Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/16/2014
A Site-Specific Memorandum of Understanding concerning the roles of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Department of Energy at the cleanup of the Shallow Land Disposal Area site in Armstrong County, Pa is close to being finalized, according to a letter from NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane to Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.). The SLDA site, part of the Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, has been mired with problems, and a recent NRC Investigator General’s report found that FUSRAP’s remediation plan “grossly underestimates” how much radioactive material remains on site while a lack of documents inhibits the government’s ability to know exactly what is buried on site. “The remediation of SLDA will be a coordinated effort among the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the NRC, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security Administration,” Macfarlane wrote in her letter. “To facilitate that coordination, a Site-Specific Memorandum of Understanding (SMOU) among these Federal partners has been agreed to and is presently being circulated for signature.”
The NRC has already signed the SMOU and passed it along to the Corps for its required signatures. “We signed the SMOU last week (May 7) and sent it on to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for their signature before it goes over to DOE,” NRC spokesman Maureen Conley said. “All I can say at this point is that the MOU clarifies the roles of each federal entity (including both EM and NNSA from DOE) and how we will coordinate on the cleanup of SLDA. Our role is basically the same as under the original MOU. This one is a supplement so the original one remains in force. There are new provisions addressing physical security, material control and accounting, criticality control, and handling and disposition for some of the materials identified at the site.” The original MOU signed by the agencies in 2001 said that the Corps would remediate the site under NRC regulations.
The Corps currently has the document and expects to have all the needed signatures by the end of this month. “The SLDA MOU is currently being staffed for senior leader signature at US Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters and expected to be signed by the end of May,” Corps spokesperson Candy Walters said. “It then will go to NNSA/DOE for the remaining two signatures. When all four federal agencies have signed, the document will be final.”
NRC Re-Affirms Its Commitment
Macfarlane also reaffirmed the NRC’s commitment to helping move forward the cleanup at the SLDA site in her letter. Casey had raised concerns last month concerning the IG report that said the site had been mishandled and mischaracterized. Macfarlane assured Casey that the NRC was working to make sure the project moved forward as quickly and safety as possible. “Several concerns were raised in your letter with respect to the lack of historic records, indirect evidence of non-compliance, the prolonged process of the remediation effort, and the retroactive application of the NRC’s decommissioning requirements,” Macfarlane wrote. “Based on the March 27th briefing, our understanding is that these concerns were raised to emphasize the urgent need to resume the cleanup effort and to complete remediation expeditiously. The NRC fully supports the timely resumption of the cleanup efforts at SLDA. However, as discussed with your staff, the spectrum of materials that may be present and their potential challenges require a measured approach that focuses on safety. The NRC will continue to work with USACE (and the other Federal partners) so that the remediation is completed both safely and expeditiously,” she said.
Casey has been seeking answers about the government’s management of the site after the abrupt halt of the SLDA cleanup weeks after active remediation began in 2011. As reason for the suspension, the Corp said that the on-site contractor deviated from the Corps’ material-handling procedures and that a large amount of unanticipated complex material was found on site. The SLDA site is one of the larger FUSRAP projects. Through 2014, approximately $78 million has already been allocated for the cleanup, and in the Corps’ Fiscal Year 2015 budget request, FUSRAP asked for an additional $20 million. FUSRAP estimates that an additional $324 million is needed to complete the cleanup.
