Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/30/2014
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will exclude NRC-conducted force-on-force inspections from the normal security requirements and inspections for decommissioning plants. The unanimous vote from the Commission, the results of which were released this week, helps address an omission from the 10.CFR.Part 73 rule update completed by the NRC in 2009, but the decision may only add fuel to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer’s (D-Calif.) criticism of what she deems the NRC’s softened stance on security at decommissioning sites. The NRC has been operating without force-on-force inspections at decommissioning sites for some time, so there should be no changes to the current regulations of security at decommissioning sites.
A majority of the commissioners cited the reduction in risk a decommissioning site experiences when it enters shutdown. “The Commission agrees with the staff’s conclusion that NRC-conducted force-on-force inspections during decommissioning are not warranted because the current security inspection program provides adequate oversight and verification of the security posture given a reduction in both risk and the number of target sets at decommissioning power reactors,” the Commission’s Staff Related Memorandum said. “The Commission has approved the staff’s recommendation to continue the current practice of security inspections for decommissioning power reactors which do not include NRC-conducted force-on-force inspections.”
The decreased risks as a plant enters decommissioning are also the basis for a majority of exemptions granted by the NRC on security and safety regulations. These exemptions, though, have been a cause for concern for Boxer, who has introduced the Safe and Secure Decommissioning Act of 2014, which would prohibit the NRC from issuing exemptions from its emergency response or security requirements for spent fuel stored at nuclear reactors that have permanently shut down until all of the spent nuclear fuel stored at the site has been moved into dry casks. The NRC has maintained that the exemptions are based on site-specific technical and safety considerations. “The licensee’s technical and regulatory evaluations provide the bases for their selection of the appropriate regulatory provision and process,” the NRC Staff’s SECY paper on security inspections said. “With reduced radiological risk for a power reactor undergoing decommissioning after a certain period of time, the NRC has historically been open to relaxation of security requirements and has adjusted its security inspection program accordingly.”
