Up & Atom

The NRC Staff recently issued SECY-20-0098, which provides the Staff’s recommendation to consolidate two low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) disposal rulemakings. Specifically, the Staff supports combining the draft final rule revising 10 CFR Part 61, “Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal” (Part 61 Rule), with a proposed rulemaking to promulgate requirements for near-surface disposal of greater-than-Class C waste (GTCC Rule). The combined rule would be “based on expected cost savings, consideration of stakeholder input, and efficiencies.”

The NRC held a public meeting with industry on November 2 to discuss approaches for performing supplier oversight during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Although utilities generally audit their suppliers every 36 months, many utilities have an NRC-approved “grace period” of nine months beyond the 36-month limit to complete the audits. Even with the nine-month grace period, however, utilities have struggled to complete audits during the pandemic.

The NRC held a public meeting on November 17 to review regulatory relief currently available to medical and other materials licensees, and to identify potential additional relief that the Staff is currently considering.

In a recently issued NRC adjudicatory decision, the Commission reaffirmed its regulatory interpretation allowing power reactor licensees applying for subsequent license renewal (SLR), and the NRC Staff reviewing these applications, to rely on the NRC’s Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants (GEIS). Two of the five Commissioners dissented, however, arguing this interpretation violates the NRC’s obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) wants your input on its advanced reactor rulemaking activities on a rolling basis, so it announced that it will periodically place “preliminary proposed rule language” on the federal rulemaking website under Docket ID NRC-2019-0062.

The Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Administrative Review Board (ARB) recently announced it is updating its electronic filing system (EFS) at 8:30 am EST on December 7, 2020. Beginning December 7, all parties who wish to file electronically must use EFS to file documents electronically with the ARB. The current electronic filing system (EFSR) will shut down permanently at 5:00 PM EST on December 3, 2020. This means that parties will not be able to file documents electronically with the ARB after 5:00 pm EST on December 3 until 8:30 am EST on December 7.

Our colleagues in the employee benefits and executive compensation practice published a blog post to remind plan sponsors that delayed payments, plus interest, are due on or before January 1, 2021.

Under the assumption that the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE) will continue into 2021, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Staff hosted a public meeting via teleconference on October 15 to discuss future requests for relief from regulatory requirements. The meeting focused generally on exemption requests the NRC received in 2020 and, more specifically, the information licensees should provide when submitting future requests for relief.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently held a public stakeholder meeting to discuss its Whistleblower Protection Program and how it can improve its administration of the 20-plus whistleblower protection provisions it is responsible for enforcing, including Section 211 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (ERA). As we reported, OSHA is holding these stakeholder meetings in lieu of the Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee due to the administration’s reduction in advisory committees. This call followed a similar call OSHA hosted in May, on which we also reported.

The suspense is over. The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced yesterday that it had awarded $80 million each to TerraPower and X-energy under the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) for them to build two advanced nuclear reactors that can be operational within seven years. “The awards are cost-shared partnerships with industry that will deliver two first-of-a-kind advanced reactors to be licensed for commercial operations.” The $80 million is initial funding for what could be a total of $3.2 billion over seven years.