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Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Sub-Arena

Byproduct materials comprise one of two sub-arenas that the staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) identified in considering which areas of the materials safety arena to target for greater use of risk information. This page summarizes the following aspects of this sub-arena:

Objective
Basis
Goals
Risk-Informed and Performance-Based Activities

Objective

Utilize risk information on a case-by-case basis for byproduct material regulation, licensing, and oversight.

Basis

NUREG/CR-6642, “Risk Analysis and Evaluation of Regulatory Options for Nuclear Byproduct Material Systems,” documents the underlying analysis of byproduct material systems. (This report is not publicly available.) Insights from NUREG/CR-6642 and other studies have been incorporated into the NUREG-1556 series, “Consolidated Guidance about Materials Licenses,” which provides NRC staff and licensees with information to support various byproduct applications. This material continues to provide input to the agency’s risk informed and performance-based rulemaking, licensing, and oversight activities.

In June 2001, the NRC published NUREG-1717, “Systematic Radiological Assessment of Exemptions for Source and Byproduct Material,” which documents the staff’s assessment of doses associated with byproduct and source material exemptions. NUREG-1717 also includes dose assessments for certain devices that are currently used under general or specific licenses that have been identified as candidates for use under exemptions. In addition, staff activities identified in SECY-07-0147, “Response to U.S. Government Accountability Office Recommendations and Other Recommendations to Address Security Issues in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Materials Program,” will address possible revisions to the agency’s regulatory framework.

Goals

The staff has established the following goals for risk-informed and performance-based activities in this subarena:

Continue making incremental improvement (as practicable) to enhance the risk-informed and performance-based nature of rulemaking and guidance development, licensing, and oversight activities for byproduct materials.

Encourage the industry and NRC licensees to use a risk-informed and performance-based approach in demonstrating compliance with the NRC’s risk/dose criteria.

Risk-Informed and Performance-Based Activities

To request additional information, Contact Us About Risk-Informed, Performance-Based Regulation.