ML23116A114
| ML23116A114 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 07000925 |
| Issue date: | 04/19/2023 |
| From: | Burns & McDonnell |
| To: | Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Document Control Desk |
| References | |
| Download: ML23116A114 (1) | |
Text
Cimarron Environmental Response Trust April 19, 2023, Project Status Teleconference Notes Attendees:
NRC DEQ EPM Bill von Till Kelly Dixon Bill Halliburton Ian Irvin Rachel Miller Jeff Lux Jim Smith Troy Johnson Christine Pineda Kevin Hayes
Administrative Issues Anadarko vs. IRS Litigation Both Mr. Halliburton and Mr. Lux have spoken with Heather Lampert (IRS lead attorney, with others). Mr. Halliburton was attended by in-house counsel. The IRS asked general questions regarding whether the Trustee had any input relative to the preparation of the Consent Decree and Environmental Settlement Agreement or the Cimarron Trust Agreement.
Neither Mr. Halliburton nor Mr. Lux were served a subpoena as of the meeting time, and the IRS will presumably decide within the next week if either will be called. The trial is scheduled to begin May 1st and extend through May 19th.
Mr. Halliburton has also received a request from Latham & Watkins, counsel for Occidental Petroleum (parent company of Occidental Petroleum) to ask questions relevant to the case.
It is not yet known if either Anadarko or IRS will call either Mr. Halliburton or Mr. Lux to appear in court.
No known further action is needed.
Personnel Changes EPM requests the NRC and the DEQ to provide a distribution list for personnel who should be invited to attend future monthly project status teleconferences. EPM will send draft notes to attendees; after revising based on agency commen ts, final notes will be distributed to all personnel who were invited to attend. NRC or DEQ personnel may forward the final notes to others in the organization as they feel appropriate based on the issues discussed.
NRC and DEQ will advise Mr. Lux via email who should be included in future project status teleconferences.
Submission of Documents to Electronic Document Repositories In the past, submittals to the NRC or the DEQ have always identified individuals who will receive copies of the submittal. Sometimes, the distribution list included the NRC document control desk for uploading to ADAMS, and/or the DEQs vcpsubmittals document repository.
At other times, only individuals were listed, and Ive indicated in the email in which I send the document(s) to the NRC and DEQ if an electronic copy would be sent to ADAMS, and/or vcpsubmittals.
Page 1 of 4 Cimarron Environmental Response Trust April 19, 2023, Project Status Teleconference Notes
The Trust Agreement states that certain documents must be submitted to Robert Yalen at the Office of the United States Attorney for the Sout hern District of New York. Mr. Yalen advised us that we should send electronic copies of those documents to one of three New York District Court sites as follows:
For approval requests: USANYS.TronoxTrustApprovals@usdoj.gov For consultations or notices to the US or federal agencies:
USANYS.TronoxTrustNotices@usdoj.gov For reports (quarterly reports, annual reports, investment reports, etc.) to the US or federal agencies: USANYS.TronoxTrustReports@usdoj.gov
Future submittals will indicate which electronic document repositories will receive electronic copies of the submittals in the distribution list. Except for files uploaded to ADAMS, those copies may be the non-ADAMS version, because converting files to comply with the NRCs standards sometimes increases the file size by a factor of 3 or more.
In the future, EPM will include all beneficiary document repository document sites to which copies of submittals will be sent. NRC and DEQ personnel will inform EPM if they would prefer to receive electronic submittals that comply with the NRCs requirements for uploading to ADAMS, or if copies sent to them individually can be in the smaller file size.
Cimarron Orientation Several NRC headquarters, NRC Region IV, and DEQ personnel with historical knowledge (exceeding 2 -3 years) of the Cimarron site and license have retired; most have been replaced by personnel with no little or no prior involveme nt in the Cimarron decommissioning project.
EPM will prepare presentations to bring those personnel who are in an oversight or management role for the Cimarron project up to speed. Mr. Lux will be outsi de of the country from April 26th to May 19th, but will prepare presentations addressing:
- 1. A summary of the operational and decommissioning history of the site.
