BIS Proposes Shift to Electronic Reporting for Certain Nuclear Activities
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a proposed rule this week that would require U.S. industry to shift from manual to electronic reporting for certain civil nuclear fuel cycle-related activities. The rule, released Dec. 28, would specifically amend BIS’s Additional Protocol (AP) regulations -- an agreement between the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency -- by replacing the existing manual reporting and processing procedures with a requirement to submit reports online through the Additional Protocol Reporting System (APRS).
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If the rule is implemented, all U.S. people and companies subject to the reporting requirements would have to register online to set up an APRS account, submit reports to BIS via APRS and maintain “current user account information” in APRS, BIS said. The rule would also clarify and update other requirements and revise definitions in the APR. BIS has been considering the change since at least spring 2020, when the agency added the proposed rule to its regulatory agenda (see 2007140027). Public comments are due Feb. 14.
The APR is specifically intended to “strengthen existing verification agreements” under the IAEA and to prevent the proliferation and export of nuclear weapons, which BIS said is a “cornerstone” of U.S. foreign and national security policy. Reporting requirements covered under the rule include a “number” of commercial nuclear and nuclear-related items, materials and activities that have “peaceful nuclear applications” but are also necessary elements of a nuclear weapons program.
The electronic submission requirements wouldn’t be mandatory for certain activities covered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, BIS said, including information about exports of certain nuclear facilities and equipment and non-nuclear materials. The agency said “locations and sites” subject to those NRC reporting requirements would have the option of continuing to submit their AP reports to BIS manually. Currently, U.S. industry submits their AP reports through “facsimile, hand delivery, courier or the mail, using paper forms.”
BIS said the APRS, including its proposed electronic reporting requirements, will be a “user-friendly, time-saving tool” that will reduce the reporting burden on industry. The information electronically collected under APRS “would be the same type of information that is currently required to be submitted using paper AP report forms,” BIS said, but would instead save companies time and money. “BIS expects that the implementation of APRS would, over time, reduce industry’s processing times and errors,” the agency said, specially referencing the APRS “copy feature” and the “relative ease of use compared with the current manual reporting system.”
However, BIS expects the reporting burden on industry to “remain essentially unchanged” in the short-term “due to the one-time additional burden” that companies “would incur as a result of switching” from the manual system to the electronic one. But “once persons, locations or sites have completed the initial setup phase for APRS, BIS expects there to be at least a modest reduction in the total burden hours associated with this information collection.”