Notice of Intent To Prepare Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Disposal Phase

Federal RegisterAug 23, 1995

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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Notice of Intent To Prepare Supplemental Environmental Impact

Statement Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Disposal Phase

AGENCY: Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact

statement.

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SUMMARY: The Department announces its intent to prepare a Supplemental

Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS II) for the proposed continued

phased development of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for

disposal of transuranic (TRU) waste. The Department will prepare the

SEIS II pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of

1969, in accordance with the Council on Environmental Quality

regulations for implementing the procedural provisions of NEPA and the

Department's implementing procedures, and to conduct public scoping

meetings.

The Department has been proceeding with the phased development of

WIPP to meet its statutory responsibility to demonstrate the safe

disposal of TRU waste resulting from United States defense activities.

[[Page 43780]]

After preparing an EIS in 1980, the Department decided in its 1981

Record of Decision to begin phased development of a research and

development facility to demonstrate the safe disposal of TRU wastes in

salt by constructing WIPP near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The Department

prepared its first Supplemental EIS in 1990 to analyze changes in

environmental impacts resulting from significant new information and

changed circumstances since the 1980 EIS. In a 1990 Record of Decision,

the Department decided to continue with phased development of WIPP by

conducting test phase activities to demonstrate WIPP's compliance with

applicable disposal regulations. Test phase activities were to have

included tests with TRU waste in the excavated underground area of

WIPP. In October 1993, however, the Department decided to conduct tests

using radioactive wastes in above-ground laboratories rather than

underground at WIPP. Some experiments to further examine the

hydrologic, geologic and physical characteristics of the repository

continue to be conducted underground at WIPP.

In the Record of Decision for the 1990 Supplemental EIS, the

Department stated that it would prepare the SEIS II before deciding

whether to proceed with the WIPP disposal phase. The Department

proposes to continue phased development of WIPP to begin waste disposal

in 1998. The Department is aware that a bill, H.R. 1663, has been

introduced in Congress that, if enacted, could accelerate this planned

schedule. The Department intends to prepare the SEIS II to further

examine the environmental impacts of the proposed future phases of

WIPP, including the disposal, closure, and post-closure phases.

DATES: The Department invites all interested parties to submit comments

or suggestions concerning the scope of the issues to be addressed,

alternatives to be analyzed, and the environmental impacts to be

assessed in the SEIS II during a comment period ending September 30,

1995. All comments will be considered in preparation of the SEIS II.

Written comments must be postmarked by September 30, 1995 to assure

consideration. Comments postmarked after that date will be considered

to the extent practicable.

The public is also invited to attend scoping meetings where

comments will be received on the SEIS II. Public scoping meetings will

be held on the dates and at the locations given below:

Carlsbad, New Mexico.................. September 7, 1995................ Holiday Inn Carlsbad, 601 South Canal

Street, Carlsbad, NM 88220, (505)

885-8500.

Albuquerque, New Mexico............... September 12, 1995............... Pyramid Holiday Inn, 5151 San

Francisco Road NE., Albuquerque, NM

87109, (505) 821-3333.

Santa Fe, New Mexico.................. September 14, 1995............... Best Western High Mesa Inn, 3347

Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501,

(505) 473-2800.

Denver, Colorado...................... September 19, 1995............... Denver Marriott West, 1717 Denver

West Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401,

(303) 273-4022.

Boise, Idaho.......................... September 20, 1995............... Red Lion Inn Riverside, 2900 Chinden

Boulevard, Boise, ID 83714, (208)

343-1871.

Scoping meetings will be conducted in the afternoon and evening at

the New Mexico locations. Only evening scoping meetings are planned for

Denver and Boise. The hours for scoping meetings will be: 2:00 PM to

5:00 PM for the afternoon meetings and 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM for the

evening meetings.

The scoping meetings will be conducted as workshops. Displays will

provide an overview of the WIPP project, and Department personnel will

be present to answer general questions about the project. Separate

displays will explain individual aspects of the WIPP project in more

detail and experts will be present to answer questions on a variety of

topics, including transportation, waste handling and disposal plans,

and long-term performance issues (including geology, hydrology, and

health impact assessment). Additional displays and experts may be added

to the presentation based on public input before the scoping meetings.

Note takers will capture the substance of public comments in the

display and discussion areas. A separate area also will be available

where the public can write their own comments or record them on

audiotape.

