ML19206A313

Discusses Error Re Computation of Radiological Effluent Discharges in 10CFR51.20 Table S-3

ML19206A313
Person / Time
Site:	Crane
Issue date:	09/21/1977
From:	Jordan W Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel
To:	Yore J Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel
Shared Package
ML19206A312	List: ML19206A311 ML19206A313
References
NUDOCS 7904190294
Download: ML19206A313 (8)

Text

-

s' i

lifil l i i

.I,,!!'

h NilCl L Alt 1:1 citil, l ' il ; '< C t L

' ;'; I ( ).* !

.r 9

. L. ;

>,?

A : or.u c sta ! r y r.rso i.. i

.cir. ro, so Para L q ' "[.

.u.a n w. o oc,...

5 *.,,-

September 21, 1977 MEMOllANDU.'.1 FOlt :

Jancs 11. Yoro; Chairnan Atomic Saf e ty.utd Licensing Board Panel FROM; Yialler II. Jordan, ASIBP SUUJECT:

ERRORS IN 10 CFR s51.20', TABLE S-3 Licensing of a nuclear power plant includes a con-sideration of the environmen tal cos ts of building and operating the plant.

This in c luders the environmental costs of the fuei cycle such as uining, m i lli ng, f a hr ica-tion of f uci elemen ts and was te dis posal.

These cos ts

,s:

ha'/c been sunnuarized in Ta b le S-3 of 10 CFR s51.20(c),

rovlsed'.

One sectiot. of the ta ble deals with radiological effluents.

The quantity of radioactivity discharged is given in curies for cach important nuclide and is s ta ted o

as being the total amount emitted "per annual fuel require-mont or reference reactor year."

For exacple, the m.t::imum quantity of Kr-85 that might Oc released to the atmosphere as a consequence of'orcrating a reference reactor (1000 M7/e, S03 capacity f ac tor) for one year would be 100,000 curies and could be re'. cased from the plant tha t reprocesses 12 F.R.

13803, March 1 l, 1977 rjgo419CMf' T S E3

- 3 J

7 the fuel.

The table includus L.I 10 curies of high-lovel waslos (Lo be bu r ietl a l a Firb ral iteposi t ory) thal would be generated for each re ference reactor year (RRY) of operation.

With one c::cep tion the figures given do indeed conserv:tLively stale the total amoun of radioactiviLy that would be relea<,ed as gas, l irj u i d, or solid as a consequence

' of operating a referenco power plant for one year or altel-natively as a consequence of. - inin g a nd n:illing the quantity of uranium requi. red to fuel such a plant for one year, the so called annual fuel requirement (AFR)

The one i mpor tan L 0:: cop t ton has to do with the quantit, of Rn-222 there the figure given is "74.5 curies.

Principally from milling operations and c;celudes contribution from mining".

This figure is in error The correct; value "<culd be some 100,000 timos greater' The technical basis for nv conclusion will be discussed in a later section, but is based on the fact

t. hat a mill Lailings pile con Linues to emit radon for thousands of years.

3 The curie quanLity for Rn-222 appeared in the original S-3 l' ables and remain anchanged in the ?,iarch 10, 1977 revi-eion of the Table.

!! owc Ve r, the foctnote 5 of the revised taolo is new and also contains an juportant error The penuliimaLe senLence sLaLes (accuralely I believe) that

"... (N UR EG -000 2 ) indicates a ma:2 mum release of about 9*$U4 a:il G

f-

-3 4800 Ci of Pn-222 c/h e n con Lr i bu t ion:s fron miniun are included."

This is indeed the Lo La l from the mining of r

one " annual fuel requirement" t h a l.

is e:a i l led during the i

approximately 25-year life of the mine.

At the end of the life of the mine it will be scaled and no further radon emitted.

The final sonLcnce of 100 L ao Le 5 ts incorrect.

It' reads as follows:

"NUREG-0002 also indicates that mining contributes about 500 person-reu ( i.o la l body) and that milling contributes about 100 person-ren (LoLal body) of a total of.ibout G10 person-rem (total body) to offsite U.

