ML20153E803
| ML20153E803 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Cooper, Vermont Yankee, 05000000, Fort Saint Vrain |
| Issue date: | 01/22/1988 |
| From: | Kammerer C NRC OFFICE OF GOVERNMENTAL & PUBLIC AFFAIRS (GPA) |
| To: | Bernthal F, Roberts T, Zech L NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8805100116 | |
| Download: ML20153E803 (11) | |
Text
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JAN 2 21963 MEMORANDUY. FOR: Chairman Zech Commissioner Roberts Commissioner Bernthal Commissioner Carr Com issioner R er FROM:
.a samn erer trectnr
. tate, Local and ndian Tribe Programs Office of Governmental and Public Affairs
SUBJECT:
MONTHLY SLfTP AND REGIONAL REPORT FOR DECEMBER 1987 The December 1987 Significant Intergovernmental Activities and issues Report is enclosed for your information.
This Report is the resuit of the combined efforts of NRC's Regional State Liaison O fficers, Regional State Agreement Representatives and the SLITP staff.
Enclosure:
Significant intergovernmental Activities and issues - December 1987 cc: See Distribution List A'tached 8905100116 880122 PDR COMMS NRCC CORRESPONDENCE PDR
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4 DI STRI B UTION ' LIS~i FOR MONTHLY SLITP/ REGIONAL REPCRT H. Denton, GPA -
J. Fouchard, PA J. Shea, IP J. Braddurne, CA V. Stello, EDO W. Parler, OGC i
S. Chilk, SECY E. Jordan, AEOD H. Thompson, NMSS T. Murley, NRR E. Beckjord, RES W. Russell, ROI J. N. Grace, Roll A. B. Davis, Roll!
R. Martin, ROlV J. Martin, ROV F. Brenneman, NRR M. Millt.r, ROI R. Trojanowski, Roll R. Lickus, ROlli G. Sanborn, ROlV D. Kunihiro, ROV J. McGrath, ROI R. Woodruff, Roll W. Adam, ROlli R. Doda, ROlV J. Horner, ROV i
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CONTENTS PAGE HEADQUARTERS State Legislators Tour NRC Operations Center i
Regional State Liaison Counterpart Meeting 1
Presentation by CRCPD Executive Secretary 1
Review of Agreement State Programs 1
REGION 1 MARYLAND State-Utility Agreement on Offsite Emergency Preparedness 1
Concerns MASSACHUSETTS State and Congressional involvement in Pilgrim Restart 2
Deliberations Petition Initiative
?
Massachusetts Towns Reject Sirens from New Hampshire Yankee 2
PENNSYLVANI A State to Perform Independent Survey for Utility 3
Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility Siting Plan 3
Submitted Under Executive Order VERMONT Feasibility Study on Vermont Yankee Shutdown 3
REGION 11 N_o Significant items Reported 3
o
CONTENTS (continued).
PAGE REGION lli ILLINOIS 4
ASME Code Subagreement 4
LLW Seminar INDI ANA Interest in Agreement State Program 4
IOWA State /ASME Code Ruling 4
MICHIGAN Dow Chemical 'i horium Slag 5
MISSOURI Contaminated Sites 5
OHIO Materials Licenses 6
REGION IV NEBRASKA Emergency Preparedness -- Cooper Nuclear Station 6
COLO,RADO Emergency Preparedness -- Fort St. Vrain 6
C~NTRAL INTEP, STATE WASTE COMPACT 7
REGION V Rocky Mountain Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact 7
HEADQUARTERS State Legislators Tour NRC Operations Center Fifteen State legislators toured the NRC Operations Center on December 2, 1987.
The legislators are members of the Energy Committee of the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL),
and were here for N C SL's State-Federal Assembly meeting.
The State-Federal Assembly is held twice a year in Washing ton, D.C.
to allow State legislators to meet with U.S.
Congressional representatives and discuss policy issues of importance -to the States.
Regional State Liaison Counterpart Meeting SLITP staff and the Regional State Liaisor Officers held a regional state liaison counterpart meeting in Region 11 on December 8-9, 1987.
The meeting provided an opportunity to review policy guidance for the RSLOs and to discuss issues involving low-level wa s te,
high-leve?
waste,
emergency planning evaluations, environmental monitoring performed by States, provision of information to State Liaison Officers and administrative matters.