Records of, and responses to, the oral and written scoping comments

will be presented in the Implementation Plan for the SEIS II. The

Implementation Plan will also provide guidance for preparation of the

SEIS II and state the planned scope and content (10 CFR 1021.312). The

Implementation Plan will be issued as soon as possible after the close

of the public scoping process, but in any event before issuing the

draft SEIS II.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the Implementation Plan will be provided to

interested and affected members of the public upon request and will be

available for inspection in the public reading room locations indicated

below:

Public Library Reading Room, Department of Energy, 1000 Independence

Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, 625 Indiana Avenue, NW., Suite

700, Washington, DC 20004

Office of Scientific and Technical Information, Technical Information

Center, Department of Energy, P.O. Box 62, Oak Ridge, TN 37831

WIPP Public Reading Room, National Atomic Museum, Albuquerque

Operations Office, Department of Energy, P.O. Box 5400, Albuquerque, NM

87115

Zimmerman Library, Government Publications Department, University of

New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87138

Carlsbad Public Library, 101 S. Halagueno Street, Carlsbad, NM 88220

Pannell Library, New Mexico Junior College, 5317 Lovington Highway,

Hobbs, NM 88240

Thomas Brannigan Memorial Library, 200 E. Picacho, Las Cruces, NM 88005

Raton Public Library, 244 Cook Avenue, Raton, NM 87740

New Mexico State Library, 325 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe, NM 87503

Martin Speare Memorial Library, New Mexico Institute of Mining and

Technology, Campus Station, Socorro, NM 87801

Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Boise Office, 816 West Bannock,

Suite 306, Boise, ID 83706

Shoshone-Bannock Library, Human Resources Center, Bannock and Pima,

Fort Hall, ID 83203

Public Reading Room, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Technical

Library, 1776 Science Center Drive, Idaho Falls, ID 83402

University of Idaho Library, Government Document Department, University

of Idaho Campus, Rayburn Street, Moscow, ID 83403

Moscow Environmental Restoration Information Office, 530 South Ashbury,

Suite 2, Moscow, ID 83843

[[Page 43781]]

Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Pocatello Office, 1651 Al Ricken

Drive, Pocatello, ID 83201

Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Twin Falls Office, 233 2nd

Street North, Suite B, Twin Falls, ID 83301

Standley Lake Library, 8485 Kipling Street, Arvada, CO 80005

Information Center, Colorado Department of Public Health and

Environment, 4300 Cherry Creek Drive South, Building A, Denver, CO

80222-1530

Superfund Records Center, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, 999

18th Street, 5th Floor, Denver, CO 80220

Rocky Flats Public Reading Room, Department of Energy, Front Range

Community College Library, 3645 West 112th Avenue, Westminster, CO

80030

Citizens Advisory Board, 9035 N. Wadsworth Parkway, Suite 2250,

Westminster, CO 80021

Comments on the scope of the SEIS II, questions concerning the

Department's proposal to begin the WIPP disposal phase, and requests

for copies of the Implementation Plan and/or the Draft SEIS II should

be directed to the designated Carlsbad Area Office contact below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Written questions and comments should

be directed to: Harold Johnson, NEPA Compliance Officer, Attn: Scoping

Comments, Mail Stop 535, Carlsbad Area Office, U.S. Department of

Energy, Post Office Box 3090, Carlsbad, NM 88221.

Oral and faxed questions and comments should be directed to the

SEIS II Project at the numbers below: Telephone: 1-800-336-9477,

Facsimile: 1-505-224-8030.

For information on the Department's NEPA process, contact: Carol M.

Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA Policy and Assistance (EH-42), U.S.

Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, D.C.

20585, Telephone: 202-586-4600 or leave a message at 1-800-472-2756.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The ``National Security and Military Applications of Nuclear Energy

Act of 1980'' (Pub.L. 96-164) authorized the Department to develop a

research and development facility to demonstrate the safe disposal of

radioactive waste generated by national defense activities. WIPP is

intended to meet the statutory requirements of Pub.L. 96-164. Initially

the WIPP mission was to include experimentation with high-level

radioactive wastes, but subsequent legislation has limited the

radioactive component of waste the Department proposes to place in WIPP

to TRU waste.

TRU waste is waste that contains alpha particle-emitting

radionuclides with an atomic number greater than that of uranium (92),

half-lives greater than 20 years, and concentrations greater than 100

nanocuries per gram of waste. TRU waste is classified according to the

radiation dose rate at a package surface. Contact-handled TRU waste has

a radiation dose rate at a package surface of 200 millirem per hour or

less; this waste can be safely handled directly by personnel. Remote-

handled TRU waste has a radiation dose rate at a package surface

greater than 200 millirem per hour; this waste must be handled remotely

(e.g., with machinery designed to shield the handler from radiation).

