Abstract
Title 10 of the United States (US) Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 71, Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Material, includes requirements for the transport of fissile material in packages. These regulations provide requirements for packaging that is certified by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to transport fissile material. The regulations also include provisions that allow for shipment in packages that are not required to be certified by the NRC. These provisions include criteria for exemptions from classification as fissile material (§71.15) and permit general licenses for limited quantities of fissile material and plutonium-beryllium special form sources (§71.22 and §71.23, respectively). This paper will discuss recommendations that NRC has made on the use of the fissile material exemptions and general license provisions in a recently published NUREG/CR, and changes to these provisions proposed for an upcoming rulemaking action.NUREG/CR-7239, “Review of Fissile Material Exemptions and General Licenses in 10 CFR Part 71,” was recently developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for the NRC. This document provides technical recommendations to fissile material licensees on how to apply the fissile material exemption and general license regulations. This paper will outline this NUREG/CR, including: 1) the technical basis, intent, and anticipated usage of each of the fissile material exemption and general license provisions; 2) the recent regulatory history of the Part 71 fissile material exemptions and general licenses; and 3) example problems which illustrate how the provisions might be applied and justified.In 2012, IAEA made several significant changes to the fissile material requirements in SSR-6, including the fissile exception provisions and provisions similar to the U.S. fissile material general licenses. In 2016, the NRC began a rulemaking effort to consider these changes (among others), and to decide how to best harmonize the domestic U.S. regulations. This paper will review the 2012 changes made to SSR-6, discuss the NRC staff consideration of those changes, and detail the proposed revisions to 10 CFR Part 71 that NRC is considering for the fissile material exemptions and general licenses.
