Long-Term Stewardship Optimization for a Decommissioned Nuclear Reactor - 19579
The decommissioned Hallam Nuclear Power Facility (Hallam), located in Lancaster County, Nebraska, approximately 19 miles south of Lincoln, was developed as a prototype to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of a sodium-cooled, graphite-moderated nuclear reactor. As part of its Power Demonstration Program, the US Atomic Energy Commission (US AEC), a predecessor agency of the US Department of Energy (US DOE), operated the Hallam reactor from 1962 to 1964. The radiological surveillance of the Hallam site was established when the operating agreement between AEC and the Nebraska Public Power District was terminated. The US DOE Chicago Operations Office and the Nebraska Department of Health (NDH) agreed to install a shallow groundwater monitoring system as part of the environmental surveillance program. Surveillance at the site was scheduled to end in fiscal year 2005, with no further activities planned after that. At that time, the plan was to transition the site to the Nebraska Public Power District with future use of the facility to remain restricted. US DOE has title to and responsibility for the entombed radioactive materials. A surveillance and monitoring program was initiated in 1970 by NDH and was funded by US AEC. It included the analysis of samples from deep production wells (groundwater from the regional aquifer at depths greater than 55 meters [180 feet]) at the Sheldon Station. NDH was concerned in 1990 about the possibility of shallow groundwater coming in contact with the buried radiological materials along the buried walls of the reactor. Subsequently, DOE and NDH agreed to further characterize hydrologic conditions and establish a monitoring program in the shallow, perched groundwater zones. The current monitoring program focuses on the shallow, perched groundwater. Today, decades since facility decommissioning, site inspections and groundwater monitoring continue at this Cold War-era legacy site. The US DOE Office of Legacy Management (LM) monitors groundwater as a best management practice in response to a request from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). In 2006, LM recommended discontinuing groundwater monitoring because analytical results since 1970 demonstrated there had been no impact to shallow, perched groundwater and no current or anticipated unacceptable risk to human health and the environment. The State of Nebraska did not concur with the recommendation to stop monitoring but did agree to a reduction in sampling and analysis from once a year to once every 2 years--a schedule that began in 2008. An updated assessment of the groundwater monitoring effort was issued in 2016. The entire body of water-quality data continues to demonstrate that there have been no negative impacts to the shallow, perched groundwater from radioactive materials entombed at the site 46 years ago. LM, with concurrence from Nebraska DHHS, changed the sampling frequency, effective in 2018, as follows: once every 5 years from 2021 to 2041 and once every 10 years from 2041 to 2071. In summary, LM remains committed to its primary mission to protect human health and the environment at each of its 92 legacy sites. With results from groundwater sampling events demonstrating compliance for 48 years, the Hallam site was able to set an LM benchmark to optimize long-term stewardship and define an end-state strategy for other decommissioned reactor facilities across the DOE complex. Continued collaboration with local communities, stakeholder, and regulators often leads to outcomes of sound protectiveness without compromise to safety or compliance, as demonstrated by the optimization of the long-term stewardship at the Hallam site. (authors)