The group also met with Region 11 Administrator, J. Nelson Grace, and received a briefing by Dr. Stephen Salomon on the recent visit by a delegation from the Soviet Union to U.S. nuclear facilities.
Presentation by CRCPD Executive Secretary Commissioner Assistants and NRC staff received a presentation by Charles Hardin, Executive Director of the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors (CRCPD) on December 15, 1987.
The CRCPD consists of the Radiation Control Program Directors of 50 States and their staffs; it promotes all aspects and phases of radiological health and encourages and promotes cooperative enforcement programs with Federal agencies and between related enforcement agencies within each State.
Review of Agreement State Programs The initial review of the Illinois radiation control prog. am was performed by SLITP and was completed December 18, 1987.
Region til and NMSS staff participated.
The program was found to be adequate to protect public health and safety and compatible with the NRC regulatory program for radioactive materials.
REGION I l
MARYLAND State-Utility Agreement on Offsite Emeraency Preparedness Concerns i
. On December 15, 1987, Philadelphia Electric Company met with Maryland officials tc discuss the comments on the PECo corrective action plans that were submitted on October 15, 1987 by Covernor William Schaefer to N RC Region 1.
PECo agreed to resolve the six concerns in the area of offsite emergency preparedness that Maryland had identified.
PECo has agreed to provide backup radio communications to Maryland police and firefighters, to relocate the Emergency Operations Facility and media center outside the ten mile EPZ, and to provide an engineering liaison and computer capability for projecting offsite plume exoosures.
MASSACHUSETTS State and Congressional involvement in Pilgrim Restart Deliberations in a
January 4,
1988 letter from the Secretary of Public Sa fety,
Massachusetts requested that their limited support of the two public meetings in Plymouth, Massachusetts not be cited as a waiver of their 10 CFR 2.206 Petition that reauested an adjudicatory hearing.
The first round of public meetings are being scheduled for mid-February.
Complete copies of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station Restart Plan had been provided to the State and local governments and area libraries.
On January 7,1988, Senator Edward Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, conducted a hearing concerning the proposed restart of the Pilgrim facility.
Thomas Murley and William Russell, representing NRC, provided testimony and responded to questions related to Mark I containment safety issues, NRC resolution of offsite emergency planning deficiencies, and NRC practices regarding State requests for adjudicatory hearings.
A hearing rer. ort dated January 11, 1988 has been provided by Congressional Affairs of the Office of Governmental and Public A ffairs.
Petition initiative An elections representative for the Secretary of. the Commonwealth stated that the required number of signatures had been received to initiate a petition for a law that would stop the generation of high-level nuclear waste in Massachusetts, if acted upon by the legislature by May 4,1988, the petition l
would require the shutdown of Yankee Rowe and Pilgrim by July 4,1989, if the legislature fails to act upon the petition, it would be included as a binding referendum question on the November 1988 State ballot.
Massachusetts Towns Reject Sirens from New Hampshire Yankee As of January 5,1988, five Massachusetts towns in the Seabrook ten mile EPZ have rejected the utility's offer to relinquish ownership of the siren warning system to these towns for use in non-nuclear emergencies.
The Assistant Secretary of Public Safety, Peter Agnes, also ordered that State Civil Defense Agency personnel not support keeping the sirens in place on the basis that
. existing radio and telephone systems are sufficient to comply with Superfund regulations to warn residents in case of a chemical disaster.
PENNSYLVANI A State to Perform Independent Survey for Utility On December 1, 1987, the Saxton Nuclear Experimental Corporation offered
$20,000 to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources to pay for an independent inspection during the dismantling of most of the buildings at the Saxton nuclear reactor plant.
Currently, decontamination work is in prcqress and awaiting NRC approval of demolition of all structures except the containment building.
The State plans to perform independent monitoring and has contacted NRC staff regarding how closecut surveys at byproduct material licensees have been conducted.
Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility Siting Plan Submitted Under Executive Order Pennsylvania, which is the designated host State in the Appalachian States Low-Level Waste Compact, did not pass legislation that approves a siting plan before the January 1,1988 Congressional milestone.
Although House Bill 1808 was introduced on September 25, 1987, several changes to the draft bill were added in the final days of the House session.
These changes were not resolved before the House recessed for 1987.
