ML18005A182

Letter to Judy Treichel, Executive Director - Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, Inc., Regarding 12/26/2017 Nuclear Waste Task Force LSNARP Meeting Response

ML18005A182
Person / Time
Issue date:	01/04/2018
From:	NRC/SECY
To:
References
Download: ML18005A182 (2)

Text

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001 January 4, 2018 OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY Ms. Judy Treichel Executive Director Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, Inc.

4587 Ermine Court Las Vegas , NV 89147

Dear Ms. Treichel:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received your December 26, 2017, letter regarding the e-mail that was sent to you on December 18, 2017, notifying you of a Licensing Support Network Advisory Review Panel (LSNARP) meeting scheduled for January 30-31 ,

2018, and providing a paper outlining possible options for reconstituting or replacing the Licensing Support Network (LSN). In your letter you indicated your concern that "[w]ith no certainty regarding when or if there will be Congressional action and funding [for the Yucca Mountain project] , this [LSNARP] meeting is premature. "

In August 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in its decision in the case In re Aiken County, directed the NRC to resume the then-suspended Yucca Mountain licensing process. In response to the court's direction , recognizing that limited Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) monies remained available to the agency, in an adjudicatory decision designated CLl-13-8 the Commission identified the next logical steps in the licensing process. The Commission has continued to employ this approach to implement the court's direction and expend remaining NWF monies.

In CLl-13-8 the Commission directed the NRC staff to complete the safety evaluation report associated with the application and instructed that the LSN documents then in the possession of the Office of the Secretary should be placed in an internal Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) database for staff use in completing the safety evaluation report. In addition , the Commission requested that the Department of Energy prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement, a task that the NRC staff ultimately completed .

Subsequently, in February 2015 the Commission directed that the LSN documents be placed in a public ADAMS database (i.e., the LSN Library). Most recently, in July 2017 the Commission directed that a virtual LSNARP meeting be conducted to gather information for future Commission consideration regarding reconstituting or replacing the LSN .

Holding the scheduled LSNARP meeting is consistent with the Commission's July 2017 direction and, in turn , satisfies the agency's obligations under the In re Aiken County decision .

Moreover, we expect that the information gathered at the meeting regarding potential options for reconstituting or replacing the LSN will remain viable for an extended period of time.

That being said, in response to recent requests from the State of Nevada and the Nuclear Energy Institute to provide additional time to assess the information in the December 2017 options paper along with other potential alternatives, we have decided to reschedule the LSNARP meeting for February 27-28, 2018. The location and meeting times will remain the

same. A Federal Register notice regarding this date change will be published within the next week.

As an LSNARP member representative , we will continue to be in contact with you should there be any additional information regarding the February 2018 LSNARP meeting or any other LSNARP matters.

Sincerely,

µhl - ~ ~

n rew Bates, Ph .D.

LSNARP Chairman