Nuclear safety bases for U.S. Department of Energy nuclear facilities
The US Department of Energy (DOE) maintains nuclear facilities at 34 sites in 13 states, numbering in the hundreds. This exceeds the number of nonreactor nuclear facilities regulated by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by a large margin. DOE is self-regulating in the area of nuclear safety, although external regulation has been studied. If external regulation were to be implemented, it would likely be through the NRC and its 10 CFR 70 regulations, which are under revision. The author's purpose here is to describe the strategy behind the DOE nuclear safety requirements, how the requirements are intended to be implemented, and also some of the requirements' related issues that the DOE and its contractors are addressing. The DOE nuclear safety requirements structure differs from the existing NRC licensing requirements for the same class of facilities (generally under 10 CFR 70 for fuel cycle facilities), although the proposed revisions to that regulation are structured very similarly, especially regarding Integrated Safety Analysis requirements. DOE has performance-type nuclear safety design criteria. The NRC does not specify such criteria but makes determinations of adequacy based on licensing submittals and iterative comments and responses from applicants. DOE safety infrastructure is a continuing evolving subject, necessary to address the unique challenges of government-owned, contractor-operated hazardous facilities, including those associated with deactivating and decommissioning old weapons complex nuclear facilities.
- Research Organization:
- Dept. of Energy, Germantown, MD (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 20005794
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Vol. 81; Conference: American Nuclear Society 1999 Winter Meeting, Long Beach, CA (US), 11/14/1999--11/18/1999; Other Information: PBD: 1999; ISSN 0003-018X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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