ML20126H781
| ML20126H781 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 07000925 |
| Issue date: | 12/30/1992 |
| From: | France G, Wiedeman D NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION III) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20126H774 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9301050316 | |
| Download: ML20126H781 (3) | |
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%.) W DEC 3 01992 Docket No.70-0925 License N7. SNM-928 Amendment No. 9 APPLICANT: Kerr-McGee/Cimarron Corporation FACILITY: Uranium fuel Fabrication Plant Cimarron, Oklahoma
SUBJECT:
SAFETY EVALUATION REPORT-LICENSE AMENDMENT APPLICATION FOR BACKFILLING TWO SEWAGE WASTE LAGOONS AND FOUR FORMER BURIAL TRENCHES, RETURNING THE AREA TO NORMAL USAGE Discussion:
The Kerr-McGee Corporation operated the Cimarron Facility in Crescent, Oklahoma to produce slightly enriched (approximately 3%) uranium fuel and mixed oxide (uranium plus plutonium) reactor fuel between 1965 and 1975. The uranium activities were initially conducted under license SNM-928 with the Atomic Energy Commission, and later assigned to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Later, Cimarron Corporation, a subsidiary of the Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation, became responsible for the Cimarron Facility.
Decontamination of the Cimarron Facility began in 1979 with the goal of removing all contaminated equipment and materials so the facility could be released for unrestricted use. The decontamination and decommissioning project was divided into several phases, which involved the Mixed 0xide Plant, the Uranium Plant, construction of an onsite disposal cell, two sanitary lagoons, and later, the decommissioning of a former onsite burial ground developed under now deleted 10 CFR Part 20.304.
Decontamination activities have been completed for the former burial ground. The burial ground was opened in March 1966, for the disposal of low level uranium wastes and thorium contaminated materials, received from another Kerr-McGea plant site; its use was discontinued in August 1970. Excavation and removal of the buried waste and contaminated soil was initiated in 1986 and completed in 1988.
At the request of the NRC Region Ill Office, on December 9-12, 1991, the Environmental Survey and Site Assessment Program (ESSAP) of Oak Ridge Associated Universities (0RAU), now the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (0 RISE), performed a confirmatory radiological survey of the former burial ground at the Cimarron Corporation Facility. The results of the survey indicate that all samples, with 5 exceptions, were 9301050316 921230 PDR ADOCK 0700092S C PDR I
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DEC 3 01992 below the concentration guidelines for total uranium, 30 picocur.es per gram, and. total thorium, 10 picocuries per gram. The locations which exceed the uranium concentration guideline are randomly spread over the former burial ground area. These locations were marked by the ESSAP team, and_ excavated by the licensee during the course of the survey, Samples from adjacent areas were within the guidelines. Consequently, the licensee demonstrated that the residual activity levels satisfied the established decommissioning guidelines, " Guidelines for Residual Concentrations of Thorium and Uranium Wastes in Soil," published in the federal Register, 46 FR 5206, October 23, 1981.
Cimarron Corporation allowed the liquid in two lagoons to evaporate, and then removed the sludge and mud accumulated in the lagoons. The dredged matrices were placed in drums, mixed with cement, hardened,.and shipped off-site to a licensed commercial burial site. The bottoms of the ponds were cleaned, and sampled with only trace amounts of uranit.m remaining on the ponds bottom. During the period of' November 5-6, 1990, ESSAP conducted an independent radiological survey of the east and west sanitary lagoons. The survey was performed in accordance with a plan developed by ORAU/0 RISE and agreed to by Region Ill NRC. The confirmatory analyses indicate that the average concentration of residual activity is well below the guideline value for uranium and thorium.
B@l0 LOGICAL _HAZARQ:
During the backfilling and covering operations, workers, nearby residents, or passerby may be exposed to contaminated dust. Cimarron must take aggressive measures to keep dust from blowing. Although, the major radionuclides contributing to dose from the backfill operations and generation of airborne dusts are uranium-234 and 238, the-contamination level is not expected to yield an equivalent dose that is significantly above background.
REf 0.M[hDATIONS:
On the basis of the extensive investigation and reviews that have been made, I recommend that the license for the Cimarron Uranium Plant (Docket No. 70-0925) owned by Kerr-McGee Corporation, be amended to authorize the backfill and cover of the two sanitary lagoons and the
-former burial ground, subject to the conditions stated in License Condition 22.a through 22.e.
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- DEC _3 01992 Furthermore,thisamendmentisrestrictedtothoseactivitiesthall_
affect the two sanitary lagoons and the former burial ground _.- Activities at the Mixed 0xide and Uranium Fuel Fabrication Fa,:ilities, and the onsite disposal cell are not included in this evaluation. -The final reports for the conf _irmatory survey _of the former burial ground and the two sanitary lagoons are attached to this. Safety Evaluation, dated July 1992, and November 1991, respectively.
" 4y . 'A A u d , 11L deorgs'M. France, 111 Region Ill, fuel Facilities inspector ,
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Approved By:
/- *** ~3 D. G. Wiedeman, Acting Chief- -
Fuel Facilities and Contaminated Sites Section N
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