ML20093G494

Provides Response to Bechhoefer Memorandum & Order of 950926 Re Georgia Technology Research Reactor & Gane Contention 9.W/Certificate of Svc

ML20093G494
Person / Time
Site:	Neely Research Reactor
Issue date:	09/30/1995
From:	Blockeyobrian AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	Bechhoefer, Kline, Lam Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel
Shared Package
ML20093G477	List: ML20093G494
References
REN, NUDOCS 9510190102
Download: ML20093G494 (5)

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Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, '

l Hon. Justice Bechhoefer, Chairman, Hon. Dr. Kline, t Hon. Dr. Lam,

%ggrien lh U S Nuclear Regulatory Comission, '

o m g,% % ,o y g Washington, DC 20555 Sept. 30th, 1995 l l

Regarding Justice Bechhoefer's Memorandum and Order of Sept. 26th 1995 in the, [

matter of Docket 50-160 Georgia ' Itch Research Reactor and GANE Contention 9 (and my concerns under my 2.206) and whether the organizational change has any effect upon Contention 9 and whether it may moot some or all of the contention.

Dear Justice Bechhoefer,

Justice Kline and Justice Lam, Thank you for the opportunity to respond . I do not believe that this change renders anything moot. One of the, problems had been that contrary to NRC ,l j

i policy, according to newspaper reports, (dnd the former radiological safety officer) ,

all of a sudden, the staff re-organization i'n the late 1980's took away a direct line ofId communication on safety issues with high officials at Tech as you are aware and the Radiological Safety Office was put under the Director (Dr. Karam). After all these 4[

years of acting contrary to NRC policy (allowed by Tech and the NRC) wiiirh I would consider to be a serious management defficiency by Georgia 'Ibch itself as well as the l Director and a violation by NRC of its own policy, Georgia Tech (with a little help frcr NRC perhaps ?) seems to be doing a quick smoke and mirrors job of re-shuffling the ,

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deck back again now the pressure is on, in the hope of avoiding criticism. All this I proves, is that there are management problems , this being only one of the problems, which would not have been addressed if there wasn't a huge fuss being created by myself and GANE. Had the various Comittees and Offices at Tech meant to be involved I with the reactor and staff and oversight done a good job all these years, there 4 would not be, or have been all the problems noted in the files. )

For example, on July 30th, 1993, I called to ask what type of research was being j done at the reactor. I was put through to a Dr. Larson, who I was told was Assistant Director (I believe of Nuclear Engineering but I am not 100% sure, that can be checked)l He informed me quote:that he was "not up to date with what they do there" and told me ll to " talk to Dr. Karam". I remember being very surprised that he did not know what l went on there. The Tech liscense documents suhnitted under the Re-licensing 6.2 Nuclear Safeguards Comittee , shows there is nothing on health that they look at. '

Furthermore, March 9th,1987, Inspection Report of Inspection conducted Feb.17-23 showed MAJOR violations on releases to the sewers and a lot more besides which was abs absolutely appa111 nag, and problems continued one way or the other over the years.an Inspection conducted July 31- Aug 3 1989 and Aug.9 -10 1989 10000:H Nov I-101988 show continuous problems even though NRC had obviously gotten on the Nuclear Safeguards Ccmnittee to get its act together and the Safeguards Comittee had been trying. However, as problems re-appear subsequently , or do not seem to have been addressed properly, unless it lookshalf as the if there is not sufficient known world is breathing oversight and monitoring of the facilityThat in itself shows a problem at all levels. The Ju down Tech's neck .

Inspection Report showed there was no calibration or operating procedure approved by the Nuclear Safeguards Comittee for the Tennelec Proportional Counter and there

> were still, in my opinion, serious questions regarding recirculation time with the tanks which discharge to the sewers, as well as the problems with no analysis of the particulate filter. concerned that with this persistant pattern of problems whichl I am also i show a certain negligence to say the least, that NOTHING to my knowledge has been removed from the facility yet prior to the Olympics and that Tech even has the gall l' to want to keep the cobalt-60 and bring in the LEU, keep the rad-waste and the sealed source etc. In my 2.206 I had asked that the materials be taken to a secure 9510190102 9S1011 PDR ADOCK 05000160 i 0 PDR

