Department of Energy December 8, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Western Area Power Administration (Western), an agency within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), received a request from Basin Electric Power Cooperative (Basin Electric) to interconnect its proposed Antelope Valley Station (AVS) to Neset Transmission Project (Project) to Western's Williston Substation and Williston to Charlie Creek 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission line. The Project would be located in northwest North Dakota including parts of Mercer, Dunn, McKenzie, Williams, and Mountrail counties. On May 30, 2014, the Notice of Availability (NOA) of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Project was published in the Federal Register (79 FR 31085). The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Rural Utilities Service (RUS) was the lead Federal agency for the EIS. Western was a cooperating agency in preparation of the EIS. After considering the environmental impacts, Western has decided to allow Basin Electric's request for interconnection.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is planning to issue a new Secretarial Determination covering continued transfers of uranium for cleanup services at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant and for down-blending of highly-enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium (LEU). This RFI solicits information from the public about the effects of the proposed transfers in the uranium markets and possible consequences for the domestic uranium mining, conversion and enrichment industries. The RFI also solicits recommendations about factors that the Department should consider and/or the methodology it should use in assessing the possible impacts of transfers. DOE will then consider this information as part of its analysis to determine whether its transfers would have an adverse material impact on the domestic uranium mining, conversion, or enrichment industry.