The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said last weekend that efforts are underway to address concerns over lax security measures for some of its radioactive source licensees.
In an Oct. 2 letter to NRC Chairman Stephen Burns, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for the regulator to suspend its approval of Category 3 radioactive material licenses in light of concerns highlighted recently by a Government Accountability Office (GAO) undercover investigation in which one of three fake companies that applied to obtain a Category 3 radioactive source was granted a license.
The NRC describes Category 3 material as sources that, “if not safely managed or securely protected, could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them or was otherwise in contact with them for some hours.”
A shell company could obtain a license allowing it to purchase multiple Category 3 quantities, which could be aggregated to a Category 2 quantity, or an amount that could be used to build a radiological “dirty bomb,” according to the GAO report.
The same July 2016 report noted the NRC does not require tracking of Category 3 materials in its National Source Tracking System and recommended including those sources in the system.
“I urge the Commission to consider suspending licenses for Category 3 radioactive material until these licenses are monitored by the NRC in a National Source Tracking System,” Schumer said in his letter, adding that “the NRC’s current licensing protocol enables potential misuse of both the purchasing license and the radioactive material.”
NRC spokeswoman Maureen Conley said by email that agency staff “is considering findings from two working groups formed to review GAO’s findings and will present to our management and Commissioners any policy questions that emerge from the reviews, including whether we think changes are needed to the current security and tracking requirements for radioactive materials.”
The working group’s recommendations are due next year.
Conley said that based on data from the last two years, the NRC and its 37 agreement states – which are given regulatory authority to issue radioactive material licenses – provide approximately 1,000 new radioactive material licenses annually. Roughly 20,000 materials licenses are now in effect – 85 percent in the agreement states and 15 percent in NRC states.
Licensees may construct or decommission commercial reactors, use nuclear materials and waste, and construct and close waste disposal sites.
The regulator on Oct. 5 acknowledged receipt of Schumer’s letter and replied, “Please be assured that we are working on a response, and a reply will be forwarded to you as soon as possible.” As of this week, the agency is still working on a response.
In a July 15 letter to Burns and Commissioner Kristine Svinicki, fellow Commissioner Jeff Baran also suggested that Category 3 materials be considered under stricter requirements. He requested an evaluation of the pros and cons of including Category 3 sources in the national tracking system and adopting different methods of requiring transferors of those sources to verify the validity of transferee licenses.
Responding to Baran’s recommendation, an Oct. 18 memo from Annette Vietti-Cook, secretary of the Commission, directed staff to evaluate whether the NRC should revise its regulations for source accountability and to submit a notation vote paper evaluating those pros and cons, as well as related items such as “a vulnerability assessment which identifies changes in the threat environment between 2009 and today that argue in favor of or against expansion of the NSTS to include Category 3 sources.”
“In conducting these evaluations, the staff should assess the risks posed by the aggregation of Category 3 sources into Category 2 quantities and consider the current views of our Agreement States partners,” the letter said. The evaluation and notation vote paper is expected to be presented within 10 months.
The NRC will also submit to Congress the results of a review of the effectiveness of its physical protection requirements for Category 1 and 2 radioactive materials by the end of this year. The review was mandated by the 2015 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, which called for a report evaluating whether federal regulations “are adequate to protect high-risk radiological material.”
According to the NRC, Category 1 sources are those that if not safely managed, would likely cause permanent injury to their handler; Category 2 sources are those that could cause permanent injury.
