Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement; Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement; Sandia National

Laboratories/New Mexico

AGENCY: Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE) announces its intent to prepare

a Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) for its Sandia

National Laboratories/New Mexico (SNL/NM), a DOE research and

development laboratory located on Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB) in

Albuquerque, New Mexico. The SWEIS will address operations and

activities that DOE foresees at SNL/NM for approximately the next 10

years. The U.S. Air Force will participate as a cooperating agency. The

purpose of this Notice is to invite public participation in the process

and to encourage public dialogue on alternatives that should be

considered.

DATES: The DOE invites other Federal agencies, Native American tribes,

State and local governments, and the general public to comment on the

scope of this SWEIS. The public scoping period starts with the

publication of this Notice in the Federal Register and will continue

until July 14, 1997. DOE will consider all comments received or

postmarked by that date in defining the scope of this SWEIS. Comments

received or postmarked after that date will be considered to the extent

practicable. Public scoping meetings are scheduled to be held as

follows:

June 23, 1997, 1:00 p.m.-4:00pm and 6:00 p.m.-9:00pm, UNM Continuing

Education Conference Center, 1634 University Blvd. NE; Albuquerque, NM

The purpose of these meetings is to receive oral and written

comments from the public. The meetings will use a format to facilitate

dialogue between DOE and the public and will provide an opportunity for

individuals to provide written or oral statements. The DOE will publish

additional notices on the date, times, and location of the scoping

meetings in local newspapers in advance of the scheduled meetings. Any

necessary changes will be announced in the local media.

In addition to providing oral comments at the public scoping

meetings, all interested parties are invited to record their comments,

ask questions concerning the SNL/NM SWEIS, or request to be placed on

the SNL/NM SWEIS mailing or document distribution list by leaving a

message on the SNL/NM SWEIS Hotline at (toll free)

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1-888-635-7305. The Hotline will have instructions on how to record

your comments and requests.

ADDRESSES: Written comments or suggestions concerning the scope of the

SNL/NM SWEIS should be directed to: Ms. Donna A. Bergman, U.S.

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

Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87185-5444, or by facsimile at (505) 845-6392.

For express delivery services, the appropriate address is Pennsylvania

and H Streets, Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, NM 87116.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information on the SWEIS

and the public scoping process, contact Donna Bergman at the address

and facsimile number listed above.

For information on DOE's NEPA process, please contact: Carol

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

Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC

20585. Ms. Borgstrom can be reached at (202) 586-4600, by facsimile at

(202) 586-7031, or by leaving a message at 1-800-472-2756.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Invitation to Comment

The public is invited to participate in the scoping process and is

encouraged to comment on the preliminary alternatives and issues

identified for the SNL/NM SWEIS.

Availability of Scoping Documents

Copies of all written comments and transcripts of all oral comments

will be available at the following location: Albuquerque Technical-

Vocational Institute (TVI), Montoya Campus Library, 4700 Morris NE,

Albuquerque, New Mexico 87111.

SNL/NM's Mission

DOE is responsible for the Federal Government's nuclear weapons

program, research and development of energy technologies, and basic

science research. SNL/NM is one of DOE's primary research, development,

and test laboratories. It was established in 1947 to support the U.S.

weapons development program. Its purpose was to organize and perform

engineering activities for development of nuclear and nonnuclear

weapons; testing of new designs; and surveillance tests. Today, it

remains one of the three national laboratories in DOE's nuclear weapons

complex. Responsibilities in support of nuclear weapons activities

include design, certification, and assessment of non-nuclear subsystems

of nuclear weapons; systems integration; safety, security, reliability,

and use control; direction and support to production plants regarding

issues associated with production and dismantlement of nuclear weapons;

production and/or acquisition of weapons components; surveillance and

support of weapons in the stockpile; and work in nuclear intelligence,

nonproliferation, and treaty verification technologies. Nonweapons

research and science services are provided in areas including waste

management, environmental restoration, hazardous and radioactive

material transportation, energy efficiency and renewable energy,

nuclear energy, fossil energy, magnetic fusion, basic energy sciences,

and biological and environmental research. Additional activities

include energy and environment technologies; other engineering

research; and work-for-others.

SNL/NM operations are located primarily in five technical areas

(TA) and the Coyote Test Facility, all of which are surrounded by KAFB.

Activities/operations in specific areas are as follows:

TA I--Manufacturing/production activities, such as the

microelectronics development laboratory and the neutron generator

facility; environmental testing; facilities engineering; laboratory

space; office space.

TA II--Light laboratory activities; environmental restoration.

TA III--Field test facilities; explosives testing operations;

destructive testing operations; high energy testing operations.

TA IV--Radiation effects experimentation; accelerator operations

[high-energy radiation megavolt electron source (HERMES), x-ray source

(Saturn)]; electromagnetic analysis.

TA V--Nuclear safety and system analysis; Annular Core Research

Reactor; Gamma Irradiation Facility; radioisotope production

(molybdenum-99).

