In December the DOE chose the Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar and Sequoyah plants in Tennessee for its commercial light water reactor tritium production program. NRC anticipates license amendment requests for that purpose from TVA next year. Because of the importance of this program to U.S. national security, the Commission will assign high priority to the requests. It will allow the opportunity for a public hearing. NRC plans to hold public meetings in the vicinity of each plant before tritium production can begin.
Formal intervention is currently the only course of action available to tribal governments.
This amendment to the NRC's Rules of Practice recognizes that tribes exercise inherent sovereign powers over their members and territories, similar to the powers exercised by state and local governments. The rule is being published in final form because NRC considers this action noncontroversial and routine. It will become effective 60 days from the date of publication in an upcoming edition of the Federal Register, unless significant adverse comments are received within 30 days of publication of the notice. Speaking Tuesday, at the annual conference of the Association of State Floodplain Managers in Portland, Oregone Witt said that a healthy, natural environment is one of the key ingredients to disaster-resistant communities. It also is a core principle of Project Impact, FEMA's initiative to change the way America deals with disasters.