ANS Calls for US Regulatory Action on Reprocessing

摘要

The American Nuclear Society (ANS) has called on the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to take regulatory action on reprocessing and recycling of used nuclear fuel, saying the lack of an efficient, technically robust, and technology-inclusive regulatory foundation is a barrier to innovation, especially for vendors of advanced nuclear reactors. In a letter to the NRC, ANS Executive Director and CEO Craig Piercy has urged the regulator to resume a proposed rulemaking for reprocessing. "Completing the reprocessing rulemaking would support future options for, and potential innovations toward, used fuel management as well as clean energy generation using advanced reactors," Piercy told the NRC. "While no new reprocessing facilities are planned in the United States at this time, this in itself should not be the rationale for suspending rulemaking."