ML20212B725

Comments on Suppl 2 to NUREG-0683 Re Decontamination of Facility Resulting from 790328 Accident.More Info Re Assumptions Made in Calculations Suggested.Epa Figure of Normal Operation of Liquid Emissions from Plant Encl

ML20212B725
Person / Time
Site:	Three Mile Island
Issue date:	02/21/1987
From:	Clay Johnson AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	Masnik M Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
References
RTR-NUREG-0683, RTR-NUREG-683 NUDOCS 8703030629
Download: ML20212B725 (4)

Text

w. q P.O. Box 983 Pierre, South Dakota 57501 February 21, 1987 i

Dr. Michael T. Masnik TMI Project Directorate Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20555.

Re: Comments on Draft Supplement #2, NUREG-0683, Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement related to Decontamination and (

nisposal of Radioactive Wastec resulting from March 28, 1979 Accident, Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 2, Docket

1. 50-320 (December 1986)

Dear Dr. Masnik:

I have reviewed this draft supplement and wish to make the following comments.

In the Summary on page v, I note that the disposal volume of accident-generated water was " expected to be 40,000 to 80,000 cubic feet (11,000 to 13,000 cubic meters)". I believe that cubic feet have been converted here into square meters and not cubic meters.

In the second paragraph of the Summary, I see that the final proces-sing will involve about 2.1 million gallons, or 7.9 million liters with about 1,000 curies of tritium and smaller amounts of cesium 137 and strontium 90. There is no niention here of uranium, plutonium or other transuranics,nor of other of the 500 different radionuc-lides of potential importance in the assessment of contamination around nuclear facilities. This is a very serious oversight. I O

gg believe that the concentration of all of these should be determined.

R8' O@ The Summary estimates that the considered disposal alternatives will have an impact of only 0 to .003 radiation-induced cancer deaths in wx gg the worker population and only 0 to 0.0003 for radiation-induced 8$

o cancer fatalities in the offsite population. If this water is really Q that innocuous, should the plant save it to be used in drinking water S$a fountains for the employees at the plant? Or should it be carbonatpd, bottled, and sold in stores as spring water?  %-

I 2.

As I recall, the reactor core in this plant was partially melted down and this water has been in and around the 100 tons of partially melted uranium (with plutonium and other activation and fission ~

products) for nearly seven years. Many of these metals and compounds are quite water-soluble, especially uranium. The Schwarzwalder u Uranium Mine, for example, near Golden, Colorado, at times pumps out more than a million gallons of water each day, and in the past (perhaps today also) this has been discharged into public water sup-

, plies. The water at times contains more than 10,000 picocuries per liter of alpha radiation from the uranium. The contact there between _

water and uranium ore has been at rather cool temperatures, not in a super-heated environment such as has occurred at TMI-2. I can't believe that there is not a large amount of uranium and its progeny and other transuranics dissolved in this water in TMI-2. And yet, in reading this report I didn't see any mention of alpha radiation d levels per liter of water nor of the concentration of uranium and other transuranics in the water.

In the manuscript there was a discussion of background radiation levels in surface waters downstream and these discuss the levels of alpha radiation and radium in the water amounting to several picocu-ries per liter. The lack or intormation in this dratt report on the concentration ot uranium and transuranics in the waste water is very puzzilng.

The range and concentrations ot radionuclides in the water should be determined by number ot agencies and inaependent laboratories, and the ladiation protection guides snould be those developed by the EPA or by moreconservative inaependent researcners. For example, the EPA nas advisea a limit or 10 picocurles per liter ot uranium in water,in contrast to a limit of 6000 supported by the Dept. of Energy.

Furtner, the units in tne boox snoula De consistent witn present EPA practice. Atter all, tnis is an e:avironmental impact statement.

Haciation activities snoula De expressea in terms or picocuries per liter or water ano picocurles per cubic meter or air. Tne use of

3.

awkward units like microcuries per milliliter and the use of large

. negative exponents should be avoided,since these are confusing even to experts and especially confusing to the public.

In several places the text reads as if the tritium in the water is there as the gas. In fact, tritium (which is hydrogen) oxidizes with oxygen and ozone over time to form tritiated water or heavy water.

The evaporation process will simply evaporate off all the tritium as tritiated vapor which is much more toxic on inhalation or ingestion than is tritiutu gas.

I think that we do not have enough information to make a decision about the disposition opkhis water. I recommend against any of the methods of disposal at this time, until there has been exhaustive analyses of the water by a number of agencies and independent laboratories at universities, including one or two in Canada. The water should be analyzed also, for example, by the EPA and by the U.S. Geological Survey, which does get involved in what happens to water in the environment. I have attached a figure from an EPA report on liquid emissions from a nuclear power plant in normal operation to show the range of radionuclides released in such normal operations.

I think we need to know more about the assumptionsmade in cal-culating doses to persons around the plant from the radionuclides which might be releaced by the various alternatives pronosed. Those dose estimates should also include exposure to every one of the 500 radionuclides of potential importance in this water, and should also consider concentrations of radionuclides by marine plants and animals in the food chain.

Sincerely, L [*,,+wse Carl J. Johnson, M.D., M.P.H.

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