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Generic Environmental Impact Statement For Uranium Milling FacilitiesOn this page:
BackgroundThe NRC expects numerous license applications for in-situ leach (ISL) uranium
milling facilities in 2008 through 2010. This generic environmental impact
statement (GEIS) addresses common issues associated with environmental reviews
of such facilities located in the western
ISL milling facilities recover uranium from low grade ores that may not be economically recoverable by other methods. The GEIS focuses on the construction, operation, and decommissioning of and ground water restoration at ISL mills. For more information on the uranium fuel cycle, please see Regulating Nuclear Fuel, NUREG/BR-0280. Alternatives To Be EvaluatedNo action. Not construct nor operate potential ISL uranium milling facilities. Under this alternative, the NRC would not approve future license applications. This alternative serves as a baseline for comparison of the potential environmental impacts. Proposed action. Construct, operate, and decommission and conduct ground water restoration at an ISL uranium mill. Implementation of the proposed action would require the issuance of an NRC license under the provisions of 10 CFR Part 40. Environmental Impact Areas To Be AnalyzedBased on the scoping process, the NRC has identified the following resource areas for analysis in the GEIS. The examples under each resource area are not intended to be all inclusive, nor is this list an indication that environmental impacts will occur.
Scoping MeetingsThe public scoping process required by the National Environmental Policy Act begins with publication of a notice of intent (NOI). The NRC staff published its NOI for the preparation of the GEIS in the Federal Register on July 24, 2007 (72 FR 40344). Scoping is an early and open process designed to do the following.
The NRC is encouraging public involvement in the GEIS process and has solicited public comments on the proposed scope and content of the GEIS. As part of the GEIS process, the NRC held three public scoping meetings to solicit both oral and written comments from interested parties. During these meetings, the NRC staff briefly described NRC's role and mission, the NRC's environmental review process, and the goals of the meeting. The rest of each meeting was set aside for attendees to make oral comments. The meeting dates, times and locations are listed below. The following links on this page are to documents in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). See our Plugins, Viewers, and Other Tools page for more information. For successful viewing of PDF documents on our site please be sure to use the latest version of Adobe.
Scoping CommentsMembers of the public and interested parties provided comments on the scope of the GEIS. These comments were provided at the public scoping meetings, as well as in writing, submitted either electronically or by regular mail. The scoping comment period closed on November 30, 2007; however, comments received after that date were considered to the extent possible. The NRC has prepared a scoping summary report of the public comments received. The National Environmental Policy Act ProcessThe GEIS will be prepared according to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and NRC's NEPA implementing regulations contained in 10 CFR Part 51. The steps in the process will be as follows.
Current ScheduleThe NRC published a draft GEIS for public comment on July 28, 2008 (73 FR 43795). The public comment period on the draft GEIS has been extended and now closes on November 7, 2008 (73 FR 57687). To aid the public in providing comments on the draft GEIS, the NRC has scheduled a series of public meetings. The meeting dates, times, and locations are provided below.
Members of the public are invited and encouraged to submit comments on the Draft GEIS to the Chief, Rulemaking, Directives, and Editing Branch, Mailstop: T6-D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001. The NRC encourages comments submitted electronically to be sent to NRCREP.Resource@nrc.gov. Please include “Uranium Recovery GEIS” in the subject line when submitting written comments. The NRC expects to issue the final GEIS by June 2009. The Final GEIS will address, as appropriate, the public comments received on the Draft GEIS. Related Information |
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