U.S.
A senior Nuclear Regulatory Commission official said Thursday the agency has begun preparing for a potential workload shift, as it expects two license applications this year for companies looking to operate interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel.
NRC is expecting an application from Texas-based Waste Control Specialists in April and another a few months later from Holtec International for a site in New Mexico. The agency has not budgeted for those reviews in the current fiscal year but has requested $1.4 million for the WCS application in fiscal 2017. NRC commissioners and officials have explained that they will be able to shift agency workloads to make room for both potential reviews.
Mark Lombard, deputy director for NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, in a telephone interview Thursday said the first cut would be reviews for international spent fuel transportation packages and storage systems. Companies like Holtec International, NAC International, and AREVA TN rely on NRC to sign off on these systems when selling to the international community. Lombard said NRC has informed the vendors of the potential workload shift.
“We’ve already started planning for it,” Lombard said of the WCS application.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Monday by email the work reprioritization will be driven by a new procedure implemented through Project Aim, the agency’s re-evaluation of its workload and environment. The newly revised “add/shed/defer” procedure, Sheehan wrote, will be used to rank the priority of the new “emergent” operations against the recently completed “common prioritization” of agency work developed as part of rebaselining under Project Aim.
The NRC license reviews will include safety, technical, and environmental assessments, which are expected to take about three years. However, the review also includes site-specific analysis, which opens the possibility for public objection, which can significantly lengthen the process.
