Westinghouse Electric Company (Hematite Facility)

1.0 Site Identification

2.0 Site Status Summary

The property consists of approximately 228 acres. The operating facility consists of two main plant buildings, an administration and several support buildings, and a parking area. Plant operations included low-enriched uranium fuel fabrication, processing and treating uranium compounds, including all forms of uranium from depleted to enriched uranium, and thorium fuel. Contamination at the site consists of uranium and thorium in the soil and groundwater.

The Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC (WEC) has provided phased-notification of cessation of operational activities. On September 11, 2001, WEC provided notification of cessation of all principal activities and submitted an application for license amendment to change the scope of authorized license activities to those associated with decommissioning activities. WEC has performed, within its permitted license activities, certain equipment decontamination and dismantlement and has shipped equipments and material to its South Carolina facility.

WEC submitted the Phase 1 DP in April 2004, and Decommissioning Funding Plan in September 2004. Staff required more information and requested that the licensee resubmit the Phase 1 DP by January 2005. The licensee submitted Rev.1 on January 28, 2005. OGC has determined that one EA is required to avoid segmentation under NEPA. Due to this OGC decision, the licensee agreed that NRC should perform one EA. In addition, the licensee agreed to one DP and therefore Phased-decommissioning is no longer being pursued by the licensee.

Decommissioning is estimated to cost approximately $40.5 million. Throughout its history, Hematite's primary function has been to manufacture uranium metal and uranium compounds from natural and enriched uranium for use as nuclear fuel. From its inception in 1956 through 1974, the facilty was used primarily in support of Government contracts that required production of highly enriched uranium products. From 1974 through the plant closure in 2001, the focus changed from government contracts to commercial fuel production plant. Over the lifetime of the facility there have been six owners. Mallinckrodt, United Nuclear and Gulf United Nuclear owned the plant for the government focused phase of operations. Combustion Engineering, ABB and Westinghouse owned the plant during the commercial phase of operations.

The NRC is reviewing the Westinghouse Decommissioning Plan (DP) amendment request. The NRC has provided Westinghouse Requests for Additional Information (RAIs). Westinghouse has responded to those requests. The NRC has reviewed those responses and is discussing them with Westinghouse.

The staff has completed its review of the DP and the soil and debris 10 CFR 20.2002 alternate disposal requests. On September 29, 2011 there was published in the Federal Register a notice of the availability of an Environmental Assessment (EA) and a Finding of No Significant Impact with respect to the approval of the Hematite DP. The DP EA was issued on October , 2011. On October 13, 2011 Amendment 57 to the Hematite license was issued which approved the DP, the Decommissioning Funding Plan and a revised License Application. On October 24, 2011 there was published in the Federal Register a notice of the availability of an EA and a Finding of No Significant Impact with respect to the approval of the Hematite 20.2002 alternate disposal request. The EA was issued on October 24, 2011 and Amendment 58 to the Hematite license approving the 20.2002 alternated disposal request was issued on October 27, 2011. On October 31, 2011, a Notice was published in the Federal Register correcting the ADAMS number associated with the EA. On November 9, 2011, Amendment 59 to the Hematite license was issued which approved the Hematite Physical Security and Fundamental Nuclear Material Control Plans.

On December 19, 2011, Westinghouse submitted a revised DP for NRC approval. On January 16, 2012, Westinghouse submitted a 20.2002 alternate disposal request covering the building slabs, the soil beneath the slabs and equipment. On February 3, 2012, a letter was transmitted to Westinghouse indicating that the 20.2002 request had been accepted for review.

3.0 Major Technical or Regulatory Issues

Although only one EA and one DP will be produced, Westinghouse still has plans to address NRC regulatory requirements concurrent with those required under EPA's CERCLA process. This coordination of remedial investigation and remedial action under CERCLA versus NRC's License Termination Rule (LTR) decommissioning and site cleanup criteria could potentially be challenging.

There are active local, State, and Congressional interests in how the site will be decommissioned.

4.0 Estimated Date For Closure

2013