ML20217P099
| ML20217P099 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 06/27/1997 |
| From: | Dan Collins NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION II) |
| To: | Reyes L NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION II) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20217N558 | List: |
| References | |
| FOIA-97-246 NUDOCS 9708260445 | |
| Download: ML20217P099 (9) | |
Text
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d June 27, 1997 NOTE TO:- Luis A. Reyes, Regional-Administrator
[
FROM: Douglas M. Collins, Acting Director / b Division of Nuclear Materials Safety
SUBJECT:
ONE LINERS AND WEEKLY REPORTS i
.The attached one liners and weekly reports discuss activities occurring within -
l the Division of Nuclear Materials Safety. Key activities accomplished this week were: (1) sent information to the PR Secretary of Health regarding our
- confirmation of patient notification, (2) Jay Henson was in HQ-participating in a team review of the VA application for a Master License, (3) Dick Woodruff completed his second week leading the team that conducted the IMPEP review for the State of Texas, and (4) Ed McAlpine and Phil Ting (NMSS) were at GE to review the inspection team's results regarding the readiness for startup of the DCF and to attend the exit. .
' Key activities we will be performing next week are as follows:
J Developing inspection plan for review of records at Vasquez Clinic to determine circumstances surrounding a change in treatment times by Dr. Vasquez in 1993 and implementation of this change.
c' _ On July 1 B. Mallett E. McAlpine,_ and L. Ten Eyck (NMSS) will-present the results of the'recent Licensee Performance Review to B&W NNFD-in a meeting open to the public.
Attachments: .
- 1. One liners 2.- Weekly Reports cc w/attachs:
- 8. Mallett-C. Hosey E. McAlpine-J. Potter
-T. Decker R. Woodruff s:\drss\ wkly.rpt
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1
.. I QNE LINERS FOR JUKT! 27. 1997 1.- Research Reactor Status
- a. Georgia _ Institute of Technology The reactor remains shutdown and there continues to be no fuel on site. No reportable events have occurred during the past two weeks. ;
Dr. Karam, Director of the facility, will retire June 30, 1997.
As of this date, no new director has been named nor has a person been sought to replace Dr. Karam,
- b. North Carolina State University The licensee continues to operate on a routine schedule of 3 to 4 '
days per week.in support of research and experiments. There have been no reportable events at the-facility during the last two weeks.- ,
A new Radiation Safety Officer for the campus has been selected and will assume that position in September. The individual's name is Nelson Couch.
- c. University of Florida The-licensee continues limited routine ope-ation of the reactor of about 10 - 12 hours1.388889e-4 days <br />0.00333 hours <br />1.984127e-5 weeks <br />4.566e-6 months <br /> per week to support course / lab work and research projects. No reportable events have occurred at the facility during the past-two weeks.-
This week is break week for the 12-week Summer Semester at the
. university. The licensee is concentrating on completing required surveillances and a biennial review of selected procedures.
An NRC operations inspection is scheduled for next week, d, . University of Virginia The reactor continues to be operated on a routine schedule of 3 -
4 days per week. The licensee is using the reactor to perform work for clients such as irradiation of topaz and iridium seeds.
There have been-no reportable events at-the facility during the last:two weeks.
This week the licensee -is conducting their annual " Teachers Class" for area.high school-teachers. There are 26 participants this year. .The culminating event for the week is a visit by the teachers to the North Anna-Nuclear Power Plant. '
I One Liners 2 The 1997.
former Reactor Administrator, Pres Farrar, retired June 1, The position is now being advertised and the licensee plans to fill the position as soon as possible.
The small leak of reactor pool water continues at a rate of approximately 20 - 40 gallons per day, which is well below makeup capacity.
The licensee is planning to start a reactor operator training class for ten new candidates shortly.
- 2. Westinahouse - Commercial Fuel Division On June 23 at 23:34, Westinghouse reported under NRC Bulletin 91-01 that they had lost one of two contingencies associated with nuclear criticality safety in the hopper of the granulator in line 1. The safety significance was low for the exiting condition due to the lack of moderator in the system.
The granulator hopper is in a part of the process between powder blending and pelletizing. The Westinghouse process.uses a roll compactor to increase the density of the blended powder which falls into a hopper that feeds the granulator. The granulator hopper is of a decreasing rectangular cross section (more resembling a frustum of a rectangular pyramid) topped by a rectangular section. The total volume of the hopper is about 42-43 liters. The Westinghouse criticality safety evaluation assigned favorable volume to the granulator hopper in error. The actual volume was about 4 liters greater than geometrically favorable for the maximum plant enrichment of 5.07. U-235.
