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Chicago Magnesium (State of Illinois)

1.0 Site Identification

2.0 Site Status Summary

The Chicago Magnesium Casting Company facility is a magnesium-thorium casting company. The company has not processed thorium castings for many years. Project Manager: Gary McCandless

In 1997, the Agency encouraged timely decommissioning due to unknown quantities and locations of on-site buried waste that was authorized under the company's NRC license. During operations in the 1950's, 60s and 70's, the licensee buried some of their waste on site and a portion extende outside the licensed property boundaries. The clean-up has progressed slowly due to the high cost of decommissioning. Site characterization found contamination and buried waste arenas were more widespread than anticipated.

3.0 Major Technical or Regulatory Issues

Due to the small size of company annual revenues, a phased cleanup plan was approved by the Agency. The area given priority for decontamination was the buried waste deposited on adjacent property. A concentration-based cleanup standard of 5pCi/gm total thorium above background was established. Agency staff conducted confirmatory surveys and sampling to ensure the caleanup standards were achieved. The remaining portions of the property will be decommissioned based on a 25 mrem dose-based standard. Currently, the company's decommissioning contractor is performing a radon and thoron monitoring program to determine the contribution of radon as a component to justifying their proposed modeling scenario to establish the cleanup criteria around and beneath the facility. At least two more phases of decontamination activities are anticipated.

4.0 Estimated Date For Closure

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Friday, September 26, 2008