PHOENIX – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering merging two long-running efforts to update federal regulations on disposal of radioactive waste, a senior official said here Monday.
Agency staff is currently determining the paths forward for both a potential rulemaking on Greater-Than-Class C Waste and the continuing Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Rulemaking, according to Patricia Holahan, director of the NRC Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs.
“As part of that, consideration will be given to potentially combining the Greater-Than-Class C and low-level radioactive waste rulemaking for efficiency,” she said during a panel discussion at the annual Waste Management Symposia.
Holahan noted that GTCC waste is already covered under Part 61 of the Code of Federal Regulations, on licensing requirements for land disposal of radioactive waste, meaning it would be addressed in the other rulemaking.
“It’s more efficient because it will change some of the same parts, and so we could do it simultaneously,” she said.
Staff this summer will provide the NRC commissioners with a report laying out different options for moving forward with the rules proceedings, Holahan said, without discussing how the combined effort might function.
The “Part 61” rulemaking was initiated in 2009 with the intent of updating federal regulations on land disposal of low-level radioactive waste. The key issue was to address particular waste streams, notably depleted uranium from commercial uranium enrichment operations, that were left out of the original rule.
Staff in September 2016 submitted a proposed final rule to the commission. Among its major components: a compliance period of 1,000 years, or 10,000 years for facilities with significant amounts of long-lived radionuclides, for all current and future low-level waste disposal facilities; directing disposal sites to prepare new technical analyses addressing safety of “inadvertent intruders; and requiring updates to technical analyses at the point of site closure.
A year later, the commission directed significant changes to the regulatory updates. They included: applying the new rules only to facilities that intend to take large amounts of depleted uranium and re-applying a 1,000-year compliance period from the proposed rule. An updated final draft has not been returned to the commission.
There are four licensed commercial facilities for disposal of low-level waste: EnergySolutions locations in South Carolina and Utah, Waste Control Specialists in Texas, and US Ecology’s operation within the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
Meanwhile, the commission is still considering the draft regulatory basis for a possible rulemaking on GTCC waste, which under current rules – minus a commission exemption – requires geologic disposal. However, no geologic repository is available.
In the document, issued last July, staff determined that most GTCC waste types could be safely disposed of in near-surface facilities, and that most of that material could be regulated by the NRC’s agreement states. The report offered three options: keeping the existing rules; issuing a new guidance, which would not update current regulations but could help parties file future applications for disposal by means other than a geologic repository; and a full rulemaking to develop regulations specifically for placing GTCC waste in a low-level radioactive waste facility. The commission has not yet selected one.
“Based on the comments we’ve received on the draft reg basis, staff is considering options for proceeding with the Greater-Than-Class C and Transuranic waste,” Holahan said.
The Department of Energy is responsible for disposal of GTCC and the similar GTCC-like waste. Including waste yet to be generated, the total U.S. stockpile is expected to grow to about 12,000 cubic meters. The waste type encompasses activated metals from nuclear power reactors, sealed sources, waste from manufacturing of radioisotope products, and material from DOE’s West Valley Demonstration Project cleanup in New York state.
