Technical Support for Improving the Licensing Regulatory Base for Selected Facilities Associated with the Front End of the Fuel Cycle

Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) was asked by the NRC Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) to determine the adequacy of its health, safety and environmental regulatory base as a guide to applicants for licenses to operate UF{sub 6} conversion facilities and fuel fabrication plants. The regulatory base was defined as the body of documented requirements and guidance to licensees, including laws passed by Congress, Federal Regulations developed by the NRC to implement the laws, license conditions added to each license to deal with special requirements for that specific license, and Regulatory Guides. The study concentrated on the renewal licensing accomplished in the last few years at five typical facilities, and included analyses of licensing documents and interviews with individuals involved with different aspects of the licensing process. Those interviewed included NMSS staff, Inspection and Enforcement (IE) officials, and selected licensees. From the results of the analyses and interviews, the PNL study team concludes that the regulatory base is adequate but should be codified for greater visibility. PNL recommends that NMSS clarify distinctions among legal requirements of the licensee, acceptance criteria employed by NMSS, and guidance used by all. In particular, a prelicensing conference among NMSS, IE and each licensee would be a practical means of setting license conditions acceptable to all parties

Opening up the Pandora's box of sustainability league tables of universities: a Kafkaesque perspective

The aim of this paper is to explore the institutional impact of sustainability league tables on current university agendas. It focuses on a narrative critique of one such league table, the UK's ‘Green League Table', compiled and reported by the student campaigning NGO, ‘People & Planet’ annually between 2007 and 2013. Through a Kafkaesque perspective, this paper offers the proposition that such league tables could be acting as an institutional hegemonic mechanism for social legitimacy, through the desire by universities to show that environmental issues are effectively under control. Espoused eco-narratives of the ‘carbon targets imperative’ and ‘engagement' can serve as a form of deception, by merely embracing the narrative as a rhetorical device. Moreover, they can serve the exclusive, particularistic self-interests of a growing legion of ‘carbon managers’, ‘sustainability managers’ and ‘environmental managers' in satisfying the neo-liberal institutional drive from their vice chancellors

The Use of Process Monitoring Data for Nuclear Material Accounting Summary Report

A study was conducted for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as part of a continuing program to estimate the effectiveness of using process monitoring data to enhance strategic special nuclear material (SSNM) accounting in nuclear facilities. Two licensed fuel fabrication facilities with internal scrap recovery processes were examined. The loss detection sensitivity, timeliness, and localization capabilities of the process monitoring technique were evaluated for single and multiple (trickle) losses. The impact of records manipulation, mass and isotopic substitution, and collusion between insiders as methods for concealing diversion were also studied

Technical Support for Improving the Licensing Regulatory Base for Selected Facilities Associated with the Front End of the Fuel Cycle

Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) was asked by the NRC Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) to determine the adequacy of its health, safety and environmental regulatory base as a guide to applicants for licenses to operate UF{sub 6} conversion facilities and fuel fabrication plants. The regulatory base was defined as the body of documented requirements and guidance to licensees, including laws passed by Congress, Federal Regulations developed by the NRC to implement the laws, license conditions added to each license to deal with special requirements for that specific license, and Regulatory Guides. The study concentrated on the renewal licensing accomplished in the last few years at five typical facilities, and included analyses of licensing documents and interviews with individuals involved with different aspects of the licensing process. Those interviewed included NMSS staff, Inspection and Enforcement (IE) officials, and selected licensees. From the results of the analyses and interviews, the PNL study team concludes that the regulatory base is adequate but should be codified for greater visibility. PNL recommends that NMSS clarify distinctions among legal requirements of the licensee, acceptance criteria employed by NMSS, and guidance used by all. In particular, a prelicensing conference among NMSS, IE and each licensee would be a practical means of setting license conditions acceptable to all parties

Development and testing of matrices for the encapsulation of glass and ceramic nuclear waste forms.

This report details the results of research on the matrix encapsulation of high level wastes at PML over the past few years. The demonstrations and tests described were designed to illustrate how the waste materials are effected when encapsulated in an inert matrix. Candidate materials evaluated for potential use as matrices for encapslation of pelletized ceramics or glass marbles were categorized into four groups: metals, glasses, ceramics, and graphite. Two processing techniques, casting and hot pressing, were investigated as the most promising methods of formation or densification of the matrices. The major results reported deal with the development aspects. However, chemical durability tests (leach tests) of the matrix materials themselves and matrix-waste form composites are also reported. Matrix waste forms can provide a low porosity, waste-free barrier resulting in increased leach protection, higher impact strength and improved thermal conductivity compared to unencapsulated glass or ceramic waste materials. Glass marbles encapsulated in a lead matrix offer the most significant improvement in waste form stability of all combinations evaluated. This form represents a readily demonstrable process that provides high thermal conductivity, mechanical shock resistance, radiation shielding and increased chemical durability through both a chemical passivation mechanism and as a physical barrier. Other durable matrix waste forms evaluated, applicable primarily to ceramic pellets, involved hot-pressed titanium or TiO/sub 2/ materials. In the processing of these forms, near 100% dense matrices were obtained. The matrix materials had excellent compatibility with the waste materials and superior potential chemical durability. Cracking of the hot-pressed ceramic matrix forms, in general, prevented the realization of their optimum properties