Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Department of the Army, Walter Reed Army Medical Center Washington, DC, 8856-8857 [05-3402]

Agencies

• NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 35 (Wednesday, February 23, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8856-8857]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-3402]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 03001317]


Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of 
No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Department of the Army, 
Walter Reed Army Medical Center Washington, DC

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability of environmental assessment and finding 
of no significant impact.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laurie Kauffman, Decommissioning 
Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 475 Allendale 
Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania 19406, telephone (610) 337-5323, 
fax (610) 337-5269; or by e-mail: lap@nrc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the issuance 
of a license amendment to Department of the Army, Walter Reed Army 
Medical Center (WRAMC) for Materials License No. 08-01738-02, to 
authorize release of Building T-2 of the Washington, DC site for 
unrestricted use. NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in 
support of this action in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR 
part 51. Based on the EA, the NRC has concluded that a Finding of No 
Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate. The amendment will be issued 
following the publication of this Notice.

II. EA Summary

    The purpose of the action is to authorize the release of the 
licensee's Building T-2 of the Washington, DC facility for unrestricted 
use. WRAMC was authorized by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) on 
February 18, 1959 to use radioactive materials for medical research, 
diagnosis, and therapy purposes at the site. On October 29, 2004, WRAMC 
requested that the NRC release the facility for unrestricted use. WRAMC 
has conducted surveys of the facility and provided information to the 
NRC to demonstrate that the site meets the license termination criteria 
in 10 CFR part 20, subpart E, for unrestricted use.
    The NRC staff has prepared an EA in support of the license 
amendment. The facility was remediated and surveyed in support of the 
license amendment. The NRC staff has reviewed the information and final 
status survey submitted by WRAMC. Based on its review, the staff has 
determined that there are no additional remediation activities 
necessary to complete the proposed action. Therefore, the staff 
considered the impact of the residual radioactivity at the facility and 
concluded that since the residual radioactivity meets the requirements 
in 10 CFR part 20, subpart E, a Finding of No Significant Impact is 
appropriate.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    The staff has prepared the EA (summarized above) in support of the 
license amendment to release Building T-2 in its entirety of the WRAMC

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facility at 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW., Washington, DC for unrestricted 
use. The NRC staff has evaluated WRAMC's request and the results of the 
surveys and has concluded that the completed action complies with the 
criteria in 10 CFR part 20, subpart E. The staff has found that the 
environmental impacts from the action are bounded by the impacts 
evaluated by NUREG-1496, Volumes 1-3, ``Generic Environmental Impact 
Statement in Support of Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for License 
Termination of NRC-Licensed Facilities'' (ML042310492, ML042320379, and 
ML042330385). On the basis of the EA, the NRC has concluded that the 
environmental impacts from the action are expected to be insignificant 
and has determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement for 
the action.

IV. Further Information

    Documents related to this action, including the application for the 
license amendment and supporting documentation, are available 
electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at https://
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 ADAMS 
accession numbers for the documents related to this Notice are: 
Environmental Assessment (ADAMS Accession No. ML050460068); Amendment 
Request for WRAMC Building T-2 (ADAMS Accession No. ML043220447); 
Historical Site Assessment for WRAMC Building T-2 (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML043220460); and Final Status Survey for WRAMC Building T-2 (ADAMS 
Accession No. ML043220467). Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or 
who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, 
should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at (800) 397-
4209 or (301) 415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov.
    Please note that on October 25, 2004, the NRC terminated public 
access to ADAMS and initiated an additional security review of publicly 
available documents to ensure that potentially sensitive information is 
removed from the ADAMS database accessible through the NRC's Web site. 
Interested members of the public may obtain copies of the referenced 
documents for review and/or copying by contacting the Public Document 
Room pending resumption of public access to ADAMS. The NRC Public 
Document Room is located at NRC Headquarters in Rockville, MD, and can 
be contacted at (800) 397-4209, (301) 415-4737 or by e-mail to 
pdr@nrc.gov.

    Dated in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania this 15th day of 
February, 2005.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Ronald R. Bellamy,
Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, 
Region I.
[FR Doc. 05-3402 Filed 2-22-05; 8:45 am]
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