NRC public meetings shed light on proposed rules
In the span of just over a week in late June and early July, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission published three proposed rules on modernizing security requirements, low-level radioactive waste disposal requirements, and fuel cycle and materials licensing.
This week, NRC staff led separate virtual public information meetings on each of the proposed rules, providing details to the public on what each one would change.
Security requirements rule: The NRC’s proposed sweeping updates to its security and fitness-for-duty regulations would replace decades-old prescriptive requirements with a performance-based framework.
The June announcement of the proposed rule provided some details into the changes being eyed for fitness-for-duty programs. At Monday's public meeting, officials discussed changes, including the following:
Expanding oral fluid drug testing to allow its use in all testing conditions.
Reducing refresher training frequency from annual to biennial.
Reducing annual random testing rates for most licensee employees.
Eliminating requirements for licensees to conduct annual audits of HHS-certified testing labs.
Streamlining blind performance testing requirements.
Removing unused licensee testing facility requirements.
Providing temporary relief from work hour controls during sequestration events.
Eliminating annual fatigue management reporting requirements.
The proposed rule would modernize security requirements for independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs), such as by providing options for physical protection frameworks, and would provide clarity on licensing and security requirements for ISFSIs that are not co-located with an operating reactor. According to the NRC, this would reduce the burden of submitting exemption requests and alternative measures during decommissioning and reduce how frequently an ISFSI submits security plan revisions to the NRC.
Physical security requirements in 10 CFR Part 73 would change under the proposed rule, “shifting from prescriptive rules to performance-based, risk-informed criteria,” as previously reported. This effort would address areas like access authorization, cybersecurity, safeguards, information handling, event notifications, and training, allowing for the use of technology-inclusive approaches to address the needs of new, diverse reactor designs.
Lastly, the NRC would remove requirements relating to security clearance that are duplicative in nature as part of its proposed changes to “facility security clearance and safeguarding of national security information and restricted data,” found under 10 CFR Part 95.
The LLW disposal rule: On Tuesday, the focus shifted to a proposed rule that would amend regulations under 10 CFR Part 61 that govern the land disposal of LLW. As NN has reported, the proposed rule would introduce a new risk-informed framework for LLW disposal in which sites can develop waste acceptance criteria based on site-specific characteristics.
NRC staff outlined three key provisions:
Specialized land disposal facilities—The rule would provide for safe disposal of greater-than-Class-C (GTCC) waste that is too concentrated for near-surface disposal.
Upper radionuclide concentration limits for land disposal of GTCC waste—The rule would provide a clearer regulatory pathway. Currently, the pathway requires NRC approval on a case-by-case basis.
Site-specific waste acceptance criteria—The rule would provide risk-informed flexibility.
“This proposed rule would provide a clear regulatory pathway for the commercial disposal of greater-than-Class-C waste, which should make it easier to safely dispose of greater-than-Class-C waste instead of storing it,” said Jane Marshall, director of the NRC’s Division of Decommissioning, Closure, Analysis, and Financial Oversight.
The proposed rule calls for additional risk-informed changes to 10 CFR 6.1.1(b) criteria, graded compliance periods, performance period analyses, and exemptions from physical protection and criticality requirements.
The fuel cycle and materials licensing rule: As NN has previously reported, this proposed rulemaking would amend 10 CFR Parts 70, 72, and 37, which address domestic licensing of special nuclear material; independent storage of spent nuclear fuel, high-level radioactive waste, and reactor-related GTCC waste; and physical protection of categories 1 and 2 quantities of radioactive material.
Five features of the proposed rule were singled out during a Wednesday meeting: at-risk construction, the Department of Energy’s Fuel Line Pilot Program, licensing pathways for spent fuel reprocessing facilities, flexibility in the hazards analysis process, and risk-informed reporting requirements.
The proposed rule would clarify that construction of most materials and fuel cycle facilities may begin before a license is issued, but at the applicant's own risk. It would also remove a nine-month waiting period to commence construction after submittal, while clarifying that at-risk construction flexibility does not apply to uranium enrichment or production facilities.
It also would establish an expedited NRC licensing pathway for facilities in the DOE’s Fuel Line Pilot Program if they want to transition into commercial operations and would clarify what would be required in their applications when leveraging DOE authorization. It would also clarify that DOE-authorized fuel lines (for noncommercial use) are exempt from Part 70 NRC licensing.
The proposed changes for Part 72 would update the definitions of “spent nuclear fuel” and “damaged fuel” to recognize advanced reactor technologies, streamline how spent fuel cask designs are certified, add more flexibility on how to make changes to spent fuel storage systems, and implement risk-informed reporting requirements.
As for Part 37, the proposed changes would provide an exemption for large components and robust structures containing category 1 or 2 quantities of radioactive material at reactor facilities; define the currently undefined terms “large component” and “robust structure”; and clarify language regarding exemptions for LLW.
