The deadline to comment on proposed changes to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rules for power reactors transitioning to decommissioning is June 13.
The NRC has already received 178 comments on the issue.
An NRC preliminary draft regulatory analysis for the decommissioning rulemaking was filed in the Federal Register in May. It provides options and cost and benefit analyses for issues to be covered in the rulemaking, including decommissioning trust funds, emergency preparedness, and physical security.
The NRC directed its staff to complete the rulemaking by early 2019.
The rulemaking is intended to address issues including: lessons learned from plants that have already gone through the decommissioning process; the advisability of requiring a licensee’s post-shutdown decommissioning activities report to be approved by the NRC; the appropriateness of maintaining the three existing options for decommissioning; and the appropriate role of state and local governments and other stakeholders in the process.
Shut-down reactors generally remain subject to many of the same NRC requirements as operating reactors, even though they pose lower safety and security dangers. Operators today must receive exemptions for reduced requirements for physical security and other operational matters on nuclear plants undergoing decommissioning.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee delayed a nomination hearing for three proposed Nuclear Regulatory Commission commissioners to next Tuesday.
The hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday. The committee did not say why it postponed the meeting.
When the committee does convene the hearing, it will consider the Trump administration’s proposal to nominate Annie Caputo and David Wright to fill two vacant NRC seats, plus renominate current NRC Chair Kristine Svinicki for another five-year term on the commission and to remain in the leadership spot. The commission currently has three members, which is the legal minimum required to conduct business.
Svinicki, a commission member since 2008 who was appointed chair soon after Trump took office, is rounding out a term set to expire June 30. She is the only current NRC commissioner whose term would expire this year. Without Senate action, NRC would lack a quorum by the end of the month.
From The Wires
From the Australian Broadcasting Corp.: South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill declares plans for a nuclear waste disposal facility in the state are dead.
From Energy Voice: The contractor for cleanup of the Dounreay nuclear site in Scotland has filed notice of the third and final phase of work, encompassing decommissioning of the facility’s shaft and silo and other operations.
From HealthCareBusiness (by way of GazetteXtra): SHINE Medical Technologies plans to build a prototype facility for production of medical isotopes while it addresses funding challenges for the full site in Janesville, Wi.
