United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20555

Phone 301-415-8200 Fax 301-415-2234

Internet:opa@nrc.gov

No. 99-162 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Wednesday, July 28, 1999)

NRC CONSIDERS CHANGES TO REGULATIONS

FOR SPECIAL NUCLEAR MATERIAL LICENSEES

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering amending its regulations to provide

increased confidence in the safety margin for some facilities licensed under Part 70 of Title 10

of the Code of Federal Regulations that possess and process large quantities of certain types

of uranium and plutonium. The rule does not apply to the U.S. Enrichment Corporation’s

gaseous diffusion plants, which are regulated under Part 76.

The proposed amendments would require affected licensees to analyze their facilities

carefully to identify potential accidents. The licensees would have to take actions to reduce the

likelihood and effects of the postulated accidents if their consequences could exceed specified

criteria. The amendment updates a rule under which licensees generally have operated safely

for many years by clarifying the safety basis used by NRC to license such facilities.

The proposed changes are an outgrowth of an NRC review conducted after a fuel

fabrication facility had a near criticality incident (i.e., a nuclear chain reaction) in May of 1991.

As a result of this review, NRC took a number of steps to improve licensee safety programs,

event reporting to NRC, and regulatory guidance. In addition, NRC concluded in 1993 that, in

order to increase confidence in the safety margin, the regulations should be amended to require

similar licensees to perform an integrated safety analysis. Such an analysis would identify:

(1) Plant and external hazards and their potential for causing accidents;

(2) Potential accident sequences and their likelihood and consequences;

(3) Structures, systems, equipment, components and activities of personnel relied on to

prevent or mitigate potential accidents at the facility.

Licensees have agreed to the need for a formal safety analysis, and some licensees

have committed during the last license renewal to perform such an analysis and submit the

results to NRC for review by a specific date.

The proposed rule represents an extraordinary effort by the NRC and the fuel cycle

industry and other stakeholders over several years that has included review of two draft rules, a

petition for rulemaking, several public meetings and workshops, and Commission briefings by

NRC staff and representatives of the fuel cycle industry. Since August 1998, NRC has used an

enhanced public process to identify areas of mutual concern and those where agreement could

be reached in whole or in part. To facilitate this process, the Commission held two public

briefings, and the staff held four public workshops and made extensive use of the NRC’s

Internet website to disseminate information and solicit input from stakeholders. These efforts

have significantly narrowed the differences between the staff and stakeholders on the proposed

amendments to Part 70. In addition, during the public comment period on the proposed rule
and while finalizing the rule, the staff intends to conduct additional public meetings and use the

NRC website for information exchange.

The regulations would apply to licensees that are authorized to possess a “critical mass”

of “special nuclear material” and that are engaged in one of the following activities: enriched

uranium processing, fabrication of uranium fuel or fuel assemblies, uranium enrichment (other

than USEC’s gaseous diffusion plants), enriched uranium hexafluoride conversion, plutonium

processing, fabrication of mixed-oxide fuel or fuel assemblies, scrap recovery of special nuclear

material, or any other activity involving a critical mass of special nuclear material that the

Commission determines could significantly affect public health and safety.

“Special nuclear material” refers to plutonium, uranium-233, uranium enriched in the

isotope 233 or in the isotope 235, and any other material that the Commission determines to be

special nuclear material, but does not include natural uranium. The term also refers to any

material artificially enriched by any of these materials.

For the purposes of this rulemaking, a “critical mass” of special nuclear material

contains more than: 700 grams of uranium-235; 520 grams of uranium-233; 450 grams of

plutonium; 1,500 grams of uranium-235, if no uranium enriched to more than 4 percent by

weight of uranium-235 is present; 450 grams of any combination thereof; or one-half such

quantities if massive moderators or reflectors made of graphite, heavy water, or beryllium may

be present.

Currently the NRC’s regulation of licensees authorized to possess special nuclear

material concentrates on protecting public health and safety during nuclear activities conducted

under normal operations. The proposed amendments would supplement NRC’s regulatory

framework to address explicitly the potential exposure of workers or members of the public to

radiation and hazardous chemicals as a result of accidents.

The proposed new regulations would require licensees to perform an integrated safety

analysis, as described above, which would include identification of the radiological and related

chemical consequences of credible potential accidents at their facilities. A plan for performing

the analysis would have to be submitted within six months of the effective date of the

amendments to the regulations, and the analysis would have to be conducted within four years

of the effective date of the rule. A summary of the analysis would have to be submitted at the

time of license application. All related documentation on-site and at the NRC would have to be

maintained on a regular basis.

Licensees further would have to establish a safety program that provides reasonable

assurance of protection against accidents that could result in releases of radioactive materials

or certain related hazardous chemicals in excess of NRC criteria.

Licensees also would have to ensure that structures, systems, equipment and

components relied on for safety are designed, constructed and maintained so that they will

perform their safety function. Licensee personnel would have to be trained and tested to

confirm their qualifications to perform their safety duties. Appropriate management measures

would have to be established to ensure that items relied on for safety are available and reliable

to perform their function when needed.
Other provisions of the proposed revisions to the regulation are discussed in a Federal

Register notice to be issued shortly. The staff intends to conduct public meetings to discuss

the proposed rule and related guidance which will be announced in the Federal Register and

on NRC’s website.

Interested persons are invited to submit comments, within 75 days of the Federal

Register notice, to the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,

Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. Comments

may also be submitted electronically through the NRC web site at

http://ruleforum.llnl.gov/cgi-bin/rulemake.

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