ML061020427

NRC E-mail from Steven Orth to Monte Phillips Braidwood EDO Bullet

ML061020427
Person / Time
Site:	Braidwood
Issue date:	01/06/2006
From:	Steven Orth NRC/RGN-III
To:	Phillips M NRC/RGN-III
References
FOIA/PA-2006-0115
Download: ML061020427 (2)

Text

'Anne Boland - Braidvyood EDO bullet XPage PaJe 1:l AnneBolad raiwoodEDO

- ulle From: Steven Orth &77 To: Monte Phillips Date: Fri, Jan 6, 2006 8:59 AM

Subject:

Braidwood EDO bullet Monte, Attached is a bullet for this afternoon's EDO call.

Thank you, Steve CC: Anne Boland; Cynthia Pederson; Jan Strasma; John White; Mark Ring; Nirodh Shah; Peter Habighorst; Richard Skokowski; Roland Lickus

Anne Boland - EDO B~ullet (06JanO6).wpd Page 1 Anne Boland EDO E;ullet (O6JanO6).wpd

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Page 1

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Braidwood Groundwater Contamination The licensee has suspended liquid radwaste discharges since the groundwater contamination was identified on November 30, 2005. Liquid radwaste is being stored onsite in temporary storage tanks. Radwaste discharges will not resume until the blowdown line integrity is verified.

A licensee meeting with nearby residents took place on December 12, 2005, which Region IlIl staf and State officials attended. Tentative, future licensee meetings with the residents are planned for later in January 2006.

Current sample results onsite have identified levels of tritium as high as 250,000 picocuries per liter in a deep well (25'). Offsite levels have been identified as high as about 59,000 picocuries per liter (non-drinking water well) and at about 1400 - 1600 picocuries per liter in one residential drinking water well. NRC split-sample analyses are ongoing, as are NRC inspection activities to assess the licensee's recovery efforts and plume characterization. Initial sample results (including independent NRC samples of residential wells) have detected levels of tritium consistent with the licensee's results. As part of that inspection, members of the Region IlIl staff observed the licensee's non-destructive evaluation of sections of the blowdown line. The reslIts of that testing are under evaluation.

On December 16, 2005, the State of Illinois Environmental Protection Agency issued the licensee a Violation Notice for contaminating the groundwater. On December 20, 2005, members of the Region IlIl staff participated in a meeting between and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the licensee in Springfield, Illinois, which the licensee discussed the apparent origin of the contamination, its monitoring program and initial characterization, and the its future plans. Following that meeting, the Region, NRR, EDO, and OGC staffs conducted an internal meeting to discuss regulatory authority and preemption. A subsequent NRC internal meeting is scheduled for January 18, 2006, to further discuss the Illinois violations and regulatory jurisdiction issues.