Air cleaning issues with contaminated sites

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has developed a list of contaminated sites that warrant special USNRC attention because they pose unique or complex decommissioning issues. This list of radiologically contaminated sites is termed the Site Decommissioning Management Plan (SDMP), and was first issued in 1990. A site is placed on the SDMP list if it has; (1) Problems with the viability of the responsible organization (e.g., the licensee for the site is unable or unwilling to pay for the decommissioning); (2) Large amounts of soil contamination or unused settling ponds or burial grounds that may make the waste difficult to dispose of; (3) The long-term presence of contaminated, unused buildings; (4) A previously terminated license; or (5) Contaminated or potential contamination of the ground water from on-site wastes. In deciding whether to add a site to the SDMP list, the NRC also considers the projected length of time for decommissioning and the willingness of the responsible organization to complete the decommissioning in a timely manner. Since the list was established, 9 sites have been removed from the list, and the current SDMP list contains 47 sites in 11 states. The USNRC annually publishes NUREG-1444, open-quotes Site Decommissioning Management Planclose quotes, which updates the status of each site. This paper will discuss the philosophical goals of the SDMP, then will concentrate on the regulatory requirements associated with air cleaning issues at the SDMP sites during characterization and remediation. Both effluent and worker protection issues will be discussed. For effluents, the source terms at sites will be characterized, and measurement techniques will be presented. Off-site dose impacts will be included. For worker protection issues, air sampling analyses will be presented in order to show how the workers are adequately protected and their doses measured to satisfy regulatory criteria during decontamination operations. 1 tab