If Pennsylvania fal!s to meet the January 1 deadline, the Commonwealth could lose as much as $700,000 in rebate funds.
By Executive Order, Governor Casey ordered the Department of Environmental Resources to submit a siting plan to show Pennsylvania's intent to meet the milestone.
If this submittal is judged unacceptable by the sited States, generators in Pennsylvania could be forced to pay more than $12 million in surcharge disposal costs.
Generators in other States in the Appalachlan Compact, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia will also be subject to these penalties.
VERMONT Feasibility Study on Vermont Yankee Shutdown The State's Department of Public Service released its study on the feasibility of a State required shutdown of Vermont Yankee.
The study found the following:
(1) cost to the State would be between 569 and 612 million dollars, (2) 10 percent average increase to rate payers, and (3) excessive iltigation expenses since there is no precedent for a State required shutdown of a nuclear power facility.
REGION II No Significant items Reported
. REGION lli ASME Code Subagreement Region 111 continued to receive comments o r.
the proposed ASME Code Subagreement from NRC Program Of fices.
Region lll analyzed and dispositioned all comments in December and began preparation of a draft Commission Paper to transmit the proposed document to the Commission.
LLW Seminar On December 8-9, 1987, the lilinois Department of Nuclear Safety (IDNS) sponsored the fourth annual Low-Level Radioactive Waste Generators Conference in Chicago, Illinois.
The theme of this conference was "The lilinois Approach-Assuring Safe Management of Low-Level Radioactive Waste."
lilinois has made progress in the past year toward siting a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility for the Central Midwest Compact (Kentucky and Illinols).
The purpose of this conference was to provide a forum for dissemination of information and discussion of current low-level radioactive waste issues.
Topics of discussion included; communicating with the pubilc; waste generation surveys and projections; the Regional Management Plan; evaluating alternatives to shallow land burial; and siting an Illinois disposal facility.
,1NDI ANA Interest in Aareement State Program Dr. David Cundiff, Director, Bureau of Local Health Services, Indiana State Board of Health, met with SLITP staff on December 30, 1987 in Headquarters to obtain inforn,ation on N RC's Agreement State program.
Dr. Cundiff expressed interest in the program and indicated that he would be meeting with the Commissioner of the Board of Health in this regard and that if further information was needed he would contact NRC staff.
lOWA State /ASME Code Rulina On December 30, 1987, Walter H.
Johnson, Deputy Labor Commissioner, transmitted to Region ill a Declaratory Ruling that was issued by the Division of Labor in regard to State of Iowa ASME inspections at the Duane Arnold Energy Center.
The ruling states that "The Federal Government pre-empts the states on safety and nuclear issues involving the generathn of energy.
The five vessels listed at Division One of Petitioner's Petition for a Declaratory Ruling are involved in the creation of nuclear energy.
The state's authority to inspect these vessels in order to promote their safe use has been pre-empted by the Federal Government."
. The ruling also concludes that 24 vessels listed at Division Two of the Petition qualify for blannual state inspections. pursuant to State law.
Region ill is forwarding the ruling to the NRC Program Offices for review.
MICHIGAN Dow Chemical Thorium Slag On December 1,
- 1987, NMSS officials met with Dow Chemical Company representatives to discuss a license amendment proposal to transfer Dow's thorium-magnesium slag waste at their Midland facility to a new temporary location on the Midland site.
The slag pile at Midland is adjacent to a water diversion basin which must be closed by November 1988; however, due to requirements of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA),
the slag pile would have to be removed before closure of the basin can be completed.
On December 17,
- 1987, the Region 111 Chief, State and Government Affairs contacted George Bruchmann, Michigan Radiation Control Program Director to inform him of the results of the Dow meeting.
As a result, Mr. Bruchmann requested that approval of the Dow request by the NRC be conditioned by placing a time restriction on how long this material could be stored on site prior to final disposal.
NMSS was made aware of Mr.
Bruchmann's concern.
MISSOURI Contaminated Sites Missouri State Liaison Officer, Ron Kucera, has historically been Inc.:sted in the status of several radioactively contaminated sites in the St. Louis area.
These include the Weldon Spring site, which is a former uranium processing plant near St. Charles, Missouri; a storage site in Hazelwood, Missouri, formerly owned by Cotter Corporation, at which uranium ore residues were stored and processed; a site at the St. Louis International Airport where contaminated materials from DOE uranium facilities were buried; and the West Lake landfill, which received a large volume of slightly contaminated soll taken from the Hazelwood site for cover fill.
