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Radiation Protection & Release
Prevention Program If you would like a hard copy of the full monthly report, including appendices, please E-mail Betty Sigafoos. 1. Retirement of Bureau of Nuclear Engineering Manager Kent Tosch 1. Retirement of Bureau of Nuclear Engineering Manager Kent Tosch Effective June 1, 2007 Bureau of Nuclear Engineering (Bureau) Manager Kent Tosch retired from state service. Kent dedicated many years of his professional career to the Bureau and the numerous program achievements are a direct result of his leadership. Kent’s retirement is well deserved and the impact he has made on the preparedness and response activities at New Jersey’s nuclear generating sites will continue to be realized for many years forward. In the interim, Patrick Mulligan, has agreed to serve as acting manager of the Bureau until such time that a permanent replacement is selected. 2. Bureau Of Radiological Health (Bureau) Chief Attends National Conference on Radiation Control During the week of May 20 – 24, 2007 Mr. Paul Orlando attended the 39th annual Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors (CRCPD) as the proxy for Radiation Protection and Release Prevention Assistant Director, Paul Baldauf. This year’s conference theme was “Radiation Protection-Expanding the Scope” and featured numerous papers on new technologies involving medical x-ray technology, environmental impacts on the use of radioactive materials, and states involvement in federal emergency response/preparedness exercises involving radioactive material “dirty bomb” scenarios. In addition to Mr. Orlando’s participation in the CRCPD business meeting and attendance at the various sessions, he had the opportunity to make a presentation describing the Bureau’s initiative to “expand the benefits of the New Jersey’s medical quality assurance program to the dental community using a non-regulatory approach”. This initiative, which has been described in detail in previous reports, informs dental facilities of their patient radiation exposure by measuring the radiation output from their dental x-ray machines and classifying the exposure as low, average, high or extremely high and then comparing their exposures to all facilities using similar imaging systems. To track the progress of this initiative, the Bureau re-inspected 445 machines found to have extremely high patient radiation exposure levels during previous inspections. The Bureau documented reductions of 18% or more on 72% of the 445 machines re-tested. The presentation w as well received and several state representatives requested copies of our reports and more details about the dental initiative. 3. Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Public Hearing Concerning Oyster Creek Held in Toms River On May 31, 2007 and Atomic Safety Licensing Board (ASLB) panel of three Administrative Law Judges conducted a “limited appearance session” related to the public’s contention (Citizen’s Contention) on the adequacy of Oyster Creek’s Drywell Ultrasonic Testing (UT) Monitoring Program for the proposed 20-year extension to the plant operating license. The meeting was held at the Ocean County Administration Building in Toms River in two sessions, an afternoon and an evening session. Approximately fifty members of the public were in attendance in addition to the ASLB panel and supporting staff. Members from the media also were present at both sessions. The ASLB panel formed for this proceeding consisted of top ASLB Administrative Judges. The panel was made up of one lawyer and two physicists, one of whom also was a lawyer. The ASLB panel clarified the purpose of the meeting which was to obtain input from the public on the Citizen’s Contention. The panel did not allow speakers from the groups involved in the contention. Those restricted from speaking were the six advocate groups who submitted the contention, AmerGen/Exelon, and the Nuclear Regulatory (NRC) staff. The panel emphasized that the public could speak on any subject, but the only information that the ASLB panel would consider was that relating to the drywell UT monitoring contention. The judges did not respond to the speakers since they were only there to gather information from the public. Written statements or information was allowed to be submitted to the ASLB by the public if they did not want speak. Approximately 100 pages were submitted. The sessions were both videotaped and transcribed. Both sessions ended early because fewer individuals desired to speak than was anticipated. At the evening session, speakers from the afternoon were allowed to speak again since there was time still available. Speakers were limited to five minutes each and most complied with the time limit. The ASLP panel stated that the “evidentiary hearing” or “trial” is scheduled to begin on September 24, 2007 in the Toms River Area. It is expected to last two and one half days. The trial will be the Citizens vs. Oyster Creek and the NRC. Twenty five members of the public spoke at the evening session. Only one or two spoke on the drywell UT contention topic. The others spoke on topics such as emergency evacuations, old plant design, terrorism, marine live/cooling towers, spent fuel storage, etc. The League of Woman Voters presented their eight reasons Oyster Creek should not be granted life extension. The Deputy Mayor of Lacey Township, who also is an employee of Oyster Creek, read a statement supporting Oyster Creek. The Ocean County United Way supported Oyster Creek and stated that 14% of its goal comes from that source. 4. NRC’s Annual Assessment Public Meeting for Oyster Creek The NRC held its annual public meeting to provide its assessment of AmerGen’s performance at Oyster Creek. The meeting was held during the evening of May 23, 2007 in Toms River. This meeting is part of the NRC’s standard process for inspecting and assessing nuclear power plants. Sam Collins, the NRC Regional Administrator, chaired the meeting. This year, the NRC set up information tables where members of the public could discuss concerns or ask questions on an informal basis. Following the formal assessment presentation and discussion, there was a short break followed by the open session for public input. Approximately 70 people attended the meeting. Three representatives of elected officials attended. These were staff from the offices of Senators Lautenberg and Menendez and Representative Saxton. The NRC and AmerGen/Exelon staff made up approximately 35 of the attendees. Two representatives from the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, as well as two representatives from the N.J. Office of Emergency Management, also attended. Representatives from the radio, television, newspaper and documentary media were in attendance. The discussion between AmerGen and the NRC focused on recent and future capital improvements at the plant and in improving operator performance through training. The NRC explained that there will be an inspection of the corrective action for operator performance related to a white finding during the week of June 4, 2007. AmerGen described their 5-year improvement plan to increase operations staffing levels. They also discussed their “gap” analysis. This is their method of internally assessing Oyster Creek staffing levels and processes to identify gaps between Oyster Creek and the Exelon standards. This analysis will be used to target areas for increased staff, capital investment and process improvements. During the open public session, there were ten speakers who presented various questions to the NRC concerning items of interest to the speakers. Following the close of the meeting, NRC personnel remained to provide additional information to those speakers who wished to further pursue their concerns. |
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