ML20244A239

Comment (10) E-mail Regarding WEC - CFFF EIS Scoping

ML20244A239
Person / Time
Site:	Westinghouse
Issue date:	08/23/2020
From:	Public Commenter Public Commenter
To:	Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
NRC/NMSS
References
85FR46193
Download: ML20244A239 (5)

Text

From:

JUDGE, CHRIS <judgec@email.sc.edu>

Sent:

Sunday, August 23, 2020 12:20 PM To:

WEC_CFFF_EIS Resource

Subject:

[External_Sender] Docket ID NRC-2015- 0039, Westinghouse, Columbia SC EIS/Cultural Resources Attachments:

Westinghouse EIS Scoping FRN.pdf Re: Docket ID NRC-2015- 0039/Westinghouse Fuel Fabrication Facility, Columbia SC.

Deadline: August 31, 2020 To Whom it May Concern:

As you move forward to determine the appropriate scope of the EIS for the Westinghouse Fuel Fabrication Facility, including significant environmental issues, I strongly urge you to consider the impacts to archaeological sites in the general vicinity of this facility. The archaeology here is an environmental as well as a cultural issue. My chief concern is that should these cultural resources and sites become contaminated they would become off limits to archaeological research as they would jeopardize the health and safety of those excavating the sites. Archaeology requires digging below the ground surface, touching soil with hands, and retaining soil samples for further study and analyses. The health of this physical environment must be protected at all costs in order that we might learn from such cultural resources and educate the citizens of South Carolina.

While there are many such archaeological sites known in the vicinity (for instance over 600 are known on nearby Fort Jackson), many others have yet to be discovered, identified, and investigated. Perhaps most significantly is that this area along the Congaree River was home to the Late 17th/Early 18th century Congaree Indian Tribe who first appear in South Carolina Colonial periods records in 1691. The documentary evidence of the Congaree people is extremely limited and the path to learning about this group, marginalized and disenfranchised by traditional written histories, lies both on and beneath the ground. These people lived on both the high ground and on the hummocks of the river swamp. Native American burial sites have been identified in close proximity to the Westinghouse Facility and others are certainly present elsewhere.

While I have concentrated on the Congaree Indians other important events in the precontact and contact periods are known. Native Americans lived along the Congaree for some 12,000 years and those sites are buried in the Congaree River floodplain, down slope of the Westinghouse Facility. Later in time, Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto and his army of 600 men trekked through and camped in the area during late April of A.D. 1540 and visited a nearby Native American Town associated with the Chiefdom of Cofitachequi. While documents have been discovered of this expedition and translated from Spanish to English, archaeological evidence of this has yet to be discovered. This expedition is important and significant to American, Spanish as well as South Carolina history. Later some of the earliest European Americans to live in Richland County in the Early 18th century made their homes along Gills and Mill Creek.

I trust you will consider the significant cultural resources in the immediate proximity as environmental resources as you prepare an EIS for this potentially dangerous facility.

Sincerely; Christopher Judge Christopher Judge, Archaeologist University of South Carolina Lancaster Native American Studies Center 119 South Main Street Lancaster, SC 29720

Federal Register Notice:

85FR46193 Comment Number:

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Subject:

[External_Sender] Docket ID NRC-2015- 0039, Westinghouse, Columbia SC EIS/Cultural Resources Sent Date:

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8/23/2020 12:20:14 PM From:

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Recipients Received:

46193 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 148 / Friday, July 31, 2020 / Notices interested persons in ADAMS, as indicated.

Document ADAMS accession No.

NUREG-2191, Generic Aging Lessons Learned for Subsequent License Renewal (GALL-SLR) Report.................................

ML16274A389 ML16274A399 NUREG-2192, Standard Review Plan for Review of Subsequent License Renewal Applications for Nuclear Power Plants....

ML16274A402 Draft SLR-ISG-MECHANICAL-2020-XX; Updated Aging Management Criteria for Mechanical Portions of Subsequent Li-cense Renewal Guidance.

ML20156A330 Draft SLR-ISG-STRUCTURES-2020-XX; Updated Aging Management Criteria for Structures Portions of Subsequent Li-cense Renewal Guidance.

ML20156A338 Draft SLR-ISG-ELECTRICAL-2020-XX; Updated Aging Management Criteria for Electrical Portions of Subsequent License Renewal Guidance.

ML20156A324 Errata for draft Mechanical ISG........................................................................................................................................................

ML20198M382 The NRC may post additional materials to the Federal Rulemaking website at https://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2020-0160. The Federal Rulemaking website allows you to receive alerts when changes or additions occur in a docket folder. To subscribe: (1) Navigate to the docket folder (NRC-2020-0160); (2) click the Sign up for Email Alerts link; and (3) enter your email address and select how frequently you would like to receive emails (daily, weekly, or monthly).

Dated: July 27, 2020.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Robert Caldwell, Deputy Director, Division of New and Renewed Licenses, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

[FR Doc. 2020-16565 Filed 7-30-20; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7590-01-P NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 70-1151; NRC-2015-0039]

Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC; Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Intent to prepare an environmental impact statement and conduct a scoping process; request for comment.

SUMMARY

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will conduct a scoping process to gather information necessary to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) related to the review of Westinghouse Electric Company, LLCs (WEC) request to renew its operating license for its Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF) in Hopkins, South Carolina. The NRC had published a draft environmental assessment (EA) but determined it was not able to conclude the review in a finding of no significant impact.

Therefore, the NRC staff will prepare an EIS to document the potential environmental impacts from the proposed action (i.e., whether to renew WECs CFFF operating license) and reasonable alternatives. As part of the EIS development process, the NRC is seeking comments on the scope of its environmental review.

