 10 CFR part 51,

‘‘Environmental Protection Regulations

for Domestic Licensing and Related

Regulatory Functions.’’ In conducting

its appraisal, the NRC staff considered

the following information: (1) Cabot’s

Revere Site DP, as amended; (2) Cabot’s

Revere Site Radiological Assessment, as

amended; (3) previous environmental

evaluations of the Revere site; (4) data

contained in environmental monitoring

and survey reports; (5) the results of

NRC staff site visits and inspections of

the Revere facility; and (6) consultations

with the Pennsylvania Department of

Environmental Protection (PADEP). The

results of the staff’s appraisal, a FONSI,

are documented in an EA. The safety

aspects for the proposed action are

discussed separately in a Safety

Evaluation Report (SER).

Conclusions

The NRC staff has evaluated the

actual and potential impacts associated

with implementation of the DP and

removing Revere from Cabot’s license

and has determined that the amendment

to Source Material License SMC–1562

will: (1) Be consistent with the

requirements of the LTR and Part 40,

‘‘Domestic Licensing of Source

Material’’, (2) not be inimical to public

health and safety; and (3) not have

detrimental impacts on the

environment. The following statements

summarize the conclusions of the staff’s

EA, and support the FONSI:

1. In the most bounding scenario

analyzed by staff, which conservatively

estimated the potential dose to an

average member of the critical group

within 1000 years after license

termination, the largest calculated dose

was 0.2 mSv/yr (20 mrem/yr), and the

dose is ALARA, which meets the LTR.

(For comparison purposes, under 10

CFR 20.1301(a), the NRC’s dose limit to

any member of the public from licensed

activities may not exceed 1.0 mSv/yr

(100 mrem/yr).

2. There are no impacts on cultural

and historic areas, and further

evaluation of cultural and historical

resource concerns is not warranted.

3. There are no impacts on

endangered nor threatened species nor

habitat, and further evaluation of

endangered and threatened species

concerns is not warranted.

4. There are no disproportionally high

and adverse effects nor impacts on

minority and low-income populations,

and further evaluation of environmental

justice concerns, as outlined in

Executive Order 12898 and NRC’s Office

of Nuclear Material Safety and

Safeguards Policy and Procedures Letter

1–50, Revision 1, is not warranted.

Proposed Action

The NRC is proposing to remove the

Revere site from Cabot’s source

materials license without further

remediation, since it meets the LTR

unrestricted release requirements of

0.25 mSv/yr (25 mrem/yr) and ALARA.

The Need for Proposed Action

NRC regulation 10 CFR 40.42 (the

‘‘Timeliness Rule’’) requires licensees to

decommission their facilities when

licensed activities cease, and to request

termination of their radioactive

materials licenses. The purpose of the

Timeliness Rule is to reduce the

potential risk to the public and

environment that may result from

delayed decommissioning of inactive

facilities and sites. The purpose of this

action is to remove Revere from Cabot’s

source material license, and the SDMP

list because Cabot no longer uses source

materials at the site. The site would no

longer be subject to NRC regulatory

oversight.

Alternatives to Proposed Action

There are two alternatives to the

proposed action of allowing unrestricted

release of the site and removing it from

the license: (1) No action; and (2) to

excavate and transport the contaminated

material directly to a licensed disposal

facility. The no-action alternative is not

acceptable because it will result in

violation of NRC’s Timeliness Rule.

The second alternative is not costeffective, as demonstrated by the

licensee’s cost estimate, for additional

site remediation, of approximately 9

million dollars (in 1996 dollars), with

no significant increase in public health

Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 113 / Tuesday, June 12, 2001 / Notices 31699

or safety or protection of the

environment.

Environmental Impacts of Proposed

Action

There are no impacts associated with

the proposed action, as no further

remediation activities will be conducted

at the Revere site. Based on its review,

the NRC staff has concluded that the

environmental impacts associated with

the proposed action do not warrant

either denial of the licensee’s request, or

additional site remediation.

Additionally, in the SER prepared for

this action, the staff has reviewed the

licensee’s proposed action with respect

to the criteria for license termination,

specified in 10 CFR part 20, Subpart E,

and has no basis for denial of the

proposed action. Therefore, the staff

concludes that the proposed alternative

is appropriate.

Agencies and Individuals Consulted

NRC staff prepared the EA. No other

sources were used beyond those

referenced in the EA.

NRC staff provided a draft of the EA

to the PADEP for review. By letter dated

April 26, 2001, PADEP concurred with

NRC’s conclusion that the requirements

for radiological unrestricted release

have been met.

Finding of No Significant Impact

The NRC staff has prepared an EA for

the proposed amendment to NRC

Source Material License SMC–1562. On

the basis of this assessment, the NRC

staff has concluded that the

environmental impacts that may result

from the proposed action would not be

significant, and therefore, preparation of

an Environmental Impact Statement is

not warranted.

