Notice2022-17901
Notice of Intent To Prepare a Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory
Primary source
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Published
August 19, 2022
Issuing agencies
Energy DepartmentNational Nuclear Security Administration
Abstract
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi- autonomous agency within the Department of Energy (DOE), announces its intent to prepare a new Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL or Laboratory) in Los Alamos, New Mexico (DOE/EIS-0552) in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The SWEIS will analyze the potential environmental impacts of the reasonable alternatives for continuing operations of the Laboratory for approximately the next 15 years. The continued operation of the Laboratory is critical to NNSA's Stockpile Stewardship Program to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons worldwide and to many other areas impacting national security and global stability. The SWEIS will also analyze environmental impacts of legacy waste remediation conducted by DOE's Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM). The purpose of this Notice is to invite public participation in the process and to encourage public involvement on the scope of analysis (e.g., range of alternatives, impacts, and actions) and alternatives that should be considered in the SWEIS. Following completion of the SWEIS, NNSA will decide which reasonable alternatives to implement and will announce its decisions through a Record of Decision (ROD). Absent any new decisions associated with this SWEIS process, NNSA would continue to implement decisions announced in previous RODs.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 160 (Friday, August 19, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 160 (Friday, August 19, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51083-51086]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-17901]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
National Nuclear Security Administration
Notice of Intent To Prepare a Site-Wide Environmental Impact
Statement for Continued Operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory
AGENCY: National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
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SUMMARY: The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi-
autonomous agency within the Department of Energy (DOE), announces its
intent to prepare a new Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement
(SWEIS) for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL or Laboratory) in
Los Alamos, New Mexico (DOE/EIS-0552) in compliance with the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The SWEIS will analyze the
potential environmental impacts of the reasonable alternatives for
continuing operations of the Laboratory for approximately the next 15
years. The continued operation of the Laboratory is critical to NNSA's
Stockpile Stewardship Program to prevent the spread and use of nuclear
weapons worldwide and to many other areas impacting national security
and global stability. The SWEIS will also analyze environmental impacts
of legacy waste remediation conducted by DOE's Office of Environmental
Management (DOE-EM). The purpose of this Notice is to invite public
participation in the process and to encourage public involvement on the
scope of analysis (e.g., range of alternatives, impacts, and actions)
and alternatives that should be considered in the SWEIS. Following
completion of the SWEIS, NNSA will decide which reasonable alternatives
to implement and will announce its decisions through a Record of
Decision (ROD). Absent any new decisions associated with this SWEIS
process, NNSA would continue to implement decisions announced in
previous RODs.
DATES: NNSA invites other federal agencies, state and local
governments, federally recognized Indian tribes and the public to
comment on the scope of the LANL SWEIS. The public scoping period
begins with the publication of this Notice in the Federal Register and
continues until October 3, 2022 (the Comment Period). NNSA will accept
public participation in written and oral form, and comments concerning
the scope of the SWEIS will be given equal weight regardless of method
of delivery. For receiving oral comments, NNSA will host two virtual
public scoping meetings. The decision to hold only virtual meetings is
based on the continuing high level of community spread of COVID-19 in
the areas where in-person meetings would be held, as measured and
reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Meeting details will be provided in a future notice posted on the
following website: <a href="http://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-nepa-reading-room">www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-nepa-reading-room</a>. NNSA
will hold the scoping meetings no earlier than 15 days from the posting
of the notice. Details of the public meetings will also be announced in
local media outlets.
ADDRESSES: Written comments will be considered if received or
postmarked by the end of the Comment Period. Comments received or
postmarked after the Comment Period will be considered to the extent
practicable. Written comments on the scope of the SWEIS or requests for
information related to the SWEIS should be sent via postal mail to LANL
SWEIS Comments, 3747 W Jemez Road, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544 or by
email to: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#c8848986849b9f8d819b88a6a6bba9e6aca7ade6afa7be"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0c404d42405f5b49455f4c62627f6d22686369226b637a">[email protected]</span></a>. Before including your address, phone
number, email address, or other personally identifiable information in
your comment, please be advised that your entire comment--including
your personally identifiable information--might be made publicly
available. If you wish for NNSA to withhold your name and/or other
personally identifiable information, please state this prominently at
the beginning of your comment. You may submit comments anonymously.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information about this
Notice, please contact Kristen Dors, NEPA Compliance Officer, U.S.
Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los
Alamos Field Office, 3747 W Jemez Road, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544;
phone: (505) 667-5491; or via email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#672b26292b3430222e3427090914064903080249000811"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="19555857554a4e5c504a5977776a78377d767c377e766f">[email protected]</span></a>. This
Notice and related NEPA documents are available at: <a href="http://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-nepa-reading-room">www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-nepa-reading-room</a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Laboratory has been operating for nearly 80 years in Northern
New Mexico. Today, the Laboratory is a national security laboratory, as
defined by 50 United States Code (U.S.C.) 2471, and operated as an NNSA
facility by a Management and Operating (M&O) contractor with an annual
budget of approximately $4.6 billion and a workforce of approximately
14,000 people. The Laboratory exists to support NNSA missions, which
are established by law, including: (1) to enhance U.S. national
security through the military application of nuclear energy; (2) to
maintain and enhance the safety, reliability, and performance of the
U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, including the ability to design,
produce, and test, in order to meet national security requirements; (3)
to promote international nuclear safety and nonproliferation; (4) to
reduce global danger from weapons of mass destruction; (5) to support
U.S. leadership in science and technology. NNSA missions are carried
out in a manner that is consistent with the principles of: (1)
Protecting the environment; (2) Safeguarding the safety and health of
the public and of the workforce; (3) Ensuring the Security of the
nuclear weapons, nuclear material, and classified information. As a
Federally Funded Research and Development Center, the Laboratory is
primarily sponsored by NNSA but does work for other federal agencies
and partners with a wide variety of entities. LANL also has an
important legacy waste remediation mission, which is overseen by DOE-
EM. The potential impacts of these ongoing DOE-EM remediation
activities will be included in the LANL SWEIS. This Notice signifies
the fourth site-wide EIS undertaken for the Laboratory since 1976.
Purpose and Need for Agency Action
The purpose of the continued operation of the Laboratory has not
changed and continues to be to provide support for NNSA's core missions
as directed by the Congress and the President. NNSA's need to continue
operating the Laboratory is focused on its obligation to ensure a safe
and reliable nuclear stockpile. For the
[[Page 51084]]
foreseeable future, NNSA, on behalf of the U.S. Government, will need
to continue its nuclear weapons research and development, surveillance,
computational analysis, components manufacturing, and nonnuclear
aboveground experimentation. Currently, many of these activities are
conducted solely at the Laboratory. A curtailment or cessation of these
activities would run counter to national security policy as established
by the Congress and the President. The Laboratory plays vital roles in
NNSA missions including: enhancing U.S. national security through the
military application of nuclear energy; maintaining and enhancing the
safety, reliability, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons
stockpile, including the ability to design, produce, and test, in order
to meet national security requirements; promoting international nuclear
safety and nonproliferation; reducing global danger from weapons of
mass destruction; supporting U.S. leadership in science and technology.
The 2016 Compliance Order on Consent between the State of New
Mexico Environmental Department and the Department of Energy (the
Consent Order) is the principal regulatory driver for legacy waste
cleanup at LANL. The Consent Order contains requirements for
investigation and cleanup as well as enforceable deadlines for
achieving desired remediation milestones, which may include the
submission of documents such as investigation work plans, investigation
reports, periodic monitoring reports, and corrective measures
evaluation reports.
Requirements To Fulfill DOE NEPA Compliance
The SWEIS will be prepared pursuant to NEPA (Title 42 U.S.C. 4321
et seq.), the Council on Environmental Quality's NEPA regulations (40
CFR parts 1500-1508) and the DOE NEPA implementing procedures (10 CFR
part 1021). The DOE regulations (10 CFR 1021.330) require preparation
of site-wide documents for certain large, multiple-facility sites, such
as the Laboratory. The purpose of a SWEIS is to provide the public with
an analysis of the potential environmental impacts from ongoing and
reasonably foreseeable new and modified operations and facilities, and
reasonable alternatives, to provide a basis for site-wide
decisionmaking 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 to the baseline. A SWEIS
allows NNSA to ``tier'' its later project-specific NEPA analyses at the
same site. Tiering is a method used in NEPA analysis that allows
agencies to eliminate repetitive discussion of the same issues and to
focus on the specific issues in future proposed actions.
The NEPA process enables federal, state and local governments,
federally recognized Indian tribes, and public participation in the
environmental review process.
Preliminary Alternatives
The scoping process is an opportunity for the public to assist NNSA
in determining the alternatives, issues, or analyses that should be
included in the SWEIS. NNSA welcomes specific comments or suggestions
on the content of these alternatives or on other alternatives that
could be considered. A preliminary set of alternatives and issues for
evaluation in the SWEIS is identified below; during the development of
the SWEIS, NNSA could include other reasonable alternatives.
