NRC NEWS

 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

 Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200

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

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

 

No. 06-082 June 19, 2006

NRC CREATES NEW OFFICE OF NATIONAL MATERIALS PROGRAM, 

REORGANIZES OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS SAFETY AND SAFEGUARDS

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reorganizing its Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and

Safeguards (NMSS) and Office of State and Tribal Programs to create a new Office of National

Materials Program (ONMP) and a new NMSS that will focus on fuel cycle issues.

The Office of State and Tribal Programs and the current NMSS divisions of Industrial and

Medical Nuclear Safety, and Waste Management and Environmental Protection will merge and

integrate their functions to form the new ONMP.

The new NMSS will retain the divisions of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards, High-Level

Waste and Repository Safety, and the Spent Fuel Project Office, providing regulatory oversight of the

entire domestic nuclear fuel cycle, from cradle to grave. NMSS will take the lead for domestic and

international safeguards policy and regulation, including material control and accountability for fuel

cycle facilities, which has recently been the responsibility of the Office of Nuclear Security and

Incident Response.

The reorganization is scheduled to be effective Oct. 1. 

“This reorganization will better position the agency to meet the challenges facing us in the years

ahead,” said Executive Director for Operations Luis Reyes. “Creation of the Office of National

Materials Program integrates the NRC’s State and Tribal programs with the technical and regulatory

review functions shared by the NRC and the Agreement States. The new NMSS will focus on the

regulatory challenges of the nation’s evolving energy and fuel cycle strategy.”

The NRC currently has agreements with 34 states, under which the state authorities assume

responsibility for licensing and regulating the industrial, medical and academic uses of radioactive

materials. The Agreement State program has seen significant growth recently, as Wisconsin and

Minnesota became Agreement States within the last three years, and three other states now under NRC

jurisdiction - Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania - have declared their intentions to become

Agreement States. 

The growth in the Agreement State program has placed greater importance on NRC’s

cooperation with the states, especially in the important area of enhancing controls over radioactive

materials to protect public health and safety. This trend was an important factor in the decision to
combine NRC’s materials licensing and its coordination with the Agreement States under a single

major program office.

The new NMSS will tackle several regulatory challenges regarding the nuclear fuel cycle in

coming years. The agency is currently reviewing two license applications for gas centrifuge uranium

enrichment plants and anticipates receiving an application for new advanced enrichment technologies.

The Department of Energy continues to prepare a license application for a high-level waste repository

at Yucca Mountain, Nev. In addition, DOE’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership likely will require

NRC’s involvement in recycling spent nuclear fuel into fresh fuel for commercial reactors.

Top officials of the new program offices will be named at a later date.

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