Consolidated Decommissioning Guidance: Characterization, Survey, and Determination of Radiological Criteria Consolidated Decommissioning Guidance: Characterization, Survey, and Determination of Radiological Criteria – Final Report (NUREG-1757, Volume 2, Revision 2)

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Publication Information

Manuscript Completed: April 2022
Date Published: July 2022

Prepared by:
C.S. Barr, S. Clark,
G.C. Chapman, D.W. Esh,
R.W. Fedors, A.M. Huffert*,
L.A. Kauffman*, M.M. LaFranzo,
C.A. McKenney, L.L. Parks,
D.W. Schmidt*, A.L. Schwartzman,
and B.A. Watson
*retired

Cynthia Barr, NRC Project Manager and Senior Risk Analyst

Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

Availability Notice

Abstract

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS), previously consolidated and updated numerous decommissioning guidance documents into a three-volume NUREG. This NUREG series is intended for use by the NRC staff, licensees, and others. The three volumes address the following topics:

1. Decommissioning Process for Materials Licensees
2. Characterization, Survey, and Determination of Radiological Criteria
3. Financial Assurance, Recordkeeping, and Timeliness

The staff last updated Volume 2 of the NUREG series, entitled, “Consolidated Decommissioning Guidance: Characterization, Survey, and Determination of Radiological Criteria,” in September 2006. This volume provides guidance on compliance with the radiological criteria for license termination (License Termination Rule (LTR)) in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 20, “Standards for Protection against Radiation,” Subpart E, “Radiological Criteria for License Termination.” This guidance takes a risk-informed, performance-based approach to the demonstration of compliance. This guidance will help identify the information (subject matter and level of detail) needed to terminate a license and considers the specific circumstances of the wide range of NRC licensees. Licensees should use this guidance in preparing decommissioning plans (DPs), license termination plans, final status surveys, and other technical decommissioning reports for NRC submittal. The NRC staff will use the guidance in reviewing these documents and related license amendment requests. Volume 2 applies to all licensees subject to the LTR (i.e., fuel cycle, fuel storage, materials, and reactor licensees).

Changes made to this revision of Volume 2 include the following:

• Dose Modeling—adds guidance on model abstraction and simplification, consideration of elevated areas, use of distribution coefficients in dose modeling, and consideration of uncertainty.

• “As Low As Is Reasonably Achievable (ALARA)” Analysis—updates guidance on the ALARA analysis review particularly for restricted release based on lessons learned from proposed restricted release scenarios.

• Composite Sampling—adds information on methodologies for incorporating composite sampling strategies into final status survey plans and details when it would or would not be appropriate to use composite sampling.

• Characterization—updates information in Appendix F on surface water and groundwater characterization.

• Engineered Barrier Analysis—updates and reorganizes Section 3.5 and Appendix P; includes new information on how ALARA is considered prior to engineered barriers for restricted release and updates bibliography with new references on evaluation of engineered performance and degradation.

• Radiological Surveys—provides updated guidance on subsurface radiological surveys, including surveys associated with excavations and re-use of soils; and provides additional information on use and implementation of Scenario B, an alternative for the null hypothesis of statistical tests evaluated in a final status survey.

• Lessons Learned—removes Appendix O which contains lessons learned from RIS-2002-02; and archives questions and answers, and lessons learned in ADAMS (ADAMS Accession Number (No.) ML20052C815). Future interim guidance will be placed on the NRC public decommissioning website to allow for more timely updates to guidance between NUREG revisions. Frequently asked questions can also be found in NUREG-1628.

• Miscellaneous Editorial Changes—corrects typographical and formatting errors; adds clarity to areas of the guidance.

Draft NUREG-1757, Volume 2, Revision 2 “Consolidated Decommissioning Guidance, Characterization, Survey, and Determination of Radiological Criteria” was issued for public comment in the Federal Register (85 FR 79044) on December 8, 2020, with a 60-day comment period. On January 22, 2021, (86 FR 6683) the NRC extended the comment period until April 8, 2021. Over 200 comments were received on the draft document and the NRC staff’s evaluation and resolution of the public comments are documented in Agencywide Documents Access and Management System under Accession No. ML21299A032. NRC staff addressed the public comments in this final version of this document.