Guidance for Overlapping Certificate Revisions & Letter Amendments

This guidance applies only to DOE elements or persons working under contract to DOE elements

DOE elements means programs, operations offices, field/site offices, and other organizