NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200

Washington, DC 20555-001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov

Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA

No. 00-123 August 9, 2000

NRC CONSIDERS CHANGES TO REGULATIONS ON ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS

FOR POSSIBLE HIGH-LEVEL WASTE REPOSITORY HEARING

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering changing its regulations to provide

additional details on how documents should be placed on Internet web sites for a possible hearing

associated with the license application review for a future high-level radioactive waste repository. The

proposed changes also specify the time when participants must certify that they have placed all the

required documents on their web sites.

The agency’s current regulations require all potential participants in the license application

review process to make their documents available in electronic form through participants’ individual

web sites on a Licensing Support Network (LSN). The documents that will have to be made available

on this network will consist of the information that a party, potential party or interested government

participant intends to rely on in the licensing proceeding for a high-level waste repository, and certain

other relevant information. The websites will be accessible by members of the public.

The current regulations also specify that the Department of Energy (DOE) - - the party that

might submit an application to NRC for a waste repository license -- and the NRC must make their

documentary material available in electronic form beginning 30 days after DOE submits its site

recommendation decision to the President. All other participants must make their documents available

in electronic form no later than 30 days after the date that the repository site selection decision becomes

final after review by Congress.

The revisions would establish the basic structure and design standards for the websites.

Without such standards, there is a potential that the parties and potential parties to a high-level-waste

proceeding may be unable to identify needed documents efficiently and effectively because the system

is slow, cumbersome or unavailable, given the large number of documents and the many users who

might try to access the system.

The individual websites would be accessed through an overarching “LSN site.” Each

participant web site would deliver to Internet users the documents responsive to a query made through

the LSN website. The LSN homepage/web site would also be used to post announcements about the

overall LSN program or items of interest (such as hours of availability and scheduled outages) for the

participant sites.
The LSN Administrator, an NRC official with responsibility for coordinating the functioning of

the electronic network and reporting periodically on its status to the Commission, would have authority

to review participant website designs to verify compliance with the basic design standards, including

the authority to allow variances from the standards. This person would also have authority to issue

guidance to the LSN participants on how they might best meet the design standards.

The proposed regulations also clarify the time when a responsible official for each participant

would have to certify that, to the best of his or her knowledge, the required documentary material has

been identified and made electronically available. The proposed changes provide that participants

would have to make their certifications at the time specified in the rule for making their documentary

material available.

Although the regulations presently require responsible officials for each participant to update

this certification at 12-month intervals, and require the responsible official for DOE to also update the

certification when the license application is submitted, they do not specify when the initial certification

must be made.

Under the proposed changes, if DOE is unable to provide the initial certification at the

established time -- 30 days after its site recommendation to the President - - then it would have to make

the certification as soon as possible. In addition, DOE would have to submit detailed information on

the circumstances regarding its noncompliance with the deadline, including the type and volume of the

documentary material that it has not made available. DOE would remain under an obligation to

provide access to all the documentary material that is available and that is not identified in its submittal

explaining its noncompliance.

The Commission notes that curtailing the amount of time that the required documentary

material is available on the LSN before submission of the license application would reduce the

potential benefit of the LSN in terms of facilitating an effective and efficient NRC review of the DOE

license application and providing complete document disclosure at the outset of the proceeding.

Interested persons are invited to submit comments on the proposed changes within 45 days after

publication of a Federal Register notice on this subject, expected shortly. Comments may be sent to

the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention:

Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. Comments may also be submitted electronically via the NRC’s

interactive rulemaking website at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov .

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