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2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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NEPA review changes coming under NRC proposed rule
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing changes to its environmental review regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that agency officials call the most significant in decades.
The proposed rule—published in the Federal Register on Tuesday—streamlines 10 CFR Part 51 and calls for no longer requiring draft environmental impact statements (EIS), adding new categorical exclusions that exempt licensing actions from NEPA review, and reducing the regulatory burden in its environmental reviews, among other things. The NRC will accept public comments on the proposed rulemaking until August 21, with plans to hold a public hearing during the comment period.
Glen A. Warren, Kevin K. Anderson, Jonathan Kulisek, Yaron Danon, Adam Weltz, A. Gavron, Jason Harris, Trevor N. Stewart
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 179 | Number 3 | March 2015 | Pages 264-273
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE13-71
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Improved nondestructive assay of isotopic masses in used nuclear fuel would be valuable for nuclear safeguards operations associated with the transport, storage, and reprocessing of used nuclear fuel. Our collaboration is examining the feasibility of using lead slowing-down spectrometry techniques to assay the isotopic fissile masses in used nuclear fuel assemblies. We present the application of our analysis algorithms to measurements conducted with a lead spectrometer. The measurements involved a single fresh fuel pin and discrete 239Pu and 235U samples. We are able to describe the isotopic fissile masses with root-mean-square errors over seven different configurations to 6.3% for 239Pu and 2.7% for 235U. Significant effort is yet needed to demonstrate the applicability of these algorithms for used-fuel assemblies, but the results reported here are encouraging in demonstrating that we are making progress toward that goal.