July 20, 2014

NRC Will Revisit Spent Fuel Storage Casks CoC Regulations

By ExchangeMonitor

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will consider six points raised by a petition sent on behalf of the Nuclear Energy Institute concerning the issuance of certificates of compliance for spent fuel storage casks, according to a posting in the Federal Register last week. NEI filed the petition in 2012 in hopes that the NRC would take a more risk-informed update to the regulations for the spent fuel storage casks’ CoCs. The six points under consideration by the NRC would help create a consistent and more efficient timeframe to the issuance of licenses for the storage casks, NEI said in its petition.

The six items for rulemaking consideration include: Adding a new rule for CoC format and content to enable better clarity; Adding backfit protection to CoC holders so it is applicable to CoC holders in addition to licensees; Deleting the requirement for the review of the cask Safety Evaluation Report; Clarifying the requirement to review various plans and programs such as emergency and training programs; Revising the requirement for cask making so that marking the empty weight on each storage cask is not needed; and expanding the scope of activities for which criticality monitoring is not required.

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