ML24157A373
| ML24157A373 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 06/07/2024 |
| From: | Tanya Hood Reactor Decommissioning Branch |
| To: | Nicole Warnek Reactor Decommissioning Branch |
| References | |
| EPID L-2023-LLA-0151 | |
| Download: ML24157A373 (1) | |
Text
June 7, 2024 MEMORANDUM TO:
Nicole S. Warnek, Acting Branch Chief Reactor Decommissioning Branch Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards FROM:
Tanya E. Hood, Project Manager Reactor Decommissioning Branch /RA/
Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
SUBJECT:
SUMMARY
OF MAY 8, 2024, PUBLIC MEETING REGARDING THE LICENSE TERMINATION PLAN FOR THE NUCLEAR SHIP SAVANNAH On May 8, 2024, a hybrid public meeting was held between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S, Maritime Administration (MARAD) onboard the Nuclear Ship Savannah (NS Savannah). The purpose of the comment-gathering meeting was to discuss the NRC license termination process and the content of the MARAD License Termination Plan (LTP). Approval of the LTP would allow for the completion of decommissioning activities and termination of Facility Operating License, NS-1 for the NS Savannah.
The meeting notice and agenda, posted April 4, 2024, are available in the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) at Accession No. ML24129A008 and are posted on the NRCs public Web page at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. The presentation material discussed during the meeting are available on the meeting notice and at ML24124A125. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the meeting materials located in ADAMS should contact the NRC Public Document Room reference staff by telephone at 1800-3974209 or by email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov.
Per the requirements of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 50.82(a)(9)(iii) the meeting and public comment period were also noticed in the Federal Register (FR) on April 3, 2024 (89 FR 23075). Directions for submitting comments electronically or by mail were provided in the FR Notice. The comment period for the LTP ended on June 3, 2024. No written comments have been received. The NRC also publish a press release and provided a notice of the meeting in the Baltimore Sun on April 24, 2024, and May 5, 2024.
CONTACT: Tanya Hood, NMSS/DUWP 301415-1387
N. Warnek Opening remarks for the meeting were given by the Director of the Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs in the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards at the NRC. Representatives from NRC then gave a presentation on the NRCs license termination process and NRCs oversight and inspection process for power reactor decommissioning. A representative from MARAD gave a presentation on the content of the NS Savannah LTP, the decommissioning strategy, and a timeline for terminating the facility license.
At the end of the presentations, members of the public and interested stakeholders were invited to ask questions, provide feedback, and make comments on the NS Savannah LTP. The comments were addressed by NRC and MARAD staff members present at the meeting. The questions and responses are summarized here:
Question 1 - David Allard, Vice-Chair of the Community Advisory Panel for Decommissioning Three-Mile-Island Unit Two.
What was the decision for terminating the ship, which I guess technically the reactor was a power reactor, for a ship, very unique, under a research test reactor protocol?
Answer 1 - Tanya Hood, NRC Licensing Project Manager for the decommissioning of the NS Savannah.
When the Atomic Energy Commission partnered with the government to put the ship together, it was considered a test reactor even though it actively had a pressurized water reactor associated with it. While it is currently labeled on paper as a research test reactor, we are aware of what type of reactor was located on the ship when it was active and did a quality inspection associated with the parameters that have been shared with you in the presentation by Andrew Taverna, the NRC Inspector.
Question 2 - David Allard.
Does the NRC consider that 15 millirem proposed by MARAD basically satisfying the ALARA requirement for the 25 millirem criteria?
Answer 2 - Anthony Tony Dimitriadis, NRC Region 1 Branch Chief for the Decommissioning, Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) and Reactor Health Physics Branch.
The regulatory limit for the NRC is 25 millirem plus ALARA. So, for MARAD to go to 15 is well within the ALARA criteria.
Question 3 - Jack Fletcher, Public Member.
I was reading a 2013 article, it said the ship is operating on a $2 million budget. Do you have any sense of how that would change further after the License Termination Plan?
Answer 3 - Erhard Koehler, MARAD Senior Technical Advisor for the NS Savannah.
Our baseline services federal budget today is about $3 million a year; that's what we ask for.
That covers the cost of our personnel to do the basic minimum standards of keeping the ship safe at the berth, including the utility cost, and so on. If the ship goes into a preservation scenario, there are a number of different ways that that number might come down. It depends
N. Warnek on how an entity would staff the ship. Usually there's quite a few volunteers and far fewer paid staff. They might not have to pay a lease, a full commercial-rate lease for the pier. We're probably not going to get much of a break on the electricity though. So, the budget could go down by as much as half depending on different scenarios for some alternate user, but at the present time we're at about $3 million a year.
Question 4 - John Kelly, Public Member.
Are the license termination reviews funded by MARAD or is that within the NRC's budget itself?
Answer 4 - Tanya Hood.
It's a combination question. The NRC receives its budget from Congress to perform our tasks, but licensees pay fees associated with the review that reimburses elements of what the NRC gets paid.
Answer 4 - Erhard Koehler.
I can add to that slightly. MARAD has been paying fees since 2005. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 introduced a change to the Anti-Deficiency Act which now allows one federal agency to pay another federal agency fees. This is what the law says. So yes, we do pay fees and we're very proud to do so.
Approximately 40 representatives from the industry, the State, and the NRC participated in the meeting. A list of the meeting attendees is provided in Enclosure 1. Members of the public attended, but no public meeting feedback forms were received.
Please direct any inquiries to me at (301) 4151387 or Tanya.Hood@nrc.gov.
Enclosure:
- 1. List of Attendees
- 2. NRC/MARAD Presentation Slides
- 3. The transcript of the meeting
ML24157A373 OFFICE NMSS/DUWP/RDB/PM NMSS/DUWP/RDB/PM NMSS/DUWP/RDB/BC NMSS/DUWP/RDB/PM NAME THood JParrott NWarnek (Acting)
THood DATE 06/06/2024 06/06/2024 06/07/2024 06/07/2024
ENCLOSURE 1 LIST OF ATTENDEES
LIST OF ATTENDEES MAY 8, 2024, LICENSE TERMINATION PLAN PUBLIC MEETING WITH THE U.S. MARITIME ADMINISTRATION RE: THE NUCLEAR SHIP SAVANNAH Name Organization Anthony Dimitriadis U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Andrew Taverna NRC Bruce Watson NRC Emil Tabakov NRC Jack Parrott NRC Jane Marshall NRC Jean Trefethen NRC Louis Caponi NRC Lynn Ronewicz NRC Nate Fuguet NRC Neil Sheehan NRC Nicole Warnek NRC Tanya Hood NRC Anna Holloway U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD)
Cynthia Bearor MARAD Erhard H. Koehler MARAD John Osbourne MARAD Lisa Miles MARAD Robert Adams MARAD Soeth Caleb Soeun MARAD Wendy Coble MARAD Gerard Tourney Energy Solutions Lee DuBois Energy Solutions Eric Darios Radiation Safety & Control Services, Inc Heath Downey Radiation Safety & Control Services, Inc Mark McEvay Radiation Safety & Control Services, Inc Matthew Arsenault Radiation Safety & Control Services, Inc Nicholas Walts Radiation Safety & Control Services, Inc Ron Thurlow Radiation Safety & Control Services, Inc David Minges State of Maryland Liz Casso State of Maryland Anne Jennings Public Anthony Margan Public Bruce Reynolds Public Cornelia Mueller Public David J. Allard Public Don McGee Public Doug Polaski Public
Edwrd Tupin Public Fred Blondon Public Gail Marcus Public Gil Alexander Public Gilles Messier Public Hiltrud A. Koehler Public Jack Fletcher Public James Williams Public John Damm Public John Hickman Public John Kelly Public John Wiegand Public Joseph Wyatt Public Ken Egbuna Public Lawrence E. Boing Public Lina Planutyte Public Lori Glander Public Masato Ono Public Michael I. Dudek Public Michael Hamby Public Michael Tinkel Public Nadia Glucksberg Public Paul F. Johnston Public Richar Schiappacasse Public Rob Jackson Public Robbie Public Robert Sheranko Public Ruth Ches Public Savannah Fitzwater Public Scott Ginter Public Thomas Magette Public William F. Fowler Public William McCready Public Yehia Amin Public Zedra Taylor Public
ENCLOSURE 2 NRC PRESENTATION SLIDES ML24124A121 MARAD PRESENTATION SLIDES ML24124A124
ENCLOSURE 3 MEETING TRANSCRIPT ML24144A246