No-Action Alternative: Continue Current Operations
The No-Action Alternative would continue current operations
throughout the Laboratory that support currently assigned missions.
NEPA regulations require analysis of the No-Action Alternative to
provide a benchmark for comparison with environmental effects of action
alternatives. This alternative includes the programs and activities for
which NEPA reviews and decisions have been made, such as DOE-EM legacy
waste cleanup activities pursuant to the 2016 Consent Order. The No-
Action Alternative includes, for currently assigned mission scope: (1)
construction of minor replacement facilities; (2) upgrades to existing
facilities and infrastructure; (3) decontamination, decommissioning,
and demolition (DD&D) projects.
Modernizing Current Operations Alternative
The programmatic context for the Modernizing Current Operations
Alternative is the continued support of existing programs and
activities by modernizing facilities as necessary. This alternative
includes the scope of the No-Action Alternative, as described above,
plus additional modernization activities. This alternative includes:
(1) construction of replacement facilities; (2) more significant
upgrades to existing facilities and infrastructure; (3) more
significant DD&D projects. Under this alternative, NNSA would replace
facilities that are approaching their end of life, upgrade facilities
to extend their lifetimes, and improve work environments to enable NNSA
to meet operational requirements. The proposed DD&D of older facilities
would eliminate excess facilities and reduce costs and risk. This
alternative would not expand capabilities and operations at LANL beyond
those that currently exist.
Expanded Operations Alternative
The Expanded Operations Alternative includes the modernization
actions included in the Modernizing Current Operations Alternative, as
described above, plus actions that would expand operations and missions
to respond to future national security challenges and meet increasing
requirements. This alternative includes: (1) construction and operation
of new facilities, and (2) significant upgrades to existing facilities
that result in changing the nature and capabilities of these
facilities. This alternative would expand capabilities at LANL beyond
those that currently exist. For example, under an Expanded Operations
Alternative NNSA may consider the construction and operation of an
additional supercomputing complex that would enable NNSA to expand the
capabilities of that program. In the Draft SWEIS, NNSA will identify
and analyze other actions that could expand the capabilities at LANL.
The Draft SWEIS will identify the specific actions associated with
the alternatives and will assess the potential impacts of implementing
the alternatives. The Draft SWEIS will also identify and evaluate any
actions related to environmental management and land transfer that are
reasonable for each of the alternatives.
Other Potential Reasonable Alternatives
The 1999 and 2008 LANL SWEISs included a Reduced Operations
Alternative. Those SWEISs were prepared at times when DOE/NNSA deemed a
reduction in Laboratory operations to be a reasonable alternative. For
the foreseeable future, NNSA does not consider reducing operational or
environmental remediation missions at LANL as reasonable. However, the
timeframe for the SWEIS analysis is approximately 15 years into the
future, and NNSA recognizes that requirements, needs, opportunities,
and vision may change over such a long planning horizon. Consequently,
NNSA has not made a final decision on whether to include a Reduced
Operations Alternative in this SWEIS. NNSA welcomes input on this and
any other alternative the public
[[Page 51085]]
thinks are reasonable and should be analyzed in the SWEIS.
Alternatives that NNSA will not consider reasonable are (1) the
complete closure and DD&D of the Laboratory and (2) transfer of current
missions/operations from the Laboratory to other sites, as those
actions would be inconsistent with the LANL mission defined by NNSA.
Such possibilities were considered as recently as 2008 when NNSA
prepared the Complex Transformation Supplemental Programmatic EIS (CT
SPEIS). In that document, NNSA concluded that ``as a result of the
continuing challenges of certification [of nuclear weapons] without
underground nuclear testing, the need for robust peer review, benefits
of intellectual diversity from competing physics design laboratories,
and uncertainty over the details [of] future stockpiles, NNSA does not
consider it reasonable to evaluate laboratory consolidation [or
elimination] at this time.'' That conclusion has not changed today. In
addition, as one of only three NNSA national security laboratories,
LANL contributes significantly to the core intellectual and technical
competencies of the U.S. related to nuclear weapons. These competencies
embody more than 75 years of weapons knowledge and experience. The
Laboratory performs the basic research, design, system engineering,
development testing, reliability and assessment, surveillance, and
certification of nuclear weapons safety, reliability, and performance.
