The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering an initial request for regulatory relief from a spent fuel storage licensee during the COVID-19 pandemic.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy on April 30 asked the NRC for a 60-day extension to submit a license renewal application for its independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) in Morris, Ill. The application must otherwise be filed by May 31 – two years before the license expires on May 31, 2022.
“The reason for requesting this exemption is because key technical staff working to complete the majority of the reviews and updates to license renewal documents, including the Morris Operation Consolidated Safety Analysis Report (CSAR), are affected by a combination of state issued restrictions from the current COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) and GEH ‘s worker protection protocols associated the COVID-19 pandemic,” Scott Murray, GE Hitachi manager for facility licensing, stated in a letter to the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. “These restrictions have caused reduced staffing, impacted work schedules and limited facility and information access necessary to prepare the renewal application by the prescribed date.”
In the letter, Murray committed the company to filing the application no later than July 31 of this year. The license could be renewed for up to 40 years.
The Morris Operation is a wet pool ISFSI with 772 tons of used fuel from multiple nuclear power plants. The location was intended to house a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant that never operated.
There is no set timeline for a decision on the schedule delay, but the NRC is expediting its reviews of such requests during the public health emergency, a spokesman said Friday. All such measures are intended to be temporary.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has in recent months offered licensees for nuclear power plants and other operations expedited consideration of relief measures that might be necessary during the federal public health emergency declared in January. That has included exemptions to the work-hour limits for power reactor personnel and temporary delays for requirements such as medical exams and training for workers.
Relief can come in three forms: exemptions from NRC regulations and amendments to licenses; discretion on citing licensees for violations of rules; and emergency relief.
As of Friday, the NRC had not publicly listed any exemption requests from its spent nuclear fuel transportation and storage licensees.
The NRC last year counted roughly 80 independent spent fuel storage installations in 35 states.
Agency officials on Friday morning held an hourlong call with nuclear industry representatives and other stakeholders to discuss the options for ISFSI licensees to request regulatory relief during the health crisis.
Relief submissions are likely in the next couple weeks, according to Bruce Montgomery, director for decommissioning and used fuel at the Nuclear Energy Institute. He said licensees are likely to apply for exemptions or amendments rather than enforcement discretion.
One likely need is to defer annual physicals for certain personnel, said former NRC staffer Mike Callahan, representing the Decommissioning Plant Coalition. “The reason that’s an issue is that so many doctors are unable to leave their emergency duties or to open their offices for those physicals,” he said during the call.
