[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 12 (Wednesday, January 20, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3166-3167]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-00972]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2011-0022]
Concentration Averaging and Encapsulation Branch Technical
Position
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Branch technical position; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting
comments on whether the NRC staff should formally document a position
on contaminated material and contaminated trash. The NRC issued
Revision 1 of the Branch Technical Position on Concentration Averaging
and Encapsulation (CA BTP) in February of 2015. The CA BTP provides
acceptable methods that can be used to perform concentration averaging
of Low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW) for the purpose of determining
its waste class for disposal. When the NRC issued the revised CA BTP,
it noted that one issue, distinguishing contaminated materials from
contaminated trash, may need further clarification. The NRC also stated
that it would consider whether additional guidance, such as a
Regulatory Issue Summary (RIS), would be warranted for distinguishing
contaminated materials from contaminated trash.
DATES: Submit comments by March 21, 2016. Comments received after this
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission
is able to ensure consideration only for comments received before this
date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods
(unless this document describes a different method for submitting
comments on a specific subject):
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2011-0022. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact
the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of
this document.
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration,
Mail Stop: OWFN-12-H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Don Lowman, Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-5452; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2011-0022 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain
publicly-available information related to this action by any of the
following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2011-0022.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and
then select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.'' For problems with ADAMS,
please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at
1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to [email protected].
Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the revised CA BTP are available in ADAMS
under Accession Nos. ML12254B065 and ML12326A611, respectively.
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
B. Submitting Comments
Please include Docket ID NRC-2011-0022 in the subject line of your
comment submission. The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or
contact information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in
you comment submission. The NRC will post all comment submissions at
http://www.regulations.gov as well as enter the comment submissions
into ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to
remove identifying or contact information.
If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons
for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to
include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be
publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should
state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to
remove such information before making the comment submissions available
to the public or entering the comment submissions into ADAMS.
II. Background
The NRC issued Revision 1 of the CA BTP (``Revised CA BTP'') on
February 25, 2015, (80 FR 10165). This revision provided updated
guidance on the interpretation of Sec. 61.55(a)(8) of title 10 of the
Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Determination of concentrations
in wastes,'' as it applies to the classification (as Class A, B, or C
waste) of a variety of different types and forms of LLW. Section
61.55(a)(8) states that radionuclide concentrations can be averaged
over the volume of the waste or its weight if the units are expressed
as nanocuries per gram. The average radionuclide concentrations are
compared with the waste classification tables in Sec. 61.55 to
determine the class of the waste. The waste class determines the
minimum safety measures to be applied in order to provide reasonable
assurance of safe disposal of the waste. The previous version of the CA
BTP was published in 1995 (ADAMS Accession No. ML033630732).
In developing the Revised CA BTP, the staff identified one issue
that may need further clarification. One of the categories of discrete
wastes that are subject to additional concentration averaging
constraints is ``contaminated materials.'' Both the 1995 and Revised CA
BTPs define contaminated materials as components or metals on which
radioactivity resides on or near the surface in a fixed or removable
condition. To demonstrate compliance with these averaging constraints,
the
[[Page 3167]]
radiological characteristics and volumes of individual items are
typically determined. However, items with surface contamination may
also be categorized as contaminated trash which has fewer averaging
constraints. Both the 1995 and the Revised CA BTP used the term
contaminated trash which is intended to be the equivalent of waste
descriptor codes 39 and 40 (i.e., Compactible Trash and Noncompactible
Trash) of NRC Form 541, ``Uniform Low-Level Radioactive Waste
Manifest--Container and Waste Description.'' Items in contaminated
trash do not need to be individually characterized. Instead, a
container of contaminated trash can be surveyed to determine its
overall radioactivity and its classification determined by dividing the
overall activity by the waste volume. Neither the 1995 CA BTP nor draft
revisions published for public comment provided guidance for
categorizing items as either contaminated materials or contaminated
trash. In addition, the NRC received no comments from stakeholders on
this issue. The NRC is now addressing whether additional guidance, such
as a Regulatory Issue Summary (RIS), is warranted for distinguishing
contaminated materials from contaminated trash.
III. Specific Request for Comments
The NRC is trying to determine what items that could be defined as
contaminated material per the CA BTP, if any, are currently being
disposed of as contaminated trash. The NRC is requesting that persons
consider and address the following questions as they develop and
provide their comments:
1. Is additional guidance needed to clarify the distinction between
contaminated trash and contaminated material?
2. When filling out the Uniform Waste Manifest (UWM)(NRC Forms 540,
541, and 542), how is contaminated equipment (UWM code 33) currently
distinguished from contaminated trash (UWM codes 39 and 40)?
3. Should numerical constraints be developed to clarify the
distinction between contaminated materials and contaminated trash? If
so, what basis should be used to develop the numerical constraints? If
not, what qualitative factors should be considered?
4. If numerical values are developed, would activity or
concentration constraints be preferable? Would an option to use either
be feasible to implement?
5. What challenges, if any, do you foresee with implementing
numerical thresholds for distinguishing between contaminated trash and
contaminated materials? How could these challenges be ameliorated?
6. Would an emphasis on using process knowledge be sufficient to
avoid the unintended consequence of causing licensees to characterize
individual pieces of trash that have radionuclide concentrations
significantly less than the class limits?
7. The NRC understands that items referred to as ``high rad trash''
are placed in containers of contaminated trash and averaged. The NRC
also understands that this practice reduces worker exposure as compared
to evaluating each item of trash. Please provide examples of ``high rad
trash,'' estimated annual volume, areas of the facilities where this
waste is generated, and typical contact dose rates (if available).
8. When classifying contaminated trash, is the same sample data
(e.g., scaling factors) for determining the radionuclide content of
``normal'' contaminated trash used for classifying the ``high rad
trash''?
9. What process currently is used to determine whether items of
``high rad trash'' can be disposed of with lower-activity contaminated
trash or whether items are treated as contaminated materials and
averaged with the constraints described for contaminated materials
under the 1995 CA BTP?
10. Is clarification needed for the term ``component'' in the
definition of contaminated materials used in the 1995 and 2015 CA BTP?
Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 12th day of January 2016.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Andrew Persinko,
Deputy Director, Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and
Waste Programs, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2016-00972 Filed 1-19-16; 8:45 am]
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