Workshop documents and additional information about how to weigh in on it.

There has been no reprocessing – the separation of plutonium from highly radioactive irradiated fuel – of commercial radioactive waste in the United States since the early 1970’s when the one and only civilian reprocessing site in the USA, West Valley (near Buffalo New York, see http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/decommissioning/decommissioninghome.htm ) closed. The catastrophic radioactive mess at West Valley resulted from less than a decade of operation and is projected to cost $10 billion to clean up.

Now the US nuclear industry in conjunction with a French government interest (quasi corporate AREVA) and some nuclear advocates are pushing for a revival of this most-dirty step in the nuclear fuel chain.

Currently the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) would license such an activity under the provisions for a reactor, or under the provisions for a high-level radioactive waste site. Reprocessing is neither so NRC is exploring writing one or more new regulations specifically for the purpose of licensing a reprocessing facility. The agency has held a series of workshops to gain “stakeholder” in-put on “Gaps” in the current regulation (available in Chapter 10 of the US Federal Code of Regulations that can be accessed at: www.gpo.gov )

It is noteworthy that the US nuclear industry (via the Nuclear Energy Institute) and its consultant AREVA are pushing for a SINGLE rule that would encompass radioactive waste acceptance, storage, plutonium separation, all associated waste handling and also plutonium or MOX fuel fabrication.

NIRS participated in the June 21 & 22, 2011 stakeholder session held by NRC in Augusta, Georgia. The following documents (powerpoint slides) are not currently available on www.nrc.gov but were provided to participants.

Presentation of Jack Davis of NRC, overview of the NRC Gap Analysis.

NRC Presentation on Gaps 1 and 6 and the regulatory framework.

Presentation on Waste and Environmental issues – Gaps 2, 3, 15, 16 and 19.

Safety and Risk issues – Gaps 5, 7, 9, 10 and 11.

Security issues in regulating reprocessing – Gaps 4, 8, 17, 18.

Financial Issues – Gaps 12, 13, 14.

Combined Gap Summary (text of all 18 gaps with issues for discussion).

Additional documents pertaining to the NRC “gap analysis” and possible rulemaking to create new licensing regs for reprocessing + associated activities are posted at: http://www.nrc.gov/materials/reprocessing.html#recent