[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 37 (Thursday, February 25, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9517-9518]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-04019]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 040-8610; NRC-2008-0591]
Stepan Company
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: License termination; issuance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is providing
public notice of the termination of Source Materials License No. STC-
1333. The NRC has terminated the license of the decommissioned Stepan
Company facility in Maywood, New Jersey, and has approved the site for
unrestricted release.
DATES: Notice of termination of Source Materials License No. STC-1333
issued on February 25, 2016.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2008-0591 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may obtain publicly-available information related to this document
using any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2008-0591. 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.
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]. The
ADAMS accession number for each document referenced (if that document
is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that a document is
referenced.
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.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kim Conway, Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington
DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-1335, email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NRC has terminated License No. STC-1333,
held by Stepan Company (Stepan), for a site in Maywood, New Jersey, and
has approved the site for unrestricted release.
Maywood Chemical Works processed thorium ore at its Maywood
facility in northeastern New Jersey between 1916 and 1956. Radioactive
contamination resulted from these processing operations and associated
material storage and waste disposal practices. In 1959, Stepan Chemical
Company (now Stepan Company) purchased the Maywood facility. In the
late 1960s, Stepan took corrective measures at some of the former
disposal areas by re-locating approximately 19,000 cubic yards of
thorium wastes and consolidating the wastes into three onsite burial
pits. The three onsite burial pits were subsequently licensed by the
NRC under materials license STC-1333.
In 1983, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) included
the Maywood facility on its National Priorites List for cleanup under
the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability
Act (CERCLA). In 1984, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) assumed
responsibility for remediating the Maywood facility (including the NRC-
licensed burial pits) and 87 other designated residential, commercial,
and government properties that were contaminated by the thorium
processing activities at the former Maywood Chemical Works. The Maywood
facility was included in the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action
Program (FUSRAP) along with the other 87 radiologically contaminated
properties.
In October 1997, the administration of FUSRAP was transferred from
DOE to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). In September 2003, the
Record of Decision (ROD) for Soils and Buildings at the FUSRAP Maywood
Superfund Site was issued. In the ROD, the specific concentration-based
cleanup criteria for the radioactive contamination in soil for
commercial properties (relevant to the Stepan burial pits) was
determined to be an average of 15 picocuries/gram (pCi/g) of the
combined radium-226 (Ra-226) plus thorium-232 (Th-232) concentrations
above background, with an ``as low as is reasonably achievable''
(ALARA) goal of 5 pCi/g. The ROD also includes a criterion of 100 pCi/g
above background for total uranium, which equates to approximately 50
pCi/g of uranium-238 (U-238).
On October 21, 2008, the NRC executed a Confirmatory Order to
[[Page 9518]]
suspend Stepan's license, contingent upon USACE notifying the NRC of
their intent to take physical possession of all, or part, of the
licensed portions of the site (ADAMS Accession No. ML082760095). The
Order provided the USACE with the mechanism to request that the NRC
suspend the NRC's license for the Stepan burial pits. In December 2008,
August 2009, and January 2010, the USACE notified the NRC that it had
taken physical possession of Burial Pits #2, #3, and #1, respectively.
On February 14, 2012, the USACE notified the NRC that the
remediation response action had been completed for all three of the
NRC-licensed burial pits, and pursuant to the MOU, USACE also provided
notification of its intent to terminate physical possession of all
three licensed burial pits in May 2012 (ADAMS Accession No.
ML120880217). On May 7, 2012, NRC license STC-1333 was reinstated when
Stepan reestablished possession of the burial pits in accordance with
the Confirmatory Order (ADAMS Accession No. ML12159A537). By letter
dated August 15, 2014, Stepan submitted a request to the NRC for the
termination of their materials license (ADAMS Accession No.
ML14259A103). As part of this submittal, Stepan provided the NRC with
the USACE's Post Remedial Action Reports for each of the burial pits
(ADAMS Accession Nos. ML12046A500, ML12046A502, and ML12046A504,
respectively). On July 20, 2015, Stepan provided a response to the
NRC's request for additional information (ADAMS Accession No.
ML15217A026) and a radiological dose assessment (ADAMS Accession No.
ML15217A025).
The NRC has now completed its review of the reports and associated
documents according to NUREG-1757, ``Consolidated Decommissioning
Guidance,'' and guidance in the Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site
Investigation Manual) MARSSIM (NUREG 1575). The NRC staff has concluded
that the Final Site Survey (FSS) design and data collected were
adequate to characterize the residual radioactivity in the NRC-licensed
portions of the Stepan site. The NRC staff also concluded that the data
analysis and dose assessments performed are appropriate and that the
projected dose from residual radioactivity in these areas is less than
the 25 mrem/year dose criterion in 10 CFR 20.1402. Stepan has also
submitted a completed NRC Form 314 (``Certificate of Disposition of
Materials'') and otherwise met the requirements of 10 CFR 40.42(j), the
NRC regulation concerning the final step in the decommissioning process
for a 10 CFR part 40 source materials license. For these reasons, the
NRC staff has determined that Stepan has demonstrated that the site
will meet the radiological criteria for license termination described
in 10 CFR 20.1402. Therefore, Source Materials License No. STC-1333 has
been terminated.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 18th day of February 2016.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Bruce A. Watson,
CHP, Branch Chief, Reactor Decommissioning Branch, Division of
Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2016-04019 Filed 2-24-16; 8:45 am]
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