NRC review found MOX facility construction activities acceptable overall, and also determined that the program was being sufficiently implemented to support ongoing construction
- By Linton Levy -
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has scheduled a meeting with officials of Shaw Areva MOX Services at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 17 in Aiken, S.C., to discuss the results of the Applicant Performance Review for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility currently under construction at the Savannah River site.
The meeting, which is open to the public, will be held in the Aiken Municipal Center, 215 The Alley in Aiken. NRC officials will be available to answer questions from the public after the business portion of the meeting.
The NRC review found MOX facility construction activities acceptable overall, and also determined that the program was being sufficiently implemented to support ongoing construction. The NRC, however, did find that performance in the area of design control needs improvement. Issues in that area included performing, verifying and documenting design changes as well as failures to adequately translate some requirements into construction documents. The NRC plans to conduct additional inspections in design control to assess the effectiveness of the company’s corrective actions in this area.
The MOX facility, which will be owned by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, is part of an effort to make surplus weapons-grade plutonium into more proliferation-resistant forms. Converting the plutonium into MOX fuel will enable it to be used in commercial reactors to generate electricity. In the United States, only those reactors authorized by the NRC will be permitted to use MOX fuel.
Copies of the meeting agenda and related documents will be available in the electronic reading room on the NRC website at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html or by contacting the Office of Public Affairs in Region II with the contact information on this release.