[Federal Register: November 14, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 220)]
[Notices]
[Page 64620-64621]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr14no03-70]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
National Nuclear Security Administration
Notice of Availability of the Final Environmental Impact
Statement for the Proposed Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building
Replacement Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
AGENCY: National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security
Administration (NNSA) announces the availability of the Final
Environmental Impact Statement for the Chemistry and Metallurgy
Research Building Replacement Project at Los Alamos National
Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico (the Final CMRR EIS). The present
Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) Building at Los Alamos National
Laboratory (LANL) houses mission critical analytical chemistry,
material characterization and research and development capabilities
involving actinides (actinides are any of a series of elements with
atomic numbers ranging from actinium-89 through lawrencium-103). The
Final CMRR EIS considers the potential environmental impacts that could
result due to the consolidation and relocation of these CMR
capabilities from the existing aged CMR Building to a new facility such
that these capabilities would be available on a long-term basis to
successfully accomplish LANL mission support activities or programs.
Two locations at LANL were evaluated for locating a new CMRR Facility:
A location within Technical Area (TA) -55 and a location within TA-6.
The Final CMRR EIS also considers the no-action alternative of
maintaining the CMR capabilities at the existing CMR Building.
DATES: The NNSA intends to issue a Record of Decision on the CMRR EIS
no sooner than 30 days after the Environmental Protection Agency
publishes a notice of filing of the Final CMRR EIS in the Federal
Register.
ADDRESSES: A copy of the Final CMRR EIS and its Summary may be obtained
upon request by writing to: U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear
Security Administration, Los Alamos Site Office, Attn: Ms. Elizabeth
Withers, Office of Facility Operations, 528 35th Street, Los Alamos,
New Mexico, 87544; by facsimile ((505) 667-9998); or by e-mail (CMRR EIS@doeal.gov). Copies of the Final CMRR EIS are also available for
review at: the Los Alamos Outreach Center, 1619 Central Avenue, Los
Alamos, New Mexico, 87544; and the Zimmerman Library, University of New
Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information on NNSA NEPA
process, please contact: Mr. James Mangeno (NA 1), NEPA Compliance
Officer for Defense Programs, U.S. Department of Energy, National
Nuclear Security Administration, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD
20874-1290, or telephone 1-800-832-0885. For general information about
the DOE NEPA process, please contact: Ms. Carol Borgstrom, Director,
Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance (EH-42), U.S. Department of
Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585, (202) 586-
4600, or leave a message at 1-800-472-2756.
[[Page 64621]]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Mission critical CMR capabilities at LANL
support NNSA's stockpile stewardship and management strategic
objectives. The CMR Building's analytical chemistry, materials
characterization, and actinide research and development capabilities
are necessary to support the current and future directed stockpile work
and campaign activities conducted at LANL. The CMR Building is over 50
years old and approaching end of design life. Studies conducted in the
late 1990s identified a seismic fault trace located beneath the CMR
Building, which greatly enhances the level of structural upgrades
needed for the building to meet current structural seismic code
requirements for a Hazard Category 2 nuclear facility. The CMR Building
has been upgraded such that operations can continue, on a restricted
basis, in support of national security missions. The CMR Upgrades
project was designed to extend the life of the CMR Building through
approximately 2010. It would be cost prohibitive to perform the needed
repairs, upgrades, and systems retrofitting for a long-term (beyond
2010), unrestricted use of the CMR Building.
NNSA cannot continue to perform the assigned LANL mission critical
CMR capabilities in the existing CMR Building at an acceptable level of
risk to public and worker health and safety without operational
restrictions. These operational restrictions would preclude the full
implementation of the level of operation DOE decided upon through its
Record of Decision for the 1999 LANL Site-wide Environmental Impact
Statement for the Continued Operation of Los Alamos National Laboratory
(DOE/EIS-0238). CMR capabilities are necessary to support the current
and directed stockpile work and campaign activities at LANL. By 2010,
operations will have been conducted in the existing CMR Building for 60
years; this is the estimated operational life span for nuclear
operations at the existing CMR Building. Given that the CMR Building is
near the end of its useful life, action is now required by NNSA to
assess alternatives for continuing these activities for the succeeding
50 years.
The Final CMRR EIS evaluates the environmental impacts associated
with relocating the CMR capabilities at LANL to new buildings sited at
the following alternative locations: (1) Next to the Plutonium Facility
at TA-55 at LANL (the Proposed Action), and (2) a ``greenfield'' site
within TA-6. The NNSA also evaluated performing minimal necessary
structural and systems upgrades and repairs to portions of the existing
CMR Building and continuing the use of these upgraded portions of the
structure for administrative offices and support function purposes, as
well as evaluating the potential decontamination and demolition of the
existing CMR Building as disposition options coupled with the
alternatives for construction and operation of new nuclear laboratory
facilities at the two previously identified locations. The Final CMRR
EIS considers the performance of minimal necessary structural and
systems upgrades and repairs to the existing CMR Building as a no-
action alternative with continued maintenance of limited mission
critical CMR capabilities at the CMR Building.
In the Final CMRR EIS, the Administrator of the NNSA designated
Alternative 1, the Proposed Action of constructing and operating a new
CMRR Facility at TA-55, as its preferred alternative. Additionally, the
designated preferred construction option is the construction of a
single consolidated SNM-capable Hazard Category laboratory above ground
with a separate administrative offices support functions building
(Option 3); NNSA's preferred option for the disposition of the CMR
Building is to decontaminate, decommission, and demolish that entire
structure (Option 3).
Signed in Washington, DC, this 21 day of October, 2003.
Everet H. Beckner,
Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs, National Nuclear Security
Administration.
[FR Doc. 03-28508 Filed 11-13-03; 8:45 am]
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