April 23, 2008 

MEMORANDUM TO: Luis A. Reyes 

Executive Director for Operations 

FROM: Brian W. Sheron, Director /RA/ 

Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research 

SUBJECT: MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING AMONG THE U.S. 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION, U.S. DEPARTMENT 

OF ENERGY, AND THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF 

STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF 

NEXT GENERATION SIMULATION TOOLS FOR EVALUATING 

CEMENTITIOUS BARRIERS AND MATERIALS 

I respectfully recommend that you authorize the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 

Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding 

(MOU) with the following Federal agencies: 

• U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Engineering and Technology and 

Office of Environmental Management 

• U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Institute of Standards and 

Technology, Building & Fire Research Laboratory, 

This MOU will facilitate the development of simulation tools that will support better assessment 

of radioactive contaminant fluxes released from cementitious barriers and radioactive waste 

forms in radioactive waste facilities and nuclear facilities containing radioactive fluids (e.g., 

spent fuel pools). 

Our objective is to reduce redundancies and improve the common technology for evaluation of 

cementitious materials performance. We intend to achieve this through exchange of technical 

ideas and through enhanced scientific understanding of chemical and physical processes. By 

entering into this MOU, the cooperating Federal agencies seek mutual benefit from their 

respective research and development (R&D) programs and effective exchange of information 

between their technical staff and contractors. This exchange of information supports 

environmental risk assessments, joint efforts to improve the scientific bases for implementing 

models, protocols for establishing linkages between disparate databases and models, and 

development and use of a common model-data framework. 

Staff has included several additional organizations in the planning phases for this program. 

These organizations expect to remain fully engaged for the life of the project due to their specific 

expertise regarding cementitious science, materials science, and modeling. They include the 

CONTACT: Jacob Philip, RES/DRA 

(301)415-6211
L. Reyes - 2 -

Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) at Vanderbilt University 

in Nashville, TN; the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in Aiken, SC; SIMCO 

Technologies Inc., in Quebec City, Canada; and the Energy Research Centre of the 

Netherlands (ECN) in Petten, Holland. 

No NRC dollars will be allocated to implement this MOU. DOE will fund NIST and some of the 

other organizations mentioned above as part of the project effort. NRC will contribute full-time 

equivalents (FTEs) in kind for the review of products from the MOU and for participation in 

workshops and technical meetings. During these meetings, NRC staff will represent agency 

needs for evaluation tools and discuss NRC experience under various field conditions. Time 

expended annually by the NRC in the project will be approximately 0.25 FTEs per year, split 

between RES and the Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management 

Programs (FSME). Staff considers this a sound investment in interagency co-operation. FSME 

has requested that RES pursue work under the MOU in their recent user needs memorandum. 

The MOU framework includes a steering committee composed of staff points of contact for each 

Federal agency involved. The NRC point of contact will be a member of RES Division of Risk 

Analysis, Environmental Transport Branch. In addition, staff from FSME will be closely involved 

and will support RES at the steering committee meetings and in review of the progress under 

the partnership. The NRC Office of the General Counsel has reviewed the enclosed MOU and 

has no legal objection. 

Enclosure: 

As stated 

 _/RA/______________________ ____05/05/08______

Approved: R. W. Borchardt Date 

Executive Director for Operations 
L. Reyes - 2 -

Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) at Vanderbilt University 

in Nashville, TN; the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in Aiken, SC; SIMCO 

Technologies Inc., in Quebec City, Canada; and the Energy Research Centre of the 

Netherlands (ECN) in Petten, Holland. 

No NRC dollars will be allocated to implement this MOU. DOE will fund NIST and some of the 

other organizations mentioned above as part of the project effort. NRC will contribute full-time 

equivalents (FTEs) in kind for the review of products from the MOU and for participation in 

workshops and technical meetings. During these meetings, NRC staff will represent agency 

needs for evaluation tools and discuss NRC experience under various field conditions. Time 

expended annually by the NRC in the project will be approximately 0.25 FTEs per year, split 

between RES and the Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management 

Programs (FSME). Staff considers this a sound investment in interagency co-operation. FSME 

has requested that RES pursue work under the MOU in their recent user needs memorandum. 

The MOU framework includes a steering committee composed of staff points of contact for each 

Federal agency involved. The NRC point of contact will be a member of RES Division of Risk 

Analysis, Environmental Transport Branch. In addition, staff from FSME will be closely involved 

and will support RES at the steering committee meetings and in review of the progress under 

the partnership. The NRC Office of the General Counsel has reviewed the enclosed MOU and 

has no legal objection. 

Enclosure: 

As stated 

 _/RA/_____________________ _____05/05/08________

Approved: R. W. Borchardt Date 

Executive Director for Operations 

DISTRIBUTION: EDATS: RES-2008-0036

DRA r/f MFuhrmann DEsh AKock 

ETB r/f SFlanders WOtt 

ADAMS Accession No.: ML080870343 

OFFICE SUNSI Review RES/DRA/ETB RES/DRA/ETB QTE 

NAME JPhilip JPhilip WOtt CHsu 

By email

DATE 03/27/2008 03/27/2008 03/27/08 03/24/08 

OFFICE OGC RES/DRA FSME RES 

NAME RBaum CLui LCamper BSheron 

DATE 03/7/08 04/15/08 4/15/08 04/23/08 

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY