Comparison and Analysis of Regulatory and Derived Requirements for Certain DOE Spent Nuclear Fuel Shipments; Lessons Learned for Future Spent Fuel Transportation Campaigns

Radioactive materials transportation is stringently regulated by the Department of Transportation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to protect the public and the environment. As a Federal agency, however, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) must seek State, Tribal and local input on safety issues for certain transportation activities. This interaction has invariably resulted in the imposition of extra-regulatory requirements, greatly increasing transportation costs and delaying schedules while not significantly enhancing the level of safety. This paper discusses the results an analysis of the regulatory and negotiated requirements established for a July 1998 shipment of spent nuclear fuel from foreign countries through the west coast to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). Staff from the INEEL Nuclear Materials Engineering and Disposition Department undertook the analysis in partnership with HMTC, to discover if there were instances where requirements derived from stakeholder interactions duplicate, contradict, or otherwise overlap with regulatory requirements. The study exhaustively lists and classifies applicable Department of Transportation (DOT) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations. These are then compared with a similarly classified list of requirements from the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) and those developed during stakeholder negotiations. Comparison and analysis reveals numerous attempts to reduce transportation risk by imposing more stringent safety measures than those required by DOT and NRC. These usually took the form of additional inspection, notification and planning requirements. There are also many instances of overlap with, and duplication of regulations. Participants will gain a greater appreciation for the need to understand the risk-oriented basis of the radioactive materials regulations and their effectiveness in ensuring safety when negotiating extra-regulatory requirements.