Text

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200

Washington, D.C. 20555-0001

E-mail: opa.resource@nrc.gov

No.10-148 August 25, 2010

NRC ISSUES DRAFT SAFETY EVALUATION REPORT FOR PROPOSED

MIXED-OXIDE FUEL FABRICATION FACILITY AT SAVANNAH RIVER

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published its draft Safety Evaluation Report

(SER) for the license application by Shaw AREVA MOX Services, LLC, to possess and use

radioactive material at the Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Department of Energys

Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.

The report, which has been redacted to remove security related and proprietary

information, documents the NRC staffs technical safety review of MOX Services operating

license application for the facility. It does not represent a decision 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 stage is expected to be several years away.

The report contains the staffs conclusion that the applicants 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 NRC issued a Construction Authorization for the facility in March 2005, and

construction is underway. 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 for civilian nuclear power reactors. The facility

would combine plutonium and uranium oxides to make the mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel. It is the

only MOX fuel fabrication facility being built in the United States.

The draft SER reviews the applicants financial qualifications, plans for protection of

classified matter, organization and administration, integrated safety analysis, nuclear criticality

safety, fire protection, chemical safety, radiation safety, environmental protection and plant

systems.

The redacted SER for the MOX facility is available on the NRC website at

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 Web site.

ML102371207