No. I-09-012 

Contact: Diane Screnci, 610/337-5330 

 Neil Sheehan, 610/337-5331 

March 19, 2009 

E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov

NRC TO PROVIDE UPDATE ON DECOMMISSIONING WORK 

 AT WINDSOR, CONN., SITE 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will conduct a public meeting on Wednesday, 

March 25, to update the public on decommissioning activities at a former nuclear fuel 

manufacturing facility in Windsor, Conn., owned by ABB, Inc. 

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at Windsor Town Hall, at 275 Broad St. in 

Windsor. Before the session is adjourned, members of the public will have an opportunity to 

pose questions and provide comments to NRC staff. 

ABB, Inc. (formerly Combustion Engineering-Windsor) manufactured nuclear fuel at the 

site, which is bordered by Day Hill Road to the south. Facilities at the site were also used at 

various times to conduct and support nuclear research and development work, including the 

construction, testing and operation of a U.S. naval reactor. The activities began in the mid-1950s 

and continued until 2001. As a result of those operations, soils, buildings and equipment surfaces 

were contaminated with uranium and byproduct material, both of which are radioactive. 

On April 7, 2003, ABB submitted a site-wide decommissioning plan to the NRC. A 

revised plan that included dose-modeling information was submitted on Oct. 15, 2003. Several 

buildings on the site were subsequently demolished and the waste materials shipped off-site to a 

licensed disposal facility. 

 

 Meanwhile, certain portions of the site were to be remediated by the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) because some 

radioactive contamination at the facility resulted from defense-related activities. The buildings 

and areas where the defense-related materials are located were used by the U.S. Atomic Energy 

Commission prior to the early 1960s, when the first nuclear manufacturing license was issued to 

Combustion Engineering. 

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs, Region I 

475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 

Site: http://www.nrc.gov
The NRC staff has worked with the Army Corps to define a success path for the 

completion of remaining decommissioning activities at the site. Specifically, the NRC has 

accepted the Army Corps proposal for the cleanup of FUSRAP-contaminated areas of the site 

that also contain NRC-regulated materials. A revised Decommissioning Plan reflecting that 

change is currently undergoing NRC staff review. Meanwhile, some of the NRC-regulated 

portions of the site that have been successfully remediated have been released for unrestricted 

use. 

Once all of the decommissioning work is completed, ABB must demonstrate to the NRC 

that the entire property meets the criteria for unrestricted release. In order for a site to meet that 

criteria, any residual radioactivity would have to be within allowable federal and state levels. 

The decommissioning plan for the site is available in the NRC’s electronic documents 

system, which can be accessed at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html. 

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