ML20010J302

Forwards Answers to First 14 NRC Questions Re Environ Rept. Encl Rept, Geology,Seismology & Hydrology of Nbs Research Reactor Site,Gaithersburg,Md, Contains Answers to Questions 15 & 16

ML20010J302
Person / Time
Site:	National Bureau of Standards Reactor
Issue date:	09/29/1981
From:	Rozier Carter NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS & TECHNOLOGY (FORMERL
To:	Tedesco R Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
Shared Package
ML20010J303	List: ML20010J302
References
NUDOCS 8109300284
Download: ML20010J302 (10)

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UNITED CTATE3 CEPARTMENT CF CC' %ERCE N:tional C;rea:)(f Cta2dard3 washington, D.C. 20234

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N Septenber 29, 1981 a

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f 2 Mr. Robert L. Tedesco, Assistant Director p for Licensing 0) m Division of Licensing U.S; Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555

Subject:

Response to NRC Questions, Docket No. 50-184

Dear Mr. Tedesco:

This is in response to your letter of May 15, 1981 which contained 16 questions regarding the Environmental Report for the NBS reactor previously submitted on December 2, 1980. Answers to the first 14 questions are enclosed. Answers to questions 15 and 16 are contained in the enclosed report entitled, " Geology, Seismology, and Hydrology of the National Bureau of Standards Research Reactor Site, Gaithersburg, MD," dated September 1981.

Sincerely, k&S $ f Robert S. Carter Chief, Reactor Radiation Division

Enclosures:

As Stated 0

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ANSWERS TO NRC QUESTIONS:

Ref: Letter R. L. Tedesco FRC to R. S. Carter NBS Dated May 15, 1981

1. Q. How many and what type of staff are directly related with the NBS Reactor for the 10 MW operation? How many are contract workers? What is the total payroll?

A. Staff directly associated with NBS Reactor operations consists of:

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2 Engineers and 14 operators in reactor operation 7 Mechanical and electronic engineers and technicians 1 Secretary Total payroll - $650,000 per year In addition, A certified health physicist, 2 health physicists, and 2 technicians are assigned to the reactor from the NBS Health Physics Group. The Health Physics Group is supported out of NBS overhead. The annual payroll for those assigned to the reactor is about $100,000.

There are no contract workers.

2. Q. If the reactor stops operation on June 1985, what type and how many of the above staff would be terminated?

A. Most of the operating staff described in the answer to question 1 would be phased out over the first year except for a skeleton crew required to maintain the reactor in a safe shutdown condition until decommissioning could commence a year or more later. Most of the engineering support staff would be needed to implement the decommissioning. It is estimated that about one-half the staff would be phased out over the first year after shutdown and the rest phased out over the next four years.

3. Q. If the reactor operates at 201M, is there an increase in support staff? Calculate the net differences in staff and payroll between 10 and 20 MN operation.

A. There will be no increase in the support staff required for 20 1M operation.

4. Q. Will current support staff or contract personnel be involved with the fabrication or testing of the 20 FM reactor modifications?

How many and what type of staff? Estimate the cost and expenditure of time for each operation. Use 1931 dollars for all cost estimates.

A. The current engineering and operating staff will be involved in the modifications necessary for 20 FM operation. Since the

reactor was originally designed for 20 FM and has been continually upgraded and modernized, only minor modifications are required.

They are:

Mechanical modification of, primary system by operating and engineering personnel. (5 men for 4 weeks) $15 000 Reranging and modification of instrumentation.

(3 men for 4 weeks) $ 8 000

5. Q. The Environmental Report NBSR-12 states that about 75% of the use and funding comes from NBS and that approximately $2 million currently and $2.4 million at 20 MW are the operating costs in FY 80 dollars.

a. Thus, is 75% of the operating cost paid by NBS ($1.5 million),at the 10 MW Icvel and the rest (.5 million) comes from outside users?

b. How will this percentage change with the switch to 20 FM with the decrease in time needed for many experiments and the adding of new procedures?

c. Provice a list of NBS users, such as by branch or division, and of the typical outside users of the 10 MW reactor during the year. You can use the FY 79 data. Indicate by user the type of use, time used, and approximate charges. Estimate how these distributions may change during the 20 FM operation.

