A proposed change to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s nuclear decommissioning rulemaking, which includes updates to tracking requirements for low-level nuclear waste shipments, is scheduled to go live for public comment this week, an agency spokesperson said this week.
A public comment request on the proposed decommissioning rule was published Thursday in the Federal Register. After the comment period expires May 17, agency staff should “draft a final rule for Commission consideration,” an NRC spokesperson told RadWaste Monitor Monday. The commissioners approved the proposed rule on a 2-1 vote in November.
The proposed rules changes are broadly aimed at streamlining the decommissioning process for nuclear plant operators by lowering some regulatory barriers deemed unnecessary for such activities. Among the proposals, NRC staff suggested changing its current requirements for tracking low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) shipments.
As it stands, the agency requires operators to track shipments and notify the commission if the waste packages don’t reach their final destination within 20 days. The proposed decommissioning rule, if it becomes final, would extend that window to 45 days.
The proposed rule has been the subject of some controversy, both within the commission and on Capitol Hill.
During a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing in December, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) derided the rule, saying that the agency “has decided that the best way to shield itself from criticism around the decommissioning process is to take itself out of the process.”
Markey’s concerns were echoed earlier by Commissioner Jeff Baran, who voted against the proposed rule in November. Baran called the rule “laissez-faire” at the time, and said that it tipped the regulatory scales towards industry and away from NRC.
Commission chairman Christopher Hanson defended the rulemaking in a November interview with RadWaste Monitor, saying that it is “primarily, focused on safety.”
As NRC prepares to put the proposed rule on an open forum, the agency on Feb. 25 issued an exemption to its LLRW regs to Holtec International for its decommissioning work at Indian Point Energy Center in New York, according to a Federal Register notice.
Holtec, which plans to ship Indian Point’s LLRW to Waste Control Specialists’ (WCS) disposal facility in west Texas, asked the agency in November to extend the deadline to 45 days. NRC issued a similar extension to Holtec in October for Massachusetts’ Pilgrim plant, which the company is also dismantling.
Holtec has said that a 20-day window is adequate for truck shipments, but waste that goes to WCS travels by rail — a process that the company said has taken up to 56 days in the past. Both Pilgrim and Indian Point do not have direct rail access, Holtec has said, so waste shipments must be loaded on trucks and taken to rail yards, where they may idle for some time as a train is loaded.
As part of its contract with WCS for handling Indian Point’s LLRW, the Dallas-based waste disposal company provides Holtec with “onsite support to ensure packaging and shipment arrangements are made in accordance with state and federal guidelines,” Friday’s Register notice said. WCS also provides the company with an online tracking portal, and daily reports of railcar locations are sent to Holtec’s waste manager at Indian Point, the notice said.
Meanwhile, it could be a while before a final rule, including the LLRW tracking change, goes into effect. An NRC spokesperson told RadWaste Monitor Monday that it is “difficult to say” when the rulemaking would take effect if it is approved, since the commission might take some time to review it.
