ML20136C403

Forwards IE Bulletin 79-19, Packaging of Low Level Radwaste for Transport & Burial & Lists Licensees to Whom Bulletin Was Sent

ML20136C403
Person / Time
Site:	Dresden, Cook
Issue date:	08/16/1979
From:	Pappas H NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION III)
To:	NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION III)
References
NUDOCS 7909240062
Download: ML20136C403 (86)

Text

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[gna ttcg%, UNITED STATES

\ ,,,'t NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 5-

} REGION lli o ' 8 799 ROOSEVELT ROAD 5, *U e CLEN ELLYN,ILUNOls 60137 AUG 1 b 1979 j

bORANDL'M FOR: Those on Attached List FROM: Helen Pappas, Chief, Administrative Branch

SUBJECT:

IE BULLETIN NO. 79-19 The attached IE Bulletin No. 79-19 titled " Packaging of Low-Level Radioactive Waste for Transport and Burial" was sent to the licensees listed below and to materials licensees ce th- sttached listing on August 10, 1979, for action:

Operating Plants American Electric Power Company Indiana and Michigan Power Company D. C. Cook 1, 2 (50-315, 50-316)

Commonwealth Edison Company Dresden 1, 2, 3 (50-10, 50-237, 50-249)

Quad-Cities 1, 2 (50-254, 50-265)

Zion 1, 2 (50-295, 50-304)

Consumers Power Company Big Rock Point (50-155)

Palisades (50-255)

Dairyland Power Cooperative LACBWR (50-40s)

Iowa Electric Light & Power Company Duane Arnold (50-331)

Northern States Power Company Monticello (50-263)

Prairie Island I, 2 (50-282, 50-306)

. Toledo Edis)n Company Davis-Besse 1 (50-346)

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• Those on Attached List Wisconsin Electric Power Company Point Beach 1, 2 (50-266, 50-301)

Wisconsin Public Service Corporation Kewaunee (50-305)

Research Reactors Curators of the University of Missouri (50-123)

Dow Chemical Company (50-264)

Iowa State University (50-116)

Michigan State University (50-294)

Ohio State University (50-150)

Purdue University (50-182)

University of Illinois (50-151, 50-356)

Univer..ity of Michigan (50-2)

University of Missouri (50-186)

University of Wisconsin (50-156)

Westinghouse Nuclear Training Reactor (50-87)

Fuel Facilitics .

. Allied Chemical Corporation (40-3392)

Battelle Columbus Laboratories l (70-08)

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Those on Attached List AUG 161979 Combustion Engineering, Incorporated (70-36)

General Electric Company (70-1308, 70-1309, 70-1220)

- Goodyear Aerospace Corporation (70-1489)

Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation (70-925, 70-1193)

Purdue University (70-152) heba) 'hgMU Helen Pappas, Chief Administrative Branch Attachments:

1. IE Bulletin No. 79-19

, 2. List of Bulletins Issued in Last Six Months

3. Materials Address Listing cc w/ attachments:

PDR NSIC

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/ Accession No: 7908070515

> gSINS No: 6820 UNITED STATES .

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• NUCLEAR REGULATORY C0t9 FISSION

• OFFICE CT INSPECTION AND ENFORCEMENT ,(

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555 4

, August 10, 1979 t'

IE Bulletin Fo. 79-19 I

FACKAGING OF I4W-LEVEL RADI0 ACTIVE WASTE FOR TRANSPORT AND BURIAL i Description of Circ astances:

Low-level radioactive vaste is that weste which can be tran,sferred and sh.d.pped to one of three waste burial facilities which are located in and licensed by the Agreement States of Nevada, South Carolina, and Washington. On July 10,

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1979, the Governors of the three states notified NRC Chairman Hendrie of the serious and repeated disregard for rules governing the shipments "of low-level radioactive wastes to these burial facilities.

Examples of violr.tions of Agreement State, DOT and NRC rules follow:

Improperly packaged uranium fines igniting packaged liquid scintillation vials in combustible waste is believed to have caused a fire and destruction of a " . .

truck at the Beatty, Nevada burial facility on May 14, 1979. -

On July 2,1979, three of twelve steel containers shipped to the Beatty burial '

facility were found to be leaking radioactive material. The material was described on the bill of lading as beins a solid inorganic salt (evaporator concentrates solidified with area formaldehyde) from a reactor facility. The Governor of the State of Nevada ordered the drums to be shipped out of the state and the burial facility was tamporarily closed.

l On July 30, the first shipment into the reopened Beatty facility contained i free liquid in " solid" material. The radioactive contents were sand filters ased at an insitu leaching process at a uranium mill. i Forty-three shipments with sixty-three deficiencies were observed during the package inspection program between April 10 and July 5,1979, by the Agressent State of South Carolina, at the Barewell, S.C. burial facility. The shipments were free reactor, medical, industrial and military facilities.

.On June 18, 1979, the Federal Eighway Administration issued a Notice of Violation to a reactor facility proposing a $10,000 fine for truck contamina-

. tion resulting free improper closures on 55- al *

 ?. for improper leading of the drums These are a few examples of shi DUPLICATE DOCUMENT facilities which did not fully me Entire document previously entered which were developed to protect into system under:

Governors of the three States vi that if the sitaation is met rect would deny use of the three buria ANO 7kO O

, No. of pages:

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