ML23081A089
| ML23081A089 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 03/17/2023 |
| From: | Eugene Dacus Office of Congressional Affairs |
| To: | Dodaro G US Government Accountability Office (GAO) |
| References | |
| Revised CORR-23-0014 | |
| Download: ML23081A089 (1) | |
Text
March 17, 2023 The Honorable Gene L. Dodaro Comptroller General U.S. Government Accountability Office 441 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20548
Dear Comptroller General Dodaro:
On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), I am writing to provide a correction to the summary of actions taken by the NRC in response to recommendations contained in various U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that address NRC activities. This summary was provided in Enclosure 1 to the NRCs letter to you dated March 2, 2023. The correction, which is reflected in the attached revised pages, involves the status of two recommendations from GAO-19-468, Combating Nuclear Terrorism: NRC Needs to Take Additional Actions to Ensure the Security of High-Risk Radioactive Material. In the NRCs letter dated March 2, 2023, the first paragraph of the response to GAO-19-468 included a sentence stating, Two of these recommendations have been previously reported as implemented. However, this sentence should have read, Two of these recommendations have been previously reported as recommendations that would not be implemented. The incorrect statement also was contained in the 2021 report dated March 1, 2021, and the 2022 report dated February 24, 2022. We will ensure that the revision is included in future reports.
If you have any questions, please contact me or have your staff contact John Jolicoeur, Office of the Executive Director for Operations, at (301) 415-1642.
Sincerely, Eugene Dacus, Director Office of Congressional Affairs
Enclosure:
Revised Enclosure 1 Status for GAO-19-468 cc: Frank Rusco UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001
Enclosure The U.S. Government Accountability Office Report Combating Nuclear Terrorism: NRC Needs to Take Additional Actions to Ensure the Security of High-Risk Radioactive Material April 2019 (GAO-19-468)
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), in its report, Combating Nuclear Terrorism:
The NRC Needs to Take Additional Actions to Ensure the Security of High-Risk Radioactive Material, made three recommendations to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) related to the security of radioactive material. Two of these recommendations have been previously reported as recommendations that would not be implemented. The status of the actions taken by the NRC in response to the remaining GAO recommendation is provided below.
Recommendation 2:
The Chairman of the NRC should require additional security measures for high-risk quantities of certain category 3 radioactive material and assess whether other category 3 materials should also be safeguarded with additional security measures.
Status:
On December 21, 2021, in SRM-SECY-17-0083, Staff Requirements Memorandum SECY-17-0083 - Re-Evaluation of Category 3 Source Security and Accountability in Response to SRM-COMJMB-16-0001, the Commission directed the staff to pursue rulemaking to amend the regulations in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations Parts 30, Rules of General Applicability to Domestic Licensing of Byproduct Material, 40, Domestic Licensing of Source Material, and 70, Domestic Licensing of Special Nuclear Material, to:
- 1. require safety and security equipment to be in place before granting a license for an unknown entity in order to address the concern related to obtaining a valid license using a fictitious company or by providing false information;
- 2. clarify license verification methods for transfers involving quantities of radioactive material that are below category 2 thresholds in order to: (a) update the oral certification method to require that the certification be followed up with confirmation by the use of one of the other acceptable verification methods in those parts, and (b) remove the obsolete method of obtaining other sources of information compiled by a reporting service from official records; and,
- 3. require licensees transferring category 3 quantities of radioactive material to verify licenses through the License Verification System (LVS) or the regulatory authority. For this activity Agreement States that do not use the Web-based Licensing (WBL) System as their license tracking system would need to either voluntarily provide their licenses authorizing category 3 quantities of radioactive material to the NRC to facilitate verification through LVS or perform manual license verification.
The Commission did not direct the staff to include category 3 sources in the National Source Tracking System.
On December 19, 2022, the staff submitted the draft proposed rule to the Commission for its consideration. The draft proposed rule and supporting content can be found in SECY-22-0112, Proposed Rule: Radioactive Source Security and Accountability (3150-AK83; NRC-2022-0103). The Commission is currently considering the draft proposed rule, which the staff expedited.
This GAO recommendation remains open.
Identical letter sent to:
The Honorable Gene L. Dodaro Comptroller General U.S. Government Accountability Office 441 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20548 cc: Frank Rusco The Honorable Edward J. Markey Chairman, Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety Committee on Environment and Public Works United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 cc: Senator Pete Ricketts The Honorable Thomas R. Carper Chairman, Committee on Environment and Public Works United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 cc: Senator Shelley Moore Capito The Honorable Cathy McMorris Rodgers Chair, Committee on Energy and Commerce United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 cc: Representative Frank Pallone, Jr.
The Honorable Jeff Duncan Chairman, Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security Committee on Energy and Commerce United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 cc: Representative Diana DeGette The Honorable Bill Johnson Chairman, Subcommittee on Environment Manufacturing and Critical Materials Committee on Energy and Commerce United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 cc: Representative Paul Tonko The Honorable Chuck Fleischmann Chairman, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development Committee on Appropriations United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 cc: Representative Marcy Kaptur The Honorable Dianne Feinstein Chairman, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development Committee on Appropriations United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 cc: Senator John Kennedy The Honorable Gary C. Peters Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 cc: Senator Rand Paul The Honorable Mark E. Green Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 cc: Representative Bennie Thompson The Honorable Sheldon Whitehouse Chairman, Committee on the Budget United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 cc: Senator Chuck Grassley The Honorable Jodey C. Arrington Chairman, Committee on the Budget United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 cc: Representative Brendan F. Boyle The Honorable Patty Murray Chair, Committee on Appropriations United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 cc: Senator Susan Collins
2 The Honorable Kay Granger Chairwoman, Committee on Appropriations United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 cc: Representative Rosa DeLauro The Honorable Joe Manchin Chairman, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 cc: Senator John A. Barrasso The Honorable James Comer Chairman, Committee on Oversight and Accountability United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 cc: Representative Jamie Raskin The Honorable Kevin McCarthy Speaker of the House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Kamala Harris President of the Senate Washington, DC 20510 The Honorable Shalanda Young Director, Office of Management and Budget 725 17th Street, NW Washington, DC 20503 cc: Erin Cheese The Honorable Robert Menendez Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 cc: Senator James E. Risch The Honorable Michael McCaul Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 cc: Representative Gregory Meeks