Waste Confidence Still On Track

NRC Commissioner William Ostendorff maintained confidence yesterday that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Waste Confidence rulemaking will go out for final publication in the fall, he said during a presentation at the EPRI Low-Level Waste Conference in Orlando. The NRC announced earlier this year that a final ruling for Waste Confidence would come no later than Oct. 3, a date that would correspond with Ostendorff’s comments. “I just had a briefing with Commissioner Apostlakis on where we stand on this rule,” Ostendorff said.  “I am very confident that staff will come back this fall and be in a position for us to go out for publication.” Originally, the schedule had called for the release of the final ruling in September of 2014, but the government shutdown last year caused delays in the public meeting schedule causing several meetings to be rescheduled.