ML20247J234
| ML20247J234 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 05/11/1998 |
| From: | Garrick B NRC ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON NUCLEAR WASTE (ACNW) |
| To: | Shirley Ann Jackson, The Chairman NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| References | |
| NACNUCLE-S-0097, NACNUCLE-S-97, NUDOCS 9805210371 | |
| Download: ML20247J234 (8) | |
Text
ACNWS-0097 PDRI//[#
8 UNITED STATES
[
h NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION ll; E
ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON NUCLEAR WASTE WASHINGTON, D.C. 20566 4
May 11, 1998 1
l l
l The Honorable Shirley Ann Jackson Chairman j
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington. D.C.
20555-0001
SUBJECT:
SUMMARY
REPORT - 100TH MEETING OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON NUCLEAR WASTE. APRIL 21-23, 1998. AND OTHER RELATED COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES l
Dear Chairman Jackson:
During its 100th meeting on April 21-23. 1998, at Two White Flint North 11545 Rockville Pike. Rockville. Maryland, the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW) discussed several matters and completed the following report:
Report to the Honorable Shirley Ann Jackson Chairman. NRC. from Dr. B.
John Garrick Chairman. ACNW.
" Comments and Recommendations on Interim Guidance in Support of the Final Rule on Radiological Criteria for License Termination." dated April 29, 1998.
HIGHLIGHTS OF KEY ISSUES CONSIDERED BY THE COMMITTEE 1.
Nuclear Reaulatory Commission's Nuclear Waste Related Research The NRC's Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) briefed the ACNW on the current status of waste-related research being performed through the auspices of RES. As part of the NRC's implementation of the i
Strategic Assessment Initiative, the waste-related research and generic l
technical assistance programs in waste management were curtailed. Much of what would normally be addressed as generic technical assistance was assigned to the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) l to preserve efficiency in preparing for future licensing needs. The RES research program devoted to waste management is limited to a modest effort pertaining to radionuclides transport and behavicr in the D
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_,The Honorable Shirley Ann Jackson 2
environment and to another modest effort pertaining to decommissioning and environmental protection.
The RES staff from the Waste Management Branch briefed the ACNW by-providing an updated overview of the radionuclides transport research program. The RES staff discussed the initiatives on the core capabilities of NRC research.
The RES staff also discussed the coordinated efforts of the research review panels to assess the NRC's user needs. The panels consisted of program managers from the Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories, deans of nuclear engineering departments in six universities, and the representatives from the industry, including the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
These review efforts resulted in criteria that could be applied to the research areas to determine whether the agency had the necessary core capabilities.
The goal of the generic program on radionuclides transport was to provide NRC with a performance assessment (PA) capability that would span the needs of any NRC waste-reldted licensed activities that generate.a public health concern, including HLW. LLW. spent fuel storage, reclamation of contaminated uranium milling sites, and decommissioning.
The RES staff noted that this capability is not fully mature: for example, atmospheric transport has not been' activated and updated.
In summary. RES is in a position in which no new ground has been brok'en.
Cost constraints have resulted in merely improving existing data and experiments. - The RES staff speculated that further budget cuts should be expected.
RES will rely more heavily on sister agencies, interna-tional efforts, academic and private sector cooperative efforts, and so on, to make up for the shortfall in the knowledge base necessary to meet the NRC's technical requirements.
Conclusions / Action Itam a.
The Committee decided to proceed with its evaluation of the NRC Safety Research Program for Nuclear Waste, within the format provided by the ACRS.
Information from the RES briefing was incorporated into the final draft.
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The Honorable Shirley Ann Jackson 3
b.
The ACNW is interested in the methods RES uses in setting research priorities, which are more driven by expertise and familiarity with the issue and not so much by use of decisionmaking tools, for example, PA.
c.
The ACNW encourages the RES staff to find cost-expedient strate-gies for subject areas that it cannot directly fund; for example, cooperative ventures with universities, industry, and interna-tional organizations.
2.
Nuclear Waste Related Rulemakina
'As a result of a Commission directive to transfer all confirmatory research from program offices to RES and rulemaking efforts from RES to the appropriate program offices, the NMSS staff gave a short briefing to the ACNW on the status of the rulemaking function at NRC. The rulemaking functions went primarily to the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) for reactor-related rulemakings.
NMSS is responsible for all rulemakings relating to fuel cycle, industrial and medical.uses of radioactive materials, radioactive waste management, transportation, byproducts, and source and special nuclear material.
NMSS also retained rulemaking responsibility for 10 CFR Parts 19 and 20 in coordination with NRR.
When asked to characterize the essential changes in the rulemaking process Ms. Holahan, Division of Waste Management (DWM). NMSS. indi-cated that it is hoped that early coordination and cooperation between offices (including the Office of the General Counsel, the Office for Analysis and Evaluation of Operational Data, and NMSS) will improve the rulemaking process.
A weekly publication of the status of all NRC rulemaking is distributed to all offices.
Particularly interesting is that this weekly sheet also includes expected or future rulemakings.
In response to the ACNW's question of where the ACNW's advice would be most useful, Ms. Holahan indicated the rulemaking planning stage, which is the formative stage for interaction with the advisory committees. In the event that ACNW had a particular interest in a rulemaking (e.g.
10 CFR Part 63)., or the staff believes that the ACNW would have an inter-est, or the ACNW's early advice would be useful, arrangements could be l
made to accommodate the advisory committee's meeting schedules.
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J Tbe Honorable Shirley Ann Jackson 4
Conclusions / Action Items Both NMSS and ACNW should be more aggressive in incorporating ACNW's input at earlier stages of the rulemaking.
3.
Meetina with Huah L. Thomoson. Jr. Deouty Executive Director for Reaulatory Proarams Hugh L. Thompson. Deputy Executive Director for Regulatory Programs.
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discussed with the Committee several items of mutual interest, such as 1
the status of NRC's oversight of several DOE activities, the recognized significance of DOE's viability assessment (VA) for the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, and the need for advisory comittees to provide timely advice to the Comission vis 'a-vis the need to protect sensitive predecisional documents from premature release.
He also noted the occasion of the Comittee's 100th meeting and ex-pressed his appreciation to the Comittee for its past advice.
Conclusions / Action Items The ACNW plans to continue to participate in periodic interactions with the Office of the Executive Director for Operations.
4.
Total System Sensitivity Analysis for Yucca Mountain 1
The ACNW reviewed the sensitivity studies conducted by the NRC's HLW l
Program for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository.
These studies are designed'to elucidate the most important assumptions and parameters used in the NRC's Iotal-System Performance Assessment (TPA) Code. The briefing included an overview of the current version of the TPA code and the conceptual modeling approaches embodied in the code. The Comittee also heard presentations about the modeling results. including seismic and igneous scenarios; process-level sensitivity studies [ conducted by individual key technical issue (KTI) groups]: and system-level sensitiv-l ity studies including alternative conceptual models. The review gave the Comittee insights on significant issues pertaining to the perfor-l l
mance of the repository. This review also reported on the status of what has been done so far and what the staff plans to do in the near future.
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The Hopprable Shirley Ann Jackson 5
Conclusions / Action Items The Committee plans to develop a letter on the staff's progress in conducting the sensitivity studies for the HLW Program.
5.
Viability Assessment Guidance Michael Bell, DWM/NMSS, briefed the ACNW on the " Draft NRC Staff Guid-ante for Review of DOE's Viability Assessment (VA) for a Yucca Mountain HLW Repository." Dr. Bell gave a brief overview of the objectives, approach, and products of the staff's VA review guidance, including some interactions with the ACNW.
Conclusions / Action Items There was no specific action recommended for the Committee at this time.
The ACNW will provide recommendations to the Commission on the VA at a later date.
6.
Comments by Representatives of the Nuclear Enerov Institute on the Deoartment of Enerov's Yucca Mountain Viability Assessment The Committee heard a presentation and exchanged perspectives with the following NEI staff members:
M. Fertel Vice President: S. Kraft.
Director, Spent Nuclear Fuel Management: and R. Anderson, Senior Project Manager. The principal topic discussed was DOE's VA report, which is due to be released in September 1998.
