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Westinghouse Electric Company, Waltz Mill

1.0 Site Identification

2.0 Site Status Summary

The Waltz Mill site is currently licensed primarily to provide testing, calibration, and maintenance services for contaminated reactor servicing equipment and other reactor components. Radiological contamination in soil and groundwater existed on a portion of the site as a result of the clean-up activities following a 1961 incident at the TR-2 test reactor, waste segregation activities, and nuclear laundry services. Significant contamination was also present in retired facilities (hot cells, hot cell support rooms, and a section of the fuel transfer canal) within one of the site buildings. Contaminants are primarily Sr-90 and Cs-137, with lesser quantities of mixed fission, activation products, and trace levels of transuranic radionuclides. Due to a series of corporate mergers, the licensee for the TR-2 test reactor is CBS, Inc. Westinghouse submitted a remediation plan in April 1997. NRC approved the remediation plan in January 2000. The licensee has remediated much of the interior and exterior contaminated areas. Remediation activities focused on the three hot cells and supporting facilities in conjunction with work on decommissioning the test reactor. Contaminated soil removal has been completed in the primary exterior contaminated area, although small pockets of contaminated soil and a major contaminated process drain line remain on the site. Westinghouse and CBS have over $40 million in financial assurance agreements in place for completion of site decommissioning.

3.0 Major Technical or Regulatory Issues

The licensee does not intend to request termination of the license and is expanding site operations through consolidation of business from other sites. The licensee and CBS went forward with the remediation project, in part, to address the reasons why the facility was originally placed on the former Site Decommissioning Management Plan list. The CBS TR-2 license was intended to be terminated following decommissioning of the test reactor and the building transferred to the Westinghouse SNM-770 license. Westinghouse and CBS have not reached an agreement on the transfer because of a disagreement on the completion status of remdiation activities. This issue and related issues are currently the subject of a commercial dispute that is being resolved under arbitration between the two companies. In July, 2007, the arbitration panel handed down its opinion and both Westinghouse and CBS are preparing licensing requests to submit to the NRC to carry out the steps set forth in the arbitration panel opinion. PADEP has interest in the condition of the site, particularly groundwater issues. No financial assurance issues have been identified at this time. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has submitted a request to the NRC to become an Agreement State. Regulatory authority for SNM-770 would be transferred to Pennsylvania.

4.0 Estimated Date For Closure

12/31/2011

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Monday, April 14, 2008