ML20140C925

Forwards Minutes from 970403 Meeting W/National Mining Assoc in Rockville,Md Re Relevant Issues in U Recovery Program. W/Draft Workshop Agenda

ML20140C925
Person / Time
Issue date:	04/17/1997
From:	Cain C NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS)
To:	Sweeney K AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
References
REF-WM-3 NUDOCS 9704210125
Download: ML20140C925 (15)

Text

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April 17, 1997 National Mining Association ATTN: Ms. Katie Sweeney i

on 0

SUBJECT:

MINUTES FROM APRIL 3, 1997, MEETING BETWEEN THE U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AND THE NATIONAL MINING j

ASSOCIATION

Dear Ms. Sweeney:

Enclosed please find a copy of the minutes from the meeting held among yourself:

Mr. Pat Mackin of the CNWRA: Mr. Anthony Thompson of Shaw. Pittman Potts, and Trowbridge; and members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff, on April 3.1997, at NRC Headquarters in Rockville. Maryland. This meeting was one in a series of periodic meetings between the NRC staff and the NMA to discuss relevant issues in the uranium recovery program.

If you have any questions about this letter or the enclosures, please contact Jane Marshall of my staff at (301) 415-6390.

Sincerely, (Original signed by)

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Charles L. Cain. Acting Chief Uranium Recovery Branch

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Division of Waste Management Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards

Enclosures:

Meeting Minutes l

Draft Workshop Agenda cc: See attached list DISTRIBUTION:

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OFC URB URB NAME JMarshall;dh CCain kc.

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9704210125 970417 PDR WASTE t

WM-3 PDR 210028 p _3 l{o?

e Date/ Time / Location: April 3, 1997 / 10:00 am - 11:30 am EST / NRC Headquarters. Rockville MD Attendees:

NRC:

NMA:

Joseph J. Holonich Katie Sweeney Robert Fonner Anthony Thompson (Shaw.

Jane Marshall Pittman, et al.)

CNWRA:

Pat Mackin (via phone)

Minutes:

On April 3.1997. staff from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission met with representatives from the National Mining Association (NMA). The meeting was one of the routine bimonthly meetings held to discuss issues of mutual concern to NRC and NMA. Topics discussed included:

follow-up actions from previous meetings; the status of the decommissioning rulemaking: planning for the June 1996 NRC/NMA workshop: and clarification on the NRC position on restoration water evaporites as 11e.(2) byproduct material.

The meeting began with a discussion of previously open issues from other meetings.

NHA asked about the status of NRC efforts to revise the

. Branch Technical Position on groundwater alternate concentration limits, and the NRC review of a proposed third party surety for uranium recovery facilities. The staff informed NMA that the efforts on these activities were assigned lower priorities, and that the main focus of NRC had been on completing the casework reviews necessary to support licensing of new facilities, restart of existing facilities, and licensing of sites being reclaimed by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Next. NRC staff 3rovided a discussion on the draft final decommissioning rule.

Because t1e Commission had made the Commission pa)er containing the draft final rule publicly available, the staff was a)le to provide some insight into how the draft final rule will affect uranium recovery facilities.

Essentially, the staff explained to NMA that the draft final rule recommends that the cleanup requirements for radionuclides other than radium be based on a dose equal to that resulting from the cleanup of radium to the standard in 10 CFR Part 40. Appendix A.

Criterion 6.

This standard results in a dose of approximately 60 mrem / year, based on the dose used by EPA to calculate the 5 pci/gm limit on radium.

A comparable dose might be acceptable as a benchmark for use by a uranium recovery licensee to determine what the clean-up concentration for other radionuclides, such as uranium, should be.

The staff committed to get the NMA representatives copies of the Commission l

paper (provided to Ms. Sweeney & Mr. Thompson under separate cover), and emphasized that the Commission may not accept the staff recommendation i

in the final rule when it is promulgated.

The NMA representatives acknowledaed that they understood that the final rule could be different from the draft final proposed by the staff.

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.The NMA requested clarification from the NRC on their position on ISL restoration byproduct material as 11e.(2) byproduct material.

The NRC i

explained the consideration was conditional on the mine sweep water i

being pumped into the same evaporation ponds as process water, and the 1

resulting sludge consisting of a mixture of process water evaporites and mine sweep water evaporites with similar compositions and the same hazardous constituents.. The entire sludge can be considered 11e.(2) byproduct material for disposal purposes provided that the process sludge is the dominant component.

U) dating the progress on the Standard Review Plan (SRP) for ISLs from t1e March 19 meeting between industry and the NRC staff: CNWRA staff are still on target for a July date for the first draft of the SRP.

The NMA is working to issue a single written comment on concerns they would like to have addressed in the SRP. CNWRA needs this comment by the first of May to incorporate industry comments into the July draft.

Otherwise, those issues will be addressed in a later revision.

Industry will be working to make the May comment date but cannot commit to having the i

comments completed by then.

Another topic for discussion was the draft agenda for the June 1997 NRC/NMA workshop.

A copy of the draft agenda discussed ~at the meeting is provided in Enclosure 2.

There was general agreement that the topics proposed in the draft agenda were aparopriate.

NMA provided information on the conference center and the wortshop registration form. The NRC staff committed to provide the NMA information along with the draft agenda in a letter to all interested parties.

2

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Agenda for June Workshop June 3 and 4. 1997 1.

Introducson

- US Nuclear Regulatory Commission

- National Mining Association 2.

Status of Program 1

- NRC Accomplishments in FY 1997

- CNWRA Accomplishments in FY 1997 3.

Other Agencies Impact on Environmental Reviews

- Indian Issues in SDIs

- Endangered species

- Bureau of Land Management

- Environmental Protection Agency 4.

Status of Standard Review Plan (SRP) Development

a. In Situ Leach Facility

b. Groundwater Programs for Reclamation

c. Reclamation Revision 5.

Records Retention Rule discussion 6.

WNI Experience on Soil Cleanup 7.

DOE Title II Experience / Update 8.

DOE Title I Program Experience 9.

Industry

- Report'on U.S. Nuclear Energy and Uranium Conference

- Perspective on Commission Briefing

- Reclamation Projections

- Top Ten Industry Issues Drug Testing 10.

NRC Operations Center

a. Responsibilities as lead Federal Agency

b. Need to report all events to Operations Center

c. New Procedure for events including mine assessment team 11.

Inspection experience since last workshop

- Results of inspections

- Sumn.ary of Violations 12.

Performance Based Licenses

- Differences from most current licenses

- Advantages and disadvantages to licensees

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.13.

Generic Issues

- NRC Contacts

- Record Retention

- Surety Transmittals

- Groundwater Monitoring.

14.

Overview of Raf'rinal rule-Overview of" jological Decommissioning Rule

- Im)lementation of rule

- MARSSUM versus NUREG guidance series 15.

Research Needs

- NRC Research Work

- Industry Research Work 16.

.NRC Contracting Process 1

17.

Overview of MILDOS Update 18.

Strategic Assessment Analysis

- National Mining Association

- NRC Perspective 19.

-State Perspective and Issues 4

- Agreement States

- Non-agreement States 20.

Open Regulatory Forum

-Alternate locations for next workshop 2

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j Groundwater Mini-workshop June 5, 1997 1.

Industry Experience i

a. ISL groundwater restoration

b. Outlook for mill groundwater compliance j

2.

DOE Experience from Title I Program l

r 3.

DOE Experience / Views on Title II Program l

a. Groundwater compliance in license termination l

4.

EPA Perspective

a. Superfund Process l

b. Standards Development Process j

5.

In-depth 3resentation on SRPs a, New IS_ SRP

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b. Revision of Mill SRP 6.

State perspective

a. Agreement State Experience

b. Non-Agreement State Programs i

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CC LIST FOR LETTER TO MS, KATIE SWEENEY NhA DATED l

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Kennecott Uranium Company ATTN: Oscar Paulson P.O. Box 1500 Rawlins. WY 82301 Fax - (307) 324-4925 i

J Kennecott Uranium Company j

ATIN:

B. A. Massey 505 Gillette Avenue J

Caller Box 3009 i

Gillette, WY 82717-3009 Phone:

(807) 687-6002 i

Fax: (307) 687-6058 2

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Ouivira Mining Company ATTN:

Bill Ferdinand, Marager Radiation Safety, Licensing &

Reg. Affairs

.6305 Waterfcrd Blvd.. Suite 325 Oklahoma City. OK 73118 Atlantic Richfield Company ATTN: Ron S. Ziegler P.O. Box 638 Grants. NM 87020 UNC Mining and Milling i

ATTN: Juan R. Velasquez

'1720 Louisiana Blvd.. NE Suite 400 i

Albuquerque, NM 87110 Hydro Resources, Inc.