Coyote Test Facility--Explosives testing; thermal testing; shock/

blast testing; and large scale impact testing.

SNL/NM has an annual budget of approximately $1 billion and employs

approximately 8,700 people. SNL/NM is surrounded by KAFB, and occupies

2,842 acres owned by the DOE and an additional 15,003 acres that have

been made available through a series of land use agreements or permits.

Missions of Other DOE-funded Operations on KAFB

In addition to SNL/NM, there are several other DOE-funded

facilities located on KAFB. There are no planned changes in the level

or type of activities at these facilities. The environmental impacts of

these operations will be included in the discussion of cumulative

impacts in the EIS. DOE welcomes comments on this approach. A summary

of each facility follows.

Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, formerly the Inhalation

Toxicology Research Institute, began in the 1960s as a research team

for determining the long-term health impacts of inhaling radioactive

particles, and has since become a recognized center for inhalation

toxicology and related fields.

Central Training Academy ensures the efficient and effective

training of safeguards and security personnel from throughout the DOE

who are, or may become, involved in the protection of materials and

facilities vital to the nation's defense.

Transportation Safeguards Division (TSD) coordinates, implements,

and operates the DOE Safeguards Program for strategic quantities of

government-owned special nuclear material. TSD coordinates and plans

weapons distribution with the Department of Defense and coordinates

special nuclear material shipments for all DOE field offices.

Allied-Signal Kirtland Operations is an applied science and

engineering organization engaged in research, analysis, testing, and

field operations. A major portion of this work is in the design,

fabrication, and testing of electro-optic and recording systems for

capturing fast transient signals.

Ross Aviation is the DOE's support contractor providing air cargo

and passenger service. Ross transports cargo between production plants,

national laboratories, test sites, and military facilities and provides

special passenger and cargo flights on request.

The DOE/Albuquerque complex is a series of office buildings with

approximately 1,200 Federal and contractor employees.

The Energy Training Center is a small office complex that includes

classrooms for DOE training.

The Role of the SWEIS in the DOE NEPA Compliance Strategy

The SWEIS will be prepared pursuant to the National Environmental

Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), the Council on

Environmental Quality's NEPA regulations (40 CFR Parts 1500-1508) and

the DOE NEPA regulations (10 CFR Part 1021). The DOE has a policy (10

CFR 1021.330) to prepare SWEISs for certain large, multiple-facility

sites, such as SNL/NM. The purpose of a SWEIS is to provide

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DOE and its stakeholders with an analysis of the environmental impacts

caused by ongoing and reasonably foreseeable new operations and

facilities and reasonable alternatives at a DOE site, to provide a

basis for site-wide decision making, and to improve and coordinate

agency plans, functions, programs, and resource utilization. The SWEIS

provides an overall NEPA baseline so that the environmental effects of

proposed future changes in programs and activities can be compared with

the baseline. A SWEIS also enables DOE to ``tier'' its NEPA documents

at a site so as to eliminate repetitive discussion of the same issues

in future project-specific NEPA studies, and to focus on the actual

issues ready for decisions at each level of environmental review. The

NEPA process allows for Federal, Native American, state and local

government, and public participation in the environmental review

process. The Environmental Impact Assessment, Sandia Laboratories,

Albuquerque, New Mexico [EIA/MA 77-1], May 1977, is the existing site-

wide environmental document for SNL/NM. Since that time, several

additional NEPA documents have been prepared for specific projects,

including one EIS, and various environment assessments.

Related NEPA Reviews

The following is a list of recent NEPA documentation that affects

the scope of this SWEIS. The summaries below are intended to

familiarize the reader with the purpose of these other NEPA reviews and

how SNL/NM is considered in them.

Programmatic NEPA Reviews

The Draft Waste Management Programmatic Environmental Impact

Statement (PEIS) (DOE/EIS-0200) analyzes the DOE plan to formulate and

implement a national integrated waste management program. SNL/NM is

being considered as a possible regional site for the disposal of low-

level waste and low-level mixed waste. The Final PEIS is expected to be

available to the public in June.

Nonnuclear Consolidation Environmental Assessment [DOE/EA-0792]. A

Finding of No Significant Impact on the Consolidation of the Nonnuclear

Component within the Nuclear Weapons Complex was signed on September 8,

1993. The following decisions regarding SNL/NM were made at that time

and have since been implemented:

--Neutron Generators and Thermal Batteries: The existing technology

base for neutron generators will be maintained at SNL/NM. Existing

research, development and technology and prototyping capability at SNL/

NM will be augmented to provide a limited manufacturing capability for

future advanced design neutron generators. The technology base for the

manufacture of thermal batteries will be transferred to existing

facilities at SNL/NM.

--Detonators: The existing research, development, and technology base

for low-power explosives components will be maintained at SNL/NM.

Stockpile Stewardship and Management PEIS [DOE/EIS-0236]. A Record

of Decision was signed by the Secretary of Energy on December 19, 1996.

