ML19074A114
| ML19074A114 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 04/10/2019 |
| From: | Kristine Svinicki NRC/Chairman |
| To: | Barrasso J, Pallone F US Congress, US HR (House of Representatives), US SEN (Senate) |
| Mandeville D | |
| References | |
| CORR-19-0030 | |
| Download: ML19074A114 (7) | |
Text
URANIUM RECOVERY LICENSE ISSUANCE AND AMENDMENT REVIEWS - DURATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY A Report for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce By The U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Enclosure
INTRODUCTION The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) developed this report as required by the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA). Specifically, Section 201 of NEIMA requires the NRC to submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report describing (1) the duration of uranium recovery license issuance and amendment reviews and (2) recommendations to improve efficiency and transparency of uranium recovery license issuance and amendment reviews.
BACKGROUND The NRCs mission is to license and regulate the Nations civilian use of radioactive materials to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety, to promote the common defense and security, and to protect the environment. Uranium recovery licensees are regulated by the NRC under Title 10, Part 20, of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR Part 20), Standards for Protection Against Radiation; 10 CFR Part 40, Domestic Licensing of Source Material; and Appendix A to 10 CFR Part 40, Criteria Relating to the Operation of Uranium Mills and the Disposition of Tailings or Wastes Produced by the Extraction or Concentration of Source Material From Ores Processed Primarily for Their Source Material Content.
In addition to NRC-regulated uranium recovery facilities, some State governments regulate uranium recovery facilities under the NRCs Agreement State program. Agreement States are those States that have entered into formal agreements with the NRC, pursuant to Section 274 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (AEA), to regulate certain quantities of AEA material at facilities within their borders. This report does not address uranium recovery license issuance and amendment reviews conducted under Agreement State programs.
DURATION OF LICENSE ISSUANCE AND LICENSE AMENDMENT REVIEWS The NRC staff reviews applications for new uranium recovery facilities, expansions of existing facilities, and renewals of existing licenses. In conducting these reviews, the NRC staff develops a safety evaluation report that documents the staffs findings and completes a review of the environmental impacts of the proposed activity and documents its findings. The staff also consults with state and Tribal agencies regarding cultural resources near these facilities.
Since 2006, the NRC has issued licenses for six new uranium recovery facilities, amendments for eight expansions of existing facilities, and license renewals for four facilities. On September 30, 2018, the State of Wyoming assumed regulatory responsibilities for uranium recovery activities within the state under the NRCs Agreement State program. This resulted in the NRC retaining only three uranium recovery facilities licensed to operate under the NRCs direct regulatory authority. Two of the three facilities have not yet been constructed.
For all major uranium recovery licensing actions, the NRCs goal is to complete the reviews within 36 months from application acceptance. For those reviews that exceeded this goal, the factors that contributed to increasing the NRC staffs review time included the time for an applicant to adequately respond to the NRC staffs questions and open issues, resource constraints resulting from emergent issues, or applicant requests for the agency to defer a review.
Since 2007, the average time for the NRC staff to issue a license associated with a new uranium recovery facility was approximately 41 months. The duration of the reviews ranged 1
from 33.5 to 54.5 months. Details on the six new uranium recovery licenses issued since 2007 are shown in Table 1.
The NRC staff has renewed four uranium recovery licenses since 2006. The average duration for a renewal review was approximately 62 months. The duration of the renewal reviews ranged from 43.5 to 80 months. Table 3 provides details on the duration of reviews for renewals of existing licenses.
In addition to the major licensing actions described above, the NRC staff also reviews a range of minor licensing actions and other regulatory actions. These actions include: annual reviews of financial assurance arrangements, administrative amendments, amendments that modify existing license conditions, and license transfers. The NRC staff's goal for completing the review for each of these types of actions is 12 months after acceptance. If an environmental assessment (EA) is required, the review could take additional time. Due to their smaller impact on resources, the NRC staff has not tracked these minor licensing actions as part of its performance metrics. However, going forward, the NRC staff will track all licensing actions as part of implementing other provisions in NEIMA.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY OF URANIUM RECOVERY LICENSE ISSUANCE AND AMENDMENT REVIEWS The NRC staff completed a self-assessment of the uranium recovery licensing process in May 2017 that benchmarked uranium recovery licensing reviews against other NRC licensing reviews and best practices to improve efficiency for the uranium recovery licensing process. In response to the self-assessment, the staff implemented the following improvements:
- Standardizing pre-application activities and the acceptance review process;
- Enhancing the planning and scheduling processes;
- Creating a prioritization system for new applications;
- Standardizing request for additional information guidance and process;
- Conducting consultation under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act;
- Standardizing safety evaluation templates.
In addition to these improvements, the NRC staff has undertaken several other activities to improve the licensing and oversight process for uranium recovery facilities. These activities include:
- Increasing the term of uranium recovery licenses from 10 to 20 years as discussed in SECY-17-0086, Increasing License Terms for Uranium Recovery Facilities. The Commission approved this policy change in November 2017.
- Initiating a revision of the Standard Review Plan for In Situ Leach Uranium Extraction License Applications with plans to make the guidance more risk-informed and performance-based.
- Improving transparency and communication with licensees and applicants on schedules and fees. Costs for actions are now posted on the NRC public website and project managers discuss upcoming work with licensees and applicants so that they can better budget for the NRC fees.
- Working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop a memorandum of understanding regarding the respective roles of the NRC and EPA as defined in the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978 with respect to the regulation and 2
licensing of uranium in situ recovery (ISR) facilities. The NRC staff is also considering whether to continue with a rulemaking, deferred since 2010, to add ISR-specific regulations to 10 CFR Part 40 for the purpose of standardizing, streamlining, and expediting the licensing of uranium ISR facilities (84 FR 574, January 31, 2019).