S.

population per annual fuel requirement."

I have no quarrel with the dose from :ining.

Cut there is no j t'a lifica tion for limitin:, the dose f ro::. tallings piles to that from radon omitLed during the period of 1975 to 2000.

The dose figure in tegra ted a ppropria tel y in Lo the future vould bc more nearly 10 million person-rem t al-i ng in to account the long half-life of the parcut nuclide of radon, as will be shown later The sourco of the czror for the quan ti ty o f radon omi L Led per AFit is a ppa ren t,

IL was copied from Table S-3 of WASil-12 lS (reprinted as the las t two pages o f SUltEG-OllG, supplement to WASil-1218)

WA S il-1218 <<a s the A EC S tail t

O 'O A 4 E',"

.,s'd

,a

-ev.e.

c l, -

s Les L i:ao n',

in the r u 1 e?:uait i n r, in.i e i n: 1:'J -:: a nr1 norachov the error 'as noL caunhL a f.

thal I i:a o The error in footnote 5 is surely clue to mi. application of the data in Table VIII (A)-G from G E S 'J O, also rep"inted in MUllEG-OllG a nd correc ted in ' UREG-021G.

TECIUi I C.U, CO'.S 1 Dim.W f 07.3 NUllEG-0002 is concerned wit.h the environmen tal con-sequcnce of the opcrations of ligit t vater reactors for electric power production dur in;: the period from 1.. a to year 2000.

The authors assumc that the ins talled nuclear capaciL3

'ill grow f rom 15 G'J.'c in 1975 to about 500 GWe in the year 2000.

They assu::tc that the reactors 'ill operate at 50% capaci ty :tnd 't i l l proiluce a total of son.e 4700 Gile -

year of electric energy during the 20-year pelrod-l'his will require the mining of 1.G0 x 10 9 la l of cro vhich can be converted into about 1.50 x 10 6 '!T of U;Og, the ore s

mined is assumer! to have a uranium concentration of 0.15.

P The production of 4700 GWe year of c1ccLricit.y will require 5875 reference reactor years of opera tion, since the refer-ence reaeLor operates at S ( Pl,', ca pa c i i y Table VIII (A)-G f rom NUllEG-0002 (reproduced in NUREG-

~

011G) gives the to ta l amoun t of Hn-222 emit ted during the 2G-year period as a consequence of t.he mining and ml] ling h

~ $ t"*g$)

.e

VgP;

'1

~

i -

J of 1.0 : J n ) MT o f en o Tho quantify of 101-222 frou nining I

j o 'I Ci for a to tal is 2.4 x 10 Ci. from m illi n;; i3 1, 1 x of 2.S1 :c 10' Ci.

If this quantjLY 1:- o pin >rlioned equally to each of Uic 5373 annual fuci requirements (Al It) the rcsult is 4035 Ci por AFl: From min in :

750 C i. lx r A F': I"on mi))ing

>18 3 5 Ci per AF!! f.o L a !

Presumably this is hov the f i.: u r.' of 4300 Ci ras arrjved at in footnote 5 to Tab l e S-3.

I </ou ld su;,1;cn t that f oo tno t e 5 be chant:cd to shov.

only the 4085 Ci from nining.

Since the mines are closed and radon enim ion stopp2d it L:, logical to apportion the total emitted during the life of the mine among the number of AFHs nined.

The correct teocedure for apportioning the radon f rom millin;; is different as "cill be scen shor tly The last sentence of f oo tno te 3 to Tabic S-3 deals with the offsite doses due to radan Again, the origin of the numbers sho'etn is apparent but the logic is fault)

Table VIII (a) G sho::s the follovcing dose co::.mi tmen te, to offsito U.

5.

po pula t i.on Total body dosc - niining 3.0 : 106 person-rom ILE person-rem Total body dose - milling --

5.S :

If these numbers are divided b:, the 3873 AFils mined during the 2G years one obtains 510 person-rem fron ninin g and 100 person-ren fron milling as stated in the footnote.

