The NRC issued a confirmatory action letter on January 7 that was designed to address issues contributing to recent events at the facility. Those events included an October 13 incident that was the subject of an NRC augmented inspection team review. That incident involved workers using nitric acid to dissolve scrap material with small quantities of uranium.
It resulted in more heat than expected and the generation of nitrogen compound fumes. Although there were no injuries to employees or environmental releases, heated fumes damaged some pipes and the NRC inspection team identified several safety issues.
In December, NFS agreed that the process lines at the facility will remain out of service until the NRC was satisfied that the safety issues had been addressed. NRC inspectors have completed their review of the items in the confirmatory action letter designated as ‘Actions Prior to Restart’ and determined that NFS can safely resume operation of the Navy Fuel process line.
However, the NRC will only authorize resumption of other process lines after the company has achieved a satisfactory level of safety performance in the first line.
In February, the NRC dispatched a team of six inspectors to NFS to examine the items in the confirmatory action letter. That team, supplemented by additional specialist inspectors, focused on restart items with special attention to the Navy Fuel line.
NFS is required to notify the NRC when the company believes it is ready to restart each successive line. NRC inspectors will conduct readiness inspections and the agency will provide restart authorization only when the NRC staff determines that a line can be restarted safely.
