ML19263E237
| ML19263E237 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | West Valley Demonstration Project |
| Issue date: | 04/02/1979 |
| From: | Dircks W NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| To: | Hoyt W NEW YORK, STATE OF |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19263E238 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7906050362 | |
| Download: ML19263E237 (2) | |
Text
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APR 2 1979 The Honorable William B. Hoyt Chairman, Legislative Commission on Energy Systems New York State General Assembly
Dear Mr. Hoyt:
I am pleased to respond to your telegram to Dr. Joseph M. Hendrie, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), requesting his appearance before a hearing to be conducted April 4,1979, in Albany, New York.
The NRC staff has undertaken a reassessment program to assure the continued safety of the high level liquid waste storage system at the Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. (NFS) reprocessing plant at West Valley, New York.
This program consists of several phases of complex technical evaluations, the first portions of which have been completed. This -
program is expected to continue for some time.
Periodically during the course of this ongoing safety evaluation, the NRC staff has issued various documents describing the progress of the evaluation and conclusions about the safety status of the tanks. These documents have been released to the public and are available for inspection at the NRC Local Public Document Rooms (LPDR's) in Buffalo and Springville, New York.
Copies of these documents are enclosed. These documents address the points raised in your telegram to Chairman Hendrie and should be helpful to your committee in its inquiry.
Because the investigation of tank safety is continuing, the staff is not prepared to make final conclusions about the extent of safety margins for the tanks. Enclosure 6 details our current conclusions and ongoing investigations on waste tank safety. Since all of these enclosures provide you with all of our current information, we do not plan to appear before your comittee to provide this information in oral testimony.
We will be pleased, however, to send your comittee further reports of our investigations as they become available.
Sincerely, 3
&/
w William 91rcks, Director Office of L. clear Material Safety and Safeguards
Enclosures:
See attached list 22(19 3(>
7Da <.ep$ w/o melcaws 79060503Q P
ED0-5696 LIST OF ENCLOSURES -
List of Documents and Chronology 1.
Report by Dupont Savannah River Plant entitled " Safety Related Information Available on NFS Waste Tanks" and dated May 1,1978.
Page 5 of this report summarizes the recommendations contained in the report.
2.
Letter from NRC Office of Inspection and Enforcement-(IE), Region I, to NFS dated January 19,1979 (Inspection Report No. 50-201/78-12).
This report documents the NRC inspection conducted in response to NFS's informing the NRC staff of their discovery of the defect in the pan.
3.
NRC memorandum from C. J. Haughney to L. C. Rouse dated January 23, 1979. This memorandum is the trip report written by the NRC licensing staff member who accompanied the NRC Region I inspector on the inspection reported in item 2 above.
The background section of this memorandum provides a description of the chronology of events that led to the discovery of the defect in the pan.
4.
NRC memorandum from C. J. Haughney to L. C. Rouse dated January 31, 1979. This memorandum summarizes a meeting held between NRC and the co-licensees. A portion of this memorandum describes the status of the pan defect investigation as of the date of that meeting (January 9,1979).
5.
Letter from NRC IE Region I to NFS dated February 14, 1979 (Inspection Report No. 50-201/79-01). This report documents an inspection which included, among other things, a personnel entry by NFS and NRC staff members into the spare waste tank vault (8D-1).
6.
A copy of the NRC's safety evaluation of the defect in the 802 pan.
2299 237 e