N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 6 §§ 383-3.4

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 45, November 2, 2024

Section 383-3.4 - Contents of the safety analysis report

The applicant must prepare, and submit as part of the application, a Safety Analysis Report. The Safety Analysis Report must contain the information described in the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission's publication, Standard Format and Content of a License Application for a Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility, (NUREG-1199, Revision 2, January 1991) (see section 383-1.8 of this Part) and must be in a format approved by the department. The Safety Analysis Report must include all of the information specified in NUREG-1199, in addition to the following information, to demonstrate that there is reasonable assurance that the performance objectives and the applicable requirements of this Part and Part 382 of this Title will be met:

(a) General information.

(1) The full name, address, telephone number and description of the business or occupation of the applicant, and the following information, as applicable:

(i) if the applicant is a partnership, the name and address of each partner and the principal location where the partnership does business;

(ii) if the applicant is a corporation or an unincorporated association, the State where it is incorporated or organized and the principal location where it does business, and the names and addresses of its directors and principal officers and shareholders who have a controlling interest (at least 50 percent) in the corporation;

(iii) if the applicant is acting as an agent or representative of another person in filing the application, all information required under this paragraph must be supplied with respect to the other person; and

(iv) if the applicant is a government agency, the enabling legislation of the agency and a description of its authority to operate a land disposal facility.

(2) Qualifications of the applicant including:

(i) The organizational structure of the applicant, both on and off the site, including a description of the lines of authority and assignments of responsibilities, whether in the form of administrative directives, contract provisions, or otherwise. This section must identify the individual(s) who will have the authority to stop work at the land disposal facility.

(ii) The technical qualifications, including training and experience, of the applicant and members of the applicant's staff to engage in the proposed activities. The minimum training and experience requirements for personnel filling key positions described in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph must be provided. At least one individual on the staff must be certified by the American Board of Health Physics. At least one individual on the staff must hold certification by the New York State Health Department as an emergency medical technician. The individual meeting this requirement must not be the emergency response coordinator.

(iii) A detailed description of the applicant's personnel training program, which must be designed to teach personnel to perform their duties in compliance with this Part and the permit. This program must be directed by a person trained in low-level radioactive waste management procedures, and must include the proposed means for evaluating the effectiveness of the training program for all employees. This program must describe the initial, on-the-job, and refresher training that will be given to all employees, based on the job title. At a minimum, the initial training portion of the personnel training program provided to all employees must include instruction in the following topics:

(a) appropriate radiation safety procedures, general worker safety procedures, permittee's in-house work rules, and each individual's responsibility to report unsafe conditions to the radiation safety officer and to the person with stop-work authority;

(b) appropriate response to emergencies and unsafe conditions as specified by the site safety and emergency response plan required by section 383-12.2 of this Part;

(c) the layout and normal operation of the land disposal facility and areas of the disposal site to which access is controlled for the purpose of radiation protection;

(d) applicable regulations and permit conditions;

(e) the employee's specific job duties.

(iv) The plan to maintain an adequate complement of trained personnel to carry out waste receipt, handling, and disposal operations in a safe manner.

(3) Institutional information, including:

(i) if the applicant is not a government agency, the applicant must provide a certification by the State of New York that the State owns the disposal site and that the State is prepared to accept transfer of the permit when the provisions of section 383-5.5 of this Part are met, and will assume responsibility for institutional control;

(ii) where the proposed disposal site is on land not already owned by the State of New York, the applicant must submit proof that arrangements have been made for assumption of ownership in fee by the State of New York before the department issues a permit.

(4) Land disposal facility description, including:

(i) the location of the proposed disposal site;

(ii) the general character of the proposed activities;

(iii) the types, concentrations, radionuclides, and quantities of waste to be received, possessed, and disposed of;

(iv) the proposed facilities and equipment; and

(v) plans for the use of the land disposal facility for purposes other than the disposal of waste.

(5) Proposed schedules for:

(i) construction;

(ii) first receipt of waste;

(iii) first emplacement of waste at the proposed land disposal facility;

(iv) disposal unit closure;

(v) facility closure;

(vi) post-closure monitoring and maintenance; and

(vii) institutional control.

(b) Site characteristics. The information on site characteristics, based upon the site characterization studies required by section 382.6(b) of this Title and the pre-operational monitoring performed in accordance with section 383- 10.3 of this Part, must include the following:

(1) a description of the natural and demographic disposal site characteristics as determined by disposal site selection and characterization activities. The description must include geologic, geotechnical, hydrologic, meteorologic, climatologic, and biotic features of the disposal site and vicinity;

(2) a description of the known natural resources at the disposal site, the exploitation of which could result in inadvertent intrusion into the waste after the institutional control period;

(3) a plot plan showing the exact boundary locations of the proposed disposal site, the proposed locations of the permanent survey marker control points required by section 383-11.2(a) of this Part, the proposed site grid system required by section 383-11.2(c) of this Part, and the proposed disposal units and associated facilities;

(4) a copy of a land survey, title search, and any deed restrictions on the proposed disposal site. The location of property boundaries must be certified by a person or firm licensed to practice land surveying in the State of New York;

(5) a description of the location and extent of each county, town, hamlet, school district, fire district, local health district, emergency management service district, historic district, transportation planning authority, industrial development authority, water and sewer district, and solid waste disposal district within which the land disposal facility will be located or which is proposed to provide services to the land disposal facility at any time, and for those providing services, a description of the available capacity, equipment, and facilities;

(6) identification of all political subdivisions in which the disposal site will be located;

(7) identification of the major transportation corridors within 50 miles of the disposal site that are likely to be used to bring waste to the disposal site including highways, roads, railways, and waterways. The routes must be shown on a map that also identifies major congestion points and sensitive land uses such as schools and hospitals;

(8) a description of the proximity of the site to lands or reservations of Indian tribes or nations, state parks, nature sanctuaries, historic sites, and schools;

(9) identification of all off-site facilities that must be built or upgraded for the operation of the land disposal facility including the following, if applicable:

(i) roads and railroad lines;

(ii) bridges;

(iii) fire stations;

(iv) emergency medical services and hospital facilities;

(v) utility services; and

(vi) off-site associated facilities; and

(10) identification of any off-site facilities whose failure could adversely affect the land disposal facility.

(c) Design and construction. The information on design and construction must include the following:

(1) the final design plans and specifications and description of the design features of the land disposal facility and the disposal units including those design features related to infiltration of water; integrity of disposal units; structural stability of waste, disposal units, and any backfill; retrieval or recovery of waste, if applicable; contact of waste with standing water; disposal site drainage; disposal site closure and stabilization; elimination to the extent practicable of long-term disposal site maintenance; inadvertent intrusion; occupational exposure; disposal site monitoring; and adequacy of the size of the buffer zone for monitoring and potential mitigative measures;

(2) a list and description of the principal design criteria and their relationship to the performance objectives;

(3) a list and description of the design basis major events or phenomena and their relationship to the principal design criteria;

(4) a list and description of the engineering and technical codes and standards which the applicant has applied to the design and which will apply to construction of the land disposal facility;

(5) a facility plan, showing the location of all features of the land disposal facility on a grid system to be established on site as required by section 383- 11.2(c) of this Part;

(6) a detailed description of the construction of the land disposal facility, including the methods of construction of disposal units and proposed major phases of construction; and

(7) the design documentation required by Subpart 383-7 of this Part.

(d) Facility operations. The information on facility operations must include the following:

(1) a detailed and complete description of the operation of the land disposal facility. The description must include waste emplacement; the procedures for and areas of waste segregation; types of intruder barriers; on-site traffic and drainage systems; survey control program; methods and areas of waste storage; and methods to control surface water and groundwater access to the waste. The description must also include a description of the methods to be employed in the handling and disposal of waste containing chelating agents or other nonradiological substances that might affect the land disposal facility's ability to meet the performance objectives;

(2) the radiation safety program for control and monitoring of radioactive effluents from the land disposal facility to ensure compliance with the performance objective in section 382.11 of this Title and to control contamination of personnel, vehicles, equipment, buildings and the disposal site;

(3) the environmental monitoring plan prepared pursuant to section 383-10.4 of this Part;

(4) the structural monitoring plan prepared pursuant to section 383-10.7 of this Part;

(5) the action level response plan prepared pursuant to section 383-12.7 of this Part;

(6) the disposal unit monitoring plan prepared pursuant to section 383-10.5 of this Part;

(7) the associated facilities monitoring plan prepared pursuant to section 383- 10.6 of this Part;

(8) the site safety and emergency response plan prepared pursuant to section 383-12.2 of this Part;

(9) a description of the administrative procedures that the applicant will apply to control activities at the land disposal facility; and

(10) a description of the facility computer recordkeeping system required by section 383-13.2(h) of this Part.