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. ATTN: Mark Pelizza Uranium Resources Inc.

12750 Merit Drive, Suite 1020. LB 12 Dallas. TX 75251 i

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j Mr. Caleb Loring'. III i

Essex Street Associates P.O.. Box 5600 Beverly Farms, MA- 01915-0512 Dave Crouch. Director Environment W Quality Sohio Western Mining Company 150 East Social Hall Avenue Suite 400 i

Salt Lake City. UT 84111 i

Homestake Mining Campany.

ATTN:

Roy R. Cellan P.O. Box 98 Grants, NM 87020 Crow Butte Resources ATTN:

Steve Collings 216 Sixteenth St. Mall, Suite 810

' Denver., CO,80202 Rio'Algom Mining Corp.

ATTN:

Bill Ferdinand, General Manager 6305 Waterford Blvd., Suite 325 Oklahoma City, OK 73118-i Rio Algom Mining Corp, Marvin Freeman, President i

Smith Ranch Project P, 0. Box 1390 Glenrok, Wyoming 82672 i

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Atlas Corporation ATTN:

R. E. Blubaugh Vice President of Environmental and Governmental Affairs Republic Plaza i

370 17th St., Suite 3050 Denver. CO 80202 a

Plateau Resources Limited-P.O. Box 2111 Ticaboo Lake Powell. UT 84533-2111 Bear Creek Uranium ATTN: Gary Chase Radiation Safety Officer P.O. Box 366 Casper. WY 82602

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Umetco Minerals Corporation-j ATTN:

Bert R. Hankins General Superintendent j

P.O. Box 151 l

Riverton, WY 82501 American Nuclear Corporation L

William C. Salisbury, President P. 0.' Box 2713 Casper. WY 82602 l

U.S. Energy Corporation ATTN:

Kenneth Webber l

877 North 8th West Riverton. WY 82501 Power Resources. Inc.

ATTN:

Crew Schmidt Vice President 1560 Broadway. Suite 1470 j

Denver. CO 80202 Power Resources. Inc.

Attn:

Paul Hildenbrand Manager Regulatory and Environmental Affairs 800 Werner Court

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Suite 230 l-Casper. Wyon.ing 8E601 l

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L Exxon Corporation l

c/o Exxon Coal and Minerals Company ATTN:

Dave Range Staff Environmental Engineer P.O. Box 1314 Houston. TX 77251-1314 ny

.o COGEMA Mining..Inc.

Irigaray/Christensen Ranch ISL Operations AlTN:

Donna Wichers P.O. Box 730 l

Mills. WY 82644 Cogema. Inc.

ATTN

Robert Poy."

7401 Wisconsin Avenue Bethesda. MD 20814-3416 i

Pathfinder North Butte ISL Operations ATTN:

Donna L. Wichers i

P.O. Box 730 Mills. WY 82644 l

Pathfinder Mines Corp.

ATTN:

Lee Nugent. General Manager P. O. Box 730 935 Pendell Blvd.

l Mills. Wymoning 82644 Petrotomics Company l

ATTN:

Ron Juday. Supervisor P.O. Box 8509 Shirley Basin. WY 82615 l

Western Nuclear. Inc.

l ATTN:

Stephanie Baker

.200 Union B1vd.. Suite 300 j

Lakewood. CO 80228 Wyoming Mining Association ATTN: Marion Loomis Executive Director P.O. Box 866 Cheyenne. Wyoming 82003 l

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Colorado Mining Association ATTN: David R.' Cole. President i

1340 Colorado State Bank Building 1600 Broadway 1

Denver. CO 80202-4913 Utah Mining Association r

ATTN: Alexander Jordon President 136 South Main. Suite 825 S6lt Lake City. UT 84101-1672 Wyoming M'.ning Association ATTN:

Donna Wichers. President P.O. Box 866 Cheyenne. Wyoning 82003 Steve Hamp UMTRA Project Office U. S. DOE Albuquerque Operations Office P. O. Box 5400 i

Albuquerque. New Mexico 87185-5400 U. S. Dept. of Energy Attn:

J. Virgona. Project Manager Grand Junction Project Office 2597 B 3/4 Road Grand Junction. CO 81501 U.S. Deat. of Energy ATTN:

Javid Mathes EM-451 Cloverleaf Bldg.

