National Nuclear Security Administration September 2023 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi- autonomous agency within the Department of Energy (DOE), is announcing this amendment to the June 22, 2016, Record of Decision (ROD) for the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Production of Tritium in a Commercial Light Water Reactor (CLWR SEIS) (DOE/EIS-0288- S1). NNSA is amending the 2016 decision in partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). TVA is considering increasing the number of TPBARs irradiated in their reactors at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant (WBN) using tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs). NNSA initially decided to implement the CLWR SEIS Preferred Alternative, Alternative 6, which allows for the irradiation of up to a total of 5,000 TPBARs every 18 months using TVA reactors at both the Watts Bar and Sequoyah sites. Subsequent to the CLWR SEIS, WBN Unit 1 increased tritium production under Unit 1 License Amendment #107 (July 2016) and Unit 2 tritium production was authorized under Unit 2 License Amendment #27 (May 2019). Hence, TVA and NNSA are now opting to choose the previously analyzed CLWR SEIS Alternative 4, which allows for the irradiation of up to a total of 5,000 TPBARs every 18 months at the Watts Bar site using Watts Bar Units 1 and 2.