Safeguards and Security Issues at the MRS Facility

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) is responsible for disposing of the nation's high level radioactive waste in a way that ensures the protection of the public from any unacceptable radiological risks and the maintenance of the national security. To achieve these objectives, OCRWM plans to institute a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)-approved security program at its facilities including the Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) facility. This program will safeguard nuclear information and provide not only for the physical protection of facilities but also for the nuclear material being handled and stored. Several key regulatory issues were identified during the development of the safeguards and security (S&S) program for the MRS. These issues relate to developing a realistic definition of the security threat at the MRS and establishing a single set of regulatory requirements. Resolution of these issues is important to implementing a realistic S&S program whose scope is commensurate with the potential risk at the MRS and complies with all appropriate regulatory requirements. OCRWM is working toward a timely resolution of these issues and on the formulation of an S&S program for implementation at the MRS. As an initial step, DOE has proposed an S&S strategy for the MRS based on a set of assumed resolutions to the key regulatory issues. With this approach, the facility designers will be able to evaluate possible S&S concepts for integration into the MRS early in the design process.