NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

 Office of Public Affairs Telephone 301/415-820

 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov

 Web Site: www.nrc.gov

No. 03-075 June 5, 2003

NRC AMENDS EVENT NOTIFICATION REGULATIONS

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is amending its notification and reporting

requirements for safety and security events involving licensed nuclear facilities and the

transportation of certain types of nuclear material.

In a Federal Register notice published today, the NRC is issuing a final rule changing

several safety-related reporting requirements for independent spent fuel storage installation

(ISFSI) and monitored retrievable storage (MRS) facility licensees to help ensure that licensees

promptly inform NRC and State officials of events or conditions that could adversely affect

public health and safety.

The revisions contained in the final rule are expected to result in enhanced regulatory

efficiency, effectiveness, and realism by making the requirements for reactors and ISFSIs, which

are usually located near reactors, more consistent; reducing the number of duplicative or

supplementary reports required of licensees; and ensuring that reports are received at a time

consistent with NRC’s need for them. 

The changes will consolidate some notifications and lengthen, where appropriate, the

reporting period for other notifications. The time extension is based on simplicity for reporting,

importance to safety, and consistency of reporting times with the need for prompt NRC action.

New requirements have been added to improve NRC’s ability to respond promptly to

degrading conditions at licensee facilities during an emergency. For example, licensees will be

required to submit an immediate followup report for degradation in the level of safety of an

ISFSI or MRS facility, including a declaration of an emergency, a change from one emergency

classification to another, or termination of an emergency class. This revision will enable NRC to

determine if an immediate response or corrective action is necessary to protect public health and

safety. These requirements are consistent with those for reactor licensees as amended in October

2000.
The final rule also eliminates the redundant requirement that licensees notify the NRC no

later than four hours after a fire or explosion that affects the integrity of spent fuel or high level

waste or its container. The report of such an event instead would be provided immediately, when

an emergency is declared, under the licensee’s approved emergency response plan.

The final rule also adds a requirement that licensees notify the NRC no later than four

hours after the discovery of any event or situation involving spent nuclear fuel or high level

waste related to the protection of public health and safety or onsite personnel, or that of the

environment, for which a news release is planned or notification to other governments has been

or will be made. This requirement is consistent with current reactor licensee reporting

requirements.

In addition to these changes to the safety-related verbal and written followup notification

requirements for ISFSIs and MRS facilities, the NRC is revising the written followup notification

requirements for security-related events involving reactor facilities, fuel cycle facilities, ISFSIs,

MRS facilities, licensees who transport spent fuel or special nuclear material, geological

repositories, and gaseous diffusion plants. The final rule changes the timeliness requirement for

these security-related written followup notifications to be consistent with safety-related written

followup notifications. However, the NRC is not changing any security-related verbal

notification requirements in this final rule.

Following publication of the proposed rule on August 22, 2002, NRC received four

comments, none of which opposed the agency’s intention to modify the reporting requirements. 

There are no significant changes between the proposed and final rules.

The final rule will become effective on October 3. For technical information regarding

the rule, contact Mark Haisfield, (301) 415-6196.

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