Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
3/14/2014
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is coming under criticism for its oversight and record keeping activities for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program’s Shallow Land Disposal Area, located in Parks Township, Pa, in an NRC Inspector General’s Office report released this week. The IG 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. “OIG found that missing and/or incomplete AEC inspection records and incomplete burial records preclude (1) a definitive assessment of whether SLDA burials were compliant with disposal requirements, (2) an assessment of AEC’s oversight of SLDA’s compliance with disposal requirements, and (3) the Government’s ability to know with certainty what is buried on the SLDA site and in what precise locations,” the report states. “Moreover, according to the president and founder of the company that buried materials at the SLDA site, the documents used as a basis for the current FUSRAP remediation effort grossly underestimate the material buried there.”
The report was made public by Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.), who has been critical of the cleanup effort at the SLDA site. 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. “This report confirms an abysmal lack of records and raises serious concerns about the NRC’s oversight of the SLDA,” Casey said in a statement. “The NRC should immediately provide an answer as to whether the government met its obligation to ensure appropriate decommissioning of the site. The safety of my constituents is my top priority here. I will both demand accountability and push the Administration to expedite the clean-up of this site.” Casey also sent a letter to NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane looking for more information. The NRC did not respond to requests for comment late this week.
Although the lack of documents makes it all but impossible to know the burial characteristics of the site, the OIG report did find that the NRC fulfilled its duties to review the Corps’ previous remediation plan. “OIG did not identify any evidence suggesting the agency has not fulfilled its obligations under the 2001 Memorandum of Understanding between NRC and USACE for the cleanup of SLDA and found that NRC reviewed and accepted USACE’s Work Plans pertinent to criticality safety, physical security, and material control and accounting of special nuclear material prior to initiation of the cleanup effort,” the report said. Currently, the Corp is re-considering its remediation plan for SLDA and anticipates awarding a contract in August of this year to begin remediation in January of 2015, according to the FUSRAP website. The Corps declined to comment on the IG report this week, although a spokesman did say that “the Army Corps of Engineers is prepared to excavate, package and dispose of the full spectrum of materials found at the site.”
