The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in October plans to reorganize its Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS), including combining two divisions.
The reorganization will take effect on Oct. 13, officials said during a meeting Wednesday with nuclear fuel cycle industry stakeholders at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md. It will be headlined by the merger of the NMSS Division of Fuel Cycle Safety, Safeguards, and Environmental Review and the Division of Spent Fuel Management into a single Division of Fuel Management.
Two new “Centers of Excellence” on environmental and financial matters will also be established within NMSS, according to a letter sent Sept. 19 to agreement states to the agency. The centers will be home to resources now spread among three NRC offices. They will join a Center of Excellence on rulemaking within the NMSS Division on Rulemaking, which will be renamed the Division on Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support.
Staff at the industry regulator found the reorganization “will lead to resource savings and anticipated efficiencies in workload distribution, collaboration, knowledge transfer, agility of critical skill sets, decision-making, and cross-office standardization,” the Sept. 19 letter says. That determination was laid out in a May 2019 commission paper on the office reorganization, which has not been made public.
The Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards regulates a long list of nuclear operations, including: production of nuclear fuel; storage, transportation, and disposal of used fuel and high-level waste; and transportation of radioactive materials covered by the Atomic Energy Act. Its operations cover licensing, inspections, and regulatory enforcement, among other work.
The office currently has five divisions. The Division of Spent Fuel Management leads its regulatory work for management of that material, including licensing of interim spent fuel and high-level waste storage facilities. The Division of Fuel Cycle Safety, Safeguards, and Environmental Review oversees safety of fuel cycle and special nuclear material facilities licensed under the 1954 Atomic Energy Act.
