ML20338A025
| ML20338A025 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 01/29/2021 |
| From: | Patricia Holahan Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs |
| To: | Melendez C US Dept of Energy, Office of Legacy Management |
| Orlando D | |
| References | |
| Download: ML20338A025 (3) | |
Text
January 29, 2021 Mr. Carmelo Melendez, Director Office of Legacy Management U.S. Department of Energy Washington, DC 20585
SUBJECT:
IDENTIFICATION OF CLEANUP WORK AT URANIUM MILL TAILINGS RADIATION CONTROL ACT REGULATED SITES
Dear Mr. Melendez:
I am writing in response to your letter, dated October 29, 2020, requesting the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRCs) clarification and interpretation of the pertinent Acts and Regulations for two questions pertaining to work performed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and regulated by the NRC pursuant to the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA), (letter available at Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
[ADAMS] Accession Number ML20332A060). Your questions stem from one of the recommendations in a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report entitled Environmental Liabilities: DOE Needs to Better Plan for Post-Cleanup Challenges Facing Sites (GAO-20-373). Specifically, you asked:
(1) Is there a feasible approach for a former private licensee to perform additional cleanup work or take other actions to address or correct a defective remedy at a site in DOE long-term stewardship?
(2) Can NRC oversee additional work by the former licensee or DOE/NRC seek recovery of federal government costs from that licensee for any additional cleanup if a remedy fails or new areas of contamination are identified? Under what conditions can DOE return a site to NRC or a licensee?
With respect to your first question, as NRC and DOE staff have discussed in the past, the answer is, in most instances, no. Unless it can be demonstrated that the private licensee engaged in fraudulent or negligent acts prior to the transfer to DOE, once the NRC terminates a license, the private licensee is no longer responsible for additional site actions. That is, for UMTRCA Title II sites, once ownership of the property has been transferred to the Federal or state government and the license is duly terminated, the NRC does not have authority under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, to take further action against the former site owner or former licensee. This may not preclude action under other environmental liability statutes such as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).
However, the NRC does not administer CERCLA, and generally would not be able to require a former licensee to perform additional work under UMTRCA after license termination.
C. Melendez 2
With respect to your second set of questions, NRC may have authority to oversee work by a former licensee for additional cleanup as long as the site contains licensable quantities of radioactive material subject to NRCs licensing authority. However, NRC would likely not have the authority to require such work, as noted above in response to question one. Additionally, NRC does not have the authority under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, to recover federal government costs for additional cleanup activities.
Finally, no NRC mechanism exists for DOE to return a site to a former licensee. With respect to returning or assigning the site to the NRC, the NRC is authorized to regulate the safe management of such sites and materials, it does not, and may not, manage such sites and materials.
In accordance with Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations Section 2.390 of the NRCs Agency Rules of Practice a copy of this letter will be available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records component of NRCs ADAMS. The ADAMS database is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. If you have any questions concerning the NRC responses, please feel free to contact Dominick Orlando at 301-415-6749 or at Dominick.Orlando@nrc.gov.
Sincerely, Patricia K. Holahan, Ph.D., Director, Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards Patricia K.
Holahan Digitally signed by Patricia K. Holahan Date: 2021.01.29 08:21:38 -05'00'
C. Melendez 3
SUBJECT:
IDENTIFICATION OF CLEANUP WORK AT URANIUM MILL TAILINGS RADIATION CONTROL ACT REGULATED SITES DATED: JANUARY 29, 2021 DISTRIBUTION:
H. Gepford, RIV, A. Dimitriadis, RI ADAMS Accession Number: ML20338A025
- via email OFFICE NMSS/DUWP*
NMSS/DUWP OGC*
NMSS/DUWP NAME DOrlando BVon-Till AGendelman PHolahan DATE 12/08/2020 01/05/2021 12/09/2020 01/29/2021 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY