Nuclear Regulatory Commission August 5, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Uranerz Energy Corporation (Uranerz) submitted an application for a new source material license for the Nichols Ranch In-Situ Recovery (ISR) Project to be located in Campbell and Johnson Counties, Wyoming, approximately 46 miles south-southwest of Gillette, Wyoming and approximately 61 miles north-northeast of Casper, Wyoming. The application proposes the construction, operation, and decommissioning of ISR, also known as in-situ leach, facilities and restoration of the aquifer from which the uranium is being extracted. Uranerz submitted the application for the new source material license to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by a letter dated November 30, 2007. A notice of receipt and availability of the license application, including the Environmental Report (ER), and opportunity to request a hearing was published in the Federal Register on June 16, 2008 (73 FR 34052). The purpose of this notice of intent is to inform the public that the NRC will be preparing a site-specific Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for In-Situ Leach Uranium Milling Facilities (ISR GEIS) for a new source material license for the Nichols Ranch ISR Project, as required by 10 CFR 51.26(d). In addition, as outlined in 36 CFR 800.8, ``Coordination with the National Environmental Policy Act,'' the NRC plans to use the environmental review process as reflected in 10 CFR part 51 to coordinate compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

The NRC is proposing to amend its regulation governing vessel head inspection requirements. This amendment would revise the upper range of the percentage of axial flaws permitted in a specimen set used in the qualification of nondestructive examination systems (procedures, personnel and equipment), for the performance of inservice inspection (ISI) of pressurized water reactor (PWR) upper reactor vessel head penetrations. This amendment is being proposed as a result of the withdrawal of a stakeholder's recommendation necessitated by a typographical error in the original recommendation with respect to the maximum percentage of flaws that should be oriented axially.