A. a. NBS' funding 4 $1,700,000 Outside funding N $ 300,000

b. No major change in this ratio is anticipated at 201:R.

c. Reactor Utilization Type Annual Time of Charges hrs /yr Measurement K$

NBS Nuc1 car Radiation Division 13 000 D Inorganic Analytical Research Div. 8 850 A,B Office of Non-Destructive Evaluation 900 "

Office of Recycled Materials 50 B Center for Absolute Physical Quantities 2 000 D Temperature and Pressure Meas. & Stds. Div. 100 E Surface Science Div. 1 000 A Thermophysics Div. 500 A Cas and Particulate Science Div. 100 B Polymer Science and Standards Div. 2 000 A Fracture and Deformation Div. 500 A Metallurgy Div. 500 A

Type Annual Time of Charges hrs /yr Measurement K$

Structure .and Materials Div.

• 300 A Office of Standard Reference Materials 600 B Office of Environmental Meas. 300 B Office of Standard Reference Data 100 A Office of Measurements of Nuclear Tech. 500 C Ceramics, Glass, and S. S. Science Div. 500 A.

Reactor Radiation Div. 36 000 A,C Non-NBS Users Argonne National Lab. 500 A Brookhaven National Lab. 200 A FBI 600 B 43 FDA 600 B 43 NASA 50 C National Gallery of Art 100 C DOE 300 C 15 Dept. of Defense 600 B 43 National Institutes of Health 6 000 A Naval Air Defense Command 50 C Naval Research Lab. 2 000 A,E Picatinny Arsenal 6 000 A,E 20 Carnegie Inst. of Washington 100 A U.S. Geological Survey 600' B 43 American University 50 A Colorado State University 50 A Iowa State Univeralty 100 A University of Antwerp 500 A University of Arizona 50 A University of Alabama 50 A University of Arkansas 50 A Lawrence Livermore Lab 50 B University of Chicago 500 B University of Houston 100 A University of Mary 1cnd 7 000 A,B 22 University of Missouri (Rolla) 100 A University of Paris 200 A University of Pittsburgh 100 A University of Rhode Island 500 A Allied Chem. Corp. 500 A General Electric 300 A IBM 200 A Monsanto 50 C Oldelft Corp. 100 C Sandia Corp. 50 C Nuclear Energy Center, Mol, Belgium 200 D Smithsonian Institute 100 C 5 Inorganic Analytical Res. Div. - other agency 1 200 B 70 Misc. 1 500 B,E 16 99 000 320 mi si

Type:

. A - Materials Characterization B - Trace Analysis C - Non-Destructive Evaluation D - Radiation Standards and Dosimetry E - Radiation Effects and Dosimetry The above list of users should be considered as typical rather than exact. Only those outside organizations' that are not collaborating scientifically with NBS staff are charged for reactor use. The outside charges that appear are primarily for sample irradiations. This typical distribution of use is -

not expected to change significently at 20 MW.

l 6. Q. The staff needs a copy of "NBS Reactor: Summary of Activity July 1978 to June 1979" NBS TN-1117.

i A. Courtesy copy of NBS TN-il17 sent to Bill Rodak. This publication ,

is available from the Government Printing Office.

7. Q. The document, NBSR-12, states " Productivity should increase by 50% . . . (with the increase in power) . . ." (p. 2-31).

Please define productivity. How was this estimated?

1 A. As used here, productivity refers to the number of experiments that can be completed. Doubling the reactor power will double the neutron flux available for experiments. Therefore, a

, typical experiment can be completed in half the time at 20 MW.