Westinghouse detected the lack of favorable volume through a reanalysis of the system following a blockage in the hopper where 165 kilogram of U0 2 powder accumulated in the hopper. The floor operators at Westinghouse expect to remove one container of material from the granulator every 7 to 9 minutes. When that did not occur, they knew they had a blockage.
When the licensee realized that they did not have favorable volume hoppers, they shutdown the pellet lines and initiated installation of stainless steel wedges in the hoppers to reduce the volume to favorable.
They restarted lines 1 through 3 on the morning of June 24. The wedge was installed in line 4 on the afternoon of June 24, and the licensee plans to install the wedge in line 5 which does not get as much use before restarting it.
The moderation contingency was maintained. The roll compactor receives material from their blenders and the material is analyzed and confirmed to be dry before it goes into the blender. The roll compaction and granulation process is within an enclosure that has no water sources --
thus maintaining moisture control. Note that in the blending process, 1700 kilograms of UO 2 powder at the same level of moderation is safe.
L
l I !
One Liners 3 Westinghouse calculated the k,,, for the system to be about 0.985 under the following conditions: as found geometry, optimum moderation, and one inch of water reflection. Moderation was not optimum -- it was dry.
Therefore, the as found k,,, would have been much lower.
NMSS and the E00's office were briefed by Region II. Bill Gloersen was on site performing a routine inspection and verified the licensee's corrective actions through discussions with licensee personnel who performed the wedge installations and observation of the wedge fabricated for installation in line 5.
- 3. GE Ory Conversion Facility (DCF) Team inspection The team, consisting of Region 11 and NMSS staff, found that the licensee's preparations to process enriched uranium in the new DCF were adequate to protect public health and safety. The team identified a few equipment issues requiring licensee action, such as addition of an audible HF alarm (now only visible) and procedural revisions (such as adding HF emergency scrubber to PM system, needed before startup. The licensee has established schedules for these actions.
4.
CravenReaionalMedicalCenter.NewBern.NC(Statek.icensee)
The State reported to the NRC that on June 13, 1997, a nuclear medicine technician contaminated a rock with Tc-99m and told student trainees (Greenville NC Community College) that it was a meteorite they should check it for radioactivity. The rock read up to 75 mr/hr. Some students handled the rock, but estimates are that their ring badges will not show significant dose. A Morning Report is being drafted.
e y -
ONE LINERS FOR JULY 3. 1997
- 1. Fuel facility Status a.- Babcock and Wilcox (B&W) - NNFO The summer plant shutdown is scheduled for July 4 through 12.
During this time most employees will be off. Although routine operations will be shut down during the period, a large number of routine maintenance and modification activities will be conducted.
The Lynchbur operations. g Research facility will be conducting normal A public meeting between NRC officials and licensee management was held at the licensee's facility to discuss the results of the
_recent Licensee Performance Review. In attendance for the NRC was Bruce Hallet,- Ed McAlpine and Charlie Hughey for Region II, and Elizabeth Ten Eyck for NMSS. In attendance for the licensee was Buddy Conner, General Manager, Windfred Nash, Operations Manager, and Steve Schilthelm, Safety Manager. Several members of the local media attended. (see enclosed newspaper article)
Virgil Goode, U.S. Congressman of the 5th Virginia district toured-the facility on Wednesday, July 2.
'The Babcock and Wilcox Government Group changed its name to BWX I Technologies, Inc., effective July 1. BWXT will consist of the Naval Nuclear Fuels Division, B&W Federal Services, B&W Nuclear and Environmental Services and Manufactured Systems and ,
Technology, all based in Lynchburg. By---letter dated June 26, 1997, the Director, NMSS advised the Assistant General Counsel for B&W Government Group that the restructuring was in accordance with regulatory requirements but -license amendments will have to be submitted for all NRC licenses following completion of the restructuring.
Sapphire _downblending operations have been shut down since June 27 and are scheduled to remain shut down for the'next two weeks to complete several modifications and improvements to increase throughput.
During the shutdown, preventative maintenance, modification and testing activities are scheduled for the Uranium Recovery facility,'and the MFP/AFP naval fuel manufacturing processes. No significant activities are scheduled for the RTRFE facility.