From a broader national security perspective, the core intellectual and
technical competencies of the Laboratory help provide the technical
basis for the pursuit of U.S. arms control and nuclear nonproliferation
objectives.
The CT SPEIS also considered and evaluated the transfer of missions
and operations to and from the Laboratory, and NNSA has implemented, as
appropriate, decisions that followed preparation of that document. NNSA
has not identified any new proposals for current missions/operations
that are reasonable for transfer to/from the Laboratory.
Preliminary Environmental Analysis
The following issues have been identified for analysis in the
SWEIS. The list is tentative and intended to facilitate public comment
on the scope of the SWEIS. It is not intended to be all inclusive, nor
does it imply any predetermination of potential impacts. The NNSA
specifically invites suggestions for the addition or deletion of items
on this list.
<bullet> Potential effects on the public and workers from exposures to
radiological and hazardous materials during normal operations,
construction, reasonably foreseeable accidents (including from natural
phenomena hazards), and intentional destructive acts
<bullet> Impacts on surface and groundwater, floodplains and wetlands,
and on water use and quality
<bullet> Impacts on air quality from potential releases of radiological
and nonradiological pollutants and greenhouse gases
<bullet> Impacts to plants and animals and their habitats, including
species that are federally or state-listed as threatened or endangered,
or of special concern
<bullet> Impacts on physiography, topography, geology, and soil
characteristics
<bullet> Impacts to cultural resources, such as those that are
historic, prehistoric, archaeological, scientific, or paleontological
<bullet> Socioeconomic impacts to affected communities
<bullet> Environmental justice impacts, particularly whether or not
activities at the Laboratory have a disproportionately high and adverse
effect on minority and/or low-income populations
<bullet> Potential impacts on land use and applicable plans and
policies
<bullet> Impacts from traffic and transportation of radiological and
hazardous materials and waste on and off the Laboratory campus
<bullet> Pollution prevention and materials, and waste management
practices and activities
<bullet> Impacts on visual aesthetics and noise levels of Laboratory
facilities on the surrounding communities and ambient environment
<bullet> Impacts to community services, including fire protection,
police protection, schools, and solid waste disposal to landfills
<bullet> Impacts from the use of utilities, including water and
electricity consumption, fuel use, sewer discharges, and resource
conservation
<bullet> Impacts from site contamination and remediation
<bullet> Unavoidable adverse impacts
<bullet> Environmental compliance and inadvertent releases
<bullet> Short-term uses and long-term productivity
<bullet> Irreversible and irretrievable commitment of resources
<bullet> Cumulative effects of past, present, and reasonably
foreseeable future actions
<bullet> Mitigation commitments
LANL SWEIS Process and Schedule
Fourteen years have passed since the publication of the 2008 LANL
SWEIS. Because of comprehensive site planning activities that are under
consideration, as well as other reasons, NNSA determined that it was
appropriate to revisit the 2008 SWEIS analysis. The scoping process is
intended to involve all interested agencies (federal, state, and
local), public interest groups, federally recognized Indian tribes,
local businesses, and members of the general public. Interested parties
are invited to participate in the SWEIS process to refine the
preliminary alternatives and identify environmental issues that are
reasonable or pertinent for analysis. Input from the scoping process
will assist NNSA in formulating the alternatives and defining the scope
of the SWEIS analysis.
Following the scoping process announced in this Notice, and after
consideration of comments received during scoping, NNSA will prepare a
Draft SWEIS for the continued operation of the Laboratory. NNSA expects
to issue the Draft SWEIS in 2023. NNSA will announce the availability
of the Draft SWEIS in the Federal Register and local media outlets.
NNSA will hold one or more public hearings for the Draft SWEIS. Any
comments received on the Draft SWEIS will be considered and addressed
in the Final SWEIS. NNSA could then issue a Record of Decision no
sooner than 30 days after publication by the Environmental Protection
Agency of a Notice of Availability of the Final SWEIS.
Signing Authority
This document of the Department of Energy was signed on August 15,
2022 by Jill Hruby, Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and
Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration, pursuant to
delegated authority from the Secretary of Energy. That document with
the original signature and date is maintained by DOE. For
administrative purposes only, and in compliance with requirements of
the Office of the Federal Register, the undersigned DOE Federal
Register Liaison Officer has been authorized to sign and submit the
document in electronic format for publication, as an official document
of the Department of Energy. This administrative process in no way
alters the legal effect of this document upon publication in the
Federal Register.
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Signed in Washington, DC, on August 16, 2022.
Treena V. Garrett,
Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2022-17901 Filed 8-18-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
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