ML20134E538

Discusses Listed Pending Issues

ML20134E538
Person / Time
Issue date:	04/03/1996
From:	Sherbini S NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS)
To:	Cheney NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS)
Shared Package
ML20134B601	List: ML20134B598 ML20134B625 ML20134B689 ML20134E503 ML20134E517 ML20134E537 ML20134E538 ML20134E577 ML20134E585 ML20134E657 ML20134E667 ML20134F575
References
FOIA-96-444 NUDOCS 9702060337
Download: ML20134E538 (2)

Text

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j From: Sami Sherbiniy N M pA ,; #

To:

Date:

CXH C)ONe5, Qnf.i g@d' bp ,,

4/3/96 8

05am a i

Subject:

Loose ends t

\

Cathy: 3

. Here are some of the pending things

;

l- The sentence to inserted in the A!4S letter is

_~

I i The basis of, /

6ur psfN & tenAMion for permitting you to discharge Tank 880 on  ;

j (date) was that ynr = lysis of both the top and bottom filters for the water )

. in tank, .g,e.-ided co us-bj ,e,; = .troh-6 r1996, showed no activity s l

/ distinguishable from background. - These results indicated the absc'.acd of

, insoluble Co-60 in the water, which may therefore be discharged in c'ompliance  ;

with the requirements in 10 CFR 20.2003. I I

i # '-

2. I called Region III about TAR IMNS5290, and they saijpir was OK if it was j delayed a week to 10 days. It should go to OGC, and maybe Joe can make any j small changes that may be necessary. If there are major changes, then I will do when I get back on April 12.

3. IMNS5295 is due on 4/15, and we will not be able to get it out on time.

An extension to 4/30 would be fine. The reason is that we did not have time to get to it (other higher priority items).

1 j 4. The Commission has approved issue of the GL supplement, so we should issue

it ar soon as possible (Parker is still calling every day asking when it will be issued). The correct version is in G

GL9509.SS.

Thanks. ,

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I 9702060337 970203 PDR FOIA ENGLISH96-444 PDR

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l Date: April 12, 1996 Call made April 12, 1996 to Tom Lenhart (NE0RSD) ((216) 881-6600) at 3:30 pm 4 our local time was unsuccessful; Mr Lenhart was not in the office today. I i told the secretary that I would call back on Tuesday, April 16,.1996.

Call made April 16, 1996 to Tom Lenhart (NE0RSD) ((216) 881-6600) at 11:20 am j our local time. Mr. Lenhart was not available at the moment, and I was transferred to Mr. Larry English. I informed Mr. English that there has been l no change in the petition status since the last call to Mr. Lenhart in February, 1996. Mr. English indicated that he was familiar with the topic and I would relay the information to Mr. Lenhart. l Date: April 26, 1996 ,

1 l Charles Thomas called me and requested that I contact NE0RSD and inform them l of the extensien of the due date for the first petition (ED0 0008663) to l December 1996, so that the petitioner would not get the information first from the Bulletin Board, but from the petition manager periodic update. I indicated that I did not remember if I told the petitioner of the extension in the contact made on April 16,, 1996; in any case it was not documented that I did inform the petitioner.

At 11: 20 am our local time, I called Mr. Tom Lenhart and left a message on .

his voice mail that I was the petition manager, and that I was calling to l inform him that the due date for the Director's Decision had been extended to December 26, 1996, that our counsel was still working on it as a Commission Option paper, and that I was informing him of that so they would have the information now and not find the information first on the NRC Petition Bulletin Board. >

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December 16, 1994

{

l City of Cleveland Department of Rublic Health ATTN: Ms. Judith J. Zimomra  :

Director l

1925 St. Clair Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44114 l

l

Dear Ms. Zimomra:

l This responds to the November 22, 1994 letter from your department concerning  !

the findings documented in our inspection report issued Noven.ber 7,1994, '

i regarding Advanced Medical Systems, Inc. (AMS). Specifically, you questioned whether the violations discussed in our report represent any public health threat to the citizens of the City of Cleveland now or in the past. l The violations identified in that report concern the process for sanitary l sewer discharges of liquid effluents containing radioactive material by AMS  ;

and its predecessor, Picker Corporation (Picker). The AMS license required I that the waste water be filtered during transfer from the holdup tanks to the ,

sampling and release tank prior to sampling and discharge. The NRC inspection

~

determined, however, that AMS employees did not routinely filter the waste ,

water between November 1979 and April 1986. l In addition, AMS and Picker were both required to assess effluents and assure ,

that discharges to the sanitary sewers were below concentration and cumulative l discharge limits. On one or more occasions, Picker during the 1960s and 1970s, and AMS during the 1980s, did not assess the levels of licensed I material in discharges to the sanitary sewers resulting from facility floods I and certain decontamination activities. Although the precise volume and '

concentration of radioactive material in those unmonitored releases is not known, it is unlikely that the cumulative quantity of cobalt-60 released to the sewer system during the unmonitored discharges exceeded a few hundred millicuries.

As explained in Section 4.D(2) of the November 7,1994 inspection report, the basis for that conclusion included consideration of the relatively low levels of contamination that could have been released through flood and decontamina-tion activities and the limited measurements that were made during one flooding event. Based on this assessment, those past releases would then likely be below the applicable NRC release limit.

These violations do not represent any past or present public health threat to the citizens of Cleveland. The violations at the time they occurred could have involved the discharge of radioactive cobalt-60 in waste water to the sanitary sewers beyond what was recorded in the licensees discharge rgcords.

However, it is not likely those discharges exceeded NRC release limits.

- 9 Wezoozs7

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City of Cleveland  :

i i 1 ,

As you are aware, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has raised a number of issues relating to discharges of cobalt-60 from AMS's Cleveland >

facility. The NRC staff is continuing to evaluate those issues and will keep  !

you informed of our results.

We appreciate your concern and interest in the activities we regulate. If I l or my staff can be of any further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact me or John Grobe at (708) 829-9806.

Sincerely, l

Cri;ir. I sig:w! -

r.h.~ A. Gide. '

W. L. Axelson, Director '

i Division of Radiation Safety  ;

and Safeguards

)

cc: R. Staib, Commissioner

.D. Downing, Executive Assistant 1

W. M. Ondrey Gruber, Law M. Konicek, Director J. Ciaccia, Commissioner L. Mehringer, Law T. Lenhart, NE0RSD D. Cesar, AMS l

l DOCUMENT NAME: G:\CLEVELND.LTR

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OFFICE Rill l RIII nA l6 RIII m, j l RIII p e l NAME WSlawinski:dp WJJ. JGrobelfN JStrasma/ V BBed6n DATE 12/ir/94 U 12/ d /94 12/15 /94 12//$ /94 i JFFICE OGC (M mpTp l6 NMSS ( %h l6 Rill , s K Rill l NAME W Goldber~g(C. M de CPaperiWello r V%/ WAxel son _'!Nd DATE ( 12/ vf /94:" V 12/ g /94C) P 0 12/ g /94' 12/ /94 0FFICIAL RECORD COPY