The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a March 30 “virtual meeting” to discuss the results of its latest performance assessment for URENCO USA’s uranium enrichment plant in Eunice, N.M.
The assessment period covered the entirety of 2018 and 2019. Agency staff determined URENCO did not need to make improvements in five operational spheres: safety operations, safeguards, radiological controls, facility support, and other areas.
“Overall, the staff determined that URENCO USA continued to conduct activities safely and securely and in a manner that protects public health and the environment,” LaDonna Suggs, director of the NRC’s Division of Fuel Facility Inspection, wrote in a March 2 letter to Stephen Cowne, URENCO USA chief nuclear officer and compliance manager.
Suggs said that two incidences of noncompliance with federal nuclear regulations did not represent safety- or security-significant situations relative to the performance assessment.
In June 2018, the agency cited URENCO with a Severity Level III violation for failure to sustain engineered and administrative controls and control systems for “items relied on for safety” (IROFS). Specifically, while filling a cylinder with enriched uranium hexafluoride in September 2017, operators failed to apply the correct IROFS “to limit the risk of a credible high-consequence event.” The event was not safety-significant because no actions were needed to prevent it from happening again, Suggs wrote.
The NRC also cited URENCO with a Severity Level III violation in September 2019. That involved a September 2016 incident in which an employee of a URENCO subcontractor removed a classified item from proper storage and placed it in a co-worker’s lunch box. That person then unknowingly took the item home and did not find it until the following morning. The event was not security-significant because it involved an intentional act by one person rather than insufficient protections by URENCO, according to Suggs.
The NRC could have fined the licensee roughly $35,000 for each event, but no fines were recommended.
URENCO operates the only commercial uranium enrichment facility in the United States for nuclear power plants.
The meeting will feature NRC representatives from the Region II office in Atlanta and officials from URENCO. It will be available via Skype from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time Monday, with NRC officials taking questions following their presentation on the evaluation. A conference line will also be available for anyone without Skype access.
For details on access, contact Brannen J. Adkins, 404-997-4620 or [email protected], or Lindsey Cooke, 404-997-4836 or [email protected].
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission virtual meeting is also planned for March 31 to discuss the performance of Westinghouse Electric’s Columbia, S.C., Fuel Fabrication Plant.
The agency’s performance evaluation covered the plant’s 2019 operations in safety, safeguards, radiological controls, facility support, and other areas. “Overall, the staff determined that CFFF has continued to conduct activities safely and securely, and in a manner that protects public health and the environment,” Suggs wrote in a March 12 letter to plant Manager Mike Annacone.
The NRC considered updating its inspection program for the Westinghouse facility following a series of “reportable and non-reportable” incidents from June to October of last year, Suggs stated. Staff ultimately decided against an adjustment, as the incidents did not rise to the level of being safety- or security-significant.
The Westinghouse plant’s assessment cycle was switched from every 24 months to every 12 months in March 2017, following identification of one “area needing improvement.” In that case, a ventilation scrubber in the facility was found in 2016 to have held roughly 100 kilograms of uranium, more than three times the allowed limit of 29 kilograms for criticality safety. Concerns over the system, which absorbs toxic gases or vapors, led to a three-month suspension in conversion area operations.
The 550,000-square-foot Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility has been producing nuclear fuel for power plants since 1969. In 2014, Westinghouse applied for a 40-year license renewal. The current operations license expires on Sept. 30, 2027.
Following the scrubber incident and other events, NRC staff is redoing a June 2018 determination that there would be no significant environmental impact from license renewal. A draft version of the new environmental assessment, issued in October, came to the same conclusion. The final version is being prepared. “It would be safe to say that a decision is several months away,” according to NRC spokesman Joey Ledford.
The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time, with personnel from NRC Region II and Westinghouse. As with the URENCO meeting, a conference line will also be available. “The NRC is aware of significant community interest in the facility and will schedule an in-person meeting at a more appropriate time,” the agency said in a press release.
Details on Skype access or conference call is available from the NRC by contacting Tom Vukovinsky, 404-997-4622 or [email protected]; or Katherine McCurry, 404-997-4438 or [email protected].
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is not satisfied with Holtec International’s response to a violation of federal regulations in development of a storage system for spent reactor fuel.
The agency issued the notice of violation in August 2019, and the Camden, N.J., energy technology company submitted its response that month.
“The NRC has found your response inadequate, in that, the corrective actions you took in response to the violation, your analysis that serves as part of the basis for your … evaluation, did not fully address the violation,” according to a March 18 letter to Holtec President and CEO Kris Singh from Alayna Pearson, acting chief of the Inspections and Operations Branch within the NRC’s Division of Fuel Management.
Pearson directed Holtec to clarify its original response. That would be used in determining whether the agency needs to take additional enforcement steps, she wrote.
On March 19, a spokesman said Holtec had just received the NRC update and would “provide additional information as requested.”
The NRC issued its original notice of violation in an Aug. 16, 2019, letter that closed out two earlier violations related to updates to the design of a Holtec multipurpose canister for used fuel from nuclear power plants.
The Severity Level IV violation (for issues of more than minor concern) addressed issues under NRC regulations for changes, tests, and experiments with Holtec analyses for potential scratching or gouging on two configurations for its HI-STORM UMAX canister storage system: one with walls 5/8-inch thick walls, the other with half-inch-thick walls.
“The NRC noted the evaluations failed to demonstrate an estimation of gouge sizes was achieved through any identified methodology and that no evaluation was provided to compare the estimated gouge sizes to acceptance criteria for minimum wall thickness, as identified in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section III (or Section XI),” according to the agency’s initial notice.
In an Aug. 29 letter, Holtec Vice President of Quality Mark Soler said the company did not contest the violation, but did attempt to explain the situation.
“The cause of the violation is lack of specificity in our procedural guidance documents,” Soler wrote. “The involved engineers had used engineering judgement as the basis for the conclusion and believed that such conclusion would be concurred by those with a general knowledge of the ASME Code.”
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