This would, of course, imply doubling the pr do uctivity. But the higher flux will permit more difficult and sophisticated experiments to be performed that were not practical at the lower power.- These will, of course, take longer thaa average.

Therefore, the actual number of experiments completed will not actually double but is estimated conservatively to go up by 50%. Thus, based on~this numerical criteria for productivity, the productivity is estimated to increase by 50%. Actually, this is very conservative since the ability to perform more sophisticated experiments is at least as important as increasing i

the number of experiments. But it is much more difficult to put a productivity number on advancing the frontiers of science.

5

8. Q. What percent of the NBS budget does the reactor oranch receive?

A. The operation cost of the reactor represents just over one percent of the NBS budget.

9. Q. What percent of NBS personnel does the reactor branch comprise?

A. The personnel required for reactor operation (operators, engineering support, and health physics) is about three- ,

. fourths of one percent of the total NBS personnel.

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10. Q. What research activities, if any, can be instituted only at 20 1M and are they now available elsewhere?

A. Many of the most important and scientifically exciting research and measurement applications of , thermal neutrons at NBS are directly limited by available intensity and the improved energy resolution that higher intensity makes possible.

Exampics of research which can be successfully or effectively pursued only at 20 MW are: (1) atomic scale interrogation of hydrogen at embrittlement ppm levels in steel and other alloys, (2) ultra-high resolution neutron powder diffraction to allow the probing of the structure of new classes of ceramic, electronic, and magnetic materials, and (3) structure of medium-sized proteins and enzymes to examine biochemical processes. In addition, the current serious backlog of experiments at a number of the NBSR neutron beam facilities will also b.e relieved by the factor of two in intensity provided by 20 MW operation. .

Several of the existing and potential NBS facilities benefiting most by 20 1DJ operation (such as ultra-high resslution dif-fraction and neutron spectrometers for highly sensitive studies of catalytic reactions on surfaces and hydrogen in metals) are only available at NBS.

It should further be noted that there are only two other research reactors in the entire U. S. which can. provide the number of neutrons on a sample that will be available from the NBSR at 70 MW. These reactors have their own missions and special faciliti s and could not provide many of the specialthe Furthermore, facilities other tuainstalled at the NBSR for NBS programs.

reactors are already heavily committed to a growing s

number of research and measurement activities.

11. Q.

In Section 4.2.2 of NBSR 9, Addendum 1, cost estimates were provided for the various stages of decommissioning and decontamination.

Provide estimates of the quantity of materials to be disposed of and the exposure of workers involved.

A.

i As part of the decommissioning process, major systems and components will be dismantled and disposed of as waste. While detailed plans will be formulated at the time of decommissioning l

it is assumed that most of the work in high radiation areas ,

will be done remotely or behind shielding, that adequate wait that wherever possible the waste villItbe . is compactedtim n

also period.assumed that 50 workers will be involved over a five year exposure per worker will be less than 0.5 rem.On this basis it This estimate is consistent with that estimated for Argonne N'ational Laboratory after allowing for power the CP-5 o at react r level differences.

of major systems is listed in the following .

n ng tableThe i

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Material Volume (Cu. ft.)

1. Concrete, including rod 15,000 and tubing

2. Lead 100

3. Steel, including stainless 400

4. Two Stainless Steel Heat Exchangers 1,500

5. Aluminum 300 '

6. Misc. 1,000 The material listed as miscellaneous will be generated from auxiliary systems and from general cleanup and includes materials such as graphite, bismuth, cadmium, copper, boral, and some organics. Approximately 98 percent of all the waste will qualify as Low Specific Activity. Thus, about 400 ft3 og Type A quantities will result.

12. Q. Provide information on the environmental impacts of the secondary cooling system, including:

a. quantity of salts and dissolved and suspended solids deposited on bureau grounds annually as a result of cooling tower drift; ,

b. quantity of zine used for corrosion control and discharged annually to the sanitary sewer system as a result of blowdown from the cooling tower basin; c.

quantity of suspended and dissolved solids discharged annually to the sanitary sewer system as a result of blowdown;

d. noise level of the cooling towers during operation.

l A. a.

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Operation of, the secondary cooling system at 20 }M will l result in a maximum of 23 tons of salt and dissolved solids being released annually under conditions of maximum drift from the cooling tower. Normally much less vill be released. Creater than 95 percent of the salts and l dissolved solids are present in the water supplied by the I Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.

b.

i Blowdown of secondary system water to the sanitary sewer vill be about 22 gpm during 20 FM operation to maintain approximately 1000 pmho/cm conductivity (equivalent to about 600 mg/1). About 100 pounds of zinc, which is maintained at 1-2 ppm for corrosion. control, will be released in the blowdown annually.

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c. About 20 tons of dissolved solids will be discharged annually to the sanitary sewer system as a result of blowdown. Greater than 95 percent of the dissolved solids originated in the water supplied by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Cor21ssion.

d. A Bruel and Kjaer, Type 2203, precision sound level meter s'et with "A Weighted" frequency response was used to measure the noise level around the cooling tower during 10 MW operation. The results are shown on the attached figure as lines of approximately equal sound 1cvel. The highest readings were about 80 dB with a background reading of abcut 42 dB as measured at the site boundary.

13. Q. Provide information on the shipments of radwaste from the NBS reactor on an annual b sis, including:

a. the type (s) of shipping containers to be used for transporting spent fuel and unfueled sections of fuel elements, and their destination; .

b. the number of drums and shipments of high level waste from resins and filters, and their destination;

c. the number of drums and shipments of low level waste, and their destination.

A. a. A maximum of 48 spent fuel elements will be shipped each I year in either two or four shipments depending on whether the NHlA Army cask (which holds 24 elements) or the GE spent fuel cask (which holds 12 elements) is used. The spent fuel will be shipped to the Department of Energy reprocessing facilities in Savanah River, South Carolina.

Unfueled sections requiring shielding will be shipped

-following a year or more decay to Richland, Washington or other suitable disposal sites-in a Type B cask.

b.

Approximately one shipment of four drums every four years will be needed to dispose of the majority of the fuel element aluminum cuttings and the primary system resins and filters.- At this time, shipments wc ed be made to Richland, Washington, however, future disposal will 4

depend upon available sites.

c.

Low level . waste (paper, plastic, vials, lab resins, d metallic components, etc.) will be disposed of in about two shipments per year each containing about 8 drums.

Shipments are now going to Richland, Washington but future shipments will depend upon availabic sites.

14. Q.

Provide information on the dilution provided by the rest of the wastes from the NBS campus to reactor wastes prior to entering the sanitary sewer system.

A. The average daily bureau water discharge to the sanitary rewer systemwgichdilutesdischargesfromthereactorisabout 1.3 x 10 ml.

15. Q. Update the sections of NBSR 7 and NBSR 9 on seismology to reflect changes in the state-of ,the-art. Specifically:

a. use Modified Mercelli Intensity rather than the Rossi-Forel scale in describing carthquakes that.have occurred in the region in the past;

b. use an updated epicentral map to develop a discussion of carthquake history in Maryland;

c. use sections 2.5.1, 2.5.2 and 2.5.3 of the Standard Review Plan to gain an understanding of the range of subjects that should be touched on in writing an updated discussion of the seismology of the NBS reactor site.

16. Q. Provide additional recent information on the geology of the site. Include a discussion of the results of the 21 borings on the site with emphasis o.t soils, joints, and faults orientation to support the section on hydrology concerning probable movement of liquid effluents at the reactor site.

Answers to questions 15 and 16 are contained in the NBS report entitled, " Geology, Seismology, and Hydrology of the National Bureau of Standards Research Reactor Site, Caithersburg, MD," dated September 1981.

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