IA-86-127, Partially Deleted Secy Obtaining Approval of Encl Ltr to DOE Re Arrangements for Transfer of Spent mixed-oxide Fuel to Sweden & Title to Separated Pu to West Germany
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d POLICY ISSUE g (Notation Vote) 3 March 10, 1986 SECY-86-81
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$ For: The Conmission
$ Fren: Victor Stello, Jr.
$ Acting Executive Director for Operations v
Subject:
SU3SEQUE?iT AP.?A;GEME:lTS F0'1 THE TWlSFER OF SPE'!T
'ilXED-0XIJE FUEL TO S"EDE" A"3 TITLE TO SE?EATED 'LUT0"IU'1 TO UEST GE?JLUiY 9
Purcose: To obtain Conm'ission concurrence ir. the attached letter to the Departme'it of Energy (30E) concerning the subject requests. .
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Background:
In 1982, DOE appro/ed two subsecuent arrangenents involving N the transfer of spent fuel from Sweden to EU?.ATO'i 'or reprocessing. These requests were reviewed by the s Conmission in SECY-32-222. The Swedes have new decided to A relinquish title to this m.aterial, which is scheduled to be g1 t reorocessed soon at La Hague, to Mest Gernany. In exchange gN '
for the title transfer, the '!est Gemans have agreed, in addition to financial considerations, to transfer some eg\ irradiated mixed-oxide fuel to Sweden for storage and j j \
ultimate dis?osal. (The Swedes do not have the capability g cf reprocessing irradiated mixed oxide fuel.)
d These transacticns are beinn undertaken by the Swedes as a
$ci result of a 1920 decision to limit their nuclear crogran to a naxinun of 12 plants and terninate this precran in 2010.
g As a result of new legislation that becano effective in the t 2 beginning of 1934, the recuire".ent that spent fuel be
]o g reprccessed ::as lifted, leaving ocen the option of storaae
'.!e understand the ypi ym s and ultinate disposal of irradiated fuel.
Sitedes are anxious to avoid having the scent fuel nc'! a t '_ a l J g Hacue reprocessed as Swedish raterial, chile the French till l
cy soon wis'1 to out this material through La Hague to rest jr their planned production schedules.
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a The Cennission 2 i
Discussion: Cecause tSese reauests are interrelated, 00E forvarded ther to NP.C tocether for revie'i with a single analysis on -
February 7 (Apoendix A). The staff, by letter of February 25 l (Aopendix 3), advised DOE, in eart, that portions of this analysis appeared to be classified. As a result of the staff's letter, the DOE reviewed this cuestion with other Executive Branch agencies and DOE then subnitted their i
revised pages for the analysis on February ?3. Tha enclos?d analysis is now considered to be unclassified by the Executive Branch and the IRC staff, and the revisions de not significantly affect the key ceints cade in the analysis.
?taterial Involved DOE's fioures on the quantities of U.S.-oricin naterial involved are not reoresented consistently throughout the docurents provided in connection with these requests. (00E also was advised of this in the staff's February 25 letter.)
However, through close scrutiny of the infor'ation provided, the staff has deternined that the material involved in tSe
" title" transfer would consist of aonroxi.mately 57,000 kilograms of uranium and 422 kilograms of nroduced clutonium contained in 249 irradiated power reactor fuel assemblies. The naterial involved in the mixed-oxide transfer to Sweden would consist of 217 fuel elements,150 of which are of U.S.-origin and contain accroxirately 6,500 kiloarams of uranium and 250 kilo 3 cans of oroduced plutonium.
i (00E has agreed inforrally to revise its '
l analysis to reflect procerly the tmount of material I
! involved.) The additional material in the recaininc 67 non-U.S.-crigin fuel elenents would contain a?oroxi2ately 2,39? kilograms of urantun and 130 kilc; rams of oroduced olutonium, bringing the transacticn to 3 total of 9,?93 kilograns of uraniun and 410 kilograns of produced olutonium. !1hile the Swedes, in their October 4,1905 letter to 00E, assert that the transfer of mixed oxide involves " essentially the sane anount" of plutonium, the ,
staff notes there is actually a difference of 19 kilogrars.
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The :c.rission 3 Statutor:i Esquirrents Section 1115 cf th? Ate".ic Energy Act sets forth the statutory requiretEnts for U.S. 3coroval of reorocessing of
'J S origin naterial er the ultinate retransfer of SM crams of plutoniun resulting from such recrocessino to a '
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?.ecorrendation:
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__I Schedulin : The interagency review ;aried ex: ires " arch 22. "o 4?ver - . ,
early action by the Coct.issicn "culd be apcreciate ' by MI '
in view of the Swedish d3 sire te c colste these transactions as soon as cessible and release the ratarial neu in Frsn: 9 for rearocessing unfer title of t*.s F 3.
