Press Release-95-093, NRC Announces Progress on Cleanup of Contaminated Sites
| ML003703027 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 07/27/1995 |
| From: | Office of Public Affairs |
| To: | |
| Category:Press Release | |
| References | |
| Press Release-95-093 | |
| Download: ML003703027 (2) | |
Text
No.
95-93 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tel.
301-415-8200 (Thursday, July 27, 1995)
Internet:OPA@NRC.GOV NRC ANNOUNCES PROGRESS ON CLEANUP OF CONTAMINATED SITES The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, reporting progress on the cleanup of several radioactively contaminated sites, is also assessing hundreds of formerly licensed locations to determine whether they meet current standards.
In response to an information request from Sen. John Glenn (D-OH), then-Chairman Ivan Selin sent a letter on June 22, reviewing efforts up until that date.
The letter reports that NRC has supervised the successful cleanup of five of 56 priority sites with radioactive contamination under the NRC's Site Decommissioning Management Plan (SDMP).
Efforts are well underway to clean up contamination at the remaining 51 sites on that list.
In addition, records have been reviewed on more than 31,000 licenses terminated before 1985 by the Atomic Energy Commission and the NRC to determine whether documentation exists establishing that they were closed out on a basis that would be considered acceptable today.
The initial screening was done for the NRC by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
The vast majority were found to meet current standards.
Of those whose records did not initially show this, about 240 sites were subsequently assessed as having been satisfactorily cleaned up, either by a more detailed review of records, follow-up interviews or on-site inspections conducted by the NRC in coordination with the states involved or, in four cases, additional cleanup at the sites.
Six sites were added to the SDMP list to ensure special NRC management attention, and 16 others were found to need additional cleanup.
Where conditions warrant, access to these sites is being restricted to protect public health and safety.
NRC has not yet finished this review.
Priority is being given to those sites thought more likely to have residual contamination.
In most cases this will involve a further file review, and interviews or on-site inspections where necessary.
Once NRC has completed its assessment, in coordination with state
authorities as appropriate, definitive information about the extent of contamination, if any, will be available and will be used to establish priority for any necessary remediation.