ML20245H775
| ML20245H775 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 07001068 |
| Issue date: | 06/23/1989 |
| From: | Bidinger G, Robinson C NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20245H722 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8906300083 | |
| Download: ML20245H775 (5) | |
Text
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JUN 2 31989 DOCKET NO: 70-1068 L
LICENSEE: University of Florida l Gainesville, Florida
SUBJECT:
SAFETY EVALUATION REPORT, LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION DATED
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MARCH 1, 1989 i INTRODUCTION University of Florida (UF) was first issued Materials! License No. SNM-1050 in !
December 1967. The license was last renewed on December 20, 1971. - Since the renewal, the license has been amended six times to extend the license expiration' date. On August 31, 1988, UF requested a 4-month extension of the license expiration date. By amendment issued on October 14, 1988,. NRC extended the expiration date to March 31, 1989 and requested submittal of a renewal application. On March 1, 1989, UF submitted-an application for renewal. l Accordingly, the license has remained in effect in accordance with the timely renewal provisions of Subsection 70.33(b) of 10 CFR 70. ;
i The current license authorized nondestructive testing and storage of 190 !
kilograms of U-235 contained in SPERT fuel rods. Nondestructive. testing i activities were completed by March 31, 1989. ,
POSSESSION LIMITS (PROPOSED)
UF requests authorization to possess and use the following material:
1 Material Form Quantity l
Clad 002 fuel elements 190 kg of U-235 Uranium enriched up to 4.96 w/o 13-235
, ACTIVITIES The licensee has requested authorization to store and prepare for transport licensed materials. The University of Florida SPERT Assembly (UFSA) fuel pins are stored within the Nuclear Research Field Building (Bldg. No. 554). The material is secured by lock and key in the Fuel Storage Area (Room 5) and inspected biweekly. Packaging of shipping containers with licensed material will be made within Room 5 and subsequent loading onto a vehicle for transport wi.ll occur at the Building No. 554 site. The packaging and transportation authority is covered under a general license in 10 CFR 71 and hence will not be authorized in this license. To authorize activities other than those under the general license, the staff recommends the following license conditions:
Authorized use: For possession and use in accordance with the statements, representations, and conditions specified in the licensee's application '
dated March 1, 1989.
Authorized place of use: The licensee's Nuclear Research Field Building !
, as specified in the application dated March 1, 1989.
f 8906300083 890623 PDR ADOCK 07001068 C PDC g
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, . Uni'v orsity of Florida 2 JUN 2 3 2 i
f GENERAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS The UFSA Facility Director or his designated representative has overall responsibility for the direction and administration of the University of Florida SPERT Assembly facility. The Facility Director reports to the Chairman of the Nuclear Engineering Science Department. The Radiation Control Officer (RCO)_is responsible for day-to-day facility activities. The RCO is given
' clear authority to halt any UFSA-related operation which he believes threatens the health and safety of personnel or the public. 4 The UFSA Safety Review Subcommittee (SRS) is the primary safety committee for the facility and is a subcommittee of the University's Radiation Control Committee. The SRS shall be responsible for review of the safety-related" issues pertaining to the facility. The SRS shall be composed of a minimum of ,
five members, including the UFSA Facility Director or Manager, the Radiation !
Control Officer (both ex-officio voting members), the Chairman of the Nuclear Engineering Sciences Department, and two other members having expertise in nuclear technology and/or radiological safety. Periodic review and audit of l the safety aspects of facility operations assures continued safe fuel storage j at UF, j i
The licensee has established educational, training, and experience qualifications ;
for UFSA facility personnel. In particular, the Radiation Control Officer must tie a degreed individual with at least 2 years experience in radiation safety; '
the Facility Director must be a faculty member. The resumes of such individuals show that the requirements for the positions are satisfied. The RCO is a degreed .
individual with 13 years experience in radiation safety. The Facility Director l and SRS members consist of faculty and administration specialists in many areas j including radioactive materials. Both the RCO and Facility Director possess ;
doctorates in engineering science and have extensive experience, i UF ensures their ALARA commitment with a program that requires that film badges and/or dosimeters be issued to personnel involved with work in the fuel storage i room and that minimizes work time during such activities as surveillance and f fuel packaging.
A biennial requalification program designed for maintenance of operator licenses is conducted for personnel involved with operations at the UFSA facility. The training involves radiation safety and control, reactor physics, l and general fuel handling. Such training is adequate for the activities to be authorized by this license. Special UFSA-related training is conducted prior to all operations for which a Radiation Work Permit (RWP) is to be issued. l Such training techniques are commensurate H th the potential radiological health protection problems in UFSA's restricted area.
Procedures have been written for the shipment of SNM and periodic test and surveillance activities. RWPs shall be implemented for work with the special nuclear material fuel that could result in a radiation dose. RWPs are reviewed and approved by the SRS and Facility Director prior to implementation.
I The UFSA storage facility is inspected visually every 2 weeks. An overall management safety review and an audit by the SRS are conducted on a biennial l basis.
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JUN 2 31989-4 ,
University of Florida- 3 Records relating to health and safety-are maintained by the RCO and UFSA Facility _ Director. ..The minimum retention period for such records shall be 5 -
l years. However, the licensee has not committed to retain records,in accordance with._the requirements of 10 CFR 20.401', " Records of surveys, radiation monitoring, and disposal." Therefore, staff recommends the following license condition:
Notwithstanding the retention limit specified in Section.2.8 of the ;
application, the.-licensee shall maintain records of surveys and personnel exposures in accordance with 10 CFR 20.401.
-RADIATION PROTECTION xThe storage facility (Room 5) is locked. Unescorted access is limited to UFSA facility staff and. individuals who have documented training in radiation control-procedures equivalent to that received by UFSA staff.
.I The, storage room entrance will be posted as to levels and types of radiation.
'In addition, NRC Form 3 as well as emergency instructions, a call list, and a ,
1.ist of1 individual's approved for unescorted access will be maintained at the entrance. y
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Whenever fuel is handled, radiation safety is strictly enforced with' procedures .;
approved by the SRS. These procedures: include surveillance when fuel is not U secured in storage, contamination and personnel monitoring programs, a RWP which outlines radiation protection, and personnel exit surveys and-decontamination'. Documentation of fuel movement includes RWPs and contamination and radiation survey results.
Radioactivity measurement instrumentation will include self-reading pocket dosimeters and film badges for personnel monitoring, as well'as a film badge for environmental monitoring within Building No. 554.
Survey instruments (sensitive to alpha, beta, and gamma radiations) will have a combined-range of at least 0-25 R/hr and are calibrated and tested at least p . semiannually by the RCO. 3 Random fuel pin leak testing will be conducted semiannually.
If assurance of fuel pin integrity is insufficient, a complete swipe survey of all pins will be conducted and the leaking pins isolated as much as possible under an applicable RWP.
Occupational exposure is determined, validated, and controlled with film badges and_if considered necessary, self-reading pocket dosimeters. The film badges will be processed monthly while dosimeters will be read and recorded at the time of work as part of the applicable RWP or other documenting record. The administrative action level for individual exposure will be 75 mR obtained in any 1 week. Dosimeters are drift-tested quarterly by the Radiation Control- 1 Officer while film badges are processed by an outside vendor.
l Since_dispersible SNM is not used, a bioassay program is not considered l necessary. Nevertheless, bioassay through urinalysis, using a liquid scintillation counter, is available through the Radiation Control Officer who has conducted such analyses for other campus facilities.
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JUN 2 31989 University of Florida 4 NUCLEAR CRITICALITY SAFETY Each SPERT fuel rod consists of 4.81 1 0.15 w/o U-235 uranium dioxide pellets contained in stainless steel tubing. The fuel pellets are right circular cylinders with a nominal diameter of 0.42 inches. The active fuel length of the rod is 36 inches.
.The overall storage arrangement consists of three arrays, 14-feet long and spaced at least 40 inches edge-to-edge. Each array is a vertical slab of steel-framed storage containers that accommodate rows of seven fuel rods.
