The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources is accepting consultant proposals to determine the amount of radioactive contamination present at a former nuclear research facility.
The facility, located in the Clearfield county portion of the Quehanna Wild Area, once housed a nuclear reactor as well as related research equipment. Largely wooded and removed from any nearby towns, the area is managed by the DER and occupies more than 48,000 acres in Clearfield, Cameron and Elk counties.
The DER's goals for the consultant are clear, said Mary Ann Bolish, a spokeswoman for the DER.
"We want to find out what's there and what it's going to take to get rid of it," she said.
The DER claims the contamination does not pose a serious health threat.
The facility was erected in the Quehanna area by Curtiss-Wright Corp. in July, 1955, said Dick Kroop, of the DER's Department of Forestry. The facility aimed to conduct mostly classified research, contracted to the corporation by the now-defunct Atomic Energy Commission.
But the corporation's stay did not last.
"Their contracts were cancelled or expired in a lot shorter time frame than they anticipated and they essentially moved," he said. "When they moved out, the way the agreement was, the land would come back to the commonwealth."
After Curtiss-Martin the reactor facility was given to the University, which sublet it to Martin Marietta Corp., Kroop said. Martin Marietta then used the facility in connection with contracts awarded by the AEC.
Although Penn State managed the facility for many years, University health physicist Roger Granlund said the reactor was decommissioned and shipped out for disposal before the University became involved with the site.
During the years, a variety of different industrial tenants have leased the research facility from the DER. Permagrain Products, Inc., which makes flooring, now holds the lease for the site.
Licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1978 for a radiating process in their production procedure, the corporation will be unable to renew its license until the site is cleaned.
"The NRC has reassessed their policies," Kroop said, explaining how Permagrain had first obtained their license.
"There are a number of sites across the country that were contaminated in past years. The way the system worked until recently was that whoever the tenant was received a license that allowed them to do what they do in the daily conduct of their business.
"Now, the NRC has said that we have too many of these sites with old contamination and that we have to get this cleaned up," he said.
Contaminated areas of the facility include "hot cells," special sealed chambers used to isolate radioactive objects, as well as plumbing fixtures, ventilation ducts and an overhead crane system. The DER suspects that the structures are contaminated with strontium-90, a by-product of nuclear fission reactions, as well as other by-products like cobalt-60.
Kroop said although a limited number of companies in the country take on this kind of work, the DER would doubtless have enough applicants to select from.
"The DER asks for a letter of interest from consultants that are interested to list their qualifications. Those will be evaluated, and the people who meet the minimum qualifications will get a full (information) package so they can submit a proposal on how best to go about characterizing what is there," he said.
Once the cleanup process is complete, a legal counsel employed by the DER will secure reimbursement from the parties responsible.
"Hopefully, we can work out an agreement," said Bolish, "But if a lawsuit is what it takes, then that's what we'll do."
