The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Inspector General’s Office said in a new report the agency has an opportunity to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) oversight program through centralizing regulatory guidance documents.
Guidance documents aid NRC licensees and applicants in implementing specific regulations, NRC staff techniques for evaluating specific problems or postulated accidents involving the material, and data staff requests for application reviews. LLRW includes items that have been contaminated by radioactive materials or have become radioactive through exposure to neutron radiation, according to NRC guidance, which divides the waste into three categories: A, B, and C.
The IG submitted a report to NRC on Oct. 3, stating it had found that NRC LLRW oversight provides “adequate oversight through inspection activities” eo ensure safe and effective disposal and waste blending processes at disposal sites. Because of that the IG did not make any recommendations, but rather told NRC there was room for improvement.
According to the report, which was made public Tuesday, LLRW guidance documents can be difficult to find, as they are numerous and scattered on multiple web pages.
“As both external and internal stakeholders can have difficulty locating LLRW guidance, some have taken it upon themselves to create their own caches,” the report states. “Some Agreement States maintain their own libraries with LLRW guidance as NRC currently does not have a centralized location where it is housed.”
The IG report suggests centralizing access to the LLRW guidance documents in a single, online location.
“Despite the availability of guidance in ADAMS, according to many stakeholders, the system is difficult to use, ‘cumbersome,’ and ‘unless you know what you are looking for, you may not be aware it [a guidance document] even exists,’” the report states.
NRC staff has identified a task to update and consolidate LLRW guidance, which will be discussed in a future agency paper, according to the IG’s report.
