Up & Atom

KEY TRENDS IN LAW AND POLICY REGARDING
NUCLEAR ENERGY AND MATERIALS
The US Department of the Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has published the final rules implementing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA).
Our energy lawyers have prepared a LawFlash addressing the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), “Update to the Regulations Implementing the Procedural Provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act,” published today in the Federal Register by the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).
The NRC Staff held a public meeting on December 12 at its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, to discuss subsequent license renewal (SLR) lessons learned. This was the second such meeting this year, with a third planned for early 2020.
The NRC’s Office of Enforcement (OE) recently issued an enforcement guidance memorandum (EGM) to reinforce the NRC’s Enforcement Policy (Policy) and earlier guidance on identifying and documenting findings and associated violations in inspection reports. The need for this EGM arose after OE became “aware that some inspection staff may be misinterpreting and misapplying” the Policy and guidance by documenting all issues of concern, regardless of significance.
The NRC recently issued an allegation guidance memorandum (AGM) to provide guidance on the handling of certain drug and alcohol fitness-for-duty (FFD) violations. The AGM directs that licensee-identified drug and alcohol FFD violations by nonlicensed individuals not be processed in the NRC’s allegation program.
Join Morgan Lewis lawyers for these upcoming programs.
Our immigration lawyers prepared a LawFlash that provides guidance regarding immigration status assessments.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) is requesting comments on whether there is a sufficient supply of molybdenum-99 (Mo 99) to meet medical needs without the export of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from the United States. Comments are due by December 27, 2019.
As we reported last summer, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Staff is considering whether to prepare a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for the construction and operation of advanced nuclear reactors (ANR GEIS). As part of that effort, the NRC announced in the Federal Register on Friday that it is now soliciting input from stakeholders.
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) announced on October 30 that the malware “Dtrack” had been found on the administrative network of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) in early September 2019. KKNPP is the largest nuclear power plant in India, equipped with two Russian-designed VVER pressurized water reactors, each with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts. Both reactor units feed southern India’s power grid.