DOE presently has responsibility for the Weldon Spring, Hazelwood, and St. Louis Airport sites.
The NRC is currently involved in a study of the West Lake landfill to determine what remedial actions may be necessary at that facility.
The state is particularly interested in the results of this report, which has not been issued to date by NMSS.
Missouri is a member of the seven-state Midwest Compact, which has chosen Michigan to be the first host state responsible for developing a low-level waste disposal facility for the seven-state region.
Michigan was chosen largely because it was determined to be the largest generator of low-level radioactive waste among the seven states.
Michigan has recently, however, found out about large quantitles of contaminated material (such as the West Lake landfill site) which it cialms were not included in the low-level waste inventory, and which may result in Michigan not being the largest generator of low-level waste.
Missouri, therefore, is
1 anxiously awaiting NRC resolution of the disposition of the contaminated material at the West Lake landfill.
Region til and SLITP staff is scheduled to meet with NMSS staff to discuss the State's concerns and the status of the West Lake landfill study.
OHIO Materials Licenses On December 14, 1987, Messrs. Roland Lickus, Chief, State and Government Affairs, and Bruce Mallett, Chief, Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards B ranch, met in Columbus, Ohio with James Williams, Chief of Staff, Ohio Disaster Services Agency, and Robert Quillan, Ohio Radiation Control Program Director.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss three types of materials licenses:
- 1) licenses that we considered unusual uses of radioactive material;
- 2) materials licenses that were undergoing decommissioning; and 3) licensees undergoing escalated enforcement within the past year.
State officials were particularly interested in determining if there are any existing NRC licenses that could be compared to the former J.
C.
Haynes license for using Americium-241 in powder form to irradiate diamonds.
Region ill representatives indicated that we do not consider any current materials licensees to be comparable to the J.
C.
Haynes case.
State officials were very appreciative of the information presented and encouraged future dialogue in this regard.
REGION IV NEBRASKA Emergency Preparedness -- Cooper Nuclear Station On December 3,
FEMA Region Vil officials evaluated a remedial exercise involving the state of Missouri and Atchison County, Missouri, designed to test the resolution of five deficiencies from an October 1987 exercise at Nebraska Public Power District's Cooper Nuclear Station.
FEMA found all five shortcomings, all related to the ability of state and local officials to alert the public and provide instructions, to have been resolved.
COLORADO Emergency Preparedness -- Fort St. Vrain On December 11, the second of three required remedial drills -- this one to test the state of Colorado and Weld County's ability to alert the pubtle in the vicinity of the Fort St. Vrain plant and to provide emergency instructions --
)
was conducted and evaluated by FEMA and Argonne National Laboratory officials.
FEMA concluded that the state and county had adequately remedied deficiencies in this area that had been found in an August 1987 exercise.
1 m..
j
,.. The lone remaining deficiency, involving the capability to communicate with field monitoring teams, will be tested in another remedial drill once new communications equipment is installed.
CENTRAL INTERSTATE WASTE COMPACT On December 15, the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission met in New Orleans and designated Nebraska as the host state for the region's first low-level radioactive waste disposal facility.
Nebraska was recommended by the compact's contractor, U.S. Ecology, based on analyses of environmental factors, waste volumes and transportation.
The compact commission voted 4 to 1 to endorse U.S.
Ecology's recommendation, with Nebraska's representative casting the negative vote.
However state officials, including the governor, have indicated support for the process and have said they will act to meet the state's responsibility to the compact.
Nebraska is an Agreement State and is in the process of adopting final regulations for disposal of low-level waste.
The other states in this compact are Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.
REGION V ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE COMPACT The Rocky Mountain Low-Level Radioactive Waste Board met on December 4, 1987 in Mt. Charleston, Nevada.
The Waste Board was briefed on the status of Colorado's effort to site a low-level waste site.
Locations in Montrose County are currently under study as possible candidate sites.
The Board directed counsel to draft a contract to permit Rhode island and the District of Columbia access to the existing low-level waste site at Beatty, Nevads for a 2-vear period.
This action would allow Rhode island and the District of Columbia to qualify for surcharge rebates.
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