1. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC Views on Risk-Based Cleanup Waste Management 04 March 2004 Tucson, AZ John T. Greeves,Director Division of Waste Management U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555

2. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Outline Overview of NRC’s program Lessons learned General views about DOE’s approach

3. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Overview of NRC’s Risk-Informed and Performance-Based Program Program evolved over the past decade –Commission policy –Developed regulations –Developed risk-informed guidance and tools –Identified issues and lessons learned –Resolving issues

4. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Overview of NRC’s Risk-Informed and Performance-Based Program Commission’s policy –1995 Policy Statement in 60 FR 42622 –1998 Direction in SRM-SECY-98-144 –Defined NRC’s approach and terms

5. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Overview of NRC’s Risk-Informed and Performance-Based Program Key elements of NRC’s risk-informed program –Regulations provide quantitative measure of safe cleanup –Defines a graded approach for decommissioning –Provides a risk-informed framework and dose modeling methods –New tools developed to apply probabilistic approach –Developed more realistic exposure scenario approach –Developed a risk-informed approach for using institutional controls

6. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Lessons Learned Development has been difficult and taken many years Dose criteria in regulations and derived site- specific criteria are key A single source of guidance is necessary Time and effort is needed to train staff Risk-informed approaches are more realistic and reduce unnecessary conservatism

7. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Views on DOE’s Risk-Based End States Headed in the right direction Policy statement and guidance should help consistent application However, early quantitative assessments are necessary DOE needs to follow up with NRC on our lessons learned NRC’s participation in West Valley illustrates our approach