Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Department of the Army's Transonic Range Facility in Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, 74036 [E5-7297]

Agencies

• NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 239 (Wednesday, December 14, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Page 74036]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-7297]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 040-06394]


Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of 
No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Department of the 
Army's Transonic Range Facility in Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth Ullrich, Commercial and R&D 
Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 475 Allendale 
Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania 19406, telephone (610) 337-5040, 
fax (610) 337-5269; or by e-mail: exu@nrc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering issuing a 
license amendment to the Department of the Army, U.S. Army Research 
Laboratory, for Materials License No. SMB-141, to authorize release of 
its Transonic Range in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, 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.

II. EA Summary

    The purpose of the proposed action is to authorize the release of 
the licensee's Transonic Range located on Aberdeen Proving Ground, 
Maryland, for unrestricted use. Department of the Army was authorized 
by AEC/NRC from April 12, 1961, to use radioactive materials for 
munitions testing and research and development purposes at the site. On 
January 13, 2005, the Department of the Army requested that NRC release 
the site for unrestricted use. The Department of the Army has conducted 
surveys of the site and provided information to the NRC to demonstrate 
that the site meets the license termination criteria in Subpart E of 10 
CFR Part 20 for unrestricted use.
    The NRC staff has prepared an EA in support of the license 
amendment. The site was remediated and surveyed prior to the licensee 
requesting the license amendment. The NRC staff has reviewed the 
information and final status survey submitted by the Department of the 
Army. 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 site and concluded that since the residual 
radioactivity meets the requirements in Subpart E of 10 CFR Part 20, 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 the Transonic Range for unrestricted use. 
The NRC staff has evaluated the Department of the Army's request and 
the results of the surveys and has concluded that the completed action 
complies with the criteria in Subpart E of 10 CFR Part 20. The staff 
has found that the radiological 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). Additionally, 
no non-radiological or cumulative impacts were identified. 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 Related to Issuance of a License Amendment 
of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Materials License No. SMB-141, 
Department of the Army, Aberdeen, Maryland'' [ML053410278], 
``Remediation and Final Status Survey, Transonic Range Depleted Uranium 
Study Area--Structures'' [ML050280349 and ML050280354], and 
``Radiological Final Status Survey, Transonic Range-Land Areas, 
Depleted Uranium Study Area'' [ML050280341]. 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.
    Documents related to operations conducted under this license not 
specifically referenced in this Notice may not be electronically 
available and/or may not be publicly available. Persons who have an 
interest in reviewing these documents should submit a request to NRC 
under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Instructions for 
submitting a FOIA request can be found on the NRC's web site at https://
www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/foia/foia-privacy.html.

    Dated at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania this 7th day of December, 
2005.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
James P. Dwyer,
Chief, Commercial and R&D Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, 
Region I.
 [FR Doc. E5-7297 Filed 12-13-05; 8:45 am]
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