The EA and other documents related

to this proposed action are available for

public inspection and copying at the

NRC Public Document Room in NRC’s

One White Flint North Headquarters

building, located at 11555 Rockville

Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland;

and in the Agency-wide Documents

Access and Management System

(ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading

Room at Web address <http://

www.nrc.gov/ADAMS/index.html>.

Notice of Opportunity for Hearing

The Commission hereby provides

notice that this is a proceeding on an

application for a licensing action falling

within the scope of 10 CFR part 2,

subpart L, ‘‘Informal Hearing Procedures

for Adjudications in Materials and

Operator Licensing Proceedings,’’ of the

Commission’s Rules of Practice for

Domestic Licensing Proceedings and

Issuance of Orders.

Pursuant to 10 CFR 2.1205(a), any

person whose interest may be affected

by this proceeding may file a request for

a hearing. In accordance with 10 CFR

2.1205(d), a request for a hearing must

be filed within thirty (30) days from the

date of publication of the Federal

Register notice. The request for a

hearing must be filed with the Office of

the Secretary either:

(1) By delivery to the Rulemakings

and Adjudications Staff of the Office of

the Secretary at One White Flint North,

11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD

20852; or

(2) By mail, telegram, or facsimile

addressed to the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear

Regulatory Commission, Washington,

DC 20555, Attention: Rulemakings and

Adjudications Staff. In accordance with

10 CFR 2.1205(f), each request for a

hearing must also be served, by

delivering it personally or by mail to:

(1) The applicant, Cabot Corporation,

P.O. Box 1608, County Line Road,

Boyertown, PA 19512–1608;

(2) The NRC staff, by delivery to the

Office of the General Counsel, One

White Flint North, 11555 Rockville

Pike, Rockville, MD 20852.

In addition to meeting other

applicable requirements of 10 CFR part

2 of the Commission’s regulations, a

request for a hearing filed by a person

other than an applicant must describe in

detail:

(1) The interest of the requestor in the

proceeding;

(2) How that interest may be affected

by the results of the proceeding,

including the reasons why the requestor

should be permitted a hearing, with

particular reference to the factors set out

in 10 CFR 2.1205(h);

(3) The requestor’s areas of concern

about the licensing activity that are the

subject matters of the proceeding; and

(4) The circumstances establishing

that the request for a hearing is timely

in accordance with 10 CFR 2.1205(d).

Any hearing that is requested and

granted will be held in accordance with

the Commission’s ‘‘Informal Hearing

Procedures for Adjudications in

Materials and Operator Licensing

Proceedings’ in part 2, subpart L.

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 4th day

of June 2001.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Larry W. Camper,

Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of

Waste Management, Office of Nuclear

Material Safety and Safeguards.

[FR Doc. 01–14754 Filed 6–11–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P

NUCLEAR REGULATORY

COMMISSION

Docket No. 50–309

Maine Yankee Atomic Power

Company; Maine Yankee Atomic

Power Station Environmental

Assessment and Finding of No

Significant Impact

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission (NRC) is considering

issuance of an exemption from certain

requirements of its regulations to

Facility Operating License No. DPR–36,

issued to Maine Yankee Atomic Power

Company (MYAPC or the licensee), for

the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Station

(MYAPS), a permanently shutdown

nuclear reactor facility located in

Lincoln County, Maine.

Environmental Assessment

Identification of Proposed Action

ACTION: The proposed action would

exempt the MYAPS Independent Spent

Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) from

some requirements of 10 CFR

72.212(b)(5) to ‘‘protect the spent fuel

against the design basis threat of

radiological sabotage in accordance with

the same provisions and requirements

as are set forth’’ in 10 CFR 73.55,

‘‘Requirements for physical protection

of licensed activities in nuclear power

reactors against radiological sabotage.’’

The proposed action is in accordance

with the licensee’s application for

exemption dated January 4, 2001, as

supplemented by letters dated March 12

and April 4, 2001.

The Need for the Proposed Action

MYAPS was shut down in December

1996. On August 7, 1997, the licensee

informed the Commission that it had

decided to permanently cease

operations at Maine Yankee Atomic

Power Station and that all fuel had been

permanently removed from the reactor.

In accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(a)(2),

the certifications in the letter modified

the facility operating license to

permanently withdraw MYAPC’s

authority to operate the reactor and to

load fuel into the reactor vessel. The

MYAPS spent nuclear fuel is currently

being stored in the spent fuel pool,

which is protected by a physical

protection system meeting the

requirements of 10 CFR 73.55, with

exemptions as previously issued by the

NRC. To complete the plant site

decommissioning process, the spent fuel

will be removed from the spent fuel

pool and transferred to an onsite ISFSI

for interim storage. Under the