Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 123 / Monday, June 29, 2009 / Notices 31017 

1For purposes of the National Priority Project 

Designation, the National Renewable Energy 

Laboratory has defined the term ‘‘capacity’’ to mean 

the maximum amount of energy that can be 

generated or stored by a device at any given time. 

For example, the capacity for a wind turbine would 

be the maximum electricity (Watts) it could 

generate given ideal wind speeds. The capacity of 

an energy storage device would be the total amount 

of energy that can be stored in the device under 

ideal conditions. 

A photovoltaic energy project is any 

installation of technologies that converts 

light directly into electricity through a 

solid-state, semiconductor process. 

A fuel cell energy project is any 

application of technologies that uses 

fuel cells to transport energy. The term 

‘‘fuel cell’’ means a device that directly 

converts the chemical energy of a fuel 

and an oxidant into electricity by 

electrochemical processes occurring at 

separate electrodes in the device. 

(3) Building Energy Efficiency and 

Renewable Energy Projects. This 

category of eligible projects consists of 

energy-efficient buildings and buildingbased renewable energy projects. 

An energy-efficient building project is 

one that will retrofit an existing 

building or build a new building such 

that the building performs all of its 

intended roles while using significantly 

less energy than conventional building 

stock. DOE considers the term ‘‘new 

building’’ to mean a building that is 

completed to the point of being ready 

for occupancy not earlier than two years 

before the date of the application for 

NPPD. 

A renewable energy project is one 

using technology that generates 

electricity or usable energy in the form 

of heat, steam, or fuel from any of the 

following sources: solar, wind, biomass, 

landfill gas, ocean (including tidal, 

wave, current, and thermal), geothermal, 

municipal solid waste, or new 

hydroelectric generation capacity 

achieved from increased efficiency or 

additions of new capacity at an existing 

hydroelectric project. 

(4) First-in-Class Building Energy 

Efficiency and Renewable Energy 

Projects. DOE considers a first-in-class 

project to be one that incorporates a new 

energy-related technology or technique 

not used before, not used in the same 

manner before, or not used on the same 

scale before. 

B. Time of Construction 

DOE will accept award applications 

both for projects that are being planned 

(are under construction or will begin 

construction within the next two years) 

and projects that are complete (were 

completed within the past two years). 

II. Designation Criteria 

To obtain NPPD, a project must: 

• Utilize energy-efficient or 

renewable energy technologies and fit 

into one of the four categories of 

projects identified in Section I.A. of 

these guidelines; 

• Be located within the United States; 

and 

• Meet the following criteria (for 

applicable category): 

» For wind and biomass—the project 

must involve the installation of not less 

than 30 megawatts of renewable energy 

generation capacity.1

» For PV and fuel cells—the project 

must involve the installation of not less 

than 3 megawatts of renewable energy 

generation capacity. 

» For buildings—the project must 

have all of the following attributes: 

fi Meet guidelines for Leadership in 

Energy and Environmental Design 

(LEED) certification (any level); 

fi Use whole-building integration of 

energy efficiency and environmental 

performance design and technology, 

including advanced building controls; 

fi Use renewable energy for at least 

50 percent of the energy consumption of 

the project; 

fi Use ENERGY STAR®-labeled 

products wherever possible; and 

fi Include at least 5 million square 

feet of enclosed space (not necessarily 

all in one building or at a single site). 

‘‘Enclosed’’ means space closed off from 

the elements that is heated, cooled, or 

both. 

• For first-in-class building projects— 

the project must represent a first-inclass use of renewable energy or a new 

paradigm of building-integrated 

renewable energy use or energy 

efficiency. Any project establishing a 

new paradigm would need to include 

techniques that fundamentally change 

the assumptions made about energy 

systems as they relate to building 

science. This category could potentially 

include innovative project-financing 

approaches. There are no scale 

parameters for first-in-class building 

projects. 

III. DOE Review and Designation 

A. Selection Process 

After the close of the application 

period, DOE will review the 

applications and determine which 

projects have the potential to receive 

NPPD. DOE will ask the applicants of 

those projects to have a professional 

engineer inspect their project and certify 

that the information contained in their 

application is correct. The professional 

engineer may be an employee of the 

applicant organization. Once this is 

done, DOE will consider these projects 

to be ‘‘certified projects.’’ A certified 

project is one that is reasonably 

expected to meet the selection criteria 

set forth in these Guidelines. 

