ML20211J463
| ML20211J463 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 08/27/1999 |
| From: | Schmidt D NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| To: | NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20211J467 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9909030148 | |
| Download: ML20211J463 (11) | |
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- p. August 27, 1999 4- a MEMORANDUM TO: File FROM: Duane Schmidt, Health Physicist [0riginalsignedby:]
Decommissioning Branch Division of Waste Management, NMSS
SUBJECT:
SEWAGE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE INTERAGENCY STEERING COMMITTEE ON RADIATION PROTECTION STANDARDS:
SUMMARIES OF SUBCOMMITTEE MEETINGS AND LETTER INITIATING SURVEY OF RADIOACTIVITY IN SEWAGE SLUDGE Attached are recently developed documents related to the joint U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) survey of radioactivity in j sewage sludge and ash. The first two are summaries of the June 24,1999, and July 28,1999, -
meetings of the Sewage Subcommittee of the Interagency Steering Committee on Radiation Protection Standards (ISCORS). These summaries were developed by the ISCORS Sewage Subcommittee. The third document is the joint NRC and EPA letter to publicly-owned treatment works (POTWs); asking for participation in the survey. The letter provides the questionnaire which makes up the first phase of the survey. The fourth document is the list of POTWs to
. which the questionnaires were sent. The Subcommittee is placing these documents in NRC's Public Document Room to make them available to the public.
Attachments: (1) Meeting summary for June 24,1999
- (2) Meeting summary for July 28,1999 (3) Joint NRC and EPA letter, dated June 21,1999 (4) List of addressees for joint NRC and EPA letter CONTACT: Duane Sch dt, DWM/NMSS .
For PUBLIC:
This document should pd should not / / be made available to the PUBLICY B /11/99.
DISTRIBUTION: FILE CENTER NMSS r/f DCB r/f RJohnson L
ACNW MThomas/RES PSantiago CRaddatz/OEDO DOCUMENT NAME: S:\DWM\DCB\dws\ memo-info-to-files-899.wpd j(N OFC DCk d' NAME DSchmidt/ RNaW DATE 8 /rt/99 8 h/99 e,,,c,ALRec _ CeeT e
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l August 27, 1999 1
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MEMORANDUM TO: File FROM: Duane Schmidt, Health Physicist b Decommissioning Branch D $d 'kk I i
Division of Waste Management, NMSS I
SUBJECT:
SEWAGE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE INTERAGENCY STEERING COMMITTEE ON RADIATION PROTECTION STANDARDS:
SUMMARIES OF SUBCOMMITTEE MEE11NGS AND LETTER {
i INITIATING SURVEY OF RADIOACTIVITY IN SEWAGE SLUDGE l I
l Attached are recently developed documents related to the joint U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) survey of radioactivity in sewage sludge and ash. The first two are summaries of the June 24,1999, and July 28,1999, meetings of the Sewage Subcommittee of the Interagency Steering Committee on Radiation Protection Standards (ISCORS). These summaries were developed by the ISCORS Sewage Subcommittee. The third document is the joint NRC and EPA letter to publicly-owned treatment works (POTWs), asking for participation in the survey. The letter provides the questionnaire which makes up the first phase of the survey. The fourth document is the list of POTWs to which the questionnaires were sent. The Subcommittee is placing these documents in NRC's Public Document Room to make them available to the public.
Attachments: (1) Meeting summary for June 24,1999 i (2) Meeting summary for July 28,1999 (3) Joint NRC and EPA letter, dated June 21,1999
- (4) List of addressees forjoint NRC and EPA letter CONTACT: Duane Schmidt, DWM/NMSS j
301-415-6919 1
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1 August 27, 1999 j
MEMORANDUM TO: File 3 FROM: Duane Schmidt, Health Physicist [0riginal signed by:]
Decommissioning Branch ,
Division of Waste Management, NMSS ]
SUBJECT:
SEWAGE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE INTERAGENCY STEERING COMMITTEE ON RADIATION PROTECTION STANDARDS:
SUMMARIES OF SUBCOMMITTEE MEETINGS AND LETTER INITIATING SURVEY OF RADIOACTIVITY IN SEWAGE SLUDGE Attached are recently developed documents related to the joint U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) survey of radioactivity in sewage sludge and ash. The first two are summaries of the June 24,1999, and July 28,1999, meetings of the Sewage Subcommittee of the Interagency Steering Committee on Radiation Protection Standards (ISCORS). These summaries were developed by the ISCORS Sewage Subcommittee. The third document is the joint NRC and EPA letter to publicly-owned treatment works (POTWs), asking for participation in the survey. The letter provides the questionnaire I which makes up the first phase of the survey. The fourth document is the list of POTWs to which the questionnaires were sent. The Subcommittee is placing these documents in NRC's Public Document Room to make them available to the public.
