ML103620745
| ML103620745 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 12/28/2010 |
| From: | Janice Owens NRC/OIP/ECIOB |
| To: | Frazee T State of WA, Dept of Health, Div of Radiation Protection |
| References | |
| Download: ML103620745 (3) | |
Text
December 28, 2010 Mr. Terry Frazee, Director Division of Radiation Protection State of Washington Department of Health P.O. Box 47827 Olympia, WA 98504-7827
Dear Mr. Frazee:
SUBJECT:
APPLICATION FOR NRC IMPORT LICENSE (IW028)
Enclosed for your consideration is an application dated August 31, 2010 (Enclosure 1), from Oregon Specialty Metals requesting a license (IW028) to import approximately 186,000 kilograms of materials contaminated with 2.613 kilograms of U-235 contained in 58.575 kilograms uranium, which originated in the United States and had been sent to Mississauga Metals and Alloys Inc. (MMA) in Canada for processing. We are sending analogous letters to Mr. Michael Garner (Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management), Mr. Rusty Lundberg (State of Utah), Mr. David Allard (State of Pennsylvania),
and Mr. Richard Janati (Appalachian Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management), for their respective consideration.
If issued, the license will allow the import of 186,000 kilograms of materials in the form of contaminated mixed metals, filter cake, spent metal shot, trash and protective clothing. The waste was originally exported to MMA for processing from Areva (Richland and Lynchburg-XW007) and Westinghouse (Hematite and Columbia- XW003). MMA had a major fire in 2009 which led to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission suspending their license and requiring the inventory to be reduced. You may recall that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued an import license exemption (IW020-EX) as well as a specific import license (IW021) authorizing the return of some materials to the United States.
The latest import application (IW028) was forwarded to the U.S. Department of State (DOS) on October 14, 2010, for assistance in notifying Canadian Government authorities of the proposed radioactive waste import. NRC also requested DOSs views as to whether approving the application would be consistent with the guidelines of the Joint Convention of the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and Safety of Radioactive Waste Management.
NRC published a Federal Register notice regarding the import license application on November 9, 2010 (Enclosure 2). Alaron, under contract to Oregon Specialty Metals (the applicant), has agreed to use their Pennsylvania license to condition and package the waste for transport to the Clive, Utah disposal facility and Arevas Richland, Washington disposal facility (only for the waste that originated there),for final disposition.
It would be greatly appreciated if within three weeks of the date of this letter, you could respond with any comments you may have concerning the import license application (IW028) or if necessary, provide an estimate of how much additional time may be required to complete your review and provide a written response to NRC.
T. Frazee We welcome your response by e-mail or telefax, and request that you refer to NRC license application IW028 in your response. As the NRCs point of contact for this matter, my e-mail address is Janice.Owens@nrc.gov and my telefax number is (301) 415-2395. If you respond by e-mail, please copy your response to Ms. Jenny Wollenweber at Jennifer.Tobin@nrc.gov.
Should you have questions or require additional information, please feel free to contact me at (301) 415-3684 or Ms. Wollenweber at (301) 415-2328.
Sincerely,
/RA by Jenny Tobin Wollenweber for/
Janice Owens, Branch Chief Export Controls and International Organizations Office of International Programs
Enclosures:
- 1. Application Dated 08/30/10 IW028 - Canada Docket Number 11005875
- 2. Federal Register Notice cc w/enclosures:
G. Kim, NRC/OGC J. Kennedy, NRC/FSME
TEMPLATE NO.: OIP-004 Package No.: ML103620761 Letter No.: ML103620745 No.: ML102140103 No.: ML103140778 Publicly Available Non-Publicly Available Sensitive Non-Sensitive OFFICE OIP OIP BC:OIP NAME JChimood JWollenweber JTWollenweber for JOwens DATE 12/28/10 12/ /10 12/28/10