DOE technical staff will then conduct 

an additional review of all certified 

projects. This review may involve 

follow-up questions for the applicant 

organization. At the conclusion of this 

review, the Secretary of Energy will 

select a maximum of three projects in 

each category to be recommended to the 

President for designation as that year’s 

National Priority Projects (NPP). While 

DOE will accept award applications in 

all four project categories, the Secretary 

of Energy may not recommend NPPD for 

projects in all categories. 

Any organization that applies for 

NPPD may remove its project from 

consideration at any time. 

B. Promotion of Designated Projects 

Organizations whose projects are 

designated by the President as NPP will 

receive recognition from DOE in the 

form of: 

• Receipt of a NPPD medal at a 

national event; 

• National news releases; 

• Prominent recognition on the DOE 

Web site; and 

• Other suitable forms of publicity 

and recognition 

C. Additional Information 

(1) Applicants may request 

confidentiality of information that they 

believe is exempt by law from public 

disclosure; this information must be 

clearly marked on the application by the 

applicant. DOE intends to honor 

requests for nondisclosure of 

information to the extent permitted by 

law, and it will make a final 

determination with regard to disclosure 

or nondisclosure of the information in 

accordance with DOE’s Freedom of 

Information regulations (10 CFR 

1004.11). 

(2) Submission of an application for 

designation does not create any 

obligation on DOE to grant such 

designation. 

(3) Questions or requests for 

additional information about NPPD 

should be directed to nppd@ee.doe.gov. 

[FR Doc. E9–15194 Filed 6–26–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Notice of Cancellation of the Global 

Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) 

Programmatic Environmental Impact 

Statement (PEIS) 

AGENCY: Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. 

Department of Energy. 


sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES
31018 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 123 / Monday, June 29, 2009 / Notices 

ACTION: Notice of cancellation of 

Environmental Impact Statement 

process. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of 

Energy (DOE or Department) has 

decided to cancel the preparation of the 

Global Nuclear Energy Partnership 

Programmatic Environmental Impact 

Statement (DOE/EIS–0396). This notice 

briefly describes the history of the GNEP 

PEIS. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

further information or copies of the 

Draft GNEP PEIS, please contact Dr. 

Rajendra Sharma, National 

Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 

Compliance Officer, Office of Nuclear 

Energy (NE–43), U.S. Department of 

Energy, 19901 Germantown Road, 

Germantown, MD 20874, Telephone: 

301–903–2899 or electronic mail: 

rajendra.sharma@nuclear.energy.gov. 

For general information regarding the 

DOE NEPA process contact: Ms. Carol 

M. Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA 

Policy and Compliance (GC–20), U.S. 

Department of Energy, 1000 

Independence Ave., SW., Washington, 

DC 20585. Telephone: 202–586–4600, or 

leave a message at 1–800–472–2756. 

Additional information regarding DOE 

NEPA activities and access to many of 

DOE’s NEPA documents are available 

on the DOE Web site at http:// 

www.gc.energy.gov/NEPA. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

On March 22, 2006, DOE published 

an Advance Notice of Intent to Prepare 

an Environmental Impact Statement for 

the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership 

Technology Demonstration Program (71 

FR 14505), soliciting comments on the 

proposed scope, alternatives and 

environmental issues to be analyzed. 

DOE stated that the technology 

demonstration program would 

demonstrate technologies needed to 

implement a closed fuel cycle that 

enables recycling and consumption of 

spent nuclear fuel in a proliferationresistant manner. 

The comments that DOE received 

included suggestions to prepare a 

programmatic environmental impact 

statement addressing the entire GNEP 

Program. DOE agreed and on January 4, 

2007, published its Notice of Intent to 

prepare the Global Nuclear Energy 

Partnership Programmatic 

Environmental Impact Statement (GNEP 

PEIS) in the Federal Register (72 FR 

331). The public scoping period for the 

GNEP PEIS was later extended (72 FR 

15871, April 3, 2007) and concluded on 

June 4, 2007. DOE considered the 

scoping comments in preparing the 

Draft GNEP PEIS. The Draft GNEP PEIS 

analyzed the potential environmental 

impacts of expanding nuclear power in 

the U.S. using either the existing fuel 

cycle or various alternative closed and 

open fuel cycles. DOE’s stated 

preference in the Draft was to close the 

fuel cycle, although it did not identify 

a specific preferred alternative. 

