SAFESTOR Under Review?

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Cahir Allison Macfarlane indicated yesterday during a Commission briefing on nuclear plant decommissioning a willingness to re-look at the reasoning behind the SAFESTOR regulations in what could be a subtle beginning to changes behind the decommissioning process. Under the SAFESTOR regulation, reactor sites sit ‘moth-balled’ for a period up to 60 years to enable radioactive materials to cool. The reduction in radioactivity results in a decreased dose to workers dismantling the plant, as well as a reduction in waste material needed for disposal.

Macfarlane questioned a panel of NRC staff members responsible for decommissioning activities on whether improvements in decommissioning techniques have reduced worker dose, which is a fact, according to Bruce Watson, chief of the NRC’s reactor decommissioning branch of the Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs. “The dismantling techniques have improved dramatically,” Watson said during the briefing. “I think at Maine Yankee they used a slurry of grip-blasting for cutting metal underwater, that is now a mechanical process done underwater. That is being done at Zion. All of these contribute to lowering dose. It does not contribute to the minimization of waste, but it does significantly lower the dose.” Macfarlane responded to this by saying, “That makes me think that maybe we should be re-thinking these SAFESTOR numbers, if they are truly based on protecting workers. I would be interested in re-visiting this a bit, if we could learn more about this.”