ML20154N626
| ML20154N626 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 06/28/1978 |
| From: | Meyers S NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| To: | |
| References | |
| TASK-TF, TASK-URFO NUDOCS 9810220041 | |
| Download: ML20154N626 (17) | |
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TESTIMONY BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOSSIL AND NUCLEAR ENERGY RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION*
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Presented by j
Sheldon Meyers, Director Division of Fuel Cycle and Material Safety j
Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards i
June 28, 1978 I am pleased to be here today to discuss with you the activities of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in nuclear waste management.
I would like to summarize three facets of our program for waste management:
(1) our regulatory authority over storage and disposal of nuclear waste (2) the regulatory program which we are developing; and (3) the roles for states in nuclear waste management.
Dr. William P. Bishop has accompanied me
.today and will discuss in more detail the research aspects of the NRC program.
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- NRC AUTHORITY TO REGULATE RADI0 ACTIVE WASTES NRC authority to regulate radioactive waste is derived from three statutes:
the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974.
The Atomic Energy Act authorized the NRC's predecessor--the Atomic Energy Commission--to license and regulate the possession and use of source, byproduct, and special nuclear material.
The AEC, itself, and certain defense activities were exempted from these licensing and regulatory requirements. The Act did not explicitly authorize regulation of radioactive waste facilities.
Therefore, the Commission's authority to regulate waste under the Atomic Energy Act is derived from its authority over licensable materials.
Under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Commission has additional implied authority over nuclear waste management associated with licensed activities.
This authority is derived from the environmental analysis required under the Act which permits the Commission to impose license conditions on waste management activities to minimize their
. environmental impacts.
Title II of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1,974 transferred the AEC's licensing and regulatory authority to the NRC.
The Energy Research and Development Administration, now a part of the DOE, was exempted from NRC a.
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~ licensing authority, except as provided in Section 202 of the Act.
Section 202 provides the only explicit statutory authority for NRC licensing of DOE waste facilities.
Subsection 3 specifically requires an NRC license for any DOE facility used primarily for the receipt or storage of high-level radioactive waste resulting from activities licensed by the NRC.
In our view this NRC authority extends to DOE temporary storage of commercially produced irradiated nuclear fuel because spent fuel should be
- regarded as high-level waste.
Storage of spent fuel involves similar technical problems and levels of radiation hazard as the storage of high-level waste.
Therefore, the Commission believes that any DOE away-from-reactor spent fuel facility (usually known by the acronym AFR) would require an NRC license under present law.
Subsection 202(4) of the 1974 Act provides for NRC licensing of DOE facilities authorized for the express purpose of subsequent long-term storage of high-level radioactive waste generated by DOE activities.
l However, the.long term storage or disposal of DOE generated high-level waste in a DOE research or development facility currently does not require an NRC license.
High-level waste and spent fuel are not the only forms of waste which I
present the possibility of significant long-term health hazards.
Trans-l uranic' wastes (TRU) also present a potential long-term radiation hazard.
j The Commission currently lacks statutory authority to regulate TRU e
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i wastes at DOE facilities.
Uranium mill tailings produced-in the initial stages of the uranium fuel cycle are also a subject of growing concern because of the very long life of radium and its daughters which are
.present in the tailings.
The Commission currently lacks statutory authority over uranium mill tailings except indirectly through the licensing of milling operations.
However, the Commission is sending a legislative proposal to the Congress to extend NRC authority over mill tailings..
Under Section 274 of the Atomic Energy Act, the NRC may relinguish some i
regulatory authority over byproduct, source and special nuclear material to the states by means of a formal agreement process.
Pursuant to such agreements, several states currently license commercially operated burial sites for low-level radioactive waste, uranium milling operations, and
. decommissioned facilities.
-As I am sure you are aware there are numerous bills before the Congress which would substantially change the NRC authority to manage radioactive wastes.
STATUS OF THE NRC WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM The role of NRC in nuclear waste management is both responsive and asser-tive.
It is responsive in the sense that by law we do not directly propose options but rather'once an option is identified--once a specific m
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5-waste: facility; application is submitted to the Commission--we evaluate that' proposal to determine whether it will protect the public health and safety.
For this reason out. program is designed to provide (1) standards
. on.which to judge applications and.(2) tools to assess the proposals submitte'd against the standards imposed.
.~0n the other' hand the NRC program is assertive in that the NRC will ~
i develop regulations which may limit the options available to DOE, the states and/or industry and will. reach its own conclusions' regarding the options
. which should be pursued'for waste management.
For example the DOE Generic Environmental. Impact Statement (GEIS) on commercial. waste management and the NRC's evaluation of that statement will be important-in shaping NRC conclusions on. appropriate options' for radioactive waste disposal. 'As conclusions of this ' nature are made and acted upon, NRC assumes an active role in identifying for DOE and the public,. acceptable waste management alternatives.
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. The.NRC waste management program is' divided into.two general areas:
high-level waste (HLW) management and low-level waste (LLW) management.
. I will speak about each of the programs separately.
