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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
	Office of Public Affairs	Telephone: 301/415-8200
	Washington, DC 20555-001	E-mail: opa@nrc.gov

No. 97-020

February 6, 1997

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is extending to ten years, from five, the license term for most nuclear materials licensees.

The extension will reduce the administrative burden of license renewals for both the NRC and the licensee and will support NRC's goal of streamlining the licensing process. It also will bring materials license durations into line with uranium mill licenses and fuel cycle facility licenses.

The NRC may issue some licenses for shorter terms, if warranted by the individual circumstances of license applicants.

The current five-year term is not set out in the NRC's regulations in most cases. Thus the longer term will be implemented immediately by NRC decision for most new licenses and renewals. For licensed medical users of nuclear material, however, the five-year term was established by regulation. For those licensees, the NRC plans to develop a rule change that would permit the license term to be lengthened.

The Commission estimates that about 4000 licenses will be affected by the license term change. These include, for example, universities that use radioactive materials in research, companies that use moisture density gauges containing radioactive material in road construction, and other industrial users.

The extensions do not apply to nuclear power plant licenses, which are issued for a 40-year term.