CONCLUSION The NRC staff has developed and implemented process changes to improve efficiency and transparency in uranium recovery licensing. However, given the significant decline in activity associated with existing uranium recovery licenses and new applications, the full impact on efficiency from these changes may not be fully realized until new licensing actions and applications are submitted. While the agency will continue to pursue additional improvements in efficiency and transparency, the NRC staff will gain experience and obtain data from new uranium recovery applications and actions that will be reviewed under the already implemented process improvements, before developing additional recommendations.
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Table 1 Summary of Major Licensing Actions - New Facility Safety Evaluation Time to Duration of Date EA/EIS Time to EA/EIS Date Licensee and Date of Report SER Review at Accepted Completion Completion License Site Name Submittal (SER) Completion Completion for Review Date (months) Issued Completion (months) (months) (1)
Date Uranium One Americas, Inc. 10/02/2007 12/20/2007 09/30/2010 33.5 08/19/2010 32.0 09/30/2010 33.5 Moore Ranch Uranerz Energy 11/30/2007 04/14/2008 07/19/2011 39.5 01/21/2011 33.5 07/19/2011 39.5 Corporation Nichols Ranch Lost Creek ISR, LLC 03/31/2008 06/10/2008 08/17/2011 38.5 06/17/2011 36.5 08/17/2011 38.5 Lost Creek Powertech Uranium Corporation 08/10/2009 10/02/2009 03/18/2013 42.0 01/29/2014 52.0 04/08/2014 54.5 Dewey Burdock (3)
Strata Energy, 01/06/2011 06/28/2011 02/28/2013 20.0 02/28/2014 32.5 04/24/2014 34 Inc. Ross (2)
AUC LLC 10/05/2012 06/18/2013 09/30/2016 39.5 12/16/2016 42.0 02/17/2017 44.5 Reno Creek Notes:
(1) Time to completion is the time from when the application was accepted until the license was issued. It includes any applicant and NRC staff induced delays.
(2) A hearing was held for this review.
(3) A hearing was held for this review and this matter continues before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board; appeals are currently pending before the Commission with respect to a partial decision of the Board.
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Table 2 Summary of Major Licensing Actions - Expansion Amendments Date Time to Duration of SER Time to SER EA/EIS Date Licensee and Date of Accepted EA/EIS Review at Completion Completion Completion License Amendment Name Submittal for Completion Completion Date (months) Date Issued Review (months) (months) (1)
Power Resources, Inc.
01/14/2005 03/23/2005 01/31/2007 22.5 01/05/2007 21.5 01/31/2007 22.5 Reynolds Ranch Power Resources, Inc.
10/11/2006 11/09/2006 01/10/2008 14.0 12/26/2007 13.5 01/10/2008 14.0 SR-2 Satellite Lost Creek ISR, LLC 01/06/2012 03/01/2012 04/22/2013 14.0 03/29/2013 13.0 04/22/2013 14.0 Vacuum Dryer Addition Crow Butte Resources, 05/30/2007 08/28/2007 07/21/2013 71.0 N/A N/A N/A N/A Inc. North Trend (2)
Uranerz J Energy 05/08/2014 08/10/2015 01/24/2017 17.5 03/23/2017 19.5 03/22/2017 19.5 Corp. Jane Dough Crow Butte Resources, 06/20/2012 10/05/2012 01/29/2018 64.0 04/27/2018 67.0 05/23/2018 68.0 Inc. Marsland (3)
Lost Creek ISR, LLC 02/02/2015 05/02/2017 08/07/2018 15.5 N/A N/A N/A N/A LC East/KM Horizon (4)
Uranium One Americas, Inc. 12/06/2011 05/16/2012 03/01/2018 70.0 08/02/2018 75.0 08/24/2018 75.5 Ludeman Notes:
(1) Time to completion is the time from when the application was accepted until the license amendment was issued. It includes any applicant and NRC staff induced delays.
(2) NRC staff suspended its work on the EA, per the licensee's request, on 12/16/2015. On 04/04/2018, the licensee reiterated its request that the NRC staff continue to hold the review in abeyance. A hearing has been granted on this application; the adjudication likewise is currently in abeyance.
(3) A hearing was held for this review; the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board issued its final decision in the case, in favor of Crow Butte and the staff, on 02/28/2019. An appeal is currently pending before the Commission with respect to that decision.
(4) NRC staffs endpoint for this review was completion of the SER. The State of Wyoming assumed responsibility for completing the review when it became an Agreement State on 09/30/2018.
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Table 3 Summary of Major Licensing Actions - Renewals Date Time to Duration of SER Time to SER EA/EIS Date Licensee and Site Date of Accepted EA/EIS Review at Completion Completion Completion License Name Submittal for Completion Completion Date (months) Date Issued Review (months) (months) (1)
Uranium One, USA, 05/30/2008 12/29/2008 03/07/2013 50.5 01/16/2013 49.0 03/07/2013 50.5 Inc. Willow Creek Crow Butte 11/27/2007 03/28/2008 12/28/2012 57.5 10/30/2014 79.5 11/05/2014 80.0 Resources, Inc. (2)
Kennecott Uranium 09/08/2014 11/25/2014 02/28/2018 39.5 06/04/2018 42.5 07/05/2018 43.5 Company Sweetwater Power Resources, 02/01/2012 07/05/2012 09/24/2018 75.0 09/20/2018 75.0 09/26/2018 75.0 Inc. Smith Ranch Notes:
(1) Time to completion is the time from when the application was accepted until the renewed license was issued. It includes any applicant and NRC staff induced delays.
(2) A hearing was held for this review; appeals are currently pending before the Commission.
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