CHAPTER 17 final.docx

CHAPTER 17 – TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables

Chapter 17 – Record of Revisions

17 Decommissioning

The present plan for the NBSR is that the reactor and all associated buildings will be decommissioned, decontaminated, and disassembled at the end of life. The entire site will be returned to unrestricted use. Duratek, Inc. (now Environmental Solutions) was contracted to prepare an independent cost estimate of all external costs (excluding all NIST direct costs), and to provide a formula for out-year cost escalation. Of necessity, this estimate addresses the five elements required in a preliminary decommissioning plan. In addition, when the facility ceases operation, there will be direct costs to NIST, which will continue until the site is released for general use.

10 CFR 50.75 requires an annual update of the decommissioning report for a nuclear power reactor. A non-power (test or research) reactor such as the NBSR must submit a decommissioning estimate during initial licensing or renewal (every 20 years). Federal Financial Accounting Standards No. 6 for Property, Plant, and Equipment (PP&E) states that “estimates shall be revised periodically to account for material changes due to inflation or deflation and changes in regulations, plans and/or technology. New cost estimates should be provided if there is evidence that material changes have occurred; otherwise estimates may be revised through indexing.” NIST requires an annual update of the environmental liability that is the NCNR decommissioning. Whenever an issue arises that would significantly change the decommissioning cost calculation or the assumptions used to evaluate those costs, a mid-year update to the environmental liabilities report should be prepared and forwarded to NIST management as soon as practical.

17.1 Decommissioning Plan

A detailed, independent cost estimate and preliminary demolition plan has been prepared for the NIST reactor and associated structures.

17.1.1 Cost Estimate

In studying the decommissioning of the NBSR, Duratek (2004) considered three alternatives for the NIST reactor:

DECON – full scale decommissioning, decontamination, and demolition, restoring the site for unrestricted use as soon as possible after cessation of operations, SAFSTOR – the facility is maintained and monitored to allow decay of radioactivity, after which it is decommissioned, ENTOMB – the reactor structures are “permanently” entombed in an appropriate enclosure.

The option chosen for detailed examination was DECON, in view of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) strong preference for timely decommissioning, unless there are no other options. The SAFSTOR option was priced for various time periods by comparison to NRC estimates for the reference research reactor. This comparison concluded that the DECON option is the only cost-effective solution.

A breakdown of the major technical activities for DECON and their associated costs is shown in Table 17.1. Details of this cost estimate are provided in Duratek (2004). In summary, the total estimated cost in 2004 for complete Decommissioning, Decontamination and Disassembly costs (excluding NIST direct costs) is $30.2 million. To obtain a complete estimate, the direct costs to NIST must be added. These direct costs are estimated in Table 17.3.

The reactor fuel will not be sufficiently decayed for final shipment until at least two years after operation ceases. So long as fuel is on-site, fully licensed operators must be kept on staff to oversee, handle, and prepare it for final shipment. Routine expenses such as utilities, infrastructure maintenance, health physics surveillance, and security must be provided and paid for, since no ongoing program will bear the expense. For the first two years, operational costs will continue unchanged; after that, they will gradually decline to zero.

NIST is a Federal agency of the Department of Commerce. When operation of the reactor is terminated, NIST will request funding for the immediate decommissioning described here.

17.1.2 Escalation of Cost Estimate to Future Years

As part of the cost estimate provided by Duratek1, an algorithm for escalation based on NUREG-1307, Rev 10, was prepared. In this algorithm, the cost of decommissioning is given by:

Estimated Cost in Year X = (A*Lx +B*Ex + C*Bx)*(Cost in 2004), where A = Fraction of costs attributable to labor = 0.618 B = Fraction of costs attributable to energy = 0.037 C = Fraction of cost attributable to burial = 0.345 Lx = Labor cost adjustment Ex = Energy cost adjustment Bx = Burial cost adjustment

Lx and Ex are estimated from national producer price indices, adjusted for local conditions. These data are available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics website at www.bls.gov. Bx values are determined using the latest revision of NUREG-1307. Previous assumptions used in the preparation of the 2004 Duratek report should be reviewed and evaluated for any recent facility or regulatory changes that might impact those assumptions. Waste disposal methodologies and cost assumptions are included in the updated NUREG-1307 and do not require additional review or analysis.

The 2004 Duratek report was based upon an assumed volume of waste generated from the facility. Since the date of facility relicensing in 2009, the NCNR facility has completed an expansion of the reactor experimental guide hall (30% increase), added an administrative wing (K), moved the secondary cooling system into a new pump building external to Building 235 (50% increase), and installed an additional cooling tower cell (30% increase). The new K wing is designated for office space, conference facilities and a machine shop. For radiological survey and decontamination estimates it was considered to be identical to the B Wing Cold Labs and Offices for cost and waste volume estimates in the Duratek report. Decommissioning costs are expected to scale for other NCNR areas that maintain the same function in an expanded or new area. Applying the above estimated increases to the values given in the 2004 Duratek report increases the base decommissioning costs approximately 3% as shown in Table 17.1 and Table 17.2.

Based on this evaluation and the relatively small material change in decommissioning costs resulting from the increase in the size of the NCNR complex it has been determined that a new decommissioning cost estimate is not required. At this time, future escalation estimates will continue to use the uncorrected 2004 Duratek base decommissioning estimates. The NCNR will continue to monitor local events and regulations to determine if assumptions in these procedures must be modified.

For future escalation of Direct Costs, NIST has chosen to update the labor salaries by using a rolling yearly estimate because the local salaries are well known and a much better reflection of actual labor costs than applying an escalation factor to 2003 salary estimates. For example, this reporting year’s published salaries are used to produce a current labor cost estimate while any estimated values produced five years ago are no longer used (rolled off). All years are updated based on an assumed number of workers during the 5-year decommissioning period but the salary data remains fixed.

17.2 References

10 CFR 50.75, Reporting and Recordkeeping for Decommissioning Planning.

NUREG-1307 (Revision 15 effective in 2012), Report on Waste Burial Charges.

Duratek Services, Inc. (2004). Decommissioning Cost Estimate for the National Institute of Standards and Technology Reactor. Oak Ridge, TN.

Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB), Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards No. 6.

Bureau of Labor Statistics Data (www.bls.gov).

17-6 Table 17.1: Decommissioning Cost Summary – NIST Reactor

Process & Transport

$45,600

$255,541

$1,022,165

$88,915

Table 17.2: Cost Summary Following 2012 NCNR Expansion

(Revised Base 2004 Estimate)

$ 702,684

$ 636,924

$ 495,812

$ 10,030,511

$ 333,318

New Pump Building

$ 166,659

$ 166,659

$ 682,270

$ 111,781

$ 259,166

$ 150, 373

New “K” Wing Cold Shop and Offices

$ 495,812

$ 495,812

$ 2,814,680

$ 5,159,597

$ 45,600

$ 88,915

$ 210,476

$ 24,899,016

$ 6,224,754

$ 31,123,770

Table 17.3: NIST Direct Costs For Reactor Decommissioning In Years Immediately Following Shutdown

Grand Total

$ 26,100,000

1 Assumes operations costs equal to those in 2012, based on the need for a fully licensed staff until fuel is completely shipped by the end of Year 3. This table is not used for escalation calculation.