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UNC Naval Products

1.0 Site Identification

2.0 Site Status Summary

The site is located near an industrial redevelopment area and has a large one-story building, which is currently enclosed by a chain link fence. Construction of the building is mainly concrete floors and block or brick walls. The building is divided into two separate areas, which housed the chemistry laboratories and a component assembly area.

The UNC Naval facility was operated by Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation (April 1956 to May 31, 1961) and United Nuclear Corporation (June 8, 1961 to April 22, 1976) in New Haven, CT. The site had been used by United Nuclear Corporation to fabricate nuclear fuel components for the U.S. Government, was decommissioned in 1976, and removed from NRC License No. SNM-368 on April 22, 1976. The license was authorized by Atomic Energy Commission to use radioactive materials for manufacturing fuel for the naval reactor program at the site. In 1974, UNC announced the closing of the facility and transferred the inventory from the New Haven, CT location to the Montville, CT location. Final surveys of the New Haven facility were completed by February 1976 and the NRC performed confirmatory surveys in March and October, 1976. On April 22, 1976, NRC amended SNM-368 to remove the New Haven, CT facility from the license. The site was released for unrestricted use in accordance with the existing regulations and guidance. Subsequently, the SNM-368 license was terminated on June 8, 1994, following the decontamination and decommissioning of the Montville site, and the NRC released the facility for unrestricted use. In the early 1990's, the NRC initiated a program to ensure that licenses for facilities where activities were authorized by the AEC and/or the NRC were terminated in accordance with the NRC's current release criteria for unrestricted use. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was contracted to perform the review. As part of the ORNL review of Terminated Licenses, NRC conducted an independent measurements inspection in May 1996, and the NRC and ORNL conducted an additional independent measurements inspection on September 1996. Results indicated that residual enriched uranium exceeded 30 pCi/g in soil and sediment in several areas inside the building and inside a connected inactive sewer system. These contaminated areas were documented in NRC Inspection Reports, dated July 1996 and February 1997.

3.0 Major Technical or Regulatory Issues

In June 1998, the licensee agreed to characterize and remediate the facility in accordance with Option 1 delineated in the NRC BTP for Disposal or Onsite Storage of Thorium or Uranium Wastes from Past Operations. The licensee submitted a Characterization Plan and Decommissioning Plan (DP) in August 1998, which was approved by the NRC in letter dated April 6, 1999. UNC Naval began sampling activities in 2003. Additional documents were submitted to the NRC and were reviewed. On October 10, 2007, the NRC published a Notice of Consideration of Approval and Acceptance of the Decommissioning Plan for the former UNC site in the Federal Register. No comments from members of the public were received. On July 7, 2008, the NRC accepted the Final Status Survey Plan and the Derived Concentration Guideline Levels (DCGLs) to decommission the site. As of October 1, 2008, the NRC is waiting for UNC Naval to submit their decommissioning schedule, complete implementation of the FSSP, and submit their Final Status Survey Report. The radioactive material on-site is not readily available and the dose consequence to the public is very low. After a review of existing contracts, the DOE accepted financial responsibility for the site cleanup. Site radiological activities have to be contracted through a competitive contract process that has caused some delays. UNC is not an NRC licensee and is not the current owner of the site and therefore is not required to comply with the Decommissioning Timeliness Rule. However, UNC has agreed to undertake the remediation. The State of Connecticut and the City of New Haven have some interest in the site, as it is part of a redevelopment area. Recently, a member of the public has become the site owner and has a vested interest in the property. The sewer authority has cooperated with NRC and UNC in collection of sewer samples. UNC will need to obtain an access agreement with the City of New Haven before additional remediation work can be completed.

4.0 Estimated Date For Closure

04/30/2009

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Tuesday, November 04, 2008