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government facility to be kept safe. Dr. Karam told me he had put the cesium-137 up for bids. I presume that means what it usually does, namely that whoever bids lowest {

gets to haul it off. However, I believe it would be very dangerous for that to go to a non-government site, or heaven forbid wind up on the open market. Barnwell is not '

only N0ff a government site, for example, but according to the report : Waste Manage-ment Inc. An Encyclopaedia of Environmental Crimes and Other Misdeeds" (1991)

In 1982 a U.S. Geological Survey I.eport found that radioactive waste was leaking from the Barnwell dump (tritium) and that there was also contaminated water beneath the buried waste (tritium and cobalt-60) andthat in 1986 Chemnuclear Transportation was identified as a potentially responsible i hv at the Maxey Flats Kentucky Super-fund site. Further, that Chem-Nuclear Transpo . ion paid a $12,000 fine to settle charges that truck drivers were permitted to make improper entries on their record-of-duty status. Chem-Nuclear Services and Chem Nuclear Transportation are subsidiaries of/ i the infamous Waste Management Inc. (aka WMX Technologies) according to the report, the company and its subsidiaries have paid at least $ 28 million in penalties and settlements in anti-trust cases ( p.128) and has been fined millions also for environmen0 crimes . For some obscure reason, the federal government still gives thes,e awful companies - and their allies in some cases, such as BFI- contracts. (I suppose it helps that Howard Baker, Reagans former Chief of Staff 6s with Waste Management Inc., and that William Ruckelshaus went and joined BFI (former EPA and FBI) and former high ranking Deptc of Energy officials like Earl Gjelde and Michael Lawrence went and joined Chem Waste Management also part of the Waste Management Inc. happy family. I do not feel any of thesd companies (and some not listed,with fines against them) should be allowed to move this stuff, nor should it go to a private dump.

Again, with regard to the question of mootness, with which I disagree : with all the concerns regarding HEALTH, as wel.1 as safety, I do not feel that the Dean / office of t$

the college of Engineering can address any of the health / safety issues. Thoset should (

beaddressedbybiologists.andmedicalstaffwhospecializeintheterriblehealtheffectq of radiation. I would draw your attention to the recent report (over 600 pages) by l Nobel Peace Prize Winning' Physicians for Social ResponsibilityF entitled " Nuclear i Wasteland. A Global Guide to Nuclear Weapons Production and its Health and Environ- l I

mental Effects.7 in which they charge that on a global scale the health effects from radiation exposure as a result of decades of nuclear weapons production have been widely underestimated and workers often given false assurances that they were not over-exposed to radiation based on incomplete and sometimes fabricated records. The Tech reactor was/is part of the global weapons cycle and has recieved military monies.

The inspection reports show concerns with measurements of radiaiton . In my opinion, health of workers and of the public should have been uppermost and it seems it was act.

Even though under "6.2 Nuclear Safeguards Committee " W says they are responsible for maintaining health and safety standards .he entire section, 1 through 12 NEVERp addresres health.The Inspction Report of July lith, 1990, done June 12-14, shows an individual wns not pWrforming propLJrep'rsonal surveys prior to leaving a controlled area, shows the individual had only recieved some training back in 1976 and that the liscensee had no forma 1 retraining program.How many times have workers at. Tech failed to monitor themselves for contamination or the instrumentsa they work with (as in this case) the difference being that there was no inspector who happened to be around to notice 7 We know that it happened when the fellow got on the bus and went home in the late 80's, it is anyone guess what has REALLY been going on there. This is but another small example of lack of oversight / management defficiencies.

As noted in the Insp btion Report of June 1995, for 1986 and 1989 with resdht to gross radioactivity, there was no average concentration listed for the total amount released and no total amount listed in curies for those years, plus, there was no maximum concentration of gross radioativity released to the unrestricted area or san-

'ibary sewer listed for the years 1988 through l'993 Not only was this a violation, but again shcwed a lack of oversight and/or management on all levels (and negligence.)

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e Tech has had ample time to opWrate correctly, instead it has been a litany of l problems and a lack of management and oversight.Right up until now. -- ,:

I With this sort of record, there are no guarantees at all that anything will j change in the future, and just doing a bit of re-shuffling now that the heat is on

. is far too little much too late. That dump should be shutdown.