Alpha radiation is the primary factor in the radiation health hazard

associated with TRU waste. Alpha radiation is not energetic enough to

penetrate human skin but poses a health hazard if it is taken into the

body (e.g., inhaled or ingested). Remote-handled TRU waste also emits

gamma and/or beta radiation, which can penetrate the human body and

requires shielding during transport and handling.

The Department's TRU waste inventory has resulted primarily from

research and development, nuclear weapons production, and fuel

reprocessing activities at Departmental sites. [Idaho National

Engineering Laboratory; Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site; the

Hanford, Savannah River, Mound and Nevada Test Sites: and Los Alamos,

Oak Ridge, Lawrence Livermore and Argonne (Chicago) National

Laboratories have historically generated over 90 percent of the

Department's TRU waste, with smaller sites generating the remainder.]

Currently, about 2.6 million cubic feet of contact-handled TRU waste

and about 42,000 cubic feet of remote-handled TRU waste are in

retrievable storage at Departmental sites around the country. The

Department projects that approximately 1.8 million additional cubic

feet of contact-handled TRU waste and 127,000 cubic feet of remote-

handled TRU waste will be generated through the year 2022 from

continuing site activities and decontamination and decommissioning.

Additional TRU waste would be generated by environmental restoration

activities at Departmental sites, but the volume and characteristics of

this waste that might be disposed of at WIPP are uncertain. (Decisions

on the disposition of waste and contaminated media from environmental

restoration activities are made on a cleanup-by-cleanup basis, and such

decisions have not yet been made for many of the Department's

environmental restoration activities. The Department has also not yet

sufficiently characterized all of the contaminated sites to be certain

as to the specific wastestreams from those cleanups.) The potential for

disposal at WIPP of TRU waste from environmental restoration activities

will be analyzed in the cumulative impacts section of the SEIS II as a

reasonably foreseeable future action.

Before 1970, material that is now classified as contact-handled TRU

waste was not segregated from low-level waste and was buried along with

low-level waste. At the time of burial, the Department did not intend

to retrieve that waste. Since the Atomic Energy Commission (one of the

Department's predecessor agencies) adopted a policy requiring

retrievable storage of certain waste containing transuranic

radionuclides in 1970, Departmental TRU waste has been stored in

containers so that it could be easily retrieved when future decisions

were made regarding the management or disposition of this waste.

About 55 percent of the Department's current TRU waste inventory

contains hazardous substances regulated under the Resource Conservation

and Recovery Act and is referred to as TRU mixed waste. The fraction of

TRU waste streams that is mixed waste is expected to decrease in the

future due to Departmental pollution prevention activities. Under the

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, land disposal of waste

containing certain listed hazardous constituents is prohibited, unless

the waste is treated to substantially diminish the waste's toxicity or

substantially reduce the likelihood of migration of hazardous

constituents from the waste so that short-term and long-term threats to

human health and the environment are minimized. (This prohibition, and

the required treatment level, are referred to as the ``land disposal

restrictions.'') The Environmental Protection Agency can grant an

exemption from the land disposal restrictions if it finds that there

will be no migration of hazardous constituents from the disposal unit

for as long as the wastes remain hazardous (a ``no-migration

exemption''). (The Department received such an exemption for the WIPP

test phase.) The Department plans to submit a petition for a no-

migration exemption for the WIPP disposal phase to the Environmental

Protection Agency in

[[Page 43782]]

June 1996. As discussed further below, the SEIS II will analyze three

levels of TRU waste treatment to provide for any decision the

Environmental Protection Agency may make on that petition.

The Department has been proceeding with the phased development of

WIPP since 1981. In the Final Environmental Impact Statement, Waste

Isolation Pilot Plant (DOE/EIS-0026, 1980), the Department examined the

environmental impacts of the WIPP and alternatives and in the 1981

Record of Decision (46 FR 9162, January 23, 1981) decided to begin

construction of the WIPP facility to demonstrate the safe disposal of

TRU waste in salt formations. In the following nine years, construction

of WIPP surface facilities and shafts necessary for waste and salt

handling and ventilation were completed, and the experimental area and

a portion of the underground disposal area were excavated.

