FOREWARD
The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a major U.S. Department of Energy installation. The past mission of the SRS was to produce nuclear materials that supported the defense, research, and medical programs of the United States. In 1922 the Secretary of Energy directed the SRS to phase out defense-related chemical separations activities. As a result, SRS presently has a large inventory of nuclear materials such as in-process solutions, fuel assemblies, and targets. On March 17, 1994, DOE published a Notice of Intent (NOI) (59 FR 12588) to prepare an enviromental impact statement (eis) on the Interim Management of Nuclear Materials at the SRS. The proposed DOE interim management actions are to stabilize those nuclear materials at the SRS that represent a health or safety concern for the public, workers, and the environment and to convert certain materials to a usable form to support DOE program needs, such as research and development and other programs. These interim actions are necessary while DOE makes and implements long term decisions on the disposition of nuclear materials. DOE is addressing its long-term decisions in a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Storage and Disposition of Weapons-Usable Fissile Materials, for which it issued an NOI on June 21, 1994 (59 FR 311985). DOE expects that it could require 10 years or more to make and implement these long-term decisions. After identifying the need for the Interim Management of Nuclear Materials eis, DOE determined the there are safety concerns associated with plutonium solutions stored in the F-Canyon that warrant consideration of actions prior to the issuance of a Record of Decision for the Interim Management of Nuclear Materials eis. Therefore, DOE decided to prepare a separate eis on an expedited basis. On August 23, 1994, DOE published in the Federal Register a notice of an amendment to the NOI for the Interim Management of Nuclear Materials eis at the SRS. The notice explained DOE's decision to prepare this eis on F-Canyon Plutonium Solutions. The NOI for the Interim Management of Nuclear Materials eis requested public comments and suggestions for DOE to consider in its determination of the scope of that eis, and announced a public scoping period that ended on May 31, 1994. DOE held scoping meetings in Savannah, Georgia, North Augusta, South Carolina, and Columbia, South Carolina, on May 12, 17, and 19, 1994, respectively. As a result of this public scoping process, DOE recieved comments applicable to the stabilization of F-Canyon plutonium solutions from the individuals, organizations, and government agencies, and has considered these comments in the preparation of this eis. On September 9, 1994, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a Notice of Availability (NOA) in the Federal Register (59 FR 174, pages 46643-46644), which officially started the public comment period on the Draft F-Canyon Plutonium Solutions eis; DOE published a corresponding NOA for the Draft F-Canyon Plutonium Solutions eis; DOE published a corresponding NOA for the Draft eis on September 9, 1994 (59 FR 174, pages 46627-46628). The public comment period ended on October 24, 1994. DOE has revised the Draft eis, as approapriate, in response to the comments recieved in letters and during public hearings in Columbia, South Carolina, North Augusta, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia (October 4, 6, and 11, 1994, respectively) from individuals, organizations, and Federal and state agencies. These revisions are indicated in the Final eis by vertical change bars in the margin. Most of these change bars are marked either TC (technical change) or TE (editorial change). The remaining change bars are cross-referenced to specific public comments, which are presented in Appendix C, along with the DOE responses to the comments and cross-references to appropriate sections of the eis. Transcripts of public testimony, copies of scoping letters, scoping comments and DOE responses, and reference materials cited in this eis are available for review in the DOE Public Reading Room at the University of South Carolina-Aiken Campus, Gregg-Graniteville Library, 2nd Floor, 171 University Parkway, Aiken, South Carolina, (803) 648-6851, and at the Freedom of Information Reading Room, Room 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C., (202) 586-6020. DOE has prepared this eis in accordance with the NEPA regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality (40 CFR Parts 1500-1508) and DOE NEPA Implementing Procedures (10 CFR Part 1021). This eis identifies the methods used and the scientific and other sources of information consulted. In addition, it incorporates, physically or by reference, available results of ongoing studies. Th eis uses a variety of technical terms (e.g., vintrification) to describe activities and events. Technical terms not explained in the text are defined in the Glossary.
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