Press Release-10-225, NRC Issues Final Safety Evaluation Report for Proposed Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at Savannah River

Press Release-10-225: NRC Issues Final Safety Evaluation Report for Proposed Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at Savannah River

ML103610149
Person / Time
Site:	07003098
Issue date:	12/27/2010
From:	Office of Public Affairs
To:
References
Press Release-10-225
Download: ML103610149 (2)

Text

NRC ISSUES FINAL SAFETY EVALUATION REPORT FOR PROPOSED MIXED-OXIDE FUEL FABRICATION FACILITY AT SAVANNAH RIVER The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published its final Safety Evaluation Report (SER) for the license application by Shaw AR EVA MOX Services, LLC, to possess and use radioactive material at the Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.

The report, which has been redacted to remove securi ty related and proprietary information, documents the NRC staff's technical safety review of MO X Services' operating license application for the facili ty. It does not represent a decisi on to issue the license. A license will be issued only if the NRC verifies the applicant has properly constructed principal structures, systems and components. That stag e is expected to be several years away.

The report contains the staff's conclusion that the applicant's descriptions, specifications, commitments and analyses provide an adequate basis for safety and safeguards of facility operations and that operation of the facility would not pose an undue risk to worker and public health and safety.

The SER was reviewed by the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards and approved for publication in September 2010.

The NRC issued a Construction Authoriza tion for the facility in March 2005, and construction is under way. The facility is part of an agreement between the United States and the Russian Federation to dismantle thousands of Cold War-era nuclear weapons by using the plutonium from warheads to manufacture fuel fo r civilian nuclear power reactors. The facility would combine plutonium and uranium oxides to make the mixed-oxi de, or MOX, fuel. It is the only MOX fuel fabrication facility being built in the United States.

The SER reviews the applicants financial qualifications, plans for pr otection of classified matter, organization and administration, integrated sa fety analysis, nuclear criticality safety, fire protection, chemical safety, radiation safety, environmental protection and plant systems.

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGU LATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 E-mail: opa.resource@nrc.gov Site: http://www.nrc.gov No.10-225 December 27, 2010 The redacted SER for the MOX facility will be published as a NUREG document, and can presently be found in the NRC's online ADAMS database at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html by searching for accession number ML103430615. More information about the MOX review is available at http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/mox/licensing.html. ### News releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's website.