U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Activities Related to IAEA Policy Paper 21

In June 2014, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) informed the United States (U.S.) of its new Policy Paper 21: Determination of uranium bearing materials meeting the conditions of paragraph 34(c) of INFCIRC/153 (Corrected). The aim of this new policy was stated to provide a clear, technically justified guideline on materials meeting the conditions of paragraph 34(c) that can be applied consistently to all States. As part of this notification, the U.S. was provided with the relevant parts of Policy Paper 21, which included the maximum impurity concentration limits of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standard, C 753-04, Standard Specification for Nuclear-Grade, Sinterable Uranium Dioxide Powder. The IAEA requested the U.S. to consider whether materials within the U.S. meet these conditions, and if so, to report them to the IAEA as 34(c) material in accordance with the U.S.-IAEA Safeguards Agreement (INFCIRC/288, Agreement Between the United States of America and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the Application of Safeguards in the United States). This paper presents the actions taken by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to address these questions, provides a summary of the results achieved, and potential future activities.