ML19322D554

Responds to Re Release of Contaminated Water to Susquehanna River.All Discharges of Water to River Have Been Carefully Monitored Since TMI-2 Accident.Nrc Has No Basis to Consider Revocation of Util OL

ML19322D554
Person / Time
Site:	Surry, Crane
Issue date:	01/24/1980
From:	Harold Denton Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:	Tritch M AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
Shared Package
ML19322D555	List: ML19322D554 ML19322D556
References
NUDOCS 8002150173
Download: ML19322D554 (2)

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TELA JAN 2 /1980 Ms. Mary Tritch 3259 Foxiana Road Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057

Dear Ms. Tritch:

Your letter to Comissioner Hendrie regarding the release of contaminated water to the Susquehanna River and the revocation of Metropolitan Edison's license has been referred to me for response.

I regret that this answer has been delayed.

The accident and its consequences have created a substantial increase in the agency's workload, which has prevented us from responding to you as promptly as we would have liked.

All discharges of water to the Susquehanna have been carefully monitored since the accident occurred.

Your letter apparently refers to the release to the river of 4,000 gallons of water containing strontium-90, a radioactive element that emits beta radiation. The entire event started as a nomal routine release of waste water from the Unit I waste evaporator condensate test tank.

Prior to initiating a release, the licensee is required by plant technical specifications to sample the contents of the tank and analyze the sample for the principal gamma emitters.

In addition, the licensee is required by the technical specifications to take a portion of that sample and add it to the composite sample of all pre-vious batches of liquid releases made during the month. At the end of the month, the ccmposite sample is analyzed for strontium-89 and -90.

The licensee completed both of these actions.

It should be noted that the NRC does not require that the analysis for strontiun be perfomed on every batch prior to release because the concentration of strontium is nomally well below the detection limits of the analytical method and orders of magnitude lowar than the principal gamma emitters, such as iodine and cesium.

On July 26, 1979, the release from Unit I was initiated; during the release an NRC inspecter questioned the licensee as to whether or not a gross beta analysis had been performed. At that point, Metropolitan Edison management suspended the release and perfomed a number of analyses. The analysis for concentrations of strontiun-89 and -90 indicated that prior to discharge to the river, the effluent concentrations for these isotopes were within both federal and state government standards for radioactivity.

In the future, nevertheless, Metropolitan Edison will monitor all water discharges for beta radiation.

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Ms. M.ry frit h

• On the basis of this infomation, there is no basis for the NRC to consider the revo ation of Metropolitan Edison's license.

I am pleased to provide you with this information.

Sincerely, i

arold R. Denton, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation l

DISTRIBUTION Docket 50-289/50-320 NRC PDR Local PDR NRR r/f SEP/TMI r/f TMI Site r/f RVollmer JCollins JMullin (TMI-47)~~

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