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Acting Ex?cutivs 2iesctor fcr Onsrctice.s
.A: andices:
A. 2.'I neno dtd 2/7/26 '
- 3. Ltr to 3 rush im 5533 dtd 2/25/SC.
C. Ltr to 2 rush'fra Shea dtd 11/7/C5 (C)
~D. Staff Analysis dtd 2/19/26 (C)
E. Prc?: sed ltr to DOE 4
4 Commissioners' comments or consent should be provided directly to the Office of the Secretary by c.o.b. Tuesday, March 18, 1986.
Commission' Staff Office comments, if any, should be submitted to the Commissioners NLT Thursday, March 13, 1986, with an information copy to the Office of the Secretary. If the paper 2- is of such a nature that it recuires additional time for analytical review and comment, the Commissioners and the Secretariat should be apprised of when comments may be expected.
DISTRIBUTION:
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UNITED STATES y[s NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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"r. Peter Brush, Director C" ice of fluclear fionproliferation Policy C" ice of International Affairs U.S. Deoartment of Energy
- 'ashington, DC 20525 Oear 1r. Brush:
Ris refers to your nenorandun of February 7 and is in confinnation of recent teleohone conversations and visits between members of our staffs regarding the rs;uests involving transfer of mixed oxide fuel fron "est 'iernany to Sreden e-d the transfer of title to Swedish-owned fuel cresently located at la Hague, France, to West Germany.
':5.ile the Connission has not yet reviewed this reouest, in order to assist DOE ir, processing this case oronotiv. wa are 9rovidinq staff comnents at this tine.r ,]
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In addition to these changes, we have provided to your staff a nunber of specific comments which would help improve the analysis.
Finally, given the nature of these transactions, the issues involved, and the corments noted above, as well as the complexity and evolving. nature of the timely warning analysis, we do not expect that the Commission will be able to-complete its review of these requests within the 20-day timeframe you requested. I can assure you, however, that the staff is orocessing these requests as expeditiously as possible for Conmission cdnsideration and i cor. rents, and that these comments will be forwarded to your office as soon as received.
Sincerely, ew W ames R. Shea, Director Office of International Programs
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION L t WASHINGTON. D. C. 20555
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Mr. Peter Brush, Director .
. l Office of Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy U.S. Department of Energy h %;cg e nino,,.
Washington, DC 20585 Th .. ,; , m", had Reed 5 m %,g
Dear Mr. Brush:
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-v (U) The Commission has reviewed the proposed extension of the Tokai-Mura Agreement as describe October 11.Di F your October 8 memorandum and supplemental material received
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(C) 3 (U) The Commission also wishes to note that DOE's memorandum of October 8,1985 forwarding this proposed subsequent arrangement states that no concerns were expressed by any of the reviewing agencies on earlier agreements. While the NRC had not objected to previous Tokai Mura extensions, we had expressed a number of k/ %
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The Comission notes once again that insufficient time has been provided to the concerned agencies to attempt to resolve outstanding issues prior to taking final action on an urgent DOE request of this type, which from experience requires more than the nomal 20-day review period. This is especially so for this case, where a new analytical fonnat on a complex issue has been used for the first time. If DOE hopes to meet its future deadlines, the Commission strongly recomends that future such cases be submitted earlier to allow time to resolve such issues.
l Comissioner Asselstine does not believe that the Department of Energy has (U) provided sufficient information for the NRC to reach a conclusion on the acceptability of the proposed extension of the Tokai-Mura Agreement.
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Sincerely.
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l ames R. Shea, Director Office of International Programs I
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. INTERNATIONAL SAFEGUARDS AND FOREIGN PHYSICAL SECURITY REVItk International Safeguards Sweden (U) Sweden is party to the NPT and has accepted full scope IAEA safeguards ,
according to the provisions therein. The CLAB away-from-reactor storage facility has only recently come under IAEA safeguards. The Facility Attachment (FA) is under negotiation. Details on the application of IAEA safeguards tre not available.
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J The latest physical protection visits to Sweden, Trance and the FRG to0Tplace in Mai h 1983, March 1980 and November 1985, respectively. Because our visit to France was made more than three years ago, k=weR rrugum - ,a
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