Stunning and irresponsible: the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has admitted to SRS Watch that it has failed to review its regulation of the plutonium fuel (MOX) debacle at SRS!
The NRC’s performance during the construction and close-out of the bungled MOX projected is being swept under the tattered MOX rug, along with no review of the MOX debacle by Congress, on which $8 billion of our money was wasted on construction alone.
Contrary to what’s happening with MOX, in July 2021, the NRC set up a working group on “10 CFR PART 52 LESSONS-LEARNED WITH CONSTRUCTION AT VOGTLE 3 & 4 AND V.C. SUMMER 2 & 3.” The goal of the WG (working group) “is expected to identify best practices and lessons learned that can be used to further enhance our future regulatory activities pertaining to the construction of new facilities, including small modular reactors and advanced reactor technologies. In addition, the WG will assess various project management initiatives, including public interactions, risk mitigation measures, and resource planning.”
Concerning lessons learned from the NRC’s management of the failed construction of the plutonium fuel (MOX) building at the Savannah River Site, in part to “enhance” future regulation of new plutonium fuel facilities, the NRC has revealed that no working group has been established and no lessons-learned review has been conducted. Thus, a similar “enhancement” of regulation of construction future plutonium fuel facilities – for fuel for so-called “advanced reactors” – isn’t being pursed. Is the NRC simply sweeping under the rug its poor performance with its MOX plant regulation?
On December 17, 2021, the NRC informed us that no MOX lessons-learned documents existed and that no charter for a lessons-learned working group had thus been formulated: Response to NRC-2022-000043-1 no responsive documents to lessons learned request Dec 17 2021
“Based on the records you requested, we tasked the program offices most likely to have responsive records: the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) and Region II (RII). No responsive records were located.”
On Dec. 17, SRS Watch had provided additional “fee waiver” information to the NRC, as requested: ACK Letter_NRC-2022-000043-2 fee charge MOX lessons learned Dec 10 2021 – but that response proved to be moot.
We find the admission of no review of regulation of the MOX boondoggle to be irresponsible.
The MOX debacle, which ended in 2018, was the only U.S. Department of Energy project regulated by the NRC.
Photo: Scene of the crime – MOX project at SRS, by High Flyer.