NRC discontinues spent fuel pool rulemaking

The NRC considered the changes to its regulations in response to petition for rulemaking submitted by Thomas Popik in 2011 on behalf of the Foundation for Resilient Societies. Popik asked that 10 CFR Part 50 be amended to require licensees to “provide reliable emergency systems to provide long-term cooling and water makeup for spent fuel pools using only on-site power sources.” Popik further stated that the emergency systems “shall be able to operate for a period of two years without human operator intervention and without off-site fuel resupply.”

Popik claimed that North American electrical grids were vulnerable to prolonged outages caused by solar storms and therefore could not be relied on to provide continuous power to spent fuel pools.

Reasoning: According to the NRC, the issues raised in the petition were partially resolved by its final rule, “Mitigation of Beyond-Design-Basis Events,” issued in 2019 as a response to the events at Fukushima Daiichi.

In discontinuing this current rulemaking and denying the petition, the NRC said that improvements in grid stability, along with improvements in space weather forecasting and response, have resolved those concerns not covered by the 2019 rulemaking.

In particular, the NRC said that the Space Weather Prediction Center, run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, provides information that mitigates the impacts of solar storms. (An April report by Space.com claims the SWPC has been affected by reductions in NOAA staff that took place under the federal Department of Government Efficiency.)

In addition, the NRC said that it has already addressed the capability of licensees to have enough fuel to power active cooling and water makeup of spent fuel pools during a grid failure caused by a solar storm. “The NRC has reasonable assurance of an on-site 7-day fuel supply to maintain safe shutdown; that off-site diesel fuel can be obtained in the event of such a grid failure through existing industry contracts; and that federal, state, and local organizations have the capability to provide fuel supplies, if needed,” the agency stated.

The discontinuation of rulemaking and denial of petition became effective May 7.