ML20236X542
| ML20236X542 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 10/17/1997 |
| From: | Reamer C NRC OFFICE OF THE GENERAL COUNSEL (OGC) |
| To: | Fortuna S NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20236X484 | List: |
| References | |
| FOIA-98-213 NUDOCS 9808100078 | |
| Download: ML20236X542 (3) | |
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UNITED STATES
[on Mcg% NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION y WASHINGTON, D C. 205H-0001 3
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%, October 17, 1997 of rice oF THE GENERAL CoVNsEL MEMORANDUM TO: Shirley L. Fortuna CNWRA Deputy Program Manager Program Management. Policy Development, and Analysis Staff Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards FROM: C. William Reamer uj j)f9 'ex.
Senior Supervisory Attorney Nuclear Waste Management Staff Office of the General Counsel
SUBJECT:
TECHNICAL SUPPORT FROM THE CENTER FOR NUCLEAR WASTE REGULATORY ANALYSES FOR THE REVIEW OF A TOPICAL SAFETY ANALYSIS REPORT SUBMITTED BY PRIVATE FUEL STOPAGE We are responding to your September 5.1997, request for a legal review of the NRC staff paper entitled, " Assistance in the Review of a Topical Safety Report Submitted by Private Fuel Storage Limited Liability Company for the Pnvate Fuel Storage Facility " The staff paper includes a determination and supporting justification for placing a proposed scope of work at the Center for NucleE.r Waste Regulatory Analyses (CNWRA) under its charter. The specific question raised by the staff paper for our~ review is whether the proposed scope of work is within the CNWRA charter.'
Section 4.1 of the charter describes the CNWRA's activities for NRC as follows:
[T]echnical assistance and research wh:ch will support the licensing reviews and other NRC activities related to geologic repositories. monitored retrievable storage facilities, transportation, environmental. and other activities involved in the storage and disposal of high-level nuclear waste under the NWPA Therefdre, our review must consider the proposed scope of work and whether it fits within the CNWRA activities desenbed in Section 4.1.
- As desenbed in the staff paper, the proposed scope of work for CNWRA will support the NRC staff's review of the license application submitted by Private Fuel Storage, Limited Liability l n I y Company (PFS) for an away-from-reactor independent spent fuel storage facility (ISFSI) to be located on the Reservation of the Skull Valley Band of Gashed indians. Specifically, the Q CNWRA would prepare descriptive and analytical matenals for inclusion in the NRC staffs
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RW o< ' The September 5,1997, request does not request our review concerning the funds that may be used for NRC or CNWRA work related to review of the Topical Safety Analysis Report, and this memorandum accordingly should not be interpreted to address any issue related to funding.
nab (DC>C)8 .________ -________ -__ __ -
S. Foduna 2 safety evaluation report (SER) on PFA's Topical Safety Analysis Report (TSAR), address:ng topics including site characteristics, pnr.cipal design cntena. operation systems, site generated waste confinement and mange. radiation protection, accident analysis. operating controls and limits, and quality assurance.
The staff paper does not conclude (nor could it conclude) that the PFS facility is a HLW repository or monitored rett;evable storage facility. Rather, the paper explains that the surface facilities for the PFS facility are similar to those at a proposed geologic repository, and the CNWRA review of the PFS would therefore provide experience and lessons learned in support of repository licensing. The paper details this similarity by comparing topics in PFS' TSAR to topics in the staff's draft Format and Content Guide for the HLW Repository (Draft Regulatory Guide DG-1003t and ;t goes on to state as follows:
Providing the CNWRA with this early expenence reviewing facilities substa ally similar to those to be built at the repository would be an important development in the NRC high-level waste (HLW) program. Because of the extremely long pre-licensing consultation penod in the repository program actual " hands-on" expenence with license application reviews is becoming less common This task will provide such expenence in a particularly meaningful way.
The CNWRA has oeen working with the staff in the areas of repository design and surface facilities for the geo!ogic repository. . The review of the PFS TSAR, and its implication for HLW which has been in interim storage for extended periods of time, will provide important information that can be factored into the review of structures, systems, and components important to safety, and waste isolation at the repository.
In our view, the staff paper demonstrates a sufficient basis to justify its determination that the 2
proposed scope of work is within the charter Under the charter, it is necessary that CNWRA work "will support the licensing reviews and other NRC activities related to geologic repositones.
[or) monitored retnevable storage facilities. ' As explained in the staff paper, it is expected that the CNWRA will gain hands-on expenence in a license application review that can be applied to a repository license application review given the similarity of the f acilities and the overlap in the technical topics involved. Further, it is expected that information resulting from the staff's review of the PFS TSAR -- which the CNWRA will support -- will be factored into staff reviews of the repository design, presumably beginning immediately, during preficensing consultation. Therefore. because the proposed scope of work will directly support NRC reviews 2
Although the staff analysis attached to the September 5 request contends that j
Section 132 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), as amended, enables the Commission to support a decision that the review of the PFS application is related to NRC's NWPA activities and can be placed at the CNWRA under its charter. we disagree. Section 132 pertains to available and necessary additional at-reactor storage
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S. Fortuna 3 of the repository as desenbed above, and thus relates to NRC responsibilities under the NWPA. 3 we believe there is no legal objection to staffs determination that the work fits within the {
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CNWRA charter.
cc: D. Hassell. OGC l
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