[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 159 (Tuesday, August 18, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44293-44294]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-22190]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Notice of License Termination of the Cintichem, Inc. New York
Facility
This notice is to inform the public that the U. S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) is terminating Special Nuclear Materials
License SNM-639 issued to Cintichem, Inc. for its Tuxedo, New York
facility. NRC staff has completed its review of the information
submitted by Cintichem, Inc., to support the decommissioning of its
Tuxedo, New York facility including: Cintichem's Final Radiological
Surveys and Dose Assessments, the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and
Education's Confirmatory Survey for the facility, the results of NRC
inspections, and radiological evaluations by the New York State
Department of Environmental Conservation. Based on this review, NRC
staff has concluded that decommissioning actions at the Cintichem
facility are complete and Cintichem's Tuxedo, New York facility meets
the unrestricted release criteria prescribed in Cintichem's radioactive
materials license.
Based on these conclusions, no further remediation or actions with
respect to NRC regulated material is required. NRC does not plan to
take any further actions regarding this site and will not require any
additional decontamination in response to future NRC criteria or
standards, unless additional contamination is found, indicating a
significant threat to public health.
Background
Cintichem used radioactive materials at its Tuxedo, New York
facility from 1961 through 1990 in the production of radioisotopes and
services for a variety of research, production, medical, and
educational institutions and groups. Cintichem currently holds two
licenses issued by the NRC, SNM-639 issued pursuant to 10 CFR Part 70
for operations involving special nuclear material and R-81, which was
issued by the NRC pursuant to 10 CFR Part 50 for the operation of a 5-
megawatt (thermal) test reactor. In addition to the licenses issued by
the NRC, Cintichem held a byproduct materials license issued by the
State of New York, an NRC Agreement State.
Six principal buildings were located at the facility including a
reactor building, a hot laboratory building, a maintenance/engineering
building, an administration building, a heating plant and a low-level
waste storage building. On February 9, 1990, Cintichem reported the
identification of an unmonitored release of radioactively contaminated
water from the reactor building to an on-site retention pond. It was
determined that this release resulted from the failure of a concrete
wall in a water-filled pool that was used for the temporary storage of
radioactive materials. Cintichem voluntarily ceased operations on
February 9, 1990. On February 12, 1990, Cintichem informed NRC that
another concrete vessel on site also had apparently developed a leak.
On February 13, 1990, NRC issued an order requiring that the Cintichem
facility remain shutdown until existing leaks at the facility were
identified and repaired. On May 31, 1990, Cintichem informed the NRC
that it had decided to decommission the reactor and radiochemical
processing facilities and was preparing a decommissioning plan.
On April 17, 1991, NRC received a request from Cintichem to amend
SNM-639 to decommission the facilities and areas associated with the
activities authorized under this license. On May 22, 1991, NRC noticed
in the Federal Register (56 FR 23601, May 22, 1991) that it was
considering amending Cintichem's license and offered the public the
opportunity to request a hearing pursuant to 10 CFR Part 2. NRC did not
receive any requests for a hearing pursuant to the Federal Register
notice.
On January 16, 1992, NRC amended SNM-639 to authorize
decommissioning and required Cintichem to develop residual soil
contamination criteria for use as unrestricted release criteria for the
facility. These criteria were submitted on October 22, 1992, and
approved on August 26, 1993. On February 1, 1994, Cintichem requested
approval of residual contamination criteria for five additional
radionuclides that were not included in the original submittal. NRC
approved the criteria for the five additional radionuclides on October
17, 1994. Unrestricted release criteria for surfaces are described in
NRC Regulatory Guide 1.86. These criteria were modified in October 1994
to increase the limits for tritium (H-3) and iron-55 (Fe-55) in
accordance with NRC guidance. Cintichem was also required to
demonstrate that the dose to a critical member of the public from all
residual radioactive material on site did not exceed a few millirem per
year. In addition, the dose via the water pathway alone could not
exceed 4 millirem per year in conformance with EPA's Clean Water Act
requirements.
Since deciding to permanently cease operations, Cintichem has been
decommissioning its facility under its existing license and the
approved decommissioning plan for the facility. As Cintichem completed
decommissioning portions of the facility, Cintichem performed final
radiological surveys to demonstrate that the facility met the criteria
for unrestricted use. In order to ensure that remediated areas were not
re-contaminated, Cintichem instituted controls to prevent
recontamination of the surveyed areas. Due to the large geographical
size of the site and the considerable number of radiation survey data
points recorded, the Final Radiation Surveys were divided into five
sequential phases. For each phase, Cintichem conducted radiation
surveys using techniques recommended in NUREG/CR-5849 ``Manual for
Conducting Radiological Surveys in Support of License Termination'' to
show that unconditional release criteria were satisfied. The Final
Radiation Survey data was reviewed by NRC, and the Oak Ridge Institute
for Science and Education (ORISE). After all questions or comments were
resolved, confirmatory surveys were conducted to verify Cintichem's
Final Radiation Survey results. Results of Cintichem's surveys and the
ORISE confirmatory surveys demonstrate that the facility meets the
criteria for unrestricted use prescribed in the approved
decommissioning plan for the site. On May 27, 1998, Cintichem affirmed
that all radioactive material had been removed from site. This was
confirmed by inspection of the site by NRC and the State of New York on
June 15, 1998.
NRC staff has concluded that decommissioning actions at the
Cintichem facility are complete and Cintichem's Tuxedo, New York
facility meets the unrestricted release criteria prescribed in
Cintichem's radioactive materials license. NRC does not plan to take
any further actions regarding this site and will not require any
additional decontamination in response to future NRC criteria or
standards, unless additional contamination is found, indicating a
significant threat to public health.
For further details with respect to this action, documents are
available for inspection at NRC's Public Document Room, 2120 L Street,
NW., Washington, DC 20555-0001.
[[Page 44294]]
Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 11th day of August 1998.
For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
John W. N. Hickey,
Chief, Low-Level Waste and Decommissioning Projects Branch, Division of
Waste Management, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 98-22190 Filed 8-17-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
