ML040060278

Undated Draft Ltr S. Richards, NRR, to P. Eddy, State of New York, Public Service Commission Re 08/25/1999 Telephone Call to Indian Point Resident Inspector'S Office About Indian Point Unit 1 (Ipi) Polychlorinated Biphenyl (Pcb) Issues

ML040060278
Person / Time
Site:	Indian Point
Issue date:	12/19/2003
From:	Richards S NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD4
To:	Eddy P State of NY, Public Service Commission
References
FOIA/PA-2004-0057
Download: ML040060278 (2)

Text

Mr. Paul Eddy State of New York Public Service Commission 3 Empire Plaza Albany, NY 12203-1350

Dear Mr. Eddy:

I am responding to your telephone call of August 25, 1999, to the Indian Point Resident Inspector's Office about Indian Point Unit 1 (IPI) polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) issues. I am replying to you on the basis of the questions and concerns you expressed about the PCB issues and the decommissioning plan for IP1. Specifically, the IP1 sphere sand cushion was found to contain both PCBs and radiological contamination, and the questions you raised were whether this contamination would expand the scope of decommissioning and whether this issue was considered in the decommissioning fund requirements.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) decommissioning regulations require that decommissioning funds are to be used to safety remove a facility or a site from service and reduce residual radioactivity to an acceptable level. Generally speaking, this requirement has been viewed as including mixed waste," which is waste with radiological and conventional components. The waste tank cleanup process meets the use-of-decommissioning-funds test since the source of the contamination was a waste stream from an ongoing decommissioning project in the IP1 spent fuel pool. Given the source of the contamination, the cost of the waste collection tank cleanup Is a legitimate use of decommissioning funds.

During the cleaning of the various pools associated with the fuel In Unit 1, the licensee have come across PCBs. These PCBs seem to be associated with some old hydraulic-operated equipment. Because of the dose rates (2-3rem/hour at the surface), robotics are being employed to remove the sludge and debris. Some samples of sediment (sludge) from the water storage pool contain 557 ppm of PCBs. In cleaning the water storage pool, the water from this pool was sent to the waste collection tanks, which Introduced PCBs to these tanks.

The Consolidated Edison Company of New York (Con Edison) has estimated that the recovery cost Is approximately $500,000.

On March 31, 1999, Con Edison submitted the enclosed decommissioning funding status report for IPI. In the report, funds anticipated to be required In accordance with the NRC minium certification funding amount (10 CFR 50.75 (b) and (c)) for nuclear decommissioning are as follow:

1. Direct Disposal of Low Level Waste IP1 1P2

$399.1 million $463.1 million (2) Disposed of Low Level Waste by Waste Vendors IP1 1P2

$235.1 million $272.8 million If you have any other questions, please contact John Minns of my staff at 301-415-3166.

Sincerely

Stuart Richards, Director Decommissioning Project Directorate IV Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Concurrence: JMinns, LBerry, MMasnJk Distribution Docket File 50-003(wloorginal Incoming)

Public JZwolinski RBellamyRi JRoggeR1 ADimetrius (letter should be sent to service list)