A majority of NRC Commissioners have voted to reduce the standard for the time of compliance in its 10 CFR Part 61 waste classification system, RadWaste Monitor has learned. The new revision would reduce the initial time of compliance for a disposal site to 1,000 years, compared to the 10,000 years proposed by the NRC staff in the rule update. The reduction in the time of compliance follows a lengthy debate over the course of the Part 61 update. Those in favor of the reduction cited the lack of realistic, applicable data that could determine performance out to 10,000 years while those in favor of a longer time frame cited that a quality site would hold up through any time frame.
With all five votes in, the Commission should soon be issuing the Staff Requirements Memorandum, a memo that would tell the staff which direction the rulemaking should take. The SRM is expected “any day now,” according to officials close to the process. The NRC declined to comment on the nature of the votes yesterday.
The proposed revision of the Part 61 system is the latest iteration of the NRC’s Site Specific Assessment (SSA) rulemaking, begun in 2009 to address disposal of large quantities of depleted uranium. The NRC staff’s previous draft rulemaking would require low-level radioactive waste disposal sites to perform a site-specific analysis to prove their site was protective of public health and safety for 10,000 years, down from a period of compliance of 20,000 years of previous drafts. The draft rulemaking also previously called for a two-tier analysis with the first period covering 10,000 years and the second period covering long-lived isotopes.
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