Context: The proposed rulemaking—unveiled publicly on Wednesday but not yet published on the Federal Register—would modernize the NRC’s transportation regulations, which are primarily found under 10 CFR Part 71. Notable proposals include:
Revising the package certification process to be more flexible and allow for voluntary use of risk-informed or performance-based approaches.
Allowing increased radiation level limits for Type B packages under certain conditions, such as the transportation of “irradiated microreactors.”
Streamlining requirements and reducing the burden on holders of certificates of compliance.
Reducing certificate of compliance application review timelines.
Allowing electronic submission of required reports and certification documents.
“America’s next generation of nuclear technologies requires a transportation framework designed for today’s challenges,” NRC Chairman Ho Nieh said. “Enabling regulation protects people without slowing down innovation.”
The proposed rule would add a new paragraph to Part 71.41 that would allow for an optional framework for evaluating transportation package performance if applicants demonstrate the packaging “provides an equivalent level of safety as under the current regulations.” Applicants could, for example, reference SECY-24 0062, “Risk-Informed Methodology for a Future Transportable Triso-Based Micro Reactor Package Application,” which was developed for Project Pele TRISO-based packaging.
“Adoption of a similarly acceptable risk-informed approach in future applications may provide applicants with enhanced flexibility and potential cost efficiencies,” according to the proposed rule.
What it means: While the NRC’s existing external radiation standards would stay in place, the proposed rule would create an optional standard to allow higher radiation levels for certain packages, such as portable microreactors under exclusive use controls.
The NRC sees microreactor technology as potentially vital during future post–natural disaster emergency responses and for remote power supply. Existing regulations would require transportation packages to have additional shielding to keep radiation levels at or below 10 millirem per hour (mrem/h) at 2 meters from the vehicle. In the proposed rule, the NRC staff argue this adds weight and size to the packaging and would slow deployment of a microreactor in an emergency situation.
The proposed rule would increase the limit to 50 mrem/h at 2 meters in this type of scenario, a threshold that, it states, would fall “well within the current annual 10 CFR Part 20 public radiation level limit.” The licensee would still have to go through other federal, state, and local officials to address the safe transportation of the material and technologies through their respective jurisdictions, if required.
Regulatory analysis: While NRC officials did not provide actual cost-savings estimates for this proposed rule, they did provide a hypothetical scenario. Under the increased radiation level limit, using a 1.5-inch-thick carbon steel shielding package design would save a licensee roughly $25,000 compared with 2-inch-thick shielding.
“The perceived estimated net average growth rate of microreactors coming on-line over a 40-year period of analysis is 2,102 microreactors,” according to the proposed rule, which extrapolates that “if we assume that all microreactors built had their shielding reduced by .5 inches, the industry could experience a cost-savings of $52.5 million (undiscounted) over a 40-year period, with an annualized savings of $0.48 million at 7 percent.”
Furthermore, NRC staff said they anticipate that lighter packages would result in cost savings in fuel use and vehicle maintenance and repair.