Attachments: (1) Meeting summary for June 24,1999 (2) Meeting summary for July 28,1999 (3) Joint NRC and EPA letter, dated June 21,1999 (4) List of addressees forjoint NRC and EPA letter CONTACT: Duane Schmidt, DWM/NMSS -
301-415-6919 1 1
For PUBL!C:
This document should /d should not / / be made available to the PUBLICE B /Hl99. J
- DISTRIBUTION: FILE CENTER NMSS r/f DCB r/f RJohnson ACNW MThomas/RES PSantiago CRaddatz/OEDO I DOCUMENT NAME: S:\DWM\DC B\dws\mem o-info-to-files-899.wpd OFC DCEL N/
NAME DSchmidt/cN RNe DATE 8/2.7/99 8 h/99
! OFFICIAL RECORD COPY i
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I ATTACHMENT 1 !
Meeting Summary for June 24,1999
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, , FINAL
[These ISCORS subcommittee meeting summaries result from interagency discussions. The Sewage Subcommittee is composed of representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Defense, the Departmen: of Energy, the State of New Jersey, and two Publicly Owned Treatment Works. The Subcommittee summaries have not been approved by the respective agencies and organizations and do not represent the official position of any participating organizations at this time.]
ISCORS SEWAGE SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING
SUMMARY
Date: 24 June 99 Time: 0900-1200 Location: Ft. Detrick Bldg 1500 Frederic'<, Maryland Attendees: DOD: Roy Lovett EPA: Robert Bastian, Dale Hoffmeyer, Behram Shroff, Loren Setlow EPA /NAREL: Dave Saunders NRC: Duane Schmidt, May L. Thomas ORISE: Dale Condra POTW: ' homas Lenhart State of NJ: Jill Lipoti Agenda: Status of Survey Guidance Document QAPP Summary:
STATUS OF SURVEY:
Mary L. Thomas reported that the questionnaire packets were in the process of being mailed out
[to 631 POTWs. The packets consist of the ISCORS cover letter, the quesuonnaire, the AMSA/WEF letter, and the Joint NRC/ EPA Sewage Sludge Radiological Survey: Survey Design and Test Site Results. The questionnaires were requested to be returned by the POTWs by 26 July 99. It will take at least a week to sort through the surveys and send them to Los Alamos for entry into the POTW database to facilitate selection for sampling.
A question was asked about the status of the sample kits. Dale Condra stated that the kits will have to be tailored to the respective POTWs based on the type of treatment system and finai product of the POTW.
Attachment 1
, s ISCORS Sewage Subcommittee: June 24,1999, Meeting Summary Page 2 Web-access to the Joint NRC/ EPA Sewage Sludge Radiological Survey: Survey Design and Test Site Results is not yet available. It is to be posted on the EPA /TENORM page which is still awaiting approval. It was recommended that the NRC post the report on its website in the meantime.
Duane Schmidt reported that the 135 pCi/g tritium sample had been re-analysed. Dale Condra provided the root cause analysis for this particular sample. Mary Thomas requested that this be issued as errata to the Joint report and posted on the web with the report. Loren Setlow recommended that this be put with the lessons learned section of the report. Mary Thomas offered to write the errata statement in the same manner as that issued for NUREG-0713, Annual Report on Occupational Radiation Exposure. She also recommended that this item be added to the QAPP as a method for handling " hot" samples and for handling high organic content samples.
GUIDANCE DOCUMENT:
Loren Setlow reported on the status of the TENORM report. He stated that re-issuance of the entire report will be put off to allow specific chapters to be worked on, such as uranium overburden and TENORM from in situ leaching. He also stated that work on the sewer sludge chapter would be held off until the sewer survey was completed (Fall 01). Regarding NORM he said that the numbers reported by the mir'ing industry in the 93 report were higher than what is now reported. Since the mining industry has declined these numbers will have to be determined based on the amount of radioactivity in their waste.
Regarding radon in drinking water, Dale Hoffmeyer reported that EPA plans to propose a National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) for radon in August. A health risk reduction and cost analysis (HRRCA) for radon in drinking water was published in the Federal Register in February for public comment. The HRRCA is intended to support future decision making during development of the radon NPDWR. The HRRCA evaluates radon levels in drinking water of 100, 300, 500, 700,1000, 2000, and 4000 pCi/L.
Jill Lipoti discussed with the subcommittee the impact of radium-224 in well water. She stated this water is treated by using reverse osmosis which generates a brine that concentrates the radium in the sludge. This sludge then represents another source of radioactive material for POTWs.
This issue of POTW authority was discussed by Tom Lenhart and Bob Bastian. The major concern is that POTWs cannot regulate for health and safety.
The entire group discussed how to contend with release of materials into the sewer and sludge which then trips the alarms at the landfills. It was recommended that an article be prepared for the NMSS newsletter. It was also recommended that a search of the Nuclear Materials Events Database and the DOT exemption database to determine the frequency of these occurrences.
Other subcommittee members will provide well-documented details of these occurrences.
Discussed the State comments on the May 97 draft guidance document. Duane Schmidt will revise the table based on discussion and send to EPA who will then forward the table to Techlaw.
