NRC Approves Recommendations to Speed New Reactor License Review Process

July 16, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

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Recommendations that could lead to a more efficient review of applications for new reactor licenses while maintaining a focus on safety were approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

Initial estimates indicated that it would take 42 months to complete the review of a combined license (COL) application - 30 months for technical and environmental reviews and 12 months for adjudicatory proceedings that include a mandatory hearing.

A combined license combines a construction permit and operating license.

A task force made recommendations to improve the processes involved in license reviews, with the potential to conserve resources and speed the reviews by approximately six to 15 months.

Of those recommendations, the NRC approved the following:

• Conducting the hearing on uncontested matters, referred to as the mandatory hearing, by the NRC itself while retaining the authority to request that the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) panel conduct that hearing in a particular case.

  Hearings on contested issues are not affected, and ASLB would continue to conduct them.

• Expanding the acceptance review for a COL application from 30 to 60 days to ensure completeness and technical sufficiency before the NRC dockets the application and starts the safety and environmental reviews. This would mark the date to begin the review process rather than the date the application is submitted.
• Using environmental impact statements by other governmental agencies for COL reviews where appropriate and applicable.
• Maximizing the use of electronics, such as the NRC web site, to provide information and documents to the public in advance of the publication of reports such as safety evaluations.
• Seeking legislative authority from Congress to eliminate the statutory requirement to conduct a mandatory hearing if no one has asked for one.
• Pursuing rulemaking to resolve issues that are generic to COL applications so that resolution is through the public rulemaking process rather than in individual contested proceedings.

The NRC will conduct a public meeting with industry representatives and other interested individuals to discuss the COL review approach and to provide an overview of plans for licensing new reactors before implementation of the approved task force recommendations.

For more information, go to http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/comm-secy/2007.

Source: Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).