(e) The closure plan prepared pursuant to section 383-9.2 of this Part, including a description of those design features which are intended to facilitate disposal site closure and to eliminate the need for ongoing active maintenance.

(f) The post-closure plan prepared pursuant to section 383-9.7 of this Part.

(g) The institutional control plan prepared pursuant to section 383-9.8 of this Part.

(h) Safety assessment. The safety assessment must include the following information:

(1) A description of the kind, amount, classification and specifications of the waste proposed to be received, possessed, and disposed of at the land disposal facility.

(2) Technical analyses demonstrating that there is reasonable assurance that the performance objectives will be met. These analyses must be performed in accordance with the following:

(i) Environmental pathways analyzed in the dose assessments demonstrating protection of the general population from releases of radioactivity must include air, soil, groundwater, surface water, plant uptake, and exhumation by burrowing animals. The analyses must clearly identify and differentiate between the roles performed by the natural disposal site characteristics and those performed by the disposal units and other design features in isolating and segregating the waste. The analyses must include dose assessments for a period of 10,000 years unless justification for using a shorter time period is provided. The analyses must clearly demonstrate that there is reasonable assurance that the dose to humans from the release of radioactivity will not exceed the limits set forth in section 382.11 of this Title.

(ii) Analyses of the protection of individuals from inadvertent intrusion must include a demonstration that there is reasonable assurance that the waste classification and segregation requirements will be met and that adequate barriers to inadvertent intrusion will be provided. The analyses must not rely upon an institutional control period of greater than 100 years.

(iii) Analyses demonstrating the protection of individuals during operations must include assessments of expected exposures due to routine operations and likely accidents during handling, storage, and disposal of waste. The analyses must provide reasonable assurance that exposures will be controlled to meet the requirements of 12 NYCRR Part 38.

(iv) Analyses of the long-term stability of the disposal site and the need for ongoing active maintenance after closure must be based upon analyses of active natural processes such as erosion, mass wasting, slope failure, settlement of waste and backfill, infiltration into disposal units, and surface drainage of the disposal site. The analyses must provide reasonable assurance that there will not be a need for ongoing active maintenance of the disposal site following closure. The analyses must not rely upon an institutional control period of greater than 100 years.

(v) Demonstration of protection of the environment and public health must include a list of all applicable State and Federal environmental and public health laws and regulations and a demonstration that they will be met.

(i) Quality assurance. A detailed description of the quality assurance program for the determination of natural disposal site characteristics and for quality assurance during design, construction, operation, and closure of the land disposal facility and the receipt, handling, and emplacement of waste. Audits and managerial controls must be included.

(j) Financial assurance. The documentation required in Subpart 383-6 of this Part.

(k) Computer models and documentation. For each computer-based mathematical model used to support the design of the land disposal facility, used to reach any conclusions presented in the application, or used to support any statement in the application, the information described below must be submitted. This requirement includes all sub-models of any model used.

(1) a running copy of the model. This requirement can be met by:

(i) submitting a copy of the model on computer tape or disk; or

(ii) submitting a printed listing of the source code and providing the department access to a running copy of the model for the department's use;

(2) complete documentation and presentation of the model and its algorithms, including the following:

(i) the theoretical basis of the algorithms;

(ii) the assumptions made in creation of the algorithms;

(iii) a description of and information on input parameters, including:

(a) a printed listing of all input files that identifies the values of all parameters used in the model;

(b) the range of values used for those input parameters that do not have single values, a justification of the range used, and a description of how the most probable values were determined;

(c) a discussion of all site characterization measurements, how these were used to select the model inputs, the results of the analysis of the accuracy and precision of these measurements, and defensible uncertainty estimates for all input parameters (site and design characteristics) for which site-specific measurements are not available; and

(d) a determination of the uncertainty in estimated doses resulting from the uncertainty in input values and a discussion of how the variability in space and time of site parameters will affect the dose estimates;

(iv) the results of sensitivity studies performed for all parameters that could be significant to dose levels;

(v) the results of model verification studies (and the physical conditions to which they apply) and the results of any code bench marking tests available;

(vi) a description of the applicability of the model used and the limitations to its use, including:

(a) how the model assumptions limit interpretation of modeling results;

(b) how these uncertainties have been adequately reflected in the results; and

(c) how the results have been applied to the permit application.

N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 6 §§ 383-3.4