Supplement Analysis to the 1999 Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Operation of Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Proposed Disposition of Certain Large Containment Vessels

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This Supplement Analysis (SA) has been prepared to determine if the Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Operations of Los Alamos National Laboratory (SWEIS) (DOE/EIS-0238) (DOE 1999a) adequately addresses the environmental effects of introducing a proposed project for the clean-out and decontamination (DECON) of certain large containment vessels into the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) Building located at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Technical Area (TA) 3, or if the SWEIS needs to be supplemented. After undergoing the clean-out and DECON steps, the subject containment vessels would be disposed of at LANL's TA-54 low-level waste (LLW) disposal site or, as appropriate, at a DOE or commercial offsite permitted LLW-regulated landfill; after actinides were recovered from the DECON solution within the CMR Building, they would be moved to LANL's TA-55 Plutonium Facility and undergo subsequent processing at that facility for reuse. Council on Environmental Quality regulations at Title 40, Section 1502.9(c) of the Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR 1502.9[c]) require federal agencies to prepare a supplement to an environmental impact statement (EIS) when an agency makes substantial changes in the proposed action that are relevant to environmental concerns, or there are changed circumstances or new or changed information relevant to concerns and bearing on the proposed action or its impacts. This SA is prepared in accordance with Section 10 CFR 10211.314(c) of the DOE's regulations for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementation that states: ''When it is unclear whether or not an EIS supplement is required, DOE shall prepare a Supplement Analysis''. This SA specifically compares key impact assessment parameters of the proposed project action with the LANL operations capabilities evaluated in the 1999 SWEIS in support DOE's long-term hydrodynamic testing program at LANL, as well as the waste disposal capabilities evaluated in the SWEIS in support of LANL operations. It also provides an explanation of any differences between the proposed action and activities described in the SWEIS analysis. The SWEIS analyzed the impacts of performing plutonium (Pu) and actinide activities, including hydrodynamic testing support activity, at the Plutonium Facility and at the CMR Building.