Old burial sites and decommissioning

[Herrold@uwyo.edu (Jim F. Herrold)]

Here's one for Friday the 13th:

How many of you out there have an old radioactive waste burial site which 
was approved under the old 10 CFR 20? How many of you recently received NRC 
Information Notice 96-47 regarding Decommissioning notification for land 
burial sites? How many of you were wondering whether this notice applies to 
you?

Well, it does.

We have an old burial site which was used between 1959 and 1985. I received 
a friendly heads-up from Region IV yesterday clarifying this and reminding 
me the deadline for notifying the NRC is October 15, 1996 (two years after 
the publication of the "Timeliness Rule" 59 FR 36026). The deadline for 
requesting an extension is September 15, 1996. The NRC was supposed to 
provide (by September 15) methodology for evaluating old burial sites. If 
your site passes screening criteria based on the activities buried and 
potential for that activity to produce a significant dose to the public, you 
may not have to do any more. The Region IV representative suggested that the 
fact that the NRC has not yet provided this methodology might be a good 
enough reason for requesting an extension, which I elected to do.

If you have and old rad burial site and haven't notified the NRC, I strongly 
recommend you get hold of IN 96-47, read it, contact your region office and 
fax them a letter today.

Good Luck

Jim Herrold
Radiation Safety Officer
University of Wyoming
herrold@uwyo.edu