NRC Re-Opens Part 61 Comment Period

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has reopened the public comment period for the proposed 10.CFR.61 rulemaking, according to a notice in the Federal Register today. Following the release of the proposed rule in March, the NRC conducted a 120-day public comment period that ended on July 24, but the notice says the commission wanted “to allow more time for members of the public to develop and submit their comments.” Comments on the proposed rulemaking are due by Sept. 21, the NRC said.

The proposed revision of the Part 61 system is the latest iteration of the NRC’s Site Specific Assessment (SSA) rulemaking, begun in 2009 to address disposal of large quantities of depleted uranium. The proposed Part 61 rulemaking contains all of the commission’s direction from last year regarding the three-tiered approach, which includes a time of compliance of 1,000 years, a protective assurance analysis from the end of compliance period through 10,000 years, and a qualitative analysis stretching beyond 10,000 years to evaluate long-term risks. New additions to the rule include new analyses that would identify and describe the features of the design and site characteristics that provide defense-in-depth protections and a new requirement to develop site-specific criteria for the future acceptance of low-level radioactive waste for disposal based on either the results of these technical analyses or the existing LLRW classification requirements.