ML19345E760
| ML19345E760 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Wood River Junction |
| Issue date: | 12/22/1980 |
| From: | Joyner J, Woltner E NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19345E758 | List: |
| References | |
| 70-0820-80-13, 70-820-80-13, NUDOCS 8102060036 | |
| Download: ML19345E760 (5) | |
Text
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U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COM4ISSION O
OFFICE OF INSPECTION AND ENFORCEMENT REGION I Report No.
70-820/80-13 Docket No.70-820 License No.
SNM-777 Safeguards Group 1
Licensee:
United Nuclear Corporation Wood River Junction, Rhode Island 02894 Facility Name:
UllC Recovery Systems Inspection At:
Wood River Junction, Rhode Island Inspection Conducted:
August 12-15, 1980 Date of Last liaterial Control and Accounting Inspection:'
Auoust 15. 1980 Type of Inspection:
Material Control and Accounting Inspectors:
8
/R[.2:t//4 E. Woltner, Safeguards Auditor
~ date date date Approved by Y W'eN NM 12/2289 (d. H. Joyner, Chief,iNuclear Material Control date Support Section, Safeguards Branch Inspection Summary:
Inspection conducted August 12-15, 1980 (Report No. 70-820/80-13)
Areas Inspected:
Review of records related to processing of slightly irradiated scrap.
The inspection involved 30 inspector hours onsite by one NRC inspector and was begun during the regular hours.
Results:
The licensee was found to be in compliance in the area inspected.
810 20 c o ajb -
Region I Form 167 (August 1979)
REPORT DETAILS 1.
Key Persons Contacted
- C. Bowers, President, UNC Recovery Systems
- J. L'Heureux, Manager, Nuclear Material Control S. Pennacchini, Manager, New Products K. Helgeson, Manager, Nuclear and Industrial Safety D. Schultz, Manager of Compliance
' denotes those present at the exit interview.
2.
Licensee Action on Previous Inspection Findings Previous inspection findings were not reviewed during this inspection.
3.
Exit Interview The inspector met with licensee representatives (denoted in paragraph 1) on August 15, 1980.
The inspector summarized the scope and the findings of the inspection and noted that additional information would be required to complete the inspection.
4.
Unresolved Items There are no unresolved items resulting from the inspection.
5.
MC 927138 - Independent Insnection Effort No items of noncompliance were noted.
This inspection was conducted to i
review documentation associated with the processing of enriched uranium scrap.
An attempt was made to identify, from the documentation, scrap which may have been slightly irradiated in a nuclear reactor before being shipped to the licensee for recovery of the contained uranium.
This review was initiated as the result of discovery of the fission product Sr-90 in ground water near the UNC-RS facility.
Since Sr-90 does not occur naturally, process by UNC-RS of slightly irradiated reactor fuel scrap was considered I
a likely source of the ground water contamination.
The main sources of scrap material received by UNC-RS had been UNC-Naval Products (UNC-NP) and the Department of Energy (DOE) facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Since UNC-NP had never handled irradiated material, the inspec-tion effort was directed to the material received from Oak Ridge under DOE l
contract.
Oak Ridge's procedure in awarding a contract for the recovery of l
scrap was to assign a scrap lot number to each contract, with each lot number covering approximately 6 to 12 sublots.
The sublots identified the generating facility and type of scrap.
Oak Ridge's specification for recovery of uranium scrap by commercial processors included seven scrap
3 grade classifications (metal chips, cladded metal, oxide, etc.).
The classifications provided no indication of any irradiation history.
- However, discussions with DOE personnel at Oak Ridge revealed that scrap with radia-tion levels <100 mr/hr was considered unirradiated, regardless of its history.
The review of available UNC-RS records covered the period from late 1968 (Lot 99) through March, 1980 (Lot 139), the final operations involving 00E contract scrap.
The back-up documentation to the UNC-RS processing records indicated that a portion of the scrap could have been slightly irradiated in low power.
critical facilities.
In order to obtain confirmatory documentation, a request was made to two Department of Energy Offices (Oak Ridge Operations and Schenectady Naval Reactors Office) for additional information on the irradiation history of scrap shipped to UNC-RS.
The information was furnished to the NRC and is shown in Appendices I and II of this report.
The history on the material does indicate that slightly irradiated scrap was shipped to UNC-RS at various times between 1967 and 1980.
In addition to the scrap shown in Appendices I and II, it was determined that Lot Number 133, shipped to UNC-RS during November 1977, also included slightly irradiated scrap.
Sub Lot No. 133-G from Michigan Technological University consisted of five Argonaut Reactor fuel plates containing 108 grams U-23S.
