The state of Nevada has requested that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission postpone an upcoming meeting of the advisory panel on management of the Licensing Support Network, the repository of documents on the agency’s review of the license application for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
Last month, the NRC announced a Jan. 30-31 meeting of the Licensing Support Network Advisory Review Panel (LSNARP) to consider reconstitution of the document repository. The system was shut down in 2011 after the Obama administration halted work on the Nevada disposal site, but about 3.7 million documents remain stored in the LSN Library within the NRC’s ADAMS online document database.
With the Trump administration aiming to resume the Yucca licensing process, the NRC on Dec. 21 issued a report laying out options for rebuilding or replacing the Licensing Support Network. The options are: keeping the existing network in ADAMS and sharing additional documents by means such as mail or email; using the searchable ADAMS LSN Library; moving the library to the Cloud; and rebuilding the network.
“Nevada has a serious concern about the preliminary agenda and timing of the scheduled meeting, given the very recent issuance of the NRC Staff’s unsolicited LSN replacement/reconstitution options paper,” Robert Halstead, executive director of Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects, wrote in a Dec. 22 letter to Andrew Bates, LSNARP chairman.
The state of Nevada, and potentially other LSNARP members other than NRC staff, had not been informed until Dec. 18 that the agency was carrying out the options analysis, Halstead wrote. Nevada and other panel members might have their own recommendations on managing the LSN, he stated, but there is not enough time for such a process – or even to analyze the alternatives readied by NRC staff.
Based on that, the upcoming LSNARP meeting should be delayed until all members are queried on whether they might have their own recommendations, according to Halstead. His letter did not recommend a specific date.
The NRC could respond to Halstead’s letter by this week, a spokesperson said Friday. No other LSNARP members have submitted similar requests.