- 2. Licensing and regulatory issues and policies related to completing the decommissioning of the site.
- 3. The development and content of the decommissioning plan.
- 4. The groundwater flow models and the development of plans for groundwater extraction and injection, and the projection of remediation duration.
EPM would like to schedule virtual meetings to present this info rmation during the first week or two of June 2023.
NRC and DEQ will provide EPM the names of personnel who should be invited to attend these presentations. EPM will then schedule meetings with the NRC and the DEQ.
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Page 2 of 4 Cimarron Environmental Response Trust April 19, 2023, Project Status Teleconference Notes Licensing Issues Request for Exemption from NRC Fees EPM submitted to the Chief Financial Officer of the NRC a request to grant an exemption from NRC fees in a letter dated April 17, 2023. NRC fees to date have represented 23% of the total expenditure from the Federal Cost Account and the State Cost Account combined. The decommissioning cost estimate indicates that without such an exemption, funding will be exhausted before uranium concentrations achieve the NRC criterion.
The letter also explained that if the NRC will not grant an exemption, the deferral of NRC fees until the NRC criterion is achieved is requested. Copies of the letter were sent to Jane Marshall, Jim Smith, Kelly Dixon, and Paul Davis.
NRC will evaluate the request for exemption and notify EPM of their decision.
Request for Expedited Review/RAIs/License Amendment EPM submitted to Jane Marshall, the Director of the NRCs Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste a request to fast-t rack the review of the decommissioning plan, issuance of RAIs, and preparation of the Environmental Assessment (EA) and Safety Evaluation Report (SER).
EPM believes that the decommissioning plan has been through enough reviews that the detailed technical review should be able to be completed quickly, and should generate few if any RAIs.
Consequently, the EA and SER could be prepared during the technical review, so that at most only tweaks would need to be made based on responses to RAIs. EPM believes that this approach has the potential to shorten the schedule by at least six months.
Mr. Smith stated that the NRC doesnt plan to wait until RAIs are formally issued to identify issues that arise during the technical review. Questions that can be addressed prior to the issuance of RAIs can be taken care of during the review process. EPM believes that this could also shorten the process.
The NRC will respond to the letter and will consid er means to make the process of review, RAI issuance, and license amendment as efficient as reasonably achievable.
Decommissioning Issues Decommissioning Plan Review of Design Just as EPM desires to shorten the license amendment process, EPM wants to enable both the Burns & McDonnell and Veolia design teams to begin to advance the design drawings and specifications to issue for bid status as soon as practical. EPM asked the NRC to inform them if there are aspects of the design that NRC RAIs are not likely to impact.
Mr. Smith pointed out that the NRC, while bei ng concerned that the decommissioning processes will work, no longer reviews design details (e.g., what specific pump, what tank size, etc.) as they had decades ago. They have adopted a performance based approach, and it is highly unlikely that NRC would get into the design details.
Page 3 of 4 Cimarron Environmental Response Trust April 19, 2023, Project Status Teleconference Notes However, although the design of the treatment facility building, civil construction, foundations, filters, ion exchange system, and resin processing system is not likely to require changing, the groundwater extraction and treated water injection infrastructure still has the potential to require some revision.
Authorizing the contractors to start advancing their design and specifications to issue for bid status within the next few months could shorten the schedule for pre-construction activities and reduce the total cost associated with those activities.
EPM will wait until after the conducting the presentations listed above to determine which aspects of the design EPM can authorize contractors to advance with minimal risk of re-work based on RAIs.
Schedule for the Next Teleconference The next teleconference will not be scheduled during the third week of May because Mr. Lux will be out of the country. EPM proposes to defe r the next project status teleconference until after new personnel have been briefed on the Cimarron site as described above.
The next project status teleconference would then be conducted June 21, 2023.
NRC and DEQ will notify Mr. Lux if they approve conducting the next teleconference at 1:30 Central time, 2:30 Eastern time on Wednesday, June 21st.
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