11901 Germantown Road Germantown. MD 20874 Mr. Byron Bunger Mail Code 6602J U.S. Environmental Protection Agency l

401 M. Street. S.W.

Washington DC 20460 Energy Fuels Nuclear. Inc.

White Mesa Attn: Michelle Rehmann 1515 Arapahoe St.

Suite 900 Denver. CO 80202 l

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- o Mr. Charles Judd. Executive.

Vice President Envirocare of Utah. Inc.

46 West Broadway. Suite 240 Salt Lake City. Utah 84101 State of New Mexico ATTN:.Benito Garcia, Chief i

Hazardous and Radio 3ctive Materials Bureau P 0. Box 26110 Santa Fe, NM 87502 State of Nebraska ATTN: Dr. Mark B. Hcrton. Director Nebraska Dept. of Health P.O.. Box 950070 Lincoln, NE 68509-5007 State of South Dakota l

ATTN: Mike Pochop. Scientist Department of Environment and Natural Resources Division of Environmental Regulation 523 E. Capitol. Joe Foss Building Pierre. SD 57501 l

Energy Fuels Nuclear..Inc.

Harold Roberts. President 1515 Arapahoe St.

Suite 900 Denver. CO 80202 State of Utah ATTN: William J. Sinclair. Director l

Division of Radiation Control

' Department of Environmental Quality i

168 North 1950 West l

P.O. Box 144850 l

Salt Lake City UT 84114-4850 State of Wyoming ATTN:

Roger Fransen. Legal and Natural Resources Specialist State Planning Coordinator's Office i

Herschler Building. 4th Floor East Cheyenne. WY 82002 i

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i State of Colorado ATTN:

Robert M. Ouillin, Director Radiation Control Division Department of Health 4300 Cherry Creek Dr., So.

Denver, CO 80222-1530

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,e State of Texas ATTN: Minor Hibbs' Director Industrial and Hazardous i

Waste Division Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission P.O. Box 13087

-Austin, TX 78711-3087 State of Washington ATTN:

Terry R. Strong, Dirc: tor Division of Radiation Protection Department of Health P.O. Box 47827 Olympia, WA 98504-7827 Geomex Minerals, Inc.

Crew Schmidt, President & CEO i

1560 Broadway, Suite 14'/0 Denver, CO 80202 1

i New Mexico Mining Association ATTN:

Robert L. Rivera Executive Director 1470 St, Francis Drive Santa Fe, NM 87505-4038 Anthony Thompson Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge 2300 N. Street, N. W.

Washington, D.C.

20037-1128 l

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Mr. Torg Hayslett Tunnessee Valley Authority 1101 Market St.

M.S. BR6A Chattanooga, TN 37402 I

National Mining As:':tiation Katie Sweeney 1130 17th St. N.W.

Washington, D.C.

20036 l

Phone (202) 463-2627 fax: (202) 857-0135 l

Joe Klinger Illinois De3artment of Nuclear Safety 1035 Outer 3 ark Dr Springfield. ILL 62704 Mr. Ernest Y. Scott 1

Operations Manager l

Union Pacific Resources 1

P. O. Box 130 Magna, Utah 84044 l

i R. Ohrbom. NMED New Mexico Environment Department l

P. 0 Box 26110 i

Sante Fe, NM 87502 i

Mr' Lon Hesla Toxics Program Mail Code BP2-TX Region 8 U. S. EPA l

999 18th Street Denver, CO 80202 l

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'a Ms. Marcy Leavitt Blireau Chief Groundwater Protection &

i Remediation Bureau New Mexico Environment De)artment

' P. O. Box 26110. Runnels 31dg.

1190 St. Francis Drive Santa Fe, New Mexico 87502 Frederick R. Craft

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Vice President of Operations j

877 North 8th West Riverton, Wyoming 82501 J

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