In 1990, the Department prepared the Final Supplemental

Environmental Impact Statement, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (DOE/EIS-

0026FS, 1990), which reexamined the environmental impacts of WIPP in

light of new information and changed circumstances (including a

reduction in the expected volume of TRU waste, inclusion of high-curie

and high-neutron waste in the TRU waste inventory, a decision not to

emplace high-level waste in WIPP for experimental purposes, and changes

from a vented to a non-vented TRU waste transportation package). In the

1990 Record of Decision (55 FR 25689, June 22, 1990), the Department

decided to continue phased development of WIPP by conducting test phase

activities to reduce uncertainties associated with performance

assessment predictions that are necessary to determine whether WIPP

would comply with applicable disposal regulations. Test phase

activities were to have included tests with TRU waste in the

underground area of WIPP. On October 21, 1993, in response to comments

from the Environmental Protection Agency, the scientific community, and

the public, the Department decided to conduct tests using radioactive

wastes in above-ground laboratories rather than underground at WIPP.

Performance assessment models based on these tests are being used to

demonstrate compliance with applicable disposal regulations.

In the 1990 Record of Decision, the Department announced it would

prepare this SEIS II before proceeding with the proposed waste disposal

phase at the WIPP. The Department is proposing to begin the disposal

phase of WIPP operations in June 1998. (The Department is aware that a

bill, H.R. 1663, has been introduced in Congress that, if enacted,

could accelerate disposal to March 1997.) The Department is preparing

the SEIS II to provide updated information about the environmental

impacts of the proposed action and alternatives.

The 1990 Record of Decision stated that the scope of the SEIS II

would include an analysis of the long-term performance of WIPP in light

of the information obtained during the test phase activities and a more

detailed analysis of the processing and handling of TRU waste at the

generator facilities. In 1992, Congress passed the ``Waste Isolation

Pilot Plant Land Withdrawal Act'' (Pub.L. 102-579) (Land Withdrawal

Act), which imposed additional requirements on the Department's phased

development of the WIPP site. As explained more fully below, the SEIS

II will also discuss these statutory changes and other changed

circumstances to the extent that they could affect the environmental

impacts of WIPP.

Additional changes to the Land Withdrawal Act proposed in H.R.

1663, if enacted, could further affect the scope of the SEIS II

analysis.

Changed Circumstances and New Information:

Several changed circumstances since 1990 that could affect the

environmental impacts of the WIPP disposal phase will be examined in

the SEIS II, as part of the analysis of the proposed action or of

alternatives or subalternatives to the proposed action, including the

following:

Waste Management Programmatic EIS. The Department is

examining various options for waste management across the Departmental

complex in the Waste Management Programmatic EIS (DOE/EIS-0200) (PEIS).

The Notice of Intent was published on October 22, 1990 and an

Implementation Plan was issued on December 23, 1993. The Department

proposed to modify the scope of the PEIS in January 1995 (60 FR 4607,

January 24, 1995). The Draft PEIS is scheduled for issuance in

September 1995. The PEIS is examining alternatives for treatment,

storage, and disposal of specified waste types complex-wide, including

post-1970 generated TRU waste. Because the SEIS II will examine impacts

of TRU waste disposal at WIPP, the PEIS does not examine those impacts.

Under all of the PEIS TRU waste alternatives, disposal at WIPP of all

post-1970 Department-generated retrievably-stored TRU waste is assumed

for purposes of analysis.

The PEIS examines the potential environmental impacts of treating

the waste to three levels: treatment to meet the planning-basis WIPP

waste acceptance criteria (primarily designed to decrease waste

mobility), intermediate treatment to also reduce the gas generation

potential of the waste, and enhanced treatment of TRU mixed waste to

also meet Resource Conservation and Recovery Act land disposal

restrictions at various Departmental sites that generate TRU waste.

WIPP is the only Departmental site not currently generating TRU waste

that would be considered as an alternative treatment site (for contact-

handled TRU waste only).

To fulfill the commitments made in the 1990 Record of Decision to

examine the impacts of waste processing and handling at the generator

sites, the SEIS II will summarize and incorporate by reference the PEIS

analysis of the alternatives for TRU waste treatment locations that are

being considered in the PEIS. The SEIS II will also include an analysis

of the impacts of disposal of waste treated to meet the three treatment

levels being considered in the PEIS. The information from the PEIS

concerning impacts of various treatment levels at the treatment sites

and the SEIS II analysis of disposal impacts at WIPP from various

treatment levels will inform the Department's decision on final WIPP

waste acceptance criteria.

