ML20004F544
| ML20004F544 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 05/27/1981 |
| From: | Nussbaumer D NRC OFFICE OF STATE PROGRAMS (OSP) |
| To: | Davidoff D NEW YORK, STATE OF |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20004F543 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8106190047 | |
| Download: ML20004F544 (2) | |
Text
,_
nee W-
' UNITED STATES
. ~g'n NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Y
WASHINGTON. D. C. 20555 T.,*****/
MAY 2 71981
/
Mr. Donald B. Davidoff, Director Divison of Radiological-.. Health New York State Department of Health Empire State Plaza Tower Building Albany, New York 12237
Dear Mr. Davidoff:
This will confirm the discussion Messrs. McGrath and Gordon held with you on May 15, 1981, following their review and evaluation of the Department's radiation control program during the period of May 11-15, 1981.
Our findings indicate that there have been improvements in the program since our previous review, but there are still a number of issues which need attention.
We have provided our comments on the administrative aspects of the program to Mr. Del Guidice in Governor Carey's office. A copy of that letter is enclosed.
We have the following comments on the technical aspects of the program:
t 1.
Emergency Planning - We believe that the Department's plan for
~
responding to emergencies involving agreement materials should be distributed to appropriate persons and agencies in the State.
This would include licensees, state and local police, fire departments, etc. The plan may need to be modified somewhat for use by these persons.
2.
Training - We recommend that Diane Dreikorn attend the next NRC course in licensing practices and procedures.
3.
Regulations - The Department's radiation control regulations were last revised in 1979.
There are a number of recent chanres to NRC regulations which the Department should consider incorporating into Part 16 of the State Sanitary Code.
These include the biomedical waste rule, the medical misadministration rule, the teletherapy calibration rule, and the transient worker rule.
We understand that Mr. Heald is already working on this project.
Please let us know if you need assistance in developing these rules.
M1061go
Mr. D:ns1d B. Davidoff 4.
Licensing - As discussed with your staff, we noted a number of deficiencies in the licensing program. These concerced p tuations where applicants failed to provide adequate information with regard to their proposed radiation safety programs.
We feel that the
_ deficiencies can be resolved by the more effective use of the updated licensing checklist and NRC Regulatory Guide 10.t' " Guide -
for the Preparation of Applications for Medical Pr: grams," a copy
- of which was recently sent to Mr. Heald.
We also provided some comment to Mr. Heald during the review regarding the need to revise certain standard license conditions used by the Department.
5.
Inspection and Enforcement - We believe that the Division's top priority must be.to reduce the inspection backlog.
Particular emphasis must be on inspection of those Priority I licenses which are overdue.
Supervision of the compliance program needs to be improved. A major step in this direction would be the conduct of annual field evaluations of each inspector by program management to assure that Department policy is being applied consistently throughout the State.
With regard to enforcement procedures, we feel that there is a need to improve the substantiation of items of noncompliance.
We also noted cases where some itemr. of noncompliance did not appear warranted while other possibly significant items were not addressed in enforcement letters. We suggest increased supervisory review of inspection reports and enforcement letters to overcome these deficiencies.
We also recommend that the licensee responses to enforcement letters be acknowledged in all cases. Generally, inspection reports were found to be adequate; however, as indicated above, substantiation of items of noncompliance needs to be improved.
In addition, we would recommend that a section on worker interviews be added to the standard report form.
Please provide your plans for addressing these recommendations.
I appreciate the courtesy and cooperation extended to Messrs. McGrath and Gordon during their review.
Sincerely, cad' b
" " - ~ ~
Donald A. Nussbaumer Assistant Director for State Agreements Program Office of State Programs
Enclosure:
As stated cc: Mr. M. Del Guidice O
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