[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 19 (Monday, January 31, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4889-4890]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-1685]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 030-31689]


Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of 
NoSignificant Impact for License Amendment for the Department of Health 
and Human Services' Facility in Kensington, MD

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bryan A. Parker, Health Physicist, 
Commercial and R&D Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region 
I, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, 19406, telephone 
(404) 562-4728, fax (610) 337-5269; or by email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a license 
amendment to the Department of Health and Human Services for Materials 
License No. 19-07538-05, to authorize release of its facility in 
Kensington, Maryland for unrestricted use. NRC has prepared an 
Environmental Assessment (EA) in support of this action in accordance 
with the requirements of 10 CFR Part 51. Based on the EA, the NRC has 
concluded that a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is 
appropriate. The amendment will be issued following the publication of 
this Notice.

II. EA Summary

    The purpose of the action is to authorize the release of the 
licensee's Kensington, Maryland facility for unrestricted use. The 
Department of Health and Human Services was authorized by NRC from May 
29,1990, to use radioactive materials for research and development 
purposes at the site. On September 21, 2004, the Department of Health 
and Human Services requested that NRC release the facility for 
unrestricted use. The Department of Health and Human Services has 
conducted surveys of the facility and provided information to the NRC 
to demonstrate that the site meets the license termination criteria in 
Subpart E of 10 CFR Part 20 for unrestricted use.
    The NRC staff has prepared an EA in support of the license 
amendment. The facility was remediated and surveyed prior to the 
licensee requesting the license amendment. The NRC staff has reviewed 
the information and final status survey submitted by the Department of 
Health and Human Services. Based on its review, the staff has 
determined that there are no additional remediation activities 
necessary to complete the proposed action. Therefore, the staff 
considered the impact of the residual radioactivity at the facility and 
concluded that since the residual radioactivity meets the requirements 
in Subpart E of 10 CFR Part 20, a Finding of No Significant Impact is 
appropriate.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    The staff has prepared the EA (summarized above) in support of the 
license amendment to release the facility for unrestricted use. The NRC 
staff has evaluated the Department of Health and Human Services's 
request and the results of the surveys and has concluded that the 
completed action complies with the criteria in Subpart E of 10 CFR Part 
20. The staff has found that the environmental impacts from the action 
are bounded by the impacts evaluated by NUREG-1496, Volumes 1-3, 
``Generic Environmental Impact Statement in Support of Rulemaking on 
Radiological Criteria for License Termination of NRC-Licensed 
Facilities' (ML042310492, ML042320379, and ML042330385). On the basis 
of the EA, the NRC has concluded that the environmental impacts from 
the action are expected to be insignificant and has determined not to 
prepare an environmental impact statement for the action.

IV. Further Information

    Documents related to this action, including the application for the 
license amendment and supporting documentation, are available 
electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can access the 
NRC's Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), which 
provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS 
accession number for the document related to this Notice is 
ML042680139. Please note that on October 25, 2004, the NRC terminated 
public access to ADAMS and initiated an additional security review of 
publicly available documents to ensure that potentially sensitive 
information is removed from the ADAMS database accessible through the 
NRC's Web site. Interested members of the public may obtain copies of 
the referenced documents for review and/or copying by contacting the 
Public document Room pending resumption of public access to ADAMS. The 
NRC

[[Page 4890]]

Public Documents Room is located at NRC Headquarters in Rockville, MD, 
and can be contacted at (800) 397-4209 or (301) 415-4737, or by email 
to [email protected]. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for 
a fee. The PDR is open from 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, except on Federal holidays.

    Dated at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania this 24th day of January, 
2005.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
James P. Dwyer,
Chief, Commercial and R&D Branch,Division of Nuclear Materials 
Safety,Region I.
[FR Doc. 05-1685 Filed 1-28-05; 8:45 am]
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