The Department proposes to use WIPP to dispose of post-1970

retrievably-stored and newly-generated TRU waste generated by defense-

related activities. For completeness, however, the SEIS II also will

assess the impacts of disposing of a relatively small volume (when

compared to defense-related waste) of non-defense TRU waste at WIPP,

consistent with the PEIS action alternatives. The SEIS II will

incorporate the PEIS analysis by reference and supplement it as

appropriate. Statutory changes would be required before WIPP could

dispose of non-defense generated TRU waste.

The scope of the analysis in the SEIS II will differ from that of

the PEIS in several major aspects resulting from the documents'

different purposes. Specifically, the SEIS II, but not the PEIS, will

analyze the impacts of TRU waste disposal at WIPP. In addition, because

the PEIS assumes for analytic purposes that WIPP will operate, the

long-term environmental impacts of indefinite storage of TRU waste at

generator sites are not included in the PEIS analysis. The PEIS no-

action alternative analyzes the impacts of continued storage of TRU

waste at generator sites until disposal at WIPP,

[[Page 43783]]

assuming that existing waste management facilities would be used. The

impacts of storage for an indefinite time will be analyzed as part of

the no-action alternative in the SEIS II.

More Generator Sites. Ten generator sites for the majority

of the Department's TRU waste were identified in the 1990 Supplemental

EIS (listed under Background, above), but the Department since then has

identified additional sites that generate small quantities of TRU waste

that would be disposed of at WIPP. Options for managing this waste are

being addressed in the PEIS (and will be incorporated by reference in

the SEIS II), including treatment at the small generator sites to meet

the planning-basis WIPP waste acceptance criteria and direct shipment

from these sites to WIPP for disposal (which would require activities

such as certification, treatment, storage, and loading for

transportation to be done at each small generator site) and using one

or more of the main generator sites to perform such waste management

activities.

Less Waste. The volumes of contact-handled and remote-

handled TRU waste in retrievable storage and estimated to be generated

at the generator/storage sites from continuing operations have greatly

decreased since 1990, primarily because of the Department's reduced

nuclear weapons production activities.

Land Withdrawal Act. The Land Withdrawal Act contains

provisions that could affect the environmental impacts of various WIPP

alternatives. One section of the Act sets an upper limit on the volume

of TRU waste (6.2 million cubic feet) and the radioactivity (5.1

million curies) of remote-handled waste that can be disposed of at

WIPP. The SEIS II would examine whether these limitations would affect

the previous analysis of the impacts and whether the Department may

need to dispose of more waste than the Act would allow to be disposed

of at WIPP. Also, the Land Withdrawal Act requires the Department to

perform certain studies, including one on rail and truck transportation

alternatives, one on remote-handled TRU waste, and one on waste

processing and volume reduction technologies. Any new information

contained in studies required by the Land Withdrawal Act will be used,

as appropriate, in preparing the SEIS II.

WIPP Experimental Program. The WIPP experimental program

has provided additional information regarding the site, the waste, and

potential interactions between the waste and the WIPP environment that

are relevant to the performance of the WIPP site. To date, experimental

results appear to confirm previous expectations regarding the

suitability of WIPP as a TRU waste repository. Performance assessment

models based on these tests are being used to demonstrate compliance

with applicable disposal regulations, and will be used to provide

information on waste disposal impacts in the SEIS II.

Waste Acceptance Criteria. DOE has revised the planning-

basis WIPP waste acceptance criteria since 1990. The revision that

could potentially affect environmental impacts the most is the addition

of a requirement to treat waste to eliminate corrosive characteristics.

The planning-basis WIPP waste acceptance criteria could potentially

change again to conform with decisions made regarding TRU waste

treatment based on the analysis of treatment subalternatives in the

SEIS II.

Transportation Routes. The Department has made minor

changes to the local portions of some of the truck transportation

routes that were presented in the 1990 Supplemental EIS.

Purpose and Need For Agency Action

As discussed under Background, above, since the mid-1940s, the

Department's research and development, nuclear weapons production, and

fuel reprocessing activities have produced TRU waste. Continued

operation of Departmental facilities, decontamination and

decommissioning of defense production facilities, and environmental

restoration activities (including remediation of sites where pre-1970

wastes were buried) at Departmental sites are expected to generate

additional TRU waste. The Department needs to safely dispose of the

accumulated TRU waste and provide for the disposal of the additional

TRU waste to be generated. TRU waste emits alpha radiation for a long

period of time and must be isolated from means of environmental

transport (primarily air and water). Similarly, the hazardous

constituents of the TRU mixed waste also pose a hazard if they are

taken into the body and need to be isolated or treated to reduce

exposure and its consequences. As noted above, Congress authorized the

Department in Pub.L. 96-164 to develop a research and development

facility to meet the Department's need for disposal. The Department

also needs to examine reasonable alternatives for treatment of the TRU

waste to ensure that the disposal of the waste is protective of human

health and the environment.

