Criticality safety standard from ANS open for public comment

The American Nuclear Society recently opened a draft standard for public review.

ANS-8.22-202x, Nuclear Criticality Safety Based on Limiting and Controlling Moderators, is a revision of ANS-8.22-1997 and provides criteria for limiting and controlling moderators in operations with fissile materials.

Details: Until recently, announcements of public review opportunities for ANS standards have been published exclusively in the American National Standards Institute's weekly ANSI Standards Actions publication. However, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is currently working to expedite the standards endorsement process and therefore is seeking a greater amount of public review for nuclear-related standards. To that end, ANS has begun posting public review opportunities for its standards on the ANS standards website.

About ANS-8.22: The 1997 version of ANS-8.22 was most recently reaffirmed in 2021. This criticality standard applies to those operations that depend on moderator control for maintaining subcritical conditions. This standard does not apply to concentration control of fissile materials.

The deadline for public comment in response to ANS-8.22-202x is August 10. As is the case with all public comment opportunities for ANS standards, comments received after this date will not be accepted.

Get in touch: Questions regarding either this standard or the public comment process can be sent using a form available on the ANS website. The single-copy price per draft standard is $50. Comments can be sent via email to [email protected].