NEI pointed out its views of the significance of this document and how it believed it could help future NRC/ DOE license activities.
Particu-larly, NEI stated that both agencies should be aware that their rela-tionship insofar as Yucca Mountain is concerned would probably change when the license application is submitted.
NEI also suggested that during the staff's review of the VA, the staff should look at a broader perspective than just the KTIs (e.g., preclosure issues such as above-ground facility cleration, waste retrievability, and so on).
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-The Honorable Shirley Ann Jackson 6
I Conclusions / Action Items NEI indicated its intention to become more closely involved with the activities of the ACNW in the future and to provide relevant observa-tions and recommendations in a timely fashion.
It indicated that, in the near future, it will provide its insights on spent fuel storage.
7.
Meetina With the Director. Division of Waste Manaaement. NRC Office of Nuclear Material' Safety and Safeauards John Greeves and Margaret Federline. Director and Deputy Director, respectively, of DWM/NMSS discussed topics such as the VA evaluation and the preclosure issues that DWM intends to consider for the proposed HLW repository at Yucca Mountain and several considerations related to the recent regulatory guidance on license termination. Mr. Greeves also commented on the Committee's strategic plan.
Conclusions / Action Items This portion of the meeting was part of a regularly scheduled informa-tion exchange between the Committee and NMSS, and no specific actions were recommended.
8.
Status of Issues Related to the Yucca Mountain Pro.iect (OPEN)
Mr. Lake Barrett Acting Director. Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM). DOE briefed the Committee on DOE activities at the Yucca Mountain site.
In addition, he presented the current status of l
the VA components, namely, the preliminary design concept for the repository and waste package. the total system performance assessment, the plan and cost estimate for the license application, and the cost estimate for constructing and operating the repository.
He also discussed the transparency DOE is committed to in the conduct of its VA effort and completed his formal presentation by discussing the science and engineering efforts underway to support the VA.
Ms. Carol Hanlon. OCRWM Licensing. DOE. updated the Committee on the most recent activities at the Yucca Mountain site. She discussed the i
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75e Honprable Shirley Ann Jackson 7
l progress on the cross-drift. the status of the thermal testing, and the current activities at Busted Butte.
Conclusions / Action Items No action items were raised, other than Mr. Barrett's indication that he intended to periodically brief the Comittee as his schedule permitted and Ms. Hanlon's commitment to continue to provide Yucca Mountain project upd6tes at future ACNW meetings.
PROPOSED SCHEDULE FOR THE 101ST ACNW HEETING The Comittee agreed to consider the following issues during its 101st meeting on June 10-12. 1998:
Near-Field Environmental and Performance Enaineered Barriers in the Yucca Mountain Reoositaty - Representatives from NRC and DOE. and other
- outside experts will discuss engineered barriers, corrosion, and the chemistry of the near field at the Yucca Mountain repository.
Meetina With the Director. Division of Waste Manaaement. NRC Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeauards - The Committee will meet with the Director of DWM to discuss recent developments within the division, such as developments at the Yucca Mountain repository, rules and guidance being developed, available resources, and other items of mutual interest.
Meetina With a Representative of the Nuclear Enerav Institut?
A representative of the Nuclear Energy Institute will comment on the ACNW's strategic plan and priority issues for 1998.
Meetina With the Nuclear Reaulatory Comission - The Comittee will prepare for a meeting with the Comission to discuss items of mutual interest. Topics will include NRC's High-Level Waste Issue Resolution Status Reports: ACNW's support of the NRC staff's approach to assessing the perturmance of multiple barriers: ACNW strategic plan: facility license termination: risk-informed, performance-based regulation: and NRC's safety research program. The Comittee is scheduled to meet with the Comission in July 1998.
1.
4 The Honorable Shirley Ann Jacksor.
8 Preparation of ACNW Reoorts - The Committee will discuss planned reports, including comments on DOE's VA. engineered barriers, total system sensitivity analysis, and other topics discussed during this and previous meetings.
OTHER RELATED ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEE There is no ACNW meeting scheduled for May 1998. The 101st ACNW meeting is i
scheduled for June 10-12. 1998.
Sincerely.
p
~ 4N.
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~
l B. John Garrick Chairman