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' l High-Level Waste Program I
The NRC has the responsibility to regulate and license certain DOE high-i level waste repositories to insure the protection of public health and safety taking into consideration also impacts on the environment.
The key concepts in our regulatory development program are to provide effective, timely and balanced standards.
In brief this means that the regulations must provide definitive guidance; precede or meet major decision points; and allow flexibility in decision options.
In order to meet these objectives,.we must remain aware of the direction and schedules of the DOE programs so that we will have regulations in place and possess the assessment tools necessary to evaluate the specific proposals that DOE submits.
We made a very early program decision back in 1975 right after the NRC was established and our responsibilities for regulating DOE storage and disposal of HLW were identified. We decided to develop a regulatory base L
for those disposal methods and technologies most likely to be proposed early on by DOE.
The alternative was to immediately recruit a very large l
staff and consider all possible alternatives in orcer to develop regulations for each one.
As a result, though, programs and the required research have changed with changes in Administration or DOE policies.
For example
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when it became clear that commercial spent fuel would not be reprocessed.
'in the near future and that therefore spent fuel itself must be disposed L
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- of, we had to~ redirect our HLW standards and modeling development efforts j
to account for spent fuel.:
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- With regard.to the permanent disposal of either solidified high-level l
waste:or spent fuel, the principal option being examined by DOE _is emplacement of waste in deep geological repositories using normal mining i
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techniques. -While some uncertainty'still remains regarding repository, engineering such'as thermal limitations, potential corrosive interactions and retrievability, a review of the available. technology leads one to
. conclude that it is technologically possible that a repository can be L-
-successfully located in bedded salt or other geologic media in the next
. decade. -Our' regulations development effort is currently directed at' providing guidance' specific to deep geologic repositories.
Yet these I-regulations will also allow for. additional future options.
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New NRC regulations will require conformance with a set of minimum accept-able performance standards for waste management activities, while providing l
'for flexibility in technological approach.
The regulations will be i
idirected towards isolating radioactive wastes from man and his environment
'for time. periods sufficient to protect public, health and safety and to
. preserve. environmental values, while minimizing long-term zocial commit-l s
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ments such as land-use withdrawal, resource commitment, surveillance =
. requirements, and number of. committed sites.
' Regulations in the area of high-level wastes will address:
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Waste classification - what wastes must be placed into a HLW reposiory; i
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Waste form performance criteria - what physical and chemical form the wastes must,be in; 3.
Site-suitability' criteria - what constitutes an acceptable site for a repository; y
4.
' Repository design eriteria - what constraints must be placed on development and operation of a repository; 5.
Repository decommissioning criteria - what constraints must be placed on closing a repository; and E
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Radiological objectives - what level of radiologic containment the
-repository system must operate within.
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Procedural provisions of the regulations will most likely include:
1.
Submittal to NRC of an environmental report and safety analysis report by DOE; 2.
Preparation by NRC of an environmental statement and safety evalua-tion report; 3.
A multi phase licensing process requiring NRC authorization prior to sinking of a shaft or start of construction and also prior to receiving wastes at the site; 4.
Provisions for state participation throughout the NRC licensing process (these will be in addition to the traditional opportunities for public involvement during NRC hearings);
5.
Pre-application reviews allowing DOE to receive early informal feedback from NRC about design plans, site suitability, etc, and; 6.
Public safety and environmental hearings prior to authorizing construc-tion of a repository (hearings might also be held prior to authorizing the repository to receive wastes).
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- In general, the schedule we are following was developed to enable NRC to make timely licensing decision on a DOE repository. We have been informed by DOE of their intention to seek a license for the proposed Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) located in Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Dr. John Deutch of
' DOE in testimony on March 22, 1978 before the Subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works stated that DOE currently has no plans to dispose of high-level waste at this facility.
They do plan to demonstrate disposal of spent fuel but only using approximately one percent of available space (about 1000 fuel assemblies).
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) therefore, will be primarily for disposal of TRV and low-level military wastes not within the licensing jurisdiction of NRC.
Yet DOE plans to submit a license application for WIPP in early 1979, and as stated, we are preparing to license WIPP as our first licensing action.
We will require explicit authority to continue this effort.
In this proceeding, DOE is being treated like any applicant.
A docket file has been established in our public document room.
In response to the Presidential policy on reprocessing, DOE has embarked on a program to develop away-from reactor (AFR) storage capability.
NRC and DOE are proceeding under the assumption that NRC will license the facility, and we are developing specific licensing procedures.
Present fuel storage techniques-and studies underway will support the development of needed regulations. We also recognize that additional storage of
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- commercial spent fuel either onsite or at centralized independent storage facilities may be contemplated.
We peblished a draft environmental impact statement on spent fuel storage in March 1978 (NUREG-0404).
It discusses alternative storage methods and the impact of spent fuel storage
- through the year 2000.
