Karl Herchenroeder
RW Monitor
11/13/2015
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Stephen Burns said Monday that his office is learning from experience and listening to new ideas as it works toward a 2019 rulemaking intended to streamline and improve the decommissioning process. For the rulemaking, NRC staff has said it will focus on a range of issues, such as determining the NRC’s level of involvement in the post-shutdown decommissioning activities reports for closed nuclear reactors, as well as the role of local and state governments in the decommissioning process.
Burns made his comments during the opening panel of the ANS Winter Meeting and Nuclear Technology Expo in Washington, D.C. A major project on the commission’s plate, he said, will be the GAIN Initiative. That initiative, which was announced Nov. 6, will help the commission design a blueprint for “streamlining regulation in a changing environment,” Burns said. Current NRC regulations do not reflect decreased security and safety risks associated with reactor decommissioning, among other issues. The commission has directed staff to improve the effectiveness and transparency of the regulatory process.
“We will adjust the way we do business in order to be the responsible, credible, and independent regulator that stakeholders and the industry need,” Burns said. “To build on our strength of technical competence, the NRC is learning from experience and listening to new ideas, some that don’t come from the NRC.”
The response to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster and the prospect of downsizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission workforce over the next five years were also among the topics Burns touched upon during his presentation.
During the question and answer portion of the session, Burns and the NRC were accused of putting up roadblocks to legislation and initiatives that can be successful in updating the regulatory process.
“It seems perfection is getting in the way of ‘better than what we have now,’” said audience member David Erickson, of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. “How can the NRC address these issues?”
Burns said he rejected the premise of the question and pointed out that the NRC is not a decision-maker on nuclear waste policy issues. He said the NRC is capable of licensing interim storage projects and consolidated sites, but ultimately it does not decide waste policy.
Burns said his office expects a significant amount of decommissioning work in the coming years, as evidenced by the shutdown of Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, the announced closures of the company’s Pilgrim and FitzPatrick facilities, and the shuttering of more than a dozen others in the past decade.
