U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

HTTPS

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Webster-Gulf Nuclear

All POLREP's for this site Webster-Gulf Nuclear
Webster, TX - EPA Region VI
POLREP #4
Printer Friendly  |   PDF
 
On-Scene Coordinator - Greg Fife 5/22/2002
Emergency - Removal Action Pollution Report (POLREP) #4
Start Date: 10/18/2001
Pollution Report (POLREP) #4
Site Description
The Site is an abandoned radioactive material laboratory located in a medical complex in the City of Webster.  Over 260 sealed sources have been recovered to date.  There are dozens of glove-boxes and hotcells in the 43 rooms and laboratories of the facility.  Hundreds of other instruments, tools, and other items contaminated in the 5 conjoined buildings making up the Site.  

Floors within the facility are highly contaminated
and instruments read over 200,000,000 disintergrations per minute at the surface.

Gamma radiation emitted from the site is high enough to register inside the adjacent medical clinic.


Current Activities
Crews are removing debris from the building, recovering the sealed sources from the boxes, vaults, and cabinetry.  The contaminated items are being separated and packaged accordingly.

Radioactive waste is being shipped for disposal.  Other radioactive waste streams are being finalized with the disposal companies.

Perimeter air monitoring and sampling are being conducted to insure that no migration of contamination is occurring.  The results indicated that the engineering controls to reduce the migration are very effective.


Planned Removal Actions
Proposals are being sought from companies to decontaminate and reduce the waste volume of the GTCC waste.

The clearing of the contents of the buildings will continue and proceed to the demolition of the buildings.  Some minor excavation of soils is expected.  


Key Issues
Contamination of the some of the boxes, air filters, duct work, and other items are contaminated beyond what can be disposed of at any commercial site.  The "greater than class C" (GTCC) waste, as defined by 10 CFR Part 61.55, must be disposed of at a non-near-surface facility and no such commercial facility yet exists.