In August the DoE gave a favourable safety assessment to the project. The NRC’s concurrence with the DoE’s study is conditional on DoE’s agreement to notify NRC of any changes to the draft final guidelines. This includes changes to the supplemental information and also DoE’s agreement to retransmit the revised rulemaking package to the NRC should any substantial changes be made, in order to determine whether re-concurrence is required.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham should be giving his recommendation to President Bush soon. The plan is likely to face an uphill battle on Capitol Hill.
