ML19276H605
| ML19276H605 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 07000903 |
| Issue date: | 07/14/1975 |
| From: | Crow W NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| To: | NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19276H604 | List: |
| References | |
| FOIA-79-370, FOIA-79-398, FOIA-79-423 NUDOCS 7912070276 | |
| Download: ML19276H605 (6) | |
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UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION W AS HIN GTO N, D. C. 20 5 5 5 JUL 1 < E75 Note to Files GENERAL ATOMIC COMPANY'S APPLICATION DATED MARCH 11, 1974 TO DELETE PAWLING, NEW YORK AS A'I AUTHORIZED PLAN OF USE FOR SPECIAL NUCLEAR MATERIAL LICENSE NO. SNM-871, DOCKET 70-903 Summary & Conclusions msts By application dated March 11, 1974 Gulf Nuclear Fuels Company, now General Atomic Co., requested that the Pawling, New York location be deleted as an authorized place,of use for special nuclear material license No. SNM-871.
Accompanying the application were the results of a radiological survey to L
show that the residual contamination at the facility was below our guidelines for the release of a facility for unrestricted use.
Inspection and Enforcement, Region I, inspected the facility and verified that the inside surfaces of the building met our guidelines, but two of the four environmental soil samples
- indicated plutonium 239 contamination of 12.2 and 5.3 dpm/ gram of soil. Even though these numbers are far below the interim standard for plutonium in soils proposed by Healy** - 500 dpm/ gram - the people from the New York State Atomic Energy Council expressed the opinion that it should not exceed the criteria set by the State of Colorado. These values are 2 dpm/ gram of dry soil and 2
0.0lpCi per m.
In keeping with the as low as practicable policy of the NRC and since the area involved was extremely small (<2500 ft2), we requested the licensee to remove some soil in the two areas and resample; we also provided analytical services through HSL - Idaho. The area of contamination has been 2
narrowed down (<500 ft ) by removing soil over the past year until the last set of samples met the New York State refgggnced criteria of 2 dpm/ gram of sample that was adopted by the State of Colorado. The Office of Inspection and Enforcement and the Fuel Cycle Environmental Projects Branch, NMSS, have md evaluated these data and feel the Pawling site represents an insignificant risk to the public and see no reason the licensee's request should not be approved.
I concur in this evaluation.
It is recommended that this license be terminated, since the other authorized locations of use of special nuclear material under License No. SNM-871 have previously been approved for unrestricted use and deleted from the license, j 'j bU N, had W. T. Crow, Acting Chief Fuel Cycle Licensing Brcnch 1 Division of Materials and Fuel Cycle Facility Licensing
- See Table I
- LA5483-MS "A Proposed Interim Standard for Plutonium in Soils" January 1974.
- See Table II 7
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===.
Background===
By application dated March 11, 1974 Gulf Nuclear Fuels Company, now General Atomic Co., requested that the Pawling, New York location be deleted as an authorized place of use for special nuclear material license No. SNM-871.
Accompanying the application were the results of a radiological survey to
- 4 show that the residual contamination at the facility, formerly used for plutonium fuel research and development, was below our guidelines for the release of a facility for unrestricted use.
Inspection and Enforcement,
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m Region I, inspected the facility and verified that the inside surfaces of the building met our guidelines, but two of the four environmental soil samples
- indicated plutonium 239 contamination of 12.2 and 5.3 dpm/ gram of soil.
Even though these numbers are far below the interim standard for plutonium in soils proposed by llealy** - 500 dpm/ gram - the people from New York State Atomic Energy Council expressed the opinion that it should not exceed the criteria set by the State of Colorado. These values are 2 dpm/ gram of dry soil and 0.01u01 per m.
In keeping with the as low as practicable policy of the NRC and since the areas
"4 involved were extremely small (<2500 ft ), we requested the licensee to remove sotae soil in the two areas and resample; we also provided analytical services through IISL - Idaho.
In a letter dated August 12, 1974 General Atomic Company described their plans to decontaminate the area prior to resampling. The decontamination was completed and three soil samples were taken in this area, plus one from a wooded area three miles away for a background measurement on September 9, 1974.
The highest result from these samples was 2.6 dpm/ gram of
- See Table I for sampling history and analytical results.
- LA 5483-MS "A Proposed Interim Standard for Plutonium in Soils" January 1974.
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. soil for plutonium 239, at the rear of the building. Upon receipt of these results we informed the Dr. Strnisa of the State of New York Atomic Energy Council that we saw no reason why the license should not be terminated.
Dr. Strnisa requested that we delay termination of the license for thirty
'"-c days to allow the staff at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NISDEC) time to evaluate the situation at Pawling. In January 1975 Dr. Strnisa informed me that the NYSDEC felt that they could not accept any plutonium contamination above 2 dpm/ gram and requested that further decontamination and analyses be performed.
Dr. Strnisa further stated that the staff at NYSDEC had a specific sampling plan that they wished to follow.
This was discussed with the licensee and he agreed to further decontamination.
Dr. Strnisa was informed that they would work directly with the licensee and Region I of I & E on any further decontamination and sampling, and that Region I would arrange for analysis at HSL.
The area was decontaminated and
-me resampled on January 27, 1975. A total of six camples were taken and the resultant analysis indicated two of the six were above the 2 dpm/ gram and these were 3.4 and 24.0 dpm/ gram; however, at this time we found out that the laboratory had screened the as received sample through a thirty five (35) mesh screen and only analyzed the fine fraction. Therefore the results were not dpm/ gram of soil as sampled but only on the fine fraction and for the first time this fraction was a small percentage (23.3%) of the total sample.