I would also like to take this opportunity to raise'something on the l saf'ety/ terrorism issue with the Olympics coming and absent the Olympics.I strongly

sukggest that all parties read the reports from 1972 published in the German news j magazine " Der Spiegel" .thbout the Munich disaster at the Munich Olympics. and the

, advance warnings a police psychologist gave which went virtually unheeded , as I

) sometimes get the impression, whether or not it is a true impression, that perhaps

' 'Ibch wants to keep stalling and then maintain that there is not enough time to get-

everything out - despite their assurances to the contrary) - and then say that they will be able to safeguard anything and everything and not to worry. If this is the case, it would be disgraceful. Wh11e some in the comunity of people who are

'; meant to supply all the security for the Olympics may feci that playing Mr. Macho will take care of everything, I would remind everyone that we are talking an influx of

, approx. one million people into a city that can't even repair its sewers on' timeed i AAabout to be sued for the pollution it causes by people at West Point lake further down the CHattahoochee River.We are also talking nuclear materials. Macho just won't be enough. Absent the Olympic ihe same security issues remain. At the Munich Olympics, a spWcial, unarmed, police t. e of two thousand one hundred police men and women patrolled inside the Olympic Village alone , but no one could forsee or prevent the

, young man who climbed the fence and started the chain of tradgedy. by the time he was

) observed going over the fence it was too late. He didn't look like a stereotypical terrorist either, in his white hat, safari suit and sunglasses - until one saw the grenade he carried......My point is, that everything at the reactor MUST go, and none of it should be allowed to wind up on the opWn market for sale either, and that includes

the cobalt-60. Even absent the Olympics, the place is a sitting duck for teirorists. j We are running out of time. I believe that Tech and the NRC should stop i with the delaying tactics . I consider the management change issues just that.

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I believe they should face up to the fact that everything must go, that the place j' always was and is likely to remain a badly managed and op b ted unsafe dump of a i

facility and that it poses a real threat to the health, safety and well being of f the city and state, and of course that it must be shut down and cleaned up too. j

We are just getting (Ik's now Oct. 3rd) . he first effects from Hurricane Opal. '

f Peachtree Creek has risen 10 feet since last night and will go over flood stage.

i Flood warnings are out for Northwest Georgia and Fulton County where the reactor sits.

i I hopd that basement doesn't flood again.

l Thank you for your patience. Sincerely, If CLA.Wb g i l Pamela Blockey-O'Brien.

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION In the Matter of I GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Docket No.(s) 50-160-REN ATLANTA, GEORGIA

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that copies of the foregoing MEMO FM COMIEZ TO JULIAN f have been served upon the following persons by U.S. mail, first class, except as otherwise noted and in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR Sec. 2.7I2.

1 Administrative Judge j Bechhoefer, Chairman Office of Commission Appellate Charles Adjudication Atomic Safety and Licensing Board i

! U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Mail Stop T-3 F 23 Washington, DC 20555 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission i

Washington, DC 20555 l

Administrative Judge Administrative Judge Jerry R. Kline Peter S. Lam

- Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Mail Stop T-3 F 23 Mail Stop T-3 F 23 l

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555 Washington, DC 20555 h

Sherwin E. Turk, Esq. Randy A. Nordin Esq. i

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Office of the General Counsel E. Gail Gunnells, Esq.

Mail Stop 0-15 B 18 Georgia Institute of Technology i U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 400 10th Street, N.W.

! Washington, DC. 20555 Atlanta, GA 30332 Patricia Guilday, Esq. Glenn Carroll Assistant Attorney General Georgians Against Nuclear Energy Georgia Department of Law P.O. Box 8574 40 Capitol Square SW Atlanta, GA 30306

' Atlanta, GA 30334 o

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Docket No.(s)50-160-REN MEMO FM COMIEZ To JULIAN 4

Pamela Blockey-O'Brien D23 Golden Valley Douglasville, GA 30134 l

4 Dated at Rockville, Md. this 11 day of October 1995 i% _ 1.b

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l Officegf the Secretary of the Commission i

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