ML17056A730
| ML17056A730 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Nine Mile Point  |
| Issue date: | 03/30/1990 |
| From: | Ronald Bellamy NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I) |
| To: | Resnikoff M RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES |
| Shared Package | |
| ML17056A731 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9004100140 | |
| Download: ML17056A730 (8) | |
See also: IR 05000220/1989080
Text
MAR 8 0 1990
Radioactive
Waste
Management
Associates
ATTN:
Marvin Resnikoff, Ph.D,
Senior Associate
306 West 38th Street,
Room 1508
Dear
Dr. Resnikoff:
I am responding to your letter of March 5, 1990, concerning the Nine Mile Point
Unit I reactor.
In your letter you stated that two aspects
of the incident
where Niagara
Mohawk used the Radwaste
Building sub-basement
as
a long-term
liquid waste retention facility should
be more fully examined
by the Nuclear
Regulatory
Commission.
Further,
you raised several
specific points regarding
the
NRC's regulatory actions.
Below they are addressed.
In your Item
A you correctly point out that the flooding of the radwaste
building sub-basement
ultimately resulted in the need to release
water to Lake
Ontario.
The releases
that were made
by the licensee
were allowed by federal
regulations
and were properly reported to the
NRC.
The releases
were made in
a controlled manner at very low concentrations
thus ensuring protection of
public health
and safety
and protection of the environment.
Your Item A also states
that the total
amount of excess
water released
to the
sub-basement
was 90,000 gallons
and that
NRC may not have
been
aware of this
amount of water.
The Augmented
Inspection
Team (AIT) reviewed all water
released
to the sub-basement
during the inspection
conducted
in August,
1989.
'he water was disposed of by one of two means, either by release
to Lake
Ontario
as described
above,
or by temporary storage
onsite
and subsequent
evaporation.
Residue
from the evaporation
process
was shipped to an authorized
disposal site
as solid radwaste.
Such shipments
were
made in accordance
with
NRC and the Department of Transportation regulations,
thus public health
and
safety
was ensured.
All releases
to the sub-basement
and licensee
notifications were covered in the AIT Report
and in subsequent
enforcement
actions.
In your Item
B you suggested
that, associated
with the
1981 radwaste building
flooding event,
the evaporator
was being directly vented to the environment.
The design of the evaporator
precludes
the presence
of a direct non-filtered
pathway to the environment.
The vapor that is generated
during operation of
the evaporator is condensed
in the vapor condenser.
The distillate is then
cooled
and routed to floor drains which lead back to the radwaste building for
storage,
and further processing
and reuse.
The non-condensables
are routed to
the ventilation system
where they are monitored
and filtered.
All releases
Marvin Resnikoff
MAR 8 0 1990
from the building ventilation system are controlled by federal regulations
and
are reported to the
NRC.
Our review of licensee's
records in this area
indicates that releases
have
been within regulatory limits thus ensuring
protection of public health
and safety
and protection of the environment.
Regarding radioactive
cesium detected
in milk samples
during 1981, this issue
was addressed
in Section 6.0 of the AIT inspection report.
As described
in the
AIT report, it is the conclusion of the inspection
team that the elevated
concentrations
of radioactive
cesium measured
in milk were not a result of
releases
from the facility.
Regarding your comments
in the area of the enforcement action taken
by the
NRC,
these
subjects
were addressed
in NRC's Notice of Violation issued to Niagara
Mohawk on February 23,
1990.
A copy of that action is enclosed.
Please refer
to that document for an explanation of the considerations
that were taken in
arriving at the regulatory conclusions for this event.
With regard to your comment concerning
the records of the barrel contents,
those
records primarily are required for preparation of documentation at the
time of shipment for disposal.
They became
unusable
because of the flooding
of the sub-basement.
The licensee will have to requantify the contents of the
drums
and reconstruct
the records prior to such shipment,
but no violation of
regulatory requirements
occurred
due to the inadvertent
loss of the records.
With regard to your comment that the incident should
have
been reported to the
NRC under
the staff carefully considered
this as
a potential
violation. It was concluded that the incident was not required to have
been
reported.
As
a result, there is no basis for concluding that the licensee
was
involved in a "cover-up," as you suggested.
I hope this letter addresses
your concerns
to your satisfaction.
Sincerely,
Encl:
As stated
Ronald
R. Bellamy, Chief
Facilities Radiological Safety
and Safeguards
Branch
Division of Radiation Safety
and Safeguards
cc w/encl:
M. Knapp
R. Pollard
Representative
Louise
M. Slaughter
Public Document
Room
(PDR)
Local Public Document
Room
(LPDR)
Region I Docket
Room (w/concurrences)
(50-220)
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