NYSDEC requestad additional decontamination and sampling. More soil was removed and samples were taken on April 8, 1975***.
At our request the laboratory analyzed both the fine and
- See Table II for analytical results.
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( course fractions of the soil sample. The fine fraction indicated contamination for the three samples of from 2.66 to 6.1 dpm/ gram for Pu
, but the coarse fraction which represented approximately 78% of the total soil sample indicated contamination ranging from 0.065 dpm/ gram to 0.245 dpm/ gram. When these two fractions were weighted and averaged, all are below the two dpm/ gram limit desired g,;
by New York State Authorities. Although Mr. T. J. Cashman of NYSDEC does not Q
agree that the results should be averaged, the 2 dpm/ gram limit set by Colorado is specified for the total sample and not for a specific fraction.
These sample results were evaluated by P. J. Magno of the Environmental Projects Branch. His evaluation was documented in a note to me dated June 25, 1975 (copy attached).
In this note he stated that since the average contamination, even in the minus 35 mesh fraction, (-4 dpm/g) is at least a factor of 100 below Healy's suggested interim standard of 500 dpm/ gram, and since the area of contamination is relatively small (<500 ft ), the plutonium contamination at the Pawling site does not represent a radiation exposure hazard.
Based on this evaluation, I see no reason why the license should not be terminated since the other authorized locations of use of special nuclear material under License No. SNM-871 have previously been approved for unrestricted use and deleted from the license. By a letter dated July 7, 1975 from J. G. Davis to R. E. Cunningham, Inspection and Enforcement concurred in this decision (copy attached).
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TABLE I s
RESULTS OF SOIL SAMPLING GENERAL ATOMIC CO. PLUTONIUM LABORATORY PAWLING, NEW YORK Samples taken June 1974 - Region I Sample No.
Results ir dpm/ gram of dry soil Pu 238 Pu 239 1
0.76 1 0.02 12.2 t 0.03 2
0.0281 0.004 0.301 0.01 n]
3 0.0011 0.003 0.111 0.01 4
- 0.34 1 0.02 5.3 1 0.1 Samples taken September 1974 - Region I Pu 233 Pu 239 1 (Control Sample 3 0.001 0.003 0.0011 0.001 miles away) 2 (Compares to #1 0.0361 0.004 0.49 1 0.02 above) 3 (Compares to #4 0.17 1 0.03 2.6 1 0.2 above) 4 (New Sample in low 0.09 1 0.01 1.2 10.3 spot)
Sampics taken January 1975 - New York State AEC Wt-35 mesh
- Wt+35 mesh Pu 238 Pu 239 1
503 grams 2,384 grams 1.6310.08 24.0 10.09 2
593 grams 2,526 grams 0.0810.01 1.5510.07
' 3 666 grams 2,608 grams 0.0610.01 1.13_+0.09 4
722 grams 2,438 grams 0.2010.03 3.4 10.2 5
598 grams 2,420 grams 0.0410.01 0.8310.07 6
688 grams 47 grams
< 0.02 0.3310.04
- Only Minus 35 mesh analyzed
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TABLE II f
s RESULTS OF SOIL SAMPLINC GENERAL ATOMIC CO. PLUTONIUM LA30RATORY PAWLING, NEW YORK
,:.m Samples Taken Apnil 1975 by New York State
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Area
-35 Mesh Fraction
+35 Mesh Fraction 238 239 238 Pu Pu Pu Pu Weight
- 8 (dpm/ ga)
(dpm/ga)
(dpm/gm)
(dpm/ gm)
(gms) 1 0.42+0.02 6.1+0.1 187 0.016+0.002 0.208+0.005 1138 4
0.1910.01 2.661 07 253 0.01710.002 0.24510.005 808 4A 0.2Q+0.01 3.5210.08 345 0.00710.001 0.06510.002 788 Area Weighted Average 238 239 p
p (dpm/gn)
(d pm/gn) 1 0.07310.005 1.0410.02 ctuito 4
0.058+0.004
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0.82+0.02
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M 4A 0.06610.004 1.1210.03 a
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UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION W ASHINGTON, D.
C.
20555 July 7, 1975 Richard Cunningham, Acting Director Division of Materials and Fuel Cycle Facility Licensing, NMSS ANALYTICAL MEASUREMENTS - GULF UNITED NUCLEAR
_,7 Enclosed are two letters which we sent to New York State transmitting analytical results of the April 8, 1975, soil sampling at Gulf United Nuclear in Pawling, New York.
In the tables below, we have tabulated the 238Pu and *239Pu results and calculated a weighted average for the
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sampled soil. This sampling should be representative of the approxi-mately 500 square foot area which has been the only arca still of concern to New York State.
Area
-35 Mesh Fraction
+35 Mesh Fraction 238 39 8
Pu Pu Pu Pu Weight (dpm/gm)
(dpm/gm)
(dpi/gm)
(dpm/gm)
(gms) 1 0.4210.02 6.110.1 187 0.01610.002 0.20810.005 1138 i
4 0.19+0.01 2.66+.07 253 0.017+0.002 0.245+0.005 808 I
4A 0.20t0.01 3.5210.08 345 0.00710.001 0.06510.002 788 Area Weighted Average 238 239 p
p (dpm/gm)
(d pm/gm) 1 0.07310.005 1.0410.02
- ot.uito+%g 0.82+0.02 4
0.058+0.004 g
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Lee Rouse Based on these results and previous soil analyses which we have provided to Bill Crow of your staff, we have no objection to the termination of the Gulf United Nuclear license.
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John G. Davis, Deputy Director for Field Operations Office of Inspection and Enforcement
Enclosures:
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As stated
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