DATES: Comments must be filed by August 31, 2020. Comments received after this date will be considered, if it is practical to do so, but the Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before this date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:

• Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0039. Address questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Jennifer Borges; telephone: 301-287-9127; email:

Jennifer.Borges@nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.

• Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

• Email comments to: WEC_CFFF_

EIS.resource@nrc.gov.

For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting comments, see Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Diana Diaz-Toro, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone:

301-415-0930; email: Diana.Diaz-Toro@nrc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments A. Obtaining Information Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2015-0039 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain publicly-available information related to this action by the following methods:

• Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0039.

• NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/

adams.html. To begin the search, select Begin Web-based ADAMS Search. For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRCs Public Document Room reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to pdr.resource@

nrc.gov. The ADAMS accession number for each document referenced is provided in a table at the end of this document.

• Project Website: Information related to the WEC project can be accessed on the NRCs project web page at: https://

www.nrc.gov/info-finder/fc/

westinghouse-fuel-fab-fac-sc-lc.html.

B. Submitting Comments Please include Docket ID NRC-2015-0039 in your comment submission. The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your comment submission.

The NRC posts all comment submissions at https://

www.regulations.gov and will enter the comment submissions into ADAMS.

The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove identifying or contact information.

If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons for submission to the NRC, then you should VerDate Sep<11>2014 18:33 Jul 30, 2020 Jkt 250001 PO 00000 Frm 00127 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 E:\\FR\\FM\\31JYN1.SGM 31JYN1

46194 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 148 / Friday, July 31, 2020 / Notices inform those persons not to include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be publicly disclosed in their comment submission.

Your request should state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove such information before making the comment submissions available to the public or entering the comment submissions into ADAMS.

II. Discussion The NRC intends to prepare an EIS for the WEC license renewal application for its CFFF in accordance with part 51 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions. The NRC will provide the public with an opportunity to participate in the environmental scoping process by inviting them to submit written comments in the scoping period.

III. Alternatives To Be Evaluated The EIS will analyze the environmental impacts of the proposed action, the no-action alternative, and reasonable alternatives. A brief description of each is provided below.

Proposed actionThe proposed Federal action is to renew WECs CFFF operating license (SNM-1107) which will allow continued operation of the facility (i.e., fabricating nuclear fuel for nuclear reactors) for an additional 40 years.

No-Action AlternativeThe no-action alternative would be to not renew WECs license. Under this alternative, the NRC would not issue the license renewal and CFFF would continue to operate under its current license until it expires in 2027.

Other Alternatives to the Proposed ActionThe NRC is considering other alternatives to the proposed action, including the granting of WECs license renewal request, but for a period of less than 40 years. Other alternatives not listed here may be identified during scoping or through the EIS development process.

IV. Scoping The NRC staff is conducting a scoping process for the WEC CFFF EIS. In accordance with 10 CFR 51.29, the NRC seeks public input to help the NRC determine the appropriate scope of the EIS, including significant environmental issues to be analyzed in depth, as well as those that should be eliminated from detailed study because they are peripheral or are not significant.

The NRC previously accepted comments on the draft EA published in October 2019. Those comments can be found at https://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2015-0039 or in NRCs ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/

reading-rm/adams.html, and will be considered in the development of the EIS.

After the close of the scoping period, the NRC staff will prepare a concise summary of its scoping process in accordance with 10 CFR 51.29(b). The scoping summary report will be sent to each participant in the scoping process for whom the staff has a physical or email address.

The WEC CFFF EIS will address the potential impacts from the proposed action, including both radiological and non-radiological impacts associated with the proposed project and its alternatives. The EIS will also consider unavoidable adverse environmental impacts, the relationship between short-term uses of resources and long-term productivity, and irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources.

The following resource areas were addressed in the draft EA and, thus, will be addressed in the EIS: Land use, transportation, geology and soils, water resources, ecological resources, air quality and climate change, noise, historical and cultural resources, visual and scenic resources, socioeconomics, public and occupational health, waste management, accidents, and environmental justice.

The NRC encourages members of the public, local, State, Tribal, and Federal government agencies to participate in the scoping process. Written comments may be submitted during the scoping period as described in the ADDRESSES and SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION sections of this document.

The NRC staff will continue its environmental review of WECs license renewal application, and with an NRC contractor, prepare a draft EIS and publish it for public comment as soon as practicable. The NRC staff plans to have a public comment period for the draft EIS. Availability of the draft EIS and the dates of the public comment period will be announced in a future Federal Register notice. The final EIS will include NRCs responses to public comments received on the draft EIS.

V. Availability of Documents The documents identified in this notice are accessible to interested persons by the means indicated in either the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice or in the table below.

Document ADAMS accession No.

Westinghouse license renewal application (August 2019).............................................................................................................

ML19234A077 Environmental Report (March 2019)...............................................................................................................................................

ML19088A100 NRCs Draft Environmental Assessment (October 2019)...............................................................................................................

ML19228A278 Final Interim Remedial Investigation Data Summary Report (February 2020)..............................................................................

ML20063P321 Letter to Westinghouse regarding decision to pursue an EIS (June 2020)...................................................................................

ML20150A289 Dated: July 20, 2020.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Jessie M. Quintero, Acting Chief, Environmental Review Materials Branch, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental and Financial Support, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.

[FR Doc. 2020-16150 Filed 7-30-20; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7590-01-P NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2019-0183]

Information Collection: NRC Form 749, Manual License Verification Report/

License Verification System AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of submission to the Office of Management and Budget; request for comment.

SUMMARY

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has recently submitted a request for renewal of an existing collection of information to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. The information collection is entitled, NRC Form 749, Manual License Verification Report/

License Verification System.

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