Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
3/27/2015
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released this week its proposed 10.CFR.61 rulemaking, including a new three-tiered approach to evaluate performance assessment periods for low-level waste disposal sites, according to a posting in the Federal Register. Part 61 proposed rule contains all of the Commission’s direction from last year regarding the three-tiered approach, which includes a time of compliance of 1000 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 LLRW for disposal based on either the results of these technical analyses or the existing LLRW classification requirements. The rulemaking will be open to a 120 day comment period before the introduction of a final rule.
The NRC plans to conduct public meetings throughout the 120 day comment period in states that host disposal facilities, although specifics have not been announced yet. Following the comment period, the final rule will go to the Commission for a vote approximately 12 months later. The rule would not go into effect, however, until a year after the final rule is published. Agreement states would have three years to adopt compatible regulations. Should each step go according to plan, licensees in agreement states would not have to meet requirements until 2021.
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 NRC staff’s previous draft rulemaking would require low-level radioactive waste disposal sites to perform a site-specific analysis to prove their site was protective of public health and safety for 10,000 years, down from a period of compliance of 20,000 years of previous drafts. The draft rulemaking also previously called for a two-tier analysis with the first period covering 10,000 years and the second period covering long-lived isotopes.