Routine rod loading and production activities are being performed by two split shifts, seven' days a week, Routine decontamination and refurbishment activities are being conducted in-the SERF
4 i
One Liners 2 facilities.
The facility will be shut down over the holiday 3-day weekend.
NUKEM downloading operations have been halted due to higher than normal airborne radioactivity levels.
Due to mechanical and radiological problems associated with the removal of fuel pellets from NUKEM fuel rods, the licensee requested and received a delay for performing receipt measurements of the pellets. The licensee anticipated asking HQs NMSS for another delay due to continued problems, Approximately 307 of these assemblies remain to be downloaded,
- c. General Electric - NEP The facility license renewal was signed on June 27 for a period of ten years. The license had been in " timely renewal" since May, 1989.
Most of the facility will be shut down for the July 4th weekend.
In ADU, line 3 will be operating on hie material and line 5 will be processing recycle material from Uranium Recovery. The other 3 lines will be down.
Uranium Recovery will operate all weekend on normal schedule.
Solvent extraction has been running exceptionally well In the last two weeks, a net reduction of 152 cans of scrap have been processed off the storage pads.
The first transfer of low concentration hydrofluoric acid (about 17.) from the DCF to Waste Treatment will occur this week. This material will be converted to calcium fluoride for disposal.
Blending and powder qualification tests are being conducted on line 1 in DCF The first movement of a powder container from DCF to the pellet press dump station in FM0 for pressing was scheduled this week and will occur once the additive blending issue is resolved. The Wilmington Safety Review Committee approved this operation on June 26. Mechanical and electrical checks have started on DCF line 2.
GE will be sending about 25 UF6 cylinders to Westinghouse for cleaning and recertification this week, certification is required every 5 years.
The biennial emergency exercise will be conducted during the week of July 14. Region II will participate with both a site team and the base team in the IRC.
1 e
,s One Liners 3
- d. EF_S. -
Although the licensee had completed its sampling of the 18 bottles of Rocky Flats material and had shipped the samples to Oak Ridge /Y-12 facility for analysis in preparation for shipment to Oak Ridge, it was later learned that contractual-agreements between DOE and E&W/NNFD had been resolved so that the material will now be shipped to B&W/NNFD by the end of July.
In addition, the licensee expects to receive an additional 20 to 30 liters of UNH from Rocky Flats by the end of the year. This was residual material from draining out the systems at Rocky Flats.
The licensee has completed the Pre-Operational Readiness Review of the UF, cylinder heels. On June 23, the licensee " hand '
delivered" its safety Analysis (S-2) Report to the NRC/NMSS. The licensee responded to all questions from NMSS on June 30, 1997.
Operator classroom training was scheduled to begin July 14, followed by Operator 0-J T during the next two weeks. The licensee had hoped to begin operations on August 4, 1997.
Due to the State of Utah and NRC concerns at ENVIROCARE of Utah regarding the possession of SNM in excess of'the license limit of 350 grams U-235, NFS had discontinued shipping waste to-the burial site. Waste already packaged in intermodal containers from onsite
- decommissioning work will be stored temporarily onsite in the old contractors parking lot which is secured with a fence that is .;
-gated-and locked. The licensee is continuing the excavation of the first burial- trench in the Northsite burial grounds. - The licensee was making preparations to pump the groundwater that-had accumulated in the trench to the filtrate tanks at the Sediment Treatment Building which would then be pumped to the WWTF.
- e. Westinahouse This week Conversion Line I was being used to process uranyl nitrate, Lines 2 and 3 were being used to process UF, gas, Line 4 was shut down,- and Line 5 was intermittently used for incinerator ash processing. The' pellet lines, rod loading, the recovery operation- and IFBA are all operating normal" schedule.
Mr. Jim Bush has been appointed acting Plant Manager to replace Mr. Fici until a permanent replacement is announced. Mr. Bush will also continue in.his role as manager.of. manufacturing. A permanent replacement for Mr. Fici is expected to be announced within the next few weeks. ;
3.- Dr. Jose L. Fernandez Or. Jose L.*Fernandez paid the proposed $8000 civil penalty in full. An NRC Form 314 (Request for License Termination) was sent to the licensee.
. - _ - _ - - _ 1
f One Liners 4 We will proceed with license termination if next week's inspection of Dr. Vazquez's records reveals that there is no further need to review any of Dr. Fernandez's records.
case. This should close the Dr. Fernandez
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