ML20236N420

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Forwards NMSS Items of Interest for Wk Ending 980130.Items Include Meeting W/Ge on 980121,insp at Amersham on 980122-23,US EPA Meeting on 980122 to Discuss Groundwater C/A Program at Church Rock & Visit to Flawtech on 980122
ML20236N420
Person / Time
Site: Peach Bottom, Palisades, Arkansas Nuclear, 07201007  Constellation icon.png
Issue date: 01/30/1998
From: Wingo C
NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS)
To:
NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS)
Shared Package
ML20236K829 List:
References
FOIA-98-188 NUDOCS 9807150122
Download: ML20236N420 (3)
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  • 1F Frome Caroly1 Wingo/A/W To: NMSSall Date: 1/30/98 1:12pm

Subject:

ITEMS - FYI i

FOR YOUR INFORMATION, BELOW ARE THE NMSS ITEMS OF INTEREST FOR THE WEEK ENDING JANUARY 30, 1998. i 1

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Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards f Items of Interest i Week Ending January 30, 1998 I

l Meeting with General Electric

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On January 21, 1998, representatives of General Electric (GE) met with Nuclear I Regulatory Commission staff from the Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and l Safeguards, Division of Waste Management, and Division of Nuclear Material Safety (Region II) to present the licensee's plans for reducing waste volumes and material inventories at GE's nuclear fuel fabrication facility in Wilmington, North Carolina. During GE's Licensee Performance review in October _1997, NRC expressed concerns about accumulation of waste and low-enriched special nuclear material at the Wilmington site. NRC identified the timely disposition of solid waste as a challenge for the facility due, in

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.part, to the limited access to waste disposal sites for licensees in the State of North Carolina. During the meeting, GE representatives emphasized the significant reduction in waste generation rates expected by replacing the ammonium diuranate conversion process with the new dry conversion process (DCP). GE expects to have all of the'DCP lines operational by March 1998. GE representatives also outlined plans for reducing existing wastes and nuclear <

l material inventories, including a variety of on-site and off-site treatment and disposal options. GE plans to substantially reduce the inventories of material and waste stored onsite during the next two years. Based on the licensee's presentation, the NRC staff observed that GE is taking responsible action to contain any environmental risks associated with the material while in storage and had a reasonable plan for reducing waste and material

-inventories.

Inspection at Amersham Currently staff from the Division of Industrial and Medical Nuclear Safety is leading a special team inspection of the failures occurring with the drive cable on the Amersham 660 radiography camera. As part of this inspection, during. January 22-23, 1998, the team'along with representatives from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts visited the Amersham production facility in Burlington, Massachusetts. The inspection was a cooperative effort between the NRC and the Commonwealth, with the Massachusetts staff leading this component of the inspection. The inspection followed an agreed upon plan and focused upon Amersham's ongoing analyses of the failures as well as a review of pertinent records, production processes and discussions with Amersham engineers and management. The report of this inspection will be a component of the comprehensive report to be prepared by the inspection team. The special inspection will also involve close interaction with radiological 9907150122 980630 PENT FOIA '

DUNS98-188 PDR

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k safety personnel from the states of Louisiana and Texas as the full scope of the issue is investigated.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Meeting to Discuss Groundwater Corrective Action Program at Church Rock Site On January 22, 1998, staff from the Uranium Recovery Branch met with personnel from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the New Mexico Environment Department, and the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to review and discuss the EPA's draft Five-Year Review Report evaluating the results of United Nuclear Corporation's (UNC's) groundwater corrective action program (CAP) at its Church Rock, New Mexico, uranium mill tailings site. The Church Rock site, which is licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is also a Superfund site subject to regulation by the EPA. Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the NRC and the EPA, the NRC is the lead Federal Agency for licensing within the site boundaries, including remedial actions affecting groundwater. The MOU requires the NRC to seek agreement with the EPA prior to any license amendments which affect groundwater.

The conclusions of the EPA's draft report were agreed upon by the participants at the meeting. These were (1) that the present CAP has not resulted in a substantial trend toward meeting the cleanup levels in the license for most constituents; and (2) that revisions to the CAP, revisions to background concentrations specified in the license, and establishment of alternate concentration limits for certain constituents would be appropriate. The EPA will proceed to issue the Five-Year Review for public comment, and make revisions to its Record of Decision (ROD) for Church Rock. The NRC will then be able to process some of UNC's pending amendment requests to modify the CAP.

The present EPA schedule is to complete revisions to the ROD by September 30, 1998.

Visit to FlawTech in Harrisburg, North Carolina On January 22, 1998, staff from the Spent Fuel Project Office (SFPO) visited FlawTech in Harrisburg, North Carolina, to become more familiar with the methods for inserting flaws into metallic component specimens. FlawTech is currently under contract to Consumers Energy to implant flaws into the Palisades VSC-24 dry fuel storage mock-up. Once the flaws are implanted, the mock-up will be shipped to Arkansas Nuclear One, where it will be used to evaluate the feasibility of performing ultrasonic examinations (UT) on the structural lid closure weld. Representatives of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Non-Destructive Examination (NDE) Center were present at the request of the VSC-24 Owner's Group utilities (Consumers Energy, Entergy, and Wisconsin Electric) to monitor the flaw insertion process. The EPRI NDE Center will also be used to aid procedure development for proposed VSC-24 UT examinations.

TN-68 Spent Fuel Dry Storage Cask Application On January 23, 1998, Transnuclear, Inc. (TN) submitted an application, in accordance with 10 CFR Part 72, requesting a Certificate of Compliance (COC) for the TN-68 cask. The TN-68, a new cask, is similar to the TN-32 cask, except that it is designed to store up to 68 BWR spent fuel assemblies. TN is

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under contract to PECO Energy Company to supply TN-68 casks for the Peach  ;

Bottom Atomic Powter Station which has a projected date of July 2000 for loss of full core discharge capability. The TN-68 cask procurement / fabrication ,

process may take alnast two years. Therefore, TN also submitted an exemption request to start fabrication before a COC is issued so that TN-68 casks will j be available for use et Peach Bottom by July 2000. I 1

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