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. 97-174 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Friday, November 21, 1997)

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AND DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY SIGN

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING ON PILOT PROGRAM FOR EXTERNAL

REGULATION

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of

Energy (DOE) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a

pilot program to test the feasibility and desirability of the NRC

regulating certain DOE facilities.

The document -- recently signed by NRC Chairman Shirley Ann

Jackson and Energy Secretary Federico Pena -- sets out the scope

and objectives of the pilot program, which will be used to

evaluate the costs and potential benefits of NRC regulatory

oversight.

Congress has appropriated funds for the pilot program

separate from the NRC budget for the agency’s existing health and

safety mission.

The pilot program will be conducted initially at three DOE

installations this fiscal year, with the goal of applying it at

six to 10 facilities within two years. The first facilities

slated to participate are the Lawrence Berkeley National

Laboratory (California) and the Radiochemical Engineering

Development Center (Tennessee). A spent fuel storage

installation is currently under consideration and may be selected

later. Activities currently performed at these facilities are

described in an attachment to this press release.

In a letter today to Secretary Pena, Chairman Jackson said

the Commission has requested that, at the end of the Lawrence

Berkeley pilot, the NRC staff draft a revised MOU incorporating

lessons learned for both their signatures. The revised MOU would

allow DOE and NRC to promptly seek enabling legislation granting

the NRC regulatory authority for a specific pilot facility or

class of facilities, based on information gained from this pilot

and each successive pilot in the program.

In December 1995, the Advisory Committee on External

Regulation of Department of Energy Nuclear Safety, charged with

providing advice to DOE on regulating its new and existing
facilities, recommended external regulation of DOE by an

independent regulatory agency. A DOE working group was then

created which recommended the NRC as the external regulator. In

September 1996, NRC addressed this issue as part of the agency’s

strategic assessment and rebaselining initiative, where it

received considerable public support. The NRC has since

announced its willingness to regulate certain DOE facilities, so

long as the necessary legislation and resources are provided, and

so long as clear lines of authority are delineated for the NRC to

exercise over these facilities.

The pilot program will use "simulated regulation," as

defined in the MOU, to test regulatory concepts at DOE facilities

by evaluating them against standards set by the NRC, and will

focus on areas of greatest safety significance. Although each

facility will be evaluated separately, an effort will be made to

address core issues consistently. Significant inspection

findings that impact health and safety will not be cited by NRC,

but rather reported to the DOE for its action. Throughout the

pilot program, DOE will remain responsible for the safety of its

facilities.

The facilities chosen for the pilot program were selected,

in part, because they are:

(1) non-defense facilities;

(2) similar to current NRC licensees;

(3) facilities where NRC has existing regulatory

requirements and guidance that could be applied through

a test of regulatory concepts;

(4) new facilities or existing ones expected to operate for

a long time;

(5) facilities willing to participate in the pilot program.

Public involvement will primarily target organizations and

individuals residing and working near the pilot facilities.

Comments will also be sought at the national level, and through

DOE’s existing stakeholder participation program. At the end of

the pilot program, the agencies will jointly analyze the results

and recommend whether external regulation is believed to be the

best way to ensure the safety of DOE nuclear facilities, protect

the safety and health of DOE workers, and build public trust.

The NRC currently provides technical assistance to DOE

through such programs as the Hanford Tank Waste Remediation

Project and the West Valley Demonstration Project, and regulates

the gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment plants operated by the

US Enrichment Corp, which has leased them from DOE.

A web site has been established for the public to access

ongoing information on the pilot program at

http:/www.nrc.gov/NRC/NMSS/doepilot.html
Copies of the Memorandum of Understanding are available at NRC’s

Public Document Room at 2120 L Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

20037.

#
NATURE OF ACTIVITIES ONGOING AT FACILITIES PROPOSED FOR PILOT

PROGRAM

LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY

This summary was submitted by the Department of Energy (DOE)

Berkeley Site Office. Because of the dynamic variety of

research conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

(LBNL), broad categories of tasks are identified. A specific

commitment has been made not to possess, handle, or store

critical mass quantities of fissile special nuclear material

(SNM). This commitment preludes operation of high risk

facilities, such as power reactors, and precludes classified

Department of Defense projects involving critical mass quantities

of fissile SNM at LBNL.

Since its establishment in 1931 as a single-purpose acceleratorbased University research facility, LBNL has evolved into a multi

program national laboratory with a mission to:

 Perform leading multi-disciplinary research in the energy

sciences, general sciences, and biosciences in a manner that

ensures employee and public safety and the protection of the

environment. The energy sciences include materials

research, chemistry, earth sciences, and energy and

environmental research. The general sciences include

nuclear and high-energy physics and accelerator research.

The biosciences include the life sciences and structural

biology research.

 Develop and operate unique national experimental facilities,

for use by qualified investigators from around the world.

These facilities include the Advanced Light Source, the 88-

inch Cyclotron, the National Center for Electron Microscopy,

and the National Tritium Labeling Facility.

 Educate and train future generations of scientists and

engineers. Over 440 graduate students pursue research at

LBNL, with about 100 students receiving advanced degrees

each year. Pre-college programs are conducted for science

educators and students.

