ML25210A584
| ML25210A584 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 07007042 |
| Issue date: | 08/21/2025 |
| From: | NRC/NMSS/DFM/FFLB |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML25210A560 | List: |
| References | |
| Download: ML25210A584 (1) | |
Text
Enclosure U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION STAFFS FEEDBACK ON THE OKLO INC.
FOLLOW-UP QUESTION RELATED TO WASTE MANAGEMENT The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is the regulatory authority for reviewing incidental waste determinations for commercial facilities and does not anticipate a role for the U.S. Department of Energy in this process. In 1993, the Commission approved specific criteria for determining whether waste is incidental to reprocessing and appropriate for disposal in the near-surface (58 FR 12342; March 4, 1993). Subsequently, the West Valley Policy Statement (Federal Register, 67 FR 5003; February 1, 2002) addressed similar designation criteria regarding Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR) for a commercial facility; in it, the NRC indicated that certain reprocessing wastes could be designated as WIR, rather than High-Level Waste (HLW), if they met safety requirements comparable to the NRCs performance objectives for near-surface disposal of radioactive waste (Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations [10 CFR] Part 61 Subpart C). The NRC can apply similar criteria to make a risk-informed assessment of Oklos analysis of whether certain commercial waste streams, that would be HLW based on the definition in 10 CFR Part 50 Appendix F, can be managed as WIR. The NRC is open to further discussions with Oklo Inc. regarding specific waste characteristics and the NRCs review process.