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a, ISCORS Sewage Subcommittee: June 24,1999, Meeting Summary Page 3
. ACTION ITEMS:
Entry on EPA /TENORM webpage for pilot study report - Cumberland Further work on details of the plan (and QAPP) for the subcommittee to address the data form the full survey and interface between NAREL & ORISE with LANL - Abramson, Bachmaier, Doehnert.
Preparation of an errata statement on the Tritium 135 retest for the report and adding this to the QAPP - Thomas Check on status of ORISE with respect to FOIA - Schmidt Continue coordination of the dose modeling effort - Hoffmeyer i
Request electronic copy of AMSA's mailing labels - Bastian 1
Discuss State of Washington report - Bachmaier l
Next Meeting Date: 28 July 99,9-4, DOE HQ 5A092. !
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l l l ATTACHMENT 2 i
Meeting Summary for July 28,1999 l
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. . FINAL l
(These ISCORS subcommittee meeting summaries result from interagency discussions. The Sewage Subcommittee is composed of representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the State of New Jersey, and two Publicly Owned Treatment Works. The Subcommittee summaries have not been approved by the respective agencies and l organizations and do not represent the official position of any participating organizations at this time.]
ISCORS SEWAGE SLUDGE SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING
SUMMARY
l Date: 28 July 99 l Time: 0900-1230 Location: DOE /HQ Room 5A092 Washington, DC Attendees: DOE: James Bachmaier EPA: Robert Bastian, Dale Hoffmeyer, Behram Shroff, Mark Doehnert EPA /NAREL: Dave Saunders NRC: Mary L. Thomas, Lee Abramson ORISE: Dale Condra POTW: Thomas Lenhart Agenda: GeneralIssues QAPP Guidance Document FOIA Status of ORISE Dose Modeling ,
)
State of Washington Report ;
Summary:
GENERAL ISSUES WEBSITE:
Mary L. Thomas and others asked about the states of the TENORM website at EPA. Bob Bastian reported that the site was available athttp://www.eoa aov/ radiation /tenorm. A discussion followed concerning an ISCORS webs te. EPA has offered to host the site under the radiation page with links from Water, NRC/DWM, and AMSA. We discussed what should be on the website, such as the draft guidance document which is currently being revised to respond to comments received as of January 1999, the minutes of our meetings, the meeting agendas, and the number of questionnaires that had been received. The idea of an ISCORS website had also been broached by John Greeves, NRC/DWM, at the last ISCORS briefing of Carl Paperiello.
Attachment 2
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ISCORS Sewage Subcommittee: July 28,1999, Meeting Summary Page 2 QUESTIONNAIRES: , ,
Mary L. Thomas reported that as of July 27,1999,287 questionnaires had been returned. The questionnaires are being sent to Los Alamos for entry into the POTW database to facilitate selection for sampling. Following this was a extensive discussion led by Lee Abramson concerning the methods used to select the 631 that were sent the questionnaire. Bob Bastian provided the methods and was then asked to provide that information in written form. We also discussed how the data would be handled and transmitted between LANL and ORISE. The May 13 document regarding this issue is being revised as a result of this discussion.
GUIDANCE DOCUMENT:
Berham Shroff reported that the draft revised guidance document will be issued 2 weeks after the final comments have been received, about the end of August.
FOIA:
Dale Condra reported that Duane Schmidt had documentation from ORISE regarding ORISE's status with regard to FOlA. Since ORISE is not a government organization, ORISE is not directly subject to the FOIA. Thus, ORISE does not release records directly to a requester, but instead refers any requests to the agency that owns the records under question. For the sewage sludge survey, this agency is the NRC, since ORISE works under contract to NRC.
QAPP:
Minor points in the QAPP, such as sample labels and sample preservation, were discussed by the subcommittee.
STATE OF WASHINGTON REPORT:
Jim Bachmaier and Behram Shroff discussed the State of Washington Report. They noted that Washington had used RESRAD for the farmer scenario and that the dose modeling working group would need to provide a more extensive model to accommodate all possible scenarios.
ACTION ITEMS:
Further work on details of the QAPP for the subcommittee to address the data from the full survey and interface between NAREL & ORISE with LANL - Abramson, Bachmaier, Doehnert.
Task added to ORISE contract to send out the sample kits - Schmidt.
Continue coordination of the dose modeling effort - Hoffmeyer Prepare write-up on criteria used to select POTWs to receive the survey questionnaire - Bastian Have Mary Clark & Jill Lipoti work on the State Radiation Programs to help provide lists of the state licensees to use in responding to the POTWs who return questionnaires with their Zip codes - Lenhad Next Meeting Date: 25 August 99,9.00-4:00, DOE /Forrestal Building, Room 4F-056
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l ATTACHMENT 3 i
. Joint U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency letter to publicly-owned sewage treatment plants, providing sewage sludge questionnaire, dated June 21,1999
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