The balance of scrap received by UNC-RS consisted of unirradiated production scrap from various facilities.
In conjunction with this review, Office of Inspection and Enforcement Inspection Report No. 70-820/60-14 covers other aspects on the processing of slightly irradiated scrap inaterial by UNC-RS.
APPENDIX 1 REVIEW OF MATERIAL SHIPPED TO UNC REC 0VERY SYSTEMS FACILITY During the period December 1964 to April 1980 a total of approximately 1579 kilograms of U-235 scrap was shipped from Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL) and Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory (BAPL) to United Nuclear Corporation, Wood River Junction, RI, facility.
The material shipped consisted of fuel and element sections, critical assembly fuel, and oxidized material.
The critical assembly fuel amounts to 797,065 grams U-235 which was slightly irradiated. The balance, 781,499 grams U-235, was used in various core development programs and was not irradiated.
The following tabulation is a breakdown for KAPL and BAPL by year and quantity shipped. This information was obtained from the Nuclear Material Transaction Reports (Form DOE 741) issued since 1964.
(Grams U-235)
KAPL BAPL Col. I coi. 2 Loi. J col. 4 col. 5 Col. 6 Col. 7 Critical Development Critical Development Upper Limit for Sr-90 Content Year Facility (Not Irrad.)
Fuel Facility Fuel KAPL Fuel BAPL Fuel Fuel Fuel (Not Irrad.) (millicuries)
(millicuries) 1964 30742 1965 --
1966 1262 1967 68173 55790 1.8 1968 68238 96343 1969 --
1970 --
1971 210654 1972 98067 17639 145920 18597 2.6 2.1 1973 17894 45566 606 2447 0.5
<0.1 1974 38095 35781 1020 0.5 1975 70505 37044 8772 0.5 1976 5573 31075 1977 17838 4868 1978 20352 42840 12474 26 0.6 0.2 1979 486 5178 9176 <0.1 0.1 1980 351092 8431 9.4 Total 556064 375693 241001 405806 14.9 3.4 GRAMS U-235 TOTAL KAPL SHIPMENTS 931757 TOTAL BAPL SHIPMENTS 646807 TOTAL KAPL/BAPL CRITICAL FACILITY FUEL 797065 TOTAL KAPL/8APL DEVELOPMENT FUEL 781499
r
, APPENDIX 2
- ~
CRITICAL-FACILITY MATERIAL SHIPPED TO UNC REC 0VERY SYSTEMS (FBY) SINCE JANUARY 1976*
KNOLLS ATOMIC POWER LABORATORY (KZA) 0AK RIDGE SCRAP DECLARATION PWR HISTORY Sr-90 CONTENT (millicudes )
DOE 741 NUMBER LOT NUMBER NUMBER GRAMS U-235 DATE SHIPPED
( Kw-Hr,s_)__
BEST ESTIMATE (PPER LINT KZA-FBY-29 136D SNR 418 10675 12/12/78 0.6 0.06 0.3 KZA-FBY-30
'136G SNR 414 4486 12/12/78 0.2 0.02 0.1 KZA-FBY-32 136H SNR 415 (REV) 5191 12/01/78 0.3 0.03 0.2 KZA-FBY-34 137B SNR 421 486 07/24/79
<0.1
<0.01
<0.1
'KZA-FBY-35 139C SNR 429 7C686 01/14/80 4.1 0.41 2.0 KZA-FBY-37 139C SNR 429 88533 03/03/80 4.8 0.48 2.4 KZA-FBY-38 139D SNR 430 5783 03/03/80 0.3 0.03 0.2 KZA-FBY-39 1390 SNR 430 22878 03/12/80 1.2 0.12 0.6 KZA-FBY 1390 SNR 430,431 158212 04/01/80 8.5 0.85 4.2 BETTIS ATOMIC POWER LABORATORY (PZA)
.PZA-FZB-24(1) 137Cl HESE 283'
'12474 12/78
<1.3 0.2 PZA-FZB-25(2)'
L139F HESE 286 9176 06/79
<0.9 0.1 TOTAL --- ------ -- - - --- - -- - -- -- ---- 10.3 No irradiated fuel was shipped-in.1976 or 1977.
(1) PZA-FZB scrap material shipped from BAPL to Oak Ridge for. storage, subsequently shipped to UNC-RS on DOE 741 FZB-FBY-60 on 7-23-79.
'(2), PZA-FZB Scrap material shipped from BAPL to Oak Ridge for storage, subsequently shipped to UNC-RS on DOE ~741 FZB-FBY-65 on 2-26-80.
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