Regulatory Guide 5.49

Internal Transfers of Special Nuclear Material

ML003739222
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Issue date:	03/31/1975
From:	Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
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RG-5.49
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U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION March 1975 REGULATORY GUIDE

OFFICE OF STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT

REGULATORY GUIDE 5.49 INTERNAL TRANSFERS OF SPECIAL NUCLEAR MATERIAL

B. DISCUSSION

Paragraph 70.51(e) of 10 CFR Part 70 requires, To help determine when and where losses of SNM

with certain exceptions stated in the rule, that each have occurred within a plant, each licensee subject to the licensee authorized to possess more than one effective requirements of paragraph 70.58(d) of 10 CFR Part 70

kilogram of special nuclear material (SNM) maintain should divide the plant into a number of areas and certain procedures. These procedures are to include: account for the SNM in each of these areas separately.

The number of areas should be sufficient to localize (I) Records of the quantities of SNM added to or nuclear material losses or thefts and identify the removed from the process; mechanisms.

(2) Documentation of all transfers of SNM between In the past, all of these accounting areas have been material-balance areas to show the identity and quantity called "material-balance areas." More precise terminol of SNM transferred; ogy now in use distinguishes between material-balan ce areas (MBAs) and item-control areas (ICAs).* The newet

(3) Requirements for authorized signatures on each usage will be followed in this guide. Under this usage.

document used to record the transfer of SNM between MBAs and ICAs are contrasted on the basis of how SNM

material-balance areas; and is accounted for within the area.

(4) Means for control of and accounting for SNM can enter and leave an ICA only as a number internal transfer documents. of discrete, unique items. It is also accounted for as discrete items, with account books containing records of Paragraph 70.58(e) requires licensees to establish, the amount of SNM in each of these items. The presence maintain, and follow a system for measuring the SNM of all material in an ICA is assured by showing the transferred between material-balance areas and item presence of each item. No change takes place in the form control areas. or amount of SNM in any item in an ICA.

Paragraph 70.58(f) requires that licensees have a MBAs, in contrast, generally are process areas in program that evaluates and controls the quality of their which -some physical or chemical change is made in the measurement system. SNM. Material in MBAs thus should be accounted for on the basis of measured amounts of input, output, and Additionally, all licensees authorized to possess inventory. Loss of material from an MBA can be assured SNM must comply with paragraph 70.51(b) of 10 CFR only by balancing these quantities. However, since no Part 70. That rule requires licensees to keep records measurement can be free from error, errors will be showing, among other things, the inventory of all SNM included in the material balance. Hence each material in their possession and its location. balance in an MBA results in some positive or negative This guide sets forth acceptable methods for con trolling and documenting transfers of SNM within a *See Regulatory Guide 5.26, "Selection of Material Balance Areas and Item Control Areas."

plant site in order to meet the requirements listed above.

USNRC REGULATORY GUIDES Comments should be sent to the Secretary of the Commission. U S Nuclear Reulatorv Commission, Washington. DC 2066. Attention Docketing and Regulatory Guides are issued to describe and make available to the public methods acceptable to the NRC staff of implementing specific parts of the Commission s regulations, to delineate techniques used by the staff in evalu The guides are issued in the following ten broad divisions sting specific problems or postulated accidents. or to provide guidance to appli cants Regulatory Guides ;ire not substitutes lot regulations. and compliance 1 Power Reactors 6 Products with them is not required Methods and solutions different from those set out in 2 Research and Test Reactors 7 Transportation the guides will be acceptable if they provide a basis for the findings requisite to 3 Fuels and Materials Facilities 8 Occupational Health the issuance or continuance of a permit or license by the Commission 4 Environmental and Siting 9 Antitrust Review Comments and suggestrons lot improvements in these guides are encouraged 5 Materials and Plant Protection 10 General at all times and guides will he revised. as appropriate, to accommodate com ments and to reflect new information or experience However. comments on Copies of published guides may be obtained by written request indicating the thi5 guide. if received within about two months auter its issuance. will be par divisions desired to the U S Nuclear Regulatory Commissio

n. Washington D C

ticularly usilul in evaluating the need for an early revision 20666. Attention Director, Office of Standards Development

amount of material unaccounted for (MUF)-solely as a who maintain surveillance between material access areas.

result of errors made in measuring. In an ICA, on the At least one armed guard should escort such transfers other hand, MUF cannot be ascribed to errors in that are wholly on land under the control of the measurement: it can result only from a misplacement, licensee. Two or more armed guards should accompany loss, or theft of one or more discrete items of SNM. any such transfer that crosses a public road or other land not under control of the licensee.

Licensees control and account for their holdings of SNM, in part, by setting tIp procedures to monitor the 2. Internal material transfer tickets. The guidelines movement of SNM from one MBA or ICA to another. under this heading pertain to the tickets that atc used The movements are documented by means of internal for documenting transfers of SNM within a facility.

material transfer tickets (MTs). These tickets (a) provide needed data to the nuclear material accounting office, a. Each MT should show all of the following (b) provide a record of each internal transfer of SNM, information:

and (c) meet the signature requirements of paragraph

70.51 (e). (1) Date of transfer:

MTs in most cases are paper forms with multiple (2) Identity of MBAs or ICAs from and to copies. However, they may also consist of a single which transfer is made;

original, which contains the authorized signatures.

Copies are then made on an office copying machine or (3) Identity. amount, enrichment (where are produced as computer output. Descriptions in this applicable), and form of the SNM transferred;

guide arc limited to MTs of these two kinds (multiple

(4) Sample number and/or analytical request copy and single original). Guidance will be provided later to cover the use of precoded computer cards or punched form number:

tape as MTs by those facilities that are planning on using computerized real-time material-accounting systems. (5) Applicable data on

C. REGULATORY POSITION

(a) Identity of uniquely identifiable items, i. Control of internal transfers of special nuclear (b) Ilentity of tamper-safing devices.

material. The guidelines under this heading pertain to procedures for controlling the transfer of special nuclear (c) Lot number(s),

material (SNM) within a facility.

(d) Batch number(s),

a. The custodian of a receiving material-balance area (MBA) or item-control area (ICA) should not accept (e) Job number(s),

custody of SNM unless a properly completed internal material transfer ticket (MT) has been received before or (f) Contract number(s), and at the same time as the SNM.

(g) For scrap, the appropriate classification:

b. SNM may not be transferred into or out of an ICA unless the SNM consists only of identifiable items that are sealed sources or tamper-safed. (6) Signatures of the participating MBA/ICA

custodians or their designated agents.

c. For any transfer outside of a material access area that involves moving plutonium, uranium 233, or uranium enriched to 20 percent or more in the isotope b. When possible, SNM should not be transferred U-235 in the amounts listed in paragraph 73.1(b) of 10 until analytical results have been obtained. If a transfer CFR Part 73,* the SNM should be under the continual must be made before chemical or isotopic analysis is surveillance of two persons. Where feasible, one of these complete, the MT should show amounts of SNM based persons should be from the originating MBA or ICA and on nominal values or best available data. The MT should the other from the receiving MBA or ICA. also show the identifying number on the analytica;

request form so that the nuclear material accounting d. For any transfer outside of a protected area department can later adjust the records to the actual that involves the amounts and kinds of SNM cited in amount transferred.

paragraph c above, the SNM should be escorted by one or more armed guards in addition to the two persons c. The MT should contain enough information to enable the recorded measurement and tamper-safing data L1

• Material described in §73.6 of 10 CFR Part 73 is excepted. associated with the transfer to be confirmed.

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d. Entries on MTs should not be erased or (1) Be made in accordance with a measurement obliterated. Alterations, as by lining through, should be program that is controlled to conform with proposed initialed. No entry should be made by pencil. §70.57 of 10 CFR Part 70:

e. MTs should be prenumbered in sequence, and (2) Be validated by intact tamper-safing until all copies should bear the same number as the original. the material has been accepted by the custodian of the All forms should be accounted for. The nuclear material receiving MBA/ICA or his designated agent: and accounting department should maintain and control (assign and account for) the supply of MT forms and (3) Have the tamper-safing applied as a part of should record the disposition of all forms in a log book. the sampling procedure* (if the SNM is assayed hy The supply of forms and the log book should be kept in traditional methods based on chemical analysis) or prior a locked area when unattended. to measurement (if the SNM is assayed by nondestruc tive analysis).

f. The nuclear material accounting department should review each MT for completeness. Copies of c. When SNM is transferred via pipeline from one completed MTs should be distributed to all affected MBA to another, the SNM should be measured in the persons or departments, including at least the custodians receiving MBA prior to any physical or chemical change of the originating and receiving MBAs or ICAs. in the material.

g. The completed original of the MT should be d. For any transfer of identifiable items of en retained for at least five years. As a rule, the original capsulated SNM, the recorded amount of SNM trans should be retained by the nuclear material accounting ferred should be that measured at the time of encapsula department. However, if the form also is used for tion.

production purposes, the production department may retain the original. e. The custodian of the originating MBA should measure all tare and gross weights. The custodian of the I h. Damaged or misused MTs should be marked receiving MBA should measure all gross weights and

"VOID." All voided copies should be forwarded to the confirm the absence of arithmetic errors. He may also nuclear material accounting department for logging. confirm the tare weights as a check on the originating MBA. A duly designated agent may act for a custodian i. MTs may have uses other than those that are in the actions named in this paragraph.

the subject of this guide. Their use in production control has been suggested above. They also may be used to f. If the gross weight measured at the receiving record and report such SNM accounting data as bumup, MBA differs from that reported on the MT by the material unaccounted for (MUF), or measured discards custodian of the originating MBA by a statistically of waste. significant amount, the SNM should be left in the transfer container until the difference has been resolved.

The value agreed upon must be acceptable to both of the

3. Measurement of transferred material. The guide MBA custodians involved and to the nuclear material lines under this heading pertain to the measurements accounting department.

associated with SNM transferred within a facility.

a. The following SNM may be transferred out of

D. IMPLEMENTATION

and into MBAs or ICAs without measuring the contained SNM: The purpose of this section is to provide informa tion to applicants and licensees regarding the NRC staff's

(1) Samples that have been determined by plans for utilizing this regulatory guide.

other means to contain less than ten grams of pluto nium, uranium 233, or uranium 235; Except in those cases in which the applicant proposes an alternate method for complying with

(2) Reactor-irradiated fuels involved in re specified portions of the Commission's regulations, the search, development, and evaluation programs in facil method described herein will be used in the evaluation ities other than irradiated-fuel reprocessing plants; and of submittals in connection with special nuclear material license, operating license, or construction permit applica

(3) Sealed plutonium-beryllium sources. tions docketed after October 1, 1975.

b. Except for the items listed in paragraph 3.a., all *See Regulatory Guides 5.10, "Selection and Use of SNM should be transferred out of and into MBAs or Pressure-Sensitive Seals on Containers for Onsite Storage of ICAs on the basis of acceptable accountability measure Special Nuclear Material," and 5.15, "Security Seals for the ments. To be acceptable, the measurements should: Protection and Control of Special Nuclear Material."

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If an applicant whose application for a special to use this regulatory guide in developing submittals for nuclear material or an operating license or construction applications, the pertinent portions of the application permit is docketed on or before October 1, 1975, wishes will be evaluated on the basis of this guide.

UNITED STATES

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

WASHINGTON. D. C. 20556 POSTAGE AND FEES PAID

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR

OFFICIAL MUSINESS REGULATORY COMMISSION

PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE. $300

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