 Foster productive relationships with industry. The Center

for Advanced Materials, the Center for X-Ray Optics, and the

California Institute for Energy Efficiency are examples of

collaborations with industry. Technology transfer programs

promote the application of research results.
To support the national infrastructure for fundamental science

and engineering research, LBNL provides a range of unique

research facilities and centers to investigators from industry,

universities, and government. In fiscal year (FY) 1992, LBNL

had over 200 facility users and signed 43 user agreements, for a

total of $3.3 million. The major national facilities available

to qualified users include:

 The Advanced Light Source (ALS) which provides photon beams

of unprecedented brightness and coherence and with

picosecond time structure. The Injector was commissioned in

FY 1992 and the storage ring was commissioned in FY 1993.

The facility began operation in the fall of 1993.

 The 88-inch Cyclotron provides light ions, polarized protons

and deuterons, and intense and high-charge-state beams of

heavy ions (up to krypton) at energies up to about 35 MeV

per nucleon. The cyclotron facility has experimental areas

for conducting nuclear science experiments, as well as

research in other areas such as life sciences, atomic

physics, and radiation damage in semiconductors.

 The National Center for Electron Microscopy consists of the

High Voltage Electron Microscope which operates at up to 1.5

MeV (the highest energy in the United States); the Atomic

Resolution Microscope offers 1.5-angstrom resolution; and

analytical microscopes and support facilities. An upgrade

of the facility is planned.

 The National Tritium Labeling Facility provides advanced

instrumentation to investigators needing high-specific

activities of tritiated compounds as tracers in chemical and

biomedical research.

In addition to these national facilities, other research

facilities involved in collaborative research include the

Center for Computational Seismology, the Sky Simulator, the

Mobile Window Thermal Test Facility, and the Low Background

Counting Facility. The Laboratory has established

programmatic research centers with the specific objectives

of fostering collaborative research with industrial and

educational institutions. These Centers include, for

example, the Center for Advanced Materials, the Human Genome

Center, the Center for X-Ray Optics, the Center for

Computational Seismology, the Center for Building Sciences,

and the Center for Isotope Geochemistry. In addition, at

LBNL, radiochemical and radiobiological studies are

performed in many laboratories in a controlled environment

and typically research projects use extremely small

(millicurie) quantities of a large number of radionuclides.

At the accelerator facilities, radiation fields are well

characterized and controlled.
 A new Hazardous Waste Handling Facility (HWHF) has replaced

the existing HWHF. The new HWHF is located at the east end

of the site and is built to meet the latest waste management

requirements incorporating improved facility safety design

for worker and environmental protection and complete

multiple waste-stream capability.

Some examples of anticipated future activities and facilities at

LBNL include:

a. Human Genome Laboratory

The Human Genome Laboratory will be a large three-story

building located near the Biomedical Laboratory and the Cell

Culture Laboratory. This state-of-the-art molecular

genetics research facility will contain open laboratory

areas furnished with modular wet benches and desks. Support

facilities, including cold rooms, darkrooms, cell tissue

rooms, autoclaves, and laboratories for radiological work,

robotics, instrumentation and computation, will be adjacent

to the laboratory area.

b. Chemical Dynamics Research Laboratory

Located in a new three-story large building adjacent to the

ALS, the Chemical Dynamics Research Laboratory (CDRL) will

be a state-of-the-art national facility for chemicaldynamics research using laser and synchrotron radiation.

The laboratory includes an infrared free-electron laser, ALS

beamlines optimized for chemical sciences research, advanced

lasers and molecular-beam apparatus, universal-particle mass

detectors, computer-based modeling systems, and auxiliary

instrumentation. The building includes eight support

laboratories, and 40 offices.

c. Building Technology Initiative

A new light laboratory and office building, the Energy and

Environment Facility, will support Energy and Environment

Division programs in building energy conservation, solar

heat technologies, electrochemical energy storage, and

thermal energy storage. In progress is a conceptual design

for a building to provide offices and laboratory space for

Environmental Protection; Occupational Safety; Radiation

Assessment; Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) Training,

and EH&S Division Administration.

The pilot program at LBNL will begin one week after the

Memorandum of Understanding is signed.

RADIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT CENTER
The Radiochemical Engineering Development Center (REDC) is the

production, storage, and distribution center for the DOE heavyelement research program. The facility, composed of two

buildings adjacent to the High Flux Isotope Reactor, processes

irradiated fuel elements and targets for DOE programs. Base

funding comes from Energy Research, with supplemental funding

coming from Defense Programs and Environmental Management. The

Transuranium Element Program processes irradiated targets to

chemically separate and purify berkelium, californium,

einsteinium, and fermium for shipment to the research community

and other end users. The Mark 42 Processing Program entails

processing ten Mark 42 assemblies, which were irradiated at the

Savannah River Site in the early 1980s, to recover plutonium-242,

americium-243, and curium-244. One assembly per year is

processed, with the radionuclides being shipped to Los Alamos

National Laboratory for a classified end use. One of the twostory buildings contains three hot cells dedicated to target

fabrication, four for chemical processing, and one each for

analytical sample analysis and waste-handling. The other

building contains six heavily shielded hot cells, one unshielded

hot cell, and a water-filled pool, used as a storage basin for

fabricated neutron sources.

The pilot program at REDC will begin five months after the start

of the LBNL pilot, in order to take advantage of the experience

gained at the latter facility.