Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for License Amendement for Department of the Army, Walter Reed Army Medical Center Washington, DC

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Laurie Peluso, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, 19406, telephone (610) 337-5323, fax (610) 337-5269; or by email: LAP@nrc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the issuance of a license amendment to Department of Army, Walter Reed Medical Center for Materials License No. 08-01738-02, to authorize release of Building 40 of the Washington, DC site 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 proposed action is to authorize the release of the licensee's Building 40 of the Washington, DC facility for unrestricted use. WRAMC was authorized by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) from February 18, 1959 to use radioactive materials for medical research, diagnosis, and therapy purposes and on August 17, 1962 to operate a research reactor in Building 40 at the site. On March 9, 2004, WRAMC requested that NRC release the facility for unrestricted use. WRAMC has conducted surveys of the facility and determined that the facility meets the license termination criteria in Subpart E of 10 CFR part 20. The NRC staff has prepared an EA in support of the proposed license amendment.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

The staff has prepared the EA (summarized above) in support of the proposed license amendment to release Building 40 in its entirety of the WRAMC facility at 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW., Washington, DC for unrestricted use. The NRC staff has evaluated WRAMC's request and the results of the surveys, performed independent measurements to confirm the results, 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 proposed action are bounded by the impacts evaluated by the “Generic Environmental Impact Statement in Support of Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for License Termination of NRC-Licensed Facilities” (NUREG-1496). On the basis of the EA, the NRC has concluded that the environmental impacts from the proposed action are expected to be insignificant and has determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement for the proposed action.

IV. Further Information

The EA and the documents related to this proposed action, including the application for the license amendment and supporting documentation, are available for inspection at NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (ADAMS Accession No. ML041380084). These documents are also available for inspection and copying for a fee at the Region I Office, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, 19406. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or (301) 415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov.