ML20033F423
| ML20033F423 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 10/04/1989 |
| From: | Vacca P NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| To: | Glenn J NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20033D963 | List:
|
| References | |
| FOIA-90-29 NUDOCS 9003200398 | |
| Download: ML20033F423 (6) | |
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- E MEM0RANDLM FOR: John E. Glenn. Chief y
Medical. Academic, and Commercial h
Use Safety Branch a
Division of Industrial and i
Medical Nuclear Safety af THRU:
Michael A. Lamastra, Section Leader a
Commercial Section f)
Medica 1', Academic, and Commercial j.
Use Safety Branch 1
Division of Industrial and h.
Medical Nuclear Safety g
h FROM:
Patricia C. Vacca 4
Commercial Section'-
n Medical. Academic, and Consercial 3
Use Safety Branch 1
Division of Industrial and y
Medical Nuclear Safety V
L s
SU8 JECT:'
FOURTH RSI CAPSULE AND SITE RECOVERY INFORMATION PEETING d
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On September 28, 1989 I attended the Fourth Radiation Sterilizers. Inc. (RSI)
Capsule and Site Recovery Meeting held in Decatur, Georgia. Enclosure 1 shows a.
4 the agenda for the meeting and Enclosure 2 lists the participants. Following the meeting, several of the participants ~ and I were given a tour of.the RSI-
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facility. The following highlights of the meeting correspond to the ager.da 4
outline in Enclosure 1.
j' s
1.
Status of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Hot Cells it j'
Mr. Chitwood of the Department of Energy (DOE) reported that the Secretary of V.
DOE had not yet authorized m-start of operations in 81dg. 3517 at ORNL.
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Although operations were ori pinally suspended because of seismic concerns, the b
Secretary has not acted on tu DOE staff's August 198g recommendation to e
re-start and has raised questions about amount of flammebles stored in the g
building and redundancy of radiation and contamination monitoring. ORNL staff M
provided answers to these questions and Mr. Chitwood is getting final Fi concurrence on the revised document to go to the Secretary of 00E. That y.
document will also recommend re-start.
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Oak Ridge Operations Office has an on-going Type 8 investigation which is "on hold" pending re-start of operations in Bldg. 3517 where destructive testing a
of the capsules will be conducted. Alan Chin of RSI urged that DOE release n
i the Task Force's interim report as soon as assible. No one from DOE or Oak Ridge made any commitments with respect to Jr. Chin's recosmondation.
T 2.
Status of Capsule Testing
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Although no additional testing of Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility 4
(WESF) capsules has been done at ORNL since the August 198g meeting, gamma 4
scans of returned capsules have been done at Pacific Northwest Laboratories y
(PNL) to look at salt height within the capsules. Scans have also been done
?
on a few WESF capsules (both cesium-137 and strontius.90) that have been held d
in the pool at Hanford and have not been subjected to thermal cycling.
b Gamma scans will be done on additional non-cycled WESF sources.
Results to date j
seem to indicate that salt compaction is related to thermal cycling.
a 1
Note that both salt compaction and swelling were observed in the " leaking" and j
" bulged but not leaking" WESF capsules mmoved from RSI(Decatur). Destructive j
testing at ORML will try to explain which occurred first, salt compaction or j
swelling.
d 3
Status of Capsules Which Failed Inspection at Decatur and Westerville * *
All WESF capsules that failed the test protocol that included the "clumfl(
p have been removed from RSI(Decatur). The capsule at RSI(Westerville) test, ;
, a C
j failed the " clunk" test is expected to be shipped from Ohio by late Octobers i
e 1989.
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8.
Test Results for 7 Defective RSI-1500 Casks and Repair Schedule for-4 1 Defective GE-1500 Cask i
- 14. Repair Schedule for 7 Defective RSI-1500 Casks j
J.
- These two topics will be discussed together. Participants discussed the three y
tests conducted on the 9-RSI-1500 casks. Two RSI-1500 casks passed all three h
tests; 2-RSI-1500 casks failed all three tests and 5-RSI-1500 casks failed
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only the bubble test.
(Alan Chin calls these last five casks " questionable.")
8 The meeting participants were shown videotapes of the bubble tests on the d
2-RSI-1500 casks that failed all three tests. Alan Chin's position was that 1
the 5 " questionable" casks are appropriate for continued use since b
the cask is simply supposed to provide shielding, not containment. This is contrary to the position held by DOE and its contractors.
Dr. Chin indicated that he would have the 2-RSI-1500 casks (that failed all g
'a three tests) repaireds he estimated that repair of each cask would take 2 weeks and cost $10,000. _ Dr. Chin said that he planned to take no action on i
the other 5-RSI-1500 casks pending a decision on their acceptability oy Mr.
2, '
MacDonald's group in NRC's Transportation Branch (SGTB).
In msponse to my 4
urging Dr. Chin promised to file a 10 CFR 71.95 report with S6TB no later than Monday October 2,1989 and he indicated that Mr. MacDonald had pmmised i
him " quick turn around" on NRC's decision as to the acceptability of these 5
?-
casks in their current condition.
(Note that this puts SGT8 on the " critical 1
path" in the number of casks available for use and the speed with which WESF sources can be removed from the RSI facilities.)
)
Mr. Setser of the State of Georgia suggested that, in view of the high costs alreaty incurmd on the RSI project and the high costs per day associated with s
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4 any delay in the shipping schedule, Dr. Chin go ahead and repair all j
7-RSI-1500 casks, rather than await SGTB's decision.
Dr. Chin, in response.
g indicated that "he did not want to fix something that wasn't broken."
m 5
General Electric (GE) was contacted in order to obtain the use of two of its 3
GE-1500 casks. One of these casks was inspected and a weld was found that did Q
n6t match the drawings. GE repaired the cask and it is being sent to f,9 RSI(Decatur).
In response to his questions Dr. Chin was to' d that tests j
similar to those done on the RSI-1500' casks would NOT be done on the GE-1500 y
casks as there is no previous history on the GE casks that would warrant the W
tests.
1 f
(Privately I was told that the RSI-1500 casks would be re-tested after repair.)
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Dr. Chin also expressed displeasure that DOE and/or its contractors had d
contacted NRC directly regarding problems with the RSI-1500 casks. Dr. Chie i
N believes that problems with the RSI-1500 casks (if they exist) are a matter 4 strictly between NRC and RSI and that DOE should not interfere. I told Dr. i i
S Chin several times that it is'important for federal personnel in various f
ag'encies to have good communications with one another and to sham i
information.
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9.
Status of Shipment of Special Fom Capsules from Decatur T
Currently there are four casks available (2-RSI-1500 and 2-GE-1500). A total l!
of six will be available when the 2-RSI-1500 casks are repaired. No new shipping schedule has been prepared based on the availability of 4-6 casks.
ji DOE expects to revise the schedule by mid-October 1989.
- 13. NRC Approval of Westerville Shipping Schedule i
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> :4 RSI(Westerville)'s license requires removal of all cesium-137 WESF sources by
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b March 1. 1990. No amendment request has been received to change that date.
but it appears that DOE and its contractors plan to remove all WESF sources W
from RSI(Decatur) before removing the remaining WESF sources from B
RSI(Westerville). Dr. Chin indicated that NRC RIII had amended the h
RSI(Westerville) license to authorize possession and use of an additional 2 l
i megacuries of: cobalt-60 2nd conditioned the authorization on removal of the y
KSF source that failed the " clunk" test.
}
- 21. Date and Location of Next Meeting
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The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday. October 26, 1989 in 6
Deca tur.
If operations in Bldg. 3517 at ORNL have resumed (or been authorized-f to resume), the meeting location may be changed to Oak Ridge.
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- 22. Add-on Items-9 4
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In response to questions I raised, DOE indicated that it will conduct tests of I
the WESF sources at Applied Radiant Energy Corporation and Iotech during the first quarter of FY1990.
There was discussion about: (1) logistics for i
contacting the licensees and conducting the tests; (2) limitations on-the maximum number of thermal cycles permitted at Iotech after June 1988; and (3) possible use of-off-the. shelf equipment to do gamme scans of the sources, a y
good test of the status cf the sources (according to 00E and its contractors),
i esacially if similar tests have been conducted of non. cycled WESF sources at j
PM./Hanford in order to establish a good data base for comparison.
?.?
(Note that on Thursdhy, September 28. NRC RII meeting participants and I discussed several of these issues with you and Mr. Mac k>nald (SGT8) in a 4
telephone conference call. On Friday, September-29, you, Mike Lamastra and I l-discussed most of the remaining issues in another call.)
e 3
4.
A Patricia C. Vacca I
Commercial Section I
1 Medical. Academic, and Commercial 1
X Use Safety Branch I
Division of Industrial and 1
Medical Nuclear Safety A
Enclosures:
1.
Agenda j
2.
List of Participants
}
cc w/ encl:
t M. Lamastra l
G. Sjoblom R. Cunningham C. MacDonald. SGTB T
N. Osgood, SGTB V. Miller, GPA/SLITP 1
P.-Pelke,RIII
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10/04/89 0FFICIAL RECORD COPY
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Topics to be Addressed at me
?,
Fourm R$1 Capsule and Site Recovery information Meeting J
September 28,1989 in Decatur. Georgia 4i-1.
Status of me CRNL hot cells. 008 Ii f
2.
Status of me capsule testin0. - CRNL p
H 3.
Status of the capsules which failed the inspections at Decatur and M
Westerville. WHC
[
4.
Testing of capsules which failed the " clunk' test. WHO y
5.
Capsule decontamination status. WHO 3
8.
Cask decontamination statua. WMC Ij 7.
Cask de watering and drying procedures information. WMC
]
8.
Test results ter the 7ea. defective RSI 1500 casks and repair schedule for the 1 es defective GE 1500 cask. WHC Status of the shipment of special form capsules from Decatur. WHC I
)1 10.
Status of the shipment of capsules at Decatur and Westerville whlah failed the.*
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Inspections. - WMC e
11.
Status of the shipment of normal form capsules from Decatur and g
WestervlRe.
WHC j
12.
Altemate shipping mode Investigation for the remaining Cs-137 capsules at
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Decatur and WesterviHe WHC d.
13.
. NRC approval of the Westerville shipment schedule. WHC a
[
14 Repair schedule for the 7ea. defective RSI 1500 casks - RSI 4
,i
. Accomplishments of the Decatur cleanup activities since 15.
August 22,1989.
MMES 18.
Scheduled cleanup activities for the next month. MMES j
17.
Status of the CO2 decon process. MMES J
18.
RSI Decatur capsule shipment schedule, cleanup plan and schedule, and Site s
release plan and schedule. - MMES 1
0 19.
Medla activity during the last month. - GA
(
20.
Local complaints or comments during the last month. GA h
21.
Date and location for the next meeting. OCE 22.
Add on items.
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RSI CAPSULE AND SITE RECOVERY INFORMATIO I
ATTENDENCE LIST SEPTENBER 28, 1989 e
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NUNBER d-NAME ORGANIZATION 1
01
(
W. EELLY.DAGENRART NNES 02
(
RICHARD LYNN 3
NNES 03 EUGENE NEWMAN ORNL 04 JOHN A. CHRISTIAN 4
CW81 05 4
LAWRENCE F. SEARS
)
CNSI t
06 ROBERT G. HANILTON CNSI 07 i
AfM CHIN
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RBI 08 JANES C. HARDEMAN l.
DNR 09 i
HENRY COPELAND DER i;
10 THOMAS E. HILL DER 11 BILL BONEN WBC 12 LARRY NUNN WRC 13 JOHN ROTER0CE DOE 14 JEFF ALLISON I
WESF-DP12 lis WILLIAN A. RUTHERFORD i,
DOE /RICHLAND 16 RICHARD B. CHITWOOD I
DOE / GERMANTOWN 17 i
PAUL NAGNER EPA IV 18 i
PATRICIA VACCA NRC/ REGIONAL 19 WILLIAN E.. CLINE NRC II 20 (Tack Ellicif MKC 2I G.
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