Numerous changes are coming to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s reactor licensing as the agency proposed an overhaul of regulatory modifications to update decades-old procedures, it said last week.
But a nuclear watchdog group countered that the industry-friendly changes are chiefly politically driven,
NRC said in a July 1 press release that the changes will modernize reactor licensing, oversight and siting practices of nuclear power plants. These sweeping changes were proposed on the same day as the agency announced a proposal to move away from the radiation protection safety principle “as low as reasonably achievable” – or ALARA.
Ho Nieh, NRC chair, said in a media roundtable that Exchange Monitor attended that this comprehensive rulemaking is separate from the Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations Part 53 and Part 57 rulemakings, and will update the regulations currently in place.
The proposed changes would take a risk-informed, performance-based approach to updating regulations “across virtually every stage of a plant’s lifecycle—from initial design approvals and construction through operation, license renewal, and decommissioning,” NRC said.
“They [the current regulations] have not kept pace with new technologies,” Nieh said. “These rules were developed six to seven decades ago and were really put in place to license legacy reactors that are operating today…we’re updating all of those rules to really take into account the new technologies and the needs of our country when it comes to safe nuclear energy.”
According to the 553-page pre-published Federal Register notice, NRC is proposing to amend its regulations to allow for construction of specific structures, systems and components to be completed under a general license once the construction application is docketed.
NRC said changing the definition of “construction” within its regulations would provide applicants more flexibility to build those safety parts, when justified, at the site prior to issuing a license. Those safety components built without NRC authorization could still be subjected to additional requirements, according to the document.
The proposed rulemaking will allow for increased enrichment levels up to 10% for low-enriched uranium at fuel facilities, Nieh told reporters. The 20-year license renewal would be changed to a 40-year license renewal period, the NRC chair added.
Dave Kraft, the director of Chicago-based nuclear watchdog organization Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) told Exchange Monitor Thursday the rulemaking was a further effort of NRC trying to deregulate its own rules. NEIS said the changes are primarily politically-driven as opposed to science or technology.
“This rulemaking and the other hundreds of pages of proposed rulemakings on other issues (radiation standards, NEPA) , such as the EO14300 ‘modernization of Radiation Protection Rules’ is part of a deliberate tsunami of information that an ill-informed and resource challenged public cannot possibly be expected to digest and challenge in the time allotted for comment,” Kraft said via email.
“It’s just another NRC check-box exercise, followed by the implementation of a heavy-handed political and industry-driven agenda,” Kraft concluded.
NEIS, along with other environmental groups, plan to comment on this rulemaking when it becomes public, Kraft said.
