Waste Management

NRC issues draft decommissioning guidance for comment

December 10, 2020, 1:06PMRadwaste Solutions

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued the draft report, Consolidated Decommissioning Guidance, Characterization, Survey, and Determination of Radiological Criteria (NUREG-1757, Volume 2, Revision 2), with a request for comments by February 8.

NUREG-1757, which is intended for use by applicants, licensees, and the NRC staff, was last updated in 2006. This latest revision addresses lessons learned and experience gained from the review of license termination plans, decommissioning plans, and final status surveys for licensees undergoing license termination since then.

Notice of the draft NUREG was published in the December 8 Federal Register.

Significant advancements: Updates to NUREG-1757 include new guidance related to dose modeling, as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) criteria, surface water and groundwater characterization, use of engineered barriers, and radiological surveys (e.g., composite sampling, subsurface surveys, and surveys demonstrating radioactivity indistinguishable from background).

According to the NRC, the updates to the guidance are significant advancements, and licensees can choose to take advantage of them immediately. NRC staff, however, may make revisions and corrections before issuing the final guidance. Such changes would not be considered a change in position because a draft guidance document issued for comment does not constitute a staff position, the NRC said.

How to comment: The NRC encourages that comments be submitted electronically through the federal rulemaking website using Docket ID NRC-2020-0192 in the submission.

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