NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY: Notice of Availability of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Environmental Impact Statement on the Construction and Operation of a Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina - Final Report (NUREG-1767) (January 28, 2005) . The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has contracted with Duke Cogema Stone & Webster (DCS) to design, construct, and operate a proposed Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility that would convert weapons-grade plutonium into MOX fuel. The proposed MOX facility would be located on the DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Use of the proposed facility to produce MOX fuel is part of the DOE’s surplus plutonium disposition program. The purpose of the DOE program is to ensure that plutonium produced for nuclear weapons and declared excess to national security is converted to proliferation-resistant forms.

This final environmental impact statement (FEIS) was prepared by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), regulations for implementing NEPA, and the guidance provided by the Council on Environmental Quality regulations implementing the procedural provisions of NEPA. The document discusses the purpose and need for the proposed action, describes the proposed action and its reasonable alternatives, describes the environment potentially affected by the proposal, presents and compares the potential environmental impacts resulting from the proposed action and its alternatives, and identifies mitigation measures that could eliminate or lessen the potential environmental impacts. The document also includes comments received on the draft environmental impact statement and NRC’s responses.

Requests for further information on the final EIS, and copies of the document should be directed to: Matthew Blevins at (301) 415-7684. The final EIS is available on NRC's website at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1767. [The EPA Notice of Availability is in the Federal Register, 70 FR 4119, January 28, 2005].