The vertical length of a storage container is 28 inches. The staff calculated this array assuming a maximum enrichment of 5.0 w/o U-235 and utilizing the Hansen-Roach 16 group cross-section set which is found in the SCALE program, along with KEN 0 V.a. , a Monte Carlo code. Staff has determined the k for the storage array to be about 0.84. Nocreditwastakenfortheabsohion qualities of the stainless steel clad or the steel containers, and the k is i independent of the degree of water moderation within and between the arr h or !
the degree of concrete reflection surrounding the array. ;
To ensure that the SPERT fuel will remain safety subcritical when moved for shipment, no more than one storage container will be handled and moved at any one time. Based on the calculations above for the 3.8 inch slabs, )
subcriticality is assured. l To ensure that the SPERT rods will remain safely subcritical when removed for ;
surveillance or for shipment preparations, no more than 20 rods will be removed from the storage containers at any one time. The 20 rods correspond to no more than 787 grams of U-235. The staff has independently confirmed that this mass ,
is below 45 percent of the critical mass for 0.4-inch and 0.6-inch diameter !
rods with UO - water lattices as specified in DP-1014.
2 In addition, a criticality monitoring system meeting the requirements of 10 CFR 70.24 will'be maintained whenever fuel is being moved, including ;
removal of single pins for inspection purposes.
The licensee requests an exemption from the monitoring requirements of 10 CFR ,
70.24 as provided in 70.24(d). The licensee's reasons for requesting the {
exemption are that storage facilities and procedures provide assurance that criticality cannot occur during normal storage conditions. Under normal ,
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storage. conditions, no fuel movement occurs and a criticality monitor is not necessary. Therefore, the following license condition is recommended: i The licensee is hereby exempted from the requirements of 10 CFR 70.24, insofar as this requirement applies to materials possessed under this license under normal storage conditions.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION The authorization of UF activities is in accordance with 10 CFR 51.22(c)(14)(v). i Therefore, neither an Environmental Assessment nor on Environmental Impact Statement is warranted for this action.
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_ Uni'versity of Florida 5 ,jUN 2 31989 DECOMMISSIONING Upon eventual removal of the fuel, radiation and contamination surveys will be conducted prior to release for unrestricted use. Accordingly, the staff recommends the following condition:
The licensee shall decontaminate the facilities, surfaces, and equipment in accordance with the enclosed " Guidelines for Decontamination of Facilities and Equipment Prior-to Release for Unrestricted Use or Termination of Licenses for Byproduct, Source, or Special Nuclear Material," August 1987.
EMERGENCY PLANNING UFSA's radiological contingency plan consists of emergency procedures addressing response to radiological, fire, and security-related emergencies.
The facility has a call list posted at Storage Room 5 and at the main entrance to Building 554 indicating the personnel to be contacted in the event of an ;
emergency. . Personnel in the building are cognizant of the facility's emergency i procedures, procedures for prompt evacuation of the building, and initiation of I the call list for emergencies.
COMPLIANCE HISTORY A radiation. safety inspection of the facility was performed by an NRC Region II Radiation Safety Inspector on June 14, 1988. Within the scope of the inspection, no violations or deficiencies were identified. ;
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Upon completion of the safety review of the licensee's application and discussion with the Region II Inspector regarding the licensee's compliance records, 'the staff has concluded that the licensee has the necessary technical staff to administer an effective radiation and criticality safety program.
Conformance by the licensee to their proposed conditions, as well as to those developed by the IMUF staff, onsure a safe operation and quick detection of :
unfavorable trends or effects resulting in corrective actions being taken.
Based on the discussion above and subject to the recommended conditions, it is recommended that the license be renewed for a 5 year period.
The Region II Inspector has no objection to the issuance of the renewed license. gg ged By:
Charles H. Robinson l Uranium Fuel Section Fuel Cycle Safety Branch Division of Industrial and Medical Nuclear Safety, NMSS Approved by: NW George H. Bidinger, Section Leader g
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NAME: CRobinson:mh: DAMcCaughey: Tharpe: GHBidinger:
DATE:6/2l/89 6/2//89 6A\/89 6/M /89 i 0FFICIAL RECORD COPY i
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