The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued the National Institute of Standards and Technology authorization to resume operations of its research reactor.
NIST said Friday the go-ahead came after NRC assessed NIST’s updated practices and procedures to ensure the safe operations of its Center for Neutron Research reactor in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in accordance with the commission’s regulations and its license.
The NIST reactor was shut down in February 2021 after a single fuel element was damaged due to overheating.
“We are committed to ensuring the safe operation of this vital national resource so that it can once again support important advances in medicine, material science, technology and more,” said Laurie Locascio, director of NIST and undersecretary of Commerce for standards and technology.
On Thursday, NRC published a technical evaluation report detailing its review of the corrective measures NIST has carried out based on the confirmatory order released in August 2022.
NIST’s reactor safety evaluation committee will conduct an assessment to ensure that all conditions are met before low-power testing of the reactor kicks off. The testing phase will run for several weeks before the facility can resume full operations.
