Early Site Permit Demonstration Program: Regulatory criteria evaluation report

The primary objective of the Early Site Permit Demonstration Program (ESPDP) is to demonstrate successfully the use of 10CFR52 to obtain ESPs for one or more US sites for one (or more) ALWR nuclear power plants. It is anticipated that preparation of the ESP application and interaction with NRC during the application review process will result not only in an ESP for the applicant(s) but also in the development of criteria and definition of processes, setting the precedent that facilitates ESPs for subsequent ESP applications. Because siting regulatory processes and acceptance criteria are contained in over 100 separate documents, comprehensive licensing and technical reviews were performed to establish whether the requirements and documentation are self-consistent, whether the acceptance criteria are sufficiently well-defined and clear, and whether the licensing process leading to the issuance of an ESP is unambiguously specified. This document provides Appendix E which contains a population density report. In this study the proposed US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) population density and exclusion zone size criteria were evaluated for their potential effectiveness to meet the quantitative public health and safety objectives associated with the NRC Safety Goal Policy. In addition, the individual and societal risks from postulated accidents (based on NUREG-1150 methods) were determined and compared to the quantitative prompt and latent health objective of the safety goal policy