The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a recent vote gave agency staff permission to start work on a proposed rulemaking that would require licensees shipping highly-radioactive materials to notify tribal governments about such shipments.
NRC’s five-member executive committee voted unanimously Oct. 17 to approve the proposed rulemaking activity, according to agency documents published Thursday.
The staff proposal, sent to the commission in August, would require licensees moving category 1 radioactive materials through indigenous territory to give tribal governments a four-day advance notice before starting a shipment. Current regulations only mandate such notice be given to state governments.
According to NRC, category 1 materials encompass radioactive sources that would be “likely to cause permanent injury” to a person handling them for more than a few minutes, if not safely or securely managed.
Both tribes and states receive advance notice about shipments of irradiated reactor fuel and nuclear waste under existing regulations.
NRC chair Christopher Hanson said in comments accompanying his vote that the proposed rulemaking “not only ensures consistency across regulations, but also provides parity between Tribes and States.
“This rulemaking recognizes the interest of sovereign Tribal governments in being informed of activities occurring on Tribal reservations,” Hanson said.
In his own comments, Commissioner Jeff Baran called the current regulations an “inequitable discrepancy” and agreed with Hanson that the new rulemaking would ensure “parity” between tribes and states.
The proposed rulemaking activity comes after the Tribal Radioactive Materials Transport Committee, which represents 20 tribal nations, petitioned NRC in December 2020 to update its waste shipment regulations.
According to the proposal, NRC staff needs around 10 months — until around September 2023 — to put together a draft rulemaking. A final rule could be ready another 10 months after the draft is approved, staff said.
