Notice of License Termination of the Cintichem, Inc. New York Facility

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]

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