Proposed Action

The Department's proposed action is to continue phased development

of WIPP by beginning the disposal phase of TRU waste operations at the

facility. Any unfinished compliance activities would continue until the

Department obtains regulatory approvals needed to begin receiving

waste. (Compliance activities are ongoing now, and are scheduled for

completion before a decision on the WIPP disposal phase.) The remainder

of the planned waste disposal area at WIPP would be excavated to

accommodate the waste, as needed. (Approximately one-eighth of the

planned disposal area has already been excavated.)

Under the proposed action, retrievably-stored defense-generated

waste would be characterized, packaged, and certified at the generator

sites to meet WIPP waste acceptance criteria (to be determined based on

the analysis in the SEIS II) and then loaded into approved reusable

shipping containers for transportation to WIPP by truck. When the waste

arrives at WIPP, the shipping container would be unloaded and the waste

containers would be inspected before being emplaced underground at

WIPP.

Under the proposed action, the SEIS II will analyze the impacts of

waste storage, characterization, certification, treatment, and loading

at the generator sites, and of transporting TRU waste from the

generator sites to WIPP. The SEIS II will also discuss mitigation and

accident prevention measures and emergency response procedures to

protect the safety and health of workers and the public at the

generator sites and along transportation routes, and tracking of waste

shipments to WIPP. Much of this analysis will have already been done in

the context of the PEIS and the previous WIPP Supplemental EIS, and

will be summarized and incorporated by reference, and supplemented or

updated as necessary.

The impacts of waste disposal operations at WIPP also will be

analyzed under this alternative in the SEIS II, including the impacts

of waste receipt and waste package inspection, monitoring, emplacement,

and subsequent activities associated with eventual closure,

decommissioning and institutional control of the WIPP after waste

disposal operations have been completed. Loss of institutional controls

will also be considered.

Alternatives to the Proposed Action

The SEIS II will consider a no-action alternative that consists of

continued management of TRU waste at the

[[Page 43784]]

generator facilities and decommissioning or other disposition of the

WIPP facility. This alternative will be analyzed to provide a baseline

of environmental impacts if the waste were not disposed of at WIPP.

Analysis of the no-action alternative would compare the impacts of

continued storage of TRU waste (including an assumed loss of

institutional controls after 100 years) with the expected post-closure

impacts of WIPP under the proposed-action alternative.

Subalternatives

Subalternatives of the proposed action would also be considered.

The effects on the performance of WIPP as a disposal site of several

TRU waste treatment subalternatives would be considered in the SEIS II

to help the Department establish final WIPP waste acceptance criteria.

Another set of subalternatives would address the disposal of non-

defense generated TRU waste. Transportation subalternatives, including

rail common carrier service and dedicated rail service, particularly

for remote-handled waste, would also be reexamined in the SEIS II.

Preliminary Identification of Environmental Issues

The issues listed below have been tentatively identified for

analysis in the SEIS II. This list is presented to facilitate public

comment on the scope of the SEIS II. It is not intended to be all-

inclusive or to predetermine the potential impacts of any of the

alternatives.

(1) Potential effects on the public and on-site workers from

releases of radiological and non-radiological materials during normal

operations and from reasonably foreseeable accidents;

(2) Pollution prevention and waste minimization;

(3) Potential effects on air and water quality and soils, and other

environmental consequences of normal operations and reasonably

foreseeable accidents;

(4) Potential cumulative effects of operations at the WIPP site,

including relevant impacts from other past, present, and reasonably

foreseeable activities at the site;

(5) Potential effects on endangered or threatened species, other

species of concern, floodplain/wetlands, and archaeological/historical

sites;

(6) Effects from normal transportation and reasonably foreseeable

transportation accidents;

(7) Potential socioeconomic impacts on communities surrounding WIPP

and the generator sites;

(8) Environmental justice considerations;

(9) Unavoidable adverse environmental effects;

(10) Short-term uses of the environment versus long-term

productivity; and

(11) Potential irretrievable and irreversible commitments of

resources.