'T 4 [F t;*

4-

..~

~

h

,.r'

0..

i

)

A r;a i n, I s u m *, e 4 I tha L only th<-.b r:e f rrm :n i n i n:: he reLained in the footnolo i na srith.h ad t h!'

I W.

p<:'"4 o n -r em from ta i l l i n;.;

is L;rossly in error Let us nov, consider how to treat properly the radon from the tailin:s piles a:, soc ia t ed w i. Lh the uranium mills.

Al thou;;h the riilJ recovers most of the very long lived uranjum from the ore, the Th-230 "h j ch 'vas in radioacLive c ciuilibr iu:a 'li t h the uranluia 1.w returned to the taili n;;s piles.

Consequently the nn-222, a daughter of Th-230 is con tinually ;cnerated in the ta i l i n;,s pi] c and

".-ill d t f f use to the surface of the pile and escape into the atmosphere.

Since Th-200 h a:s a half-lite of about 80,000 years the i;

tailings pile beca:acs a lon;; lived source of radon.

There-fore the total amount of Rn-222 tita l is onitted by 2.7 x 105 'iT o f t a i.l in;;s (a ppr o::ima t e ly tha t associated with 1 AFIO becomes a very lar;.;c nu:aher "zhen in Legra ted o. ar the radioactive life of Th-200.

NUREG-0002 does not include that n u:.d;c r, h o v/o v e r, it does es tima te that the amount of Rn-222 Laat would be emii.tod each 9

tear frou the 1. 6 :: 10 MT of tailings in piles at the end of this century would be about 420,000 Ci, as:una ing a 2-foot thich earth cover over the pi les.

If this nomher is divided by the 5S75 AFRs which produced the piles, one arrives a t a fi;;ure of 71 Ci/yr This is numerica lly near the 71.5 Ci figure of Table S-3 --

L 4 (*

e.

4,,

u.=

h 1

.]

hence chaoging t h a t.

Lab 1e fron

'C i por AFH"' to "Ci/yr per t.FR" might he lhe eas. cst cay out.

Ihc lotal amount of per AFR over all future years 'could he 71 x 1 <1 1 : 80,000 %

3,000,000 Ci, and is the proper figure to shov/ in Table S-3 if the units are not changed.

Since the radon continues to scep from the ta ilings pile for a very long Line, the total dose Lo people over all future gancra tions could become very largo.

Deaths in futurc generations due to cancer and ;;enetic ef f ec ts resulting from the radon from the uraniun reciuired to fuel a single reactor for one year can run :nto the hundreds.

(See Pohl, Search, Vol. 7 "o.

8, Aug. 1970) it is very diEficult to argue tha L dua L!:s to fut.ure gonerations are utrinpor tan t.

But it can be shown that the nu:aber is insignificant con-pared to those duc to the radon contribution in natural background.#

In suumary the values given in Table S-3 for the nnount of Rn-222 cmilled por annual f uel rartu i ro.::en t is grossly in error.

So also is the dosc to offsite population fren :ailling due to one annua 1 fuel requiremenL -- the corroct number is more nearly 10 mill ton person-ren rather than 100 person-ren.

NUREG-0003 (Vol 1,

p -J0) coinLN ouL that by the rear

=

2000, the radon re l.'a:ic ra te fra:a ta t l i n:n, piles vou ld be

] css than 0. ;" ' of the r a cia n reicased annually f r o:n the soil of the United S ta tes.

i

1. 7 4j FQ V

d s]

s.

. - ~ _..

....,.= -

u

.,n g

1 I would suggest that cmission be given in curies per car

/

por ADil; that doses bb c:< pressed in person-rem per genera-tion per annual fuel requirement.

As p -c CLu Tia l t er li. Jordan, Member Atomic Saf e ty and Licensing Board Panel s

E t

53'160

.