ML20138S066

Discusses Items of Interest,Including Nuclear Assurance Corp 851105 Request for Approval to Purchase NFS & Ke Asmussen 851107 Meeting W/Ga Co to Discuss Ga Co Reorganization

ML20138S066
Person / Time
Site:	Erwin, 07000734
Issue date:	11/13/1985
From:	Crow W NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS)
To:	Jennifer Davis NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS)
References
NUDOCS 8511190475
Download: ML20138S066 (3)

Text

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/ f f NOV 131985 MENORANDUM FOR: John G. Davis, Director Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards THRU: Richard E. Cunningham, Director Division of Fuel Cycle and Material Safet;y FROM: W. T. Crow, Acting Chief Uranium Fuel Licensing Branch

SUBJECT:

ITEMS OF INTEREST l IAEA Technical Comittee

! During the week of October 21-25, 1985, Mr. John R. Cook, NMSS, participated as U.S. expert in an IAEA Technical Committee meeting .on the " Assessment of the Radiological Impact from the Transport of Radioactive Material." The purpose of the meeting was to prepare a summary statement on the radiological impact of transporting radioactive material worldwide based on data available from member states relating to both normal conditions of transport aiid to accidents and incidents. In addition, the Comittee was to identify those transportatior).

areas where future Agency efforts and resources should be directed. Most of the discussion on transportation impacts focused on the members' experiences in using INTERTRAN, a computer code developed by Sweden in cooperation with the U.S. (it is a derivative of the U.S. developed RADTRAN code) to assess the radiological impacts of transportation. The consensus view was: the incident free and accident sections of INTERTRAN should be considered separately; although a number of deficiencies exist in the incident free section. This section has proved useful and should be supported, and the accident section suffers from a number of important deficiencies but iskuseful to exchange information between countries. i With respect to available data on exposures from routine transport of radioactive material, it was concluded that exposures are low, and that it could be inferred that the transportation of non-fuel-cycle materials contributes significantly more to these exposures than does the transportation of fuel-cycle materials. In particular, the transportation of molybdenum / technetium generators for medical uses was found to be the largest single contributor to routine transportation impacts in the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.

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NOV 13 B85 With respect to 'macts from accidents, very few members were in a position to present information. It was noted that a number of the transportation incidents that have occurred (e.g., leaking packages upon delivery to destination) are related to quality assurance failures. There simply have not been enough serious transportation accidents involving radioactive materials to prepare a summary statement on measured exposures and impacts.

For future efforts, the Comittee recomended the work continue to improve transportation impact assessment models; however, earlier suggestions of conducting global transportation impact assessments using these models may ,

have been overly ambitious. Many members reported that large increases in l waste shipments were anticipated in the future, perhaps enploying dedicated i transportation systems. The Comittee recommended that the effect of significant l changes in shipment patterns be assessed with respect to current codes and I practices. Finally, the Comittee recomended that the shi generators be examined to assure that exposures have been 'pment of medical optimized'. i All recomendations from the Technical Comittee will be forwarded to the IAEA Standing Advisory Group for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material (SAGSTRAM) for consideration at their next meeting, currently scheduled for March 1986.

IAEA Scientific Programe Comittee for PATRAM '86 During October 28-31, 1985, Mr. John R. Cook, NMSS, participated as U.S.

representative in an IAEA Scientific Programe Comittee meeting for the symposium on " Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials" (PATRAM 1986) to be held in Davos, Switzerland in June 1986. The purpose of the meeting was to select papers, structure sessions, and recommend session chairmen for the syr'posium.

The Swiss will provide the keynote speaker; their leading candidate is the equivalent of a U.S. Department Secretary, who, through a combined rotation / election process in the Swiss government, may be President of Switzerland when the symposium convenes. The U.S. has one of three plenary session addresses; and DOE, a funding sponsor of the symposium, is expected to provide a senior official from the Waste Program area (perhaps Mr. Rusche) to give this talk.

In all, the IAEA secretariat received 252 technical papers for consideration for 145 oral and poster session slots. The most common topical areas among the papers were package design and testing; emergency response, quality assurance, and training were among the least comon topics. As the U.S. had submitted a total of 112 papers, more than 4 times that of any other menter, the U.S. was expected to eliminate the largest number of submittals. The final paper rejection rate for the U.S. was about 25 percent of submittals, the same as for the United Kingdom. France and Germany had about 15 percent, with smaller percentages for other members. All four technical papers submitted by NRC )

staff were accepted by the Comittee.  ;

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NOV 131985 Meeting with Ms. Lively and Staff Concerning Collection of Data on the

_ Generation, Treatment, and Disposal of Radioactive Wastes from Institutions, Radiopharmaceutical Manufacturers and Biomedical Research Laboratories l Mr. Richard E. Cunningham, Director of FCMS, and a member of his staff, Dr. L. A. Roche, will meet on Friday, November 22, 1985, with Ns. Carol A. Lively, Executive Director of the American College of Nuclear Physicians (ACNP), and her staff to discuss the data that the ACNP is collecting (under DOE contract) regarding the generation, treatment and disposal of institutional waste, as well as, waste generated in the manufacture of radiophamaceuticals and in biomedical research and treatment. These data may be useful to the NRC in its endeavor to review and change, if appropriate, its regulations.

Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS)

By letter dated November 5,1985, Nuclear Assurance Corporation (NAC) of Atlanta, Georgia, requested NRC's approval of NAC's purchase of Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. (NFS), Erwin, Tennessee. The NAC's request is currently under

, , review by the staff.

On November 6,1985, members of the NHSS/FC staff met with Region Il personnel in Atlanta to discuss the questions and coments related to the review of the NFS application for license renewal. It was agreed that the FC staff would revise the questions and coments in accordance with the discussions and arrange a meeting with NFS in the near future.

GA Technologies, Inc.

On November 7,1985, Dr. Keith E. Asmussen (Manager, Licensing Administration) and Mr. Alexander L. Galli (Manager, Security), GA Technologies, Inc. (GA) met with members of the staff to discuss the reorganization at GA. Dr. Asmussen will incorporate the Comission coments in revised pages to their SNM-696 license and submit them as a request to amend the license in accordance with i i

the change in organization. i l

8 DISTRIBUTION WTCrow I' *

• l FCUP R/F NMSS R/F W. T. Crow, Acting Chief FCUF Staff Uranium Fuel Licensing Branch PDR Division of Fuel Cycle and Beveridge/ Cornell Material Safety, NMSS FC Central File i

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