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United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20555

Phone 301-415-8200 Fax 301-415-2234

Internet:opa@nrc.gov

No. 97-054

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Monday, March 31, 1997)

NRC TO DISCUSS CLEANUP OF OHIO SITE

AT PUBLIC MEETING ON APRIL 7

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with

citizens April 7 in Newburgh Heights, Ohio, to discuss activities

to be conducted in the near future to clean up radioactive

contamination at the Chemetron Corporation's Bert Avenue site.

The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Newburgh Heights

Town Offices, Town Meeting Room, 4000 Washington Boulevard. In

addition to the NRC, the meeting will include the mayor of

Newburgh Heights and representatives of the Cuyahoga County Board

of Health, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and Ohio

Department of Health. The Cuyahoga County Board of Health will

provide a facilitator for the meeting.

The company and federal, state and local regulators will

brief the public on remediation activities that will take place,

schedules for those activities, and the planned regulatory

inspection and oversight activities.

The Bert Avenue site, located in the Newburgh Heights suburb

of Cleveland, is a former uncontrolled landfill bordered by

industrial property and private residences. Radiologically

contaminated material from the Chemetron Corporation's Harvard

Avenue site--which is located a short distance away, also in

Newburgh Heights--was disposed of at the Bert Avenue site in

1975. The material consisted of building rubble contaminated

with depleted uranium used in a chemical catalyst manufactured at

the Harvard Avenue facility. The Bert Avenue site also has

antimony oxide slag containing natural uranium and fly ash and

fire brick containing natural uranium and thorium.

Until cleanup is completed, contaminated soil piles at Bert

Avenue have been covered with tarps to minimize airborne

releases. NRC air sampling at the fence boundary showed that

radiation levels have been below the agency's limits for public

radiation exposure.
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Chemetron submitted a site remediation plan for the site to

the NRC in October 1993 and a revision in February 1995. The NRC

staff evaluated the plan and prepared a safety evaluation report

and environmental assessment. In February of this year, NRC

amended Chemetron's license to authorize the company to remediate

the Bert Avenue site as described in the remediation plan.

The authorization requires Chemetron to sample and analyze

liquid and airborne effluents during remediation to ensure that

releases do not exceed NRC limits. The licensee must also

provide "hold points" in the remediation schedule to give NRC

staff an opportunity to take samples and conduct radiation

surveys. At the completion of remediation, the licensee must

conduct a final radiation survey and sampling program.

Under the NRC-approved site remediation plan, Chemetron will

dispose of the radioactively contaminated material in an

engineered disposal cell on site. Any contamination that exceeds

NRC limits will be excavated and shipped off site to a licensed

low-level waste disposal site.

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