ML20236B885

Performance Appraisal Nrc/State Contracts for Environ Monitoring on 871005-06.State Fulfilled All Requirements W/ Few Exceptions.Major Areas Inspected:Repts,Correspondence, day-to-day Contacts & Promptness in Resolution of Problems

ML20236B885
Person / Time
Site:	Mcguire, Harris, Brunswick, McGuire, 05000000
Issue date:	10/20/1987
From:	Adamovitz S, Kahle J NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION II)
To:
Shared Package
ML20236B853	List: ML20236B849 ML20236B885
References
CON-NRC-29-83-627 NUDOCS 8710260390
Download: ML20236B885 (5)

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                                                                                                                                          ., 3 PERFORMANCE APPRAISALL                                                 '
       .,                              NRC/ STATE CONTRACTS FOR: ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING
            . Contract ~ Number: 29-83-627                                                                                                                        >

Centractor: State of North Carolina' Date of Performance Appraisal: October 5-6, 1987. -a Conducted by: jA&4@ Y /XM19 efY-2DYPA7 ' S. S. Adamovitz M Date Signed l Rad ation Specialist # Reviewed by: ( MN3 Is KB Kahle, Chief voM/77 Date Sfgned l (RapologicalEffluentsand'ChemistrySection , y Scope: . The appraisal was performed by a review' of reports, correspondence, . s day-to-day contacts, and evaluation of the promptness and dudgement ~ exercised.. in the- resolution' of any. unusual situations or problems;which arise in' the program. The annual. appraisal was culminated by a visit ' to.: the State laboratory to review facilities and equipment, review; records, -and discuss : . aspects of the, program with State personnel. This report is1 prepared Jas a' basis for contract renewal and 'any recommendations for program;1 improvements.. . l

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                                                                                                  ,          j Ll STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA CONTRACT APPRAISAL'
                               .ANDREVIEW0FTHEANNUALREGRT t

On October 5-6, 1987, a representative of the U.-- Sb Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) met with representatives. fromithe Scate' of North Carolina, Division of Facility . Services and Division of, Health : Services to review-activities conducted under NRC Contract No. 29-83-627 for 1986. .This contract provides for a cooperative program for measuring concentrations 'of radioactivity and radiation levels in the environment around the following NRC - licensed. sites: , , Brunswick Steam Electric Plant ' Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant McGuire Nuclear Station Attendance at this. meeting is presented in. Attachment 1. 1 o Overall Program Status This appraisal incorporated a review of the 1986 Annual Report, a visit totthe-- - 1 State's environmental radiation ' laboratory, and a. preliminary review of' the j State's performance under the-1987 contract. The State of North Carolina :has, 1 with few exceptions, fulfilled all requirements of the Environmental-Monitoring l contract with respect to sample collection and analysis. Analytical ; problems :1 related to H-3 LLD values for surface waters and I-131 LLD values for milk are- l discussed in further detail under Performance. l Staff The State of North Carolina, has provided adequate' staffing to conduct and manage the NRC contract program. Management support has continued at a' level- - adequate to provide and retain experienced personnel and: funding has ~been. sufficient to carry out all requirements'.of the NRC' contract. State representatives indicated that there have been no problems in. handling the contract work load. Training t During 1987, two staff members from the Radiation Protection Section attendede the Radiological Emergency Response Operations .(RER0) course -in Las Vegas,. 9 Nevada, and a week's course in radioisotopic techniques 1 offered by ' North. Carolina State. An Environmental Radiation specialist .in the Radiation ; i Protection Section attended the Digital' Equipment Corporation's userL and- system o management course for the newlyr acquired . Micro! VAX II. ; / The Radiation Specialist also completed an ' Instrumentation Laboratory ; course L at-.the: University of North Carolina and a' week's course 'of Advanced Instrumentation-offered by the Oak Ridge ' National: Laboratories.. . Chemists from 'the1 State -{ Laboratory Public Health Section' did' not, attend Independent courses in '. 1 (. radiochemistry or instrumentation during 1986 or'1987. . The NRC representative l encouraged participation ~ in available!. courses for. nuclear instrumentation; fori L i r C . - - .- _ __ _ m n

2 laboratory personnel. Although the Radiation Protection Section personnel were available to assist laboratory personnel with instrumentation problems, i additional training for laboratory personnel would provide the necessary  ! expertise to the ' individuals directly responsible for daily maintenance and operation of the counting equipment. During the appraisal, State personnel inquired about the status of ' the Radiological Environmental Sciences Laboratory (RESL) Course in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Although the RESL course was not offered during 1985 or 1986, the State has encouraged staff participation and would send staff members if the course were again available. Equipment During 1987, the laboratory acquired a Tennelec 5100 alpha-beta proportional counter, a Princeton Gamma Tech (PGT) germanium lithium detector (18% efficiency), a Nuclear Data 9900 Multichannel Analyzer Computer Terminal System and an IBM MCA/ Personal computer. This equipment was acquired to_ expand the cccnt room capabilities, and further proposed acquisitions include a liquid  ; scintillation spectrometer for the next fiscal year. l 1 Performance The NRC Environmental Monitoring contract requires the State of North Carolina I to submit an annual report which includes a summary of all analyses, comparison I of results between the State and licensee environmental sample splits, and .j results of the State's EPA crosscheck program for the past year. This report was received in accordance with contractual requirements, within 120 days from the end of the contract year. The State of North Carolina has met all obligations of the 1986 contract with the exceptions that the required lower limits of detection (LLDs) were not met for H-3 in water and I-131 in milk. The NRC environmental monitoring contract requires an LLD of 330 pCi/1 for H-3 in water and 1 pC1/1 for I-131 in milk. Discussions with laboratory personnel indicated that the .H-3 analyses of surface waters often exceeded the 330 pCi/l LLD due to a high counter background and sample count times. State personnel agreed to try to improve the liquid scintillation system background and to extend the sample count time in order to lower the H-3 LLD. State personnel also indicated the current liquid scintillation system was quite old and inquiries had already been initiated to replace this system. The NRC representative also discussed the I-131 in milk LLD with laboratory personnel. The current radiochemical procedure utilized by the environmental laboratory can easily meet the NRC contract requirement of 1 pCi/1. However, the chemists would normally hold one milk sample until the arrival of another in order to coordinate analysis of the. two monthly milk samples. It was also noted transit times from the licensee of ten exceeded one week. Therefore due to the relatively short half-life of I-131, excessive sample transit. time and analytical delays resulted in the LLD limit being exceeded. State personnel agreed to implement discussions with the licensees in order to shorten the

l 1 1 3 l sample transit time and improve the coordination of the sample collection -] between the power plants. The NRC TLD monitoring program was reviewed with State personnel. During the past year there were no major relocations of any TLD sites and no problems encountered with collection or shipment. Since NRC Region I was conducting a comparison of the NRC, State, and licensee TLD systems, the NRC representative  ; requested that State results be provided for the NRC/ State co-located TLDs. The State provided a summary of the TLD data for the Brunswick, Harris, and McGuire facilities covering the time period January 1985 to December 1986. The NRC representative toured the environmental radiochemistry and counting The NRC representative noted that daily QC charts were maintained l facilities. l for gamma spectroscopy systems and that selected isotopic activities were l plotted. The NRC representative suggested plotting system resolution and I recording energy calibrations as additional gamma system performance checks. The State's environmental radiochemistry laboratory participates in the EPA Quality Assurance Program. A review of the crosscheck data for 1986 and 1987 indicated that a variety of samples were being analyzed with acceptable , reproducibility and accuracy. l The State of North Carolina's Radiological Environmental Program was reviewed against the program operation criteria established by the NRC and overall , i performance was determined t be good. Based upon the annual report and the 1 j onsite appraisal, continuation of this program is recommended. i t 1 i i b I R

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ATTACHMENT Attendance at the NRC/ State of North Carolina Meeting on October 5-6, 1987 i i l i State of North Carolina j D. H. Brown, Chief, Radiation Protection Section j M. Fry, Deputy Chief, Radiation Protection Section - l F. W. Fong, Environmental Radiation Supervisor, Environmental Radiation i Surveillance and Nuclear Facilities Branch a H. Newman, Environmental Radiation Specialist, Environmental Radiation Surveillance and Nuclear Facilities Branch , S. Bell, Supervisor, Radiation Surveillance Unit, Environmental Sciences Branch l i U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Comission l S. S. Adamovitz, Radiation Specialist, Radiological Effluents and Chemistry j Section J l l i

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