Inherent in the many decisions made in the ROD was to continue the

operations of the three national weapons laboratories, SNL/NM being one

of the three. The Record of Decision emphasized that stockpile

stewardship is an essential program to maintain the safety and

reliability of the stockpile in the absence of underground nuclear

testing, therefore requiring enhanced experimental capabilities in the

future.

Project NEPA Reviews

Medical Isotopes Production Project: Molybdenum-99 and Related

Isotopes Environmental Impact Statement [DOE/EIS-0249F]. The Record of

Decision for this EIS was signed on September 11, 1996. The decision

made was to produce Mo-99 and related isotopes at the Annular Core

Research Reactor and Hot Cell Facility at SNL/NM.

Environmental Assessment of the Environmental Restoration Project

at Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico [DOE/EA-1140]. A Finding of

No Significant Impact was signed on March 25, 1996. This EA analyzed

the environmental restoration site characterization and waste cleanup

activities for an estimated 157 solid waste management units or SWMUs

at SNL/NM.

Preliminary Alternatives

The scoping process is an opportunity for the public to assist the

DOE in determining the alternatives and issues for analysis. DOE

welcomes specific comments or suggestions on the content of these

alternatives, or on other alternatives that could be considered.

DOE is proposing to continue current operations at SNL/NM. Two

preliminary alternatives were identified during internal scoping: the

No Action alternative and the Expanded Operations alternative. DOE also

considered a Reduced Operations alternative. However, current

activities at SNL/NM are at the minimum level of operations needed to

protect the technical capability and competency to support the site's

assigned missions. Therefore, the Department plans to include the

Reduced Operations alternative in the EIS as an alternative considered

but eliminated from further analysis.

No Action. NEPA regulations require analysis of the No Action

alternative to provide a benchmark for comparison with environmental

effects of the other alternatives. The No Action alternative would

continue current facility operations throughout SNL/NM in support of

assigned missions, and for this SWEIS, it is also the proposed action.

With respect to the Defense Programs mission, the future role of SNL/NM

was defined at the programmatic level by the Stockpile Stewardship and

Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (SSM PEIS)

Record of Decision (ROD) (61 FR 68014) (December 26, 1996). In the SSM

PEIS, SNL/NM had been considered as an alternative location for the

National Ignition Facility (NIF) and for relocation of non-nuclear

fabrication functions from the Department's Kansas City Plant.

Additionally, the SSM PEIS noted that a pre-decisional facility, the

Advanced Radiation Source (X-1), might, at some time in the future, be

considered for location at SNL/NM or other sites. The ROD located

neither the NIF nor the Kansas City Plant functions at SNL/NM, and

stated that if DOE were to propose to construct and operate such next-

generation facilities as the X-1 in the future, appropriate NEPA review

would be performed. Therefore, the programmatic mission defined by the

SSM ROD for SNL/NM is continued operation with the current mission and

functions. There are no planned programmatic mission changes in the

non-Defense Programs mission areas.

Expanded Operations. This alternative would reflect an increase in

facility operations to the highest levels that can be supported by

current facilities. This could require construction projects to address

safety, security and environmental compliance as well as to support

reconfiguration of facility equipment and operations to optimize use of

current facilities' capabilities. This alternative will set the

bounding conditions for assessing the environmental impacts.

Preliminary Issues Identified by Internal Scoping

The issues listed below have been identified for analysis in this

SWEIS as being applicable to the operation of SNL/NM. The list is

tentative and is

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intended to facilitate public comment on the scope of this SWEIS. It is

not intended to be all-inclusive, nor does it imply any

predetermination of potential impacts. The SWEIS will describe the

potential environmental impacts of the alternatives, using available

data where possible and obtaining additional data where necessary. In

accordance with the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations (40

CFR 1500.4 and 1502.21), other documents, as appropriate, may be

incorporated into the impacts analyses by reference, in whole or in

part. DOE specifically welcomes suggestions and comments for the

addition or deletion of items on this list.

--Potential effects on the public and workers from exposures to

radiological and hazardous materials during normal operations and from

reasonably postulated accidents, including aircraft crashes;

--Potential effect on air and groundwater quality from normal

operations and potential accidents;

--Potential cumulative effects of past, present, and future operations

at SNL/NM (this SWEIS will include effects of current and reasonably

foreseeable federal actions on KAFB).

--Effects on waste management practices and activities, including

pollution prevention, waste minimization, and waste stream

characterization

--Potential impacts of noise levels to the ambient environment and

sensitive receptors; and

--Potential impacts on land use plans, policies, and controls.

Classified Material

DOE will review classified material while preparing this SWEIS.

Within the limits of classification, DOE will provide to the public as

much information as possible. Any classified material DOE needs to use

to explain the purpose and need for action, or the uses, materials, or

impacts analyzed in this SWEIS, will be segregated into a classified

appendix or supplement.

Issued in Washington, D.C., this 23 day of May 1997, for the

United States Department of Energy.

Peter N. Brush,

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Environment, Safety and Health.

[FR Doc. 97-14168 Filed 5-29-97; 8:45 am]

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