-Low-Level Waste Program Low-level radioactive wastes resulting from the commercial nuclear fuel cycle and from other non-federal activities utilizing radioactive material
._(e.g., hospitals and universities) are currently disposed of at shallow
' and burial grounds owned and operated by commercial companies.* The i
land itself must be owned (pursuant to Commission regulation) by either the Federal government or a state government.
There are currently six commercial shallow land burial facilities; not all are in operation.
As indicated earlier NRC regulatory authority over disposal of low level waste can be relinguished to states by entering into formal agreements.
Five of the six commercial burial grounds are located in and regulated by Agreement States.
"In one case, the State of Kentucky purchased 'the operation and contracted the previous owner to maintain the facility but not to receive waste for disposal.
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. NRC low level waste management efforts, similar to our high level waste efforts, can be classified into standards development and preparation for licensing actions.
- The Nrc has primary responsibility at the Federal level for development of regulations for the management and disposal of non DOE low-level waste (LLW).
These regulations will assure protection of the public health and safety and preservation of environmental values in connection with the disposal of LLW and will specify administrative, technical and other require-ments which must be met for the safe disposal of such wastes.
- The low level waste regulations being developed will address
waste acceptance and solids performance, site suitability, design and operation, monitoring,
~ decommissioning,
. post-operational. maintenance, and
. funding and other institutional requirements.
. Finally, we believe that some of the major. issues regarding low level n
. waste-disposal are procedural and institutional as. opposed to technical.
Both DOE and NRC have initiated inquiries into these areas by evaluating 4
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_. the distribution of federal, state and industry responsibilities for low level waste disposal by shallow land burial.
Two such studies are reported in NUREG-0217," NRC Task Force Report on Review of the Federal / State Program for Regulation of Commercial Low-Level Radioactive Waste Burial Grounds" published in March 1977 and " Report of Task Force for Review of Nuclear Waste Management," the so-called "Deutch Report" published by DOE in February 1978.
In addition, we are preparing to study:
1) organizational arrangements--the alternative roles and resulting interfaces between organizations with responsibilities in the area of LLW management, l
2)
' institutional arrangements--the administrative, financial, organiza-tional, legal, regulatory and other implications of differing LLW organizational arranagements, and
- 3) the manner in which alternative arrangements can be implemented--what actions are required by NRC and other responsible organizations to institute new organizational roles and how establishment of alterna-tive arrangements will affect the LLW program in total.
1 In the area of mill tailings management, the p,roblem is one of safe management of small concentrations of radium in larger quantities of 4
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.. tailings.
As indicated, although NRC does not currently have direct regulatory authority over mill tailings, we are seeking such authority.
The exact nature of the risk to the public from tails, while estimated to be very low, is not known with precision. We are investigating improved methods for tails stabilization and improved regulations for operational and long term control.
A generic environmental impact statement on uranium milling is underway.
In the meantime, NRC is requiring that each applicant for a new mill license or license renewal develop a tailings management and reclamation plan which meets interim performance objective developed by the NRC licensing staff and make provisions to assure that funds are available to pay for the reclamation.
ROLE OF THE STATES IN WASTE MANAGEMENT The final area I would like to address today is the role of States and the public in waste management.
In support of the high-level waste program, we held a series of workshops to solicit ideas and comments from State executives and legislators on repository siting and licensing.
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'We confirmed certain ideas during.the workshops including, that:
1.
States intend to be involved in repository siting and licensing.
decisionmaking;
- 2.
States will actively cooperate with the NetC (and DOE) if given an opportunity;
. 3.
States.are willing and able-to deal with:
o complex policy issues, specifics of the licensing, standards and R&D programs, o-o local issues','and specific health and safety and environmental issues; and o
4.
The Federal program can benefit from State involvement.
.. Some of the policy issues raised by the State representatives were:
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O O o Funding and technical assistance to the States, o
Federal indemnification and financial liability, o
Compensation and/or special incentives to the States, o
Transportation of wastes, o
Mulitple sites / multiple geologic media, and o
tederal conformance with State laws.
We plan on going back to the States for further review as we develop our standards.
In addition we are developing procedures for involving States in licensing high-level waste repositories.
In providing opportunity for State participation in licensing repositories we intend to encourage States to participate with our staff in conducting the license review.
We expect to offer assistance and information to the States in many forms such as public meetings, seminars, exchange of staff members, and training to the extent allowable in order to facilitate their effective participation.
CONCLUSION In conclusion let me make a few points:
First, the NRC program is designed to enable us to regulate and license waste storage and disposal facilities within our regulatory authority in order to protect public health and safety.
As such we must be able to identify the parameters of a proposed DOE waste disposal system which are important to safety and protection of the environment and develop appro-
O O priate regulations and standards.
We must also develop the capability to judge whether an actual proposal will perform in accordance with our regulations.
' Second, the NRC does not sponsor what we might call " basic research." We must rely in large measure on information provided to us by DOE and others.
Finally, our program places emphasis on those waste disposal and manage-ment technologies in effect or proposed for the near future.
Dr. Bishop will now discuss more specifically the research needs identified and ongoing in the NRC waste management program.
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