Publication of the Notice of 

Availability of the Draft GNEP PEIS (73 

FR 61858, October 17, 2008; also see 73 

FR 61845, October 17, 2008) 

commenced a 60-day public comment 

period and provided a schedule for 13 

public hearings to receive comments on 

the Draft GNEP PEIS. Consistent with 

the announced schedule, DOE 

conducted public hearings on the Draft 

GNEP PEIS during November and 

December 2008. In response to the 

public requests, on December 10, 2008, 

DOE announced an extension of the 

public comment period by 90 days, i.e., 

through March 16, 2009 (73 FR 75087). 

On December 24, 2008, DOE announced 

(73 FR 79073) an additional public 

hearing which was held on January 12, 

2009, in the town of Pahrump in Nye 

County, NV. At the close of the public 

comment period on March 16, 2009, 

DOE had received more than 14,500 

comment documents on the Draft GNEP 

PEIS. 

Via this notice, DOE announces that 

it has decided to cancel the GNEP PEIS 

because it is no longer pursuing 

domestic commercial reprocessing, 

which was the primary focus of the 

prior Administration’s domestic GNEP 

program. The Omnibus Appropriations 

Act, 2009, provides $145 million for the 

continuation of research and 

development (R&D) on proliferationresistant fuel cycles and waste 

management strategies. As described in 

the President’s Fiscal Year 2010 budget 

request, the Department’s fuel cycle 

R&D’s focus is on ‘‘long-term, sciencebased R&D of technologies with the 

potential to produce beneficial changes 

to the manner in which the nuclear fuel 

cycle and nuclear waste is managed.’’ 

Issued in Washington, DC, on June 23, 

2009. 

R. Shane Johnson, 

Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Nuclear 

Energy. 

[FR Doc. E9–15328 Filed 6–26–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Environmental Management SiteSpecific Advisory Board, Idaho 

National Laboratory 

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), Idaho National 

Laboratory. The Federal Advisory 

Committee Act (Pub. L. 92–463, 86 Stat. 

770) requires that public notice of this 

meeting be announced in the Federal 

Register. 

DATES: Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 8 a.m.– 

5 p.m. 

Opportunities for public participation 

will be held on Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 

from 1:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. and from 

3:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. 

These times are subject to change; 

please contact the Federal Coordinator 

(below) for confirmation of times prior 

to the meeting. 

ADDRESSES: Hilton Garden Inn, 700 

Lindsay Boulevard, Idaho Falls, Idaho 

83402. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Robert L. Pence, Federal Coordinator, 

Department of Energy, Idaho Operations 

Office, 1955 Fremont Avenue, MS– 

1203, Idaho Falls, ID 83415. Phone (208) 

526–6518; Fax (208) 526–8789 or e-mail: 

pencerl@id.doe.gov or visit the Board’s 

Internet home page at: http:// 

www.inlemcab.org. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Purpose of the Board: The purpose of 

the Board is to make recommendations 

to DOE in the areas of environmental 

restoration, waste management, and 

related activities. 

Tentative Topics (agenda topics may 

change up to the day of the meeting; 

please contact Robert L. Pence for the 

most current agenda): 

• Progress to Cleanup; 

• Snake River Plain Aquifer Briefing; 

• Integrated Waste Treatment Unit 

Status; 

• Integrated Approach to 

Dispositioning All Remote-Handled 

Transuranic Waste; 

• Remedial Design Work Plan for 

Waste Area Group (WAG)–7; 

• WAG–10 Record of Decision 

Update. 

Public Participation: The EM SSAB, 

Idaho National Laboratory, welcomes 

the attendance of the public at its 

advisory committee meetings and will 

make every effort to accommodate 

persons with physical disabilities or 

special needs. If you require special 

accommodations due to a disability, 

please contact Robert L. Pence at least 

seven days in advance of the meeting at 

the phone number listed above. Written 

statements may be filed with the Board 

either before or after the meeting. 

Individuals who wish to make oral 


sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES