Agreement States Comprehensive Decommissioning Program, Including Annual Data Collection

ALL AGREEMENT STATES, NEW JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA, VIRGINIA

INFORMATION REQUEST: STATUS OF CURRENT COMPLEX DECOMMISSIONING AND URANIUM RECOVERY SITES (FSME-07-0XX)

Purpose: To seek information from the Agreement States on the status of decommissioning activities at Materials and Uranium Recovery sites to update Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) annual report titled, “Status of Decommissioning Program” (NUREG-1814).

Background: Since the early 1990's, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has prepared an annual report providing the status of NRC’s decommissioning program. In 2006, the Commission directed the staff to expand its discussion of Agreement State decommissioning/reclamation activities to present a national perspective on decommissioning. With this in mind, the NRC staff requested the Agreement States for a listing of all “complex” sites undergoing decommissioning and uranium recovery sites undergoing reclamation, for inclusion in NUREG-1814; “Status of the Decommissioning Program.” NRC regards complex sites as those that are required to provide a decommissioning plan or sites that require formal NRC or State approval prior to being decommissioned. In future reports to the Commission, the Decommissioning Program would like to continue to present a national perspective on the decommissioning program, including current information from the Agreement States on their complex decommissioning and uranium recovery sites. Therefore, we are requesting your assistance by asking that you provide the information requested in the Enclosure. For States with Uranium Recovery authority, we would also ask that you include information for those facilities undergoing decommissioning/reclamation and request that you segregate that information in your submittal. If you do not have any Decommissioning or Uranium Recovery sites, please so indicate in your response.

NRC Point of Contact: Please direct all your responses and questions with respect to this correspondence to Giorgio Gnugnoli, Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, at the telephone number or e-mail address listed below. We would appreciate receiving your response^* within 30 days of the date of this letter.

CONTACT: Giorgio Gnugnoli FSME/DWMEP

[email protected]

(301) 415-7432/ FAX: (301) 415-5397

Sincerely,

Janet R. Schlueter, Director

Division of Materials Safety and State Agreements

Office of Federal and State Materials

and Environmental Management Programs

Current Complex Decommissioning and Uranium Recovery Sites

For each site in each Agreement State, please provide:

1.0 Site Identification

Location:	City, State
License No. or other regulatory identification code:
Submittal Date of the Decommissioning or Reclamation Plan:	XX January YYYY
Approval Date of Decommissioning Plan	XX January YYYY
License or Regulatory Status:	e.g., Terminated License
Project Manager:	e.g., Caspar Allerdyce

2.0 Site Status Summary

Discuss the site operational status, type of operational activity under license or authorization, past owners, past history of transfers, related authorized activities, limitations, areal size & configuration, number of structures, inventory of materials under control, significant radionuclides, types and volumes of contaminated media, dates and progress of any remedial or decontamination activities, release provisions (e.g., for unrestricted use or restricted use), institutional control provisions, other Federal or State agencies’ involvement (e.g., partial site under CERCLA mandate), inspection history and noteworthy characteristics of site and contamination (e.g., arid conditions; groundwater quality class).

Please indicate if the site will be decommissioned to a concentration-based or a dose-based criterion. Please state the cleanup levels for both types of criterion X pCi/gm (volumetric), dpm/100cm² (surficial), or pCi/l (for liquids) for the concentration-based criterion; and X mrem/yr for the dose-based criterion, as appropriate.^* Also, please indicate whether your State allows decommissioning and license termination with restrictions on future site use similar to NRC’s regulations at 10 CFR 20.1403 or alternate concentration criteria in specified media corresponding to risk/dose constraint (e.g., DCGL of 0.2 Bq/g). Examples of site summaries for NRC-licensed complex decommissioning are available at URL: http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/complex/. For uranium recovery sites undergoing decommissioning/reclamation, please provide the corresponding information on relevant criteria to be applied for decommissioning/reclamation, institutional controls, license termination, and long-term surveillance plan provisions.

3.0 Major Technical or Regulatory Issues

Discuss whether this is a licensed facility or a legacy site. Include any information about issues that could impact the decommissioning schedule such as heightened public or governmental

interest, unresolved policy or technical issues, lack of access to waste disposal capacity poor licensee performance or if further characterization is necessary.

4.0 Financial Assurance Status

Please address the financial assurance arrangement (e.g., prepayment, surety, insurance, guarantee, external sinking fund, statement of intent, other) with respect to each complex facility’s decommissioning plan or uranium recovery site reclamation. This should describe the sufficiency demonstration mechanism(s) for assuring completion of decommissioning or reclamation. Include information about the liability situation (e.g., ownership). To the extent that it is available, the description should track the original financial assurance estimate and changes over the lifetime of the operation to maintain currency in guaranteeing sufficiency. If the decommissioning strategy is restricted release, then the provisions to provide financial assurance for any prolonged storage or surveillance should also be addressed. For all of the complex sites and uranium recovery sites undergoing decommissioning/reclamation, the Agreement State is requested to indicate whether there is a plan for assuring the availability of adequate funds for completion of decommissioning/reclamation.

In collecting this information for each complex decommissioning site, the Agreement State is requested to whether there are any licensees or site owners who do not have sufficient funds to complete decommissioning/reclamation? If so, please address the following questions:

1. What is the site’s name, location, and license status?

2. Is the site owner a licensee?

3. What is the estimated cost of decommissioning/reclamation? Do you rely on the site owner’s cost estimate, or have you done an independent estimate?

4. How much financial assurance has the site owner provided? (To be considered inadequately financed, the amount of financial assurance must be less than the estimated decommissioning/reclamation cost.)

5. Does the site owner have access to funds in addition to its financial assurances, such that it is possible that the owner will complete decommissioning/reclamation?

6. What are the primary radionuclides and estimated volume of contaminated material?

7. What actions have been taken to encourage the site owner to either complete decommissioning/reclamation or provide financial assurance adequate to cover the decommissioning/reclamation cost estimate?

8. What issues are pending and what is the path forward to obtain adequate funds and/or financial assurance?

N.B. – The financial information provided in response to this letter shall be treated as confidential, if so requested by the transmittal letter responding to this information request. The NRC confidentiality provisions are addressed in 10 CFR 2.390 and 10 CFR 9.17. If the supplied financial information is to be treated as sensitive, an affidavit must accompany the transmittal, as specified in 10 CFR 2.390(b).

5.0 Estimated Date For Closure

31 December YYYY

6.0 Additional Information

Please feel free to include any additional information that you feel will assist in understanding the types of facilities that are being decommissioned/reclaimed in your State and any issues associated with the decommissioning/reclamation of these sites.

* This information request has been approved by OMB 3150-YYYY, expiration XX/YY/07. The estimated annual burden per response to comply with this voluntary collection is approximately 677 hours. Send comments regarding the burden estimate to the Records and FOIA/Privacy Services Branch (T-5F52), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by Internet e-mail to [email protected], and to the Desk Officer, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, NEOB-10202 (3150-YYYY), Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC 20503. If a means used to impose an information collection does not display a currently valid OMB control number, the NRC may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, the information collection.

* SI units can be used, if so desired.

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