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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Nuclear regulation

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6882704
Today, 112 nuclear power plants, 22 facilities that support these plants, 54 reactors used in research, and approximately 23,000 organizations hold licenses from either the Nuclear Regulator Commission or various states to use radioactive material; other facilities are operated by various government agencies. Eventually most of these facilities will be decommissioned, which involves removing the radioactive material and terminating the license. NRC needs to ensure that licensees appropriately decontaminate their facilities because, under current regulations, NRC cannot specifically require additional cleanup once it terminates a license. This paper presents a GAO report on NRC's decommissioning procedures. In two of eight cases GAO reviewed, NRC fully or partially released sites for unrestricted use where radioactive contamination was higher than its guidelines allowed; in the other cases, NRC's information was inadequate or incomplete. Further, NRC lacks information on the types and amounts of radioactive waste buried on-site. At five sites reviewed by GAO, groundwater has been found to be contaminated by radioactive waste.
Research Organization:
General Accounting Office, Washington, DC (USA). Resources, Community and Economic Development Div.
OSTI ID:
6882704
Report Number(s):
GAO/RCED-89-119
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English