No. II-11-014 March 30, 2011

CONTACT: Roger Hannah (404) 997-4417 E-mail: OPA2@nrc.gov

 Joey Ledford (404) 997-4416

NRC TO DISCUSS NFS PERFORMANCE AT PUBLIC MEETING IN ERWIN 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials will meet with management of Nuclear Fuel 

Services in Erwin, Tenn., on Thursday, April 7 to discuss the results of a licensee performance 

review for the company’s nuclear fuel facility in Erwin.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Circuit Court Room on the second floor of 

the Unicoi County Courthouse, 100 Main St. in Erwin. The meeting will be open to members of 

the public and the news media. NRC officials will open the meeting with a brief presentation on 

the company’s performance, and then be available to answer questions about NRC oversight and 

inspection of the facility.

The NRC staff assessed performance at NFS during a period beginning Jan. 7, 2010, and 

ending Dec. 31, 2010, in the areas of safety operations, radiological controls, facility support and 

special topics, and those evaluations will form the basis of the meeting discussion. The area of 

safeguards was also assessed, but that area will not be discussed publicly due to the sensitive 

nature of the information. The NRC staff review determined that NFS continued to conduct its

activities safely and securely, protecting the public, workers and the environment.

“We found that NFS is operating the facility safely, but the NRC identified two areas 

needing continued focus and improvement,” said NRC Region II Administrator Victor McCree. 

“This meeting allows us to discuss those areas and overall safety performance with company 

officials and interested people in the area.”

Based on NRC inspections in 2010, the agency found that NFS improved performance 

but corrective actions to address the underlying causes of some operational issues have not been 

fully effective and the area of safety operations continues to need improvement.

In addition, NRC inspectors found that additional effort by NFS management is needed to 

improve oversight of facility operations.

At the start of the current review period, the NRC issued a Confirmatory Action Letter 

that required the facility to remain shut down until some improvements outlined in the letter 

were put into place and evaluated by NRC inspectors. Several of the facility’s process lines were 

restarted in 2010 after the NRC concluded that actions taken by NFS were sufficient to provide 

reasonable assurance that they could be operated safely. 

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs, Region II

245 Peachtree Center Ave., NE, Suite 1200

Atlanta, GA 30303-1257

Site: www.nrc.gov

Blog: http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov
In 2011, the NRC will augment its normal inspections at NFS with additional inspections 

to ensure that actions taken by the company are effective and sustainable. These inspections 

include an assessment of readiness to restart the uranium hexafluoride process line, follow-up 

inspections for both the confirmatory action letter and an order issued to the facility, a problem

identification and resolution inspection, and a design review inspection.

A copy of the NRC letter detailing the NFS review is available online in the NRC’s 

Agency-wide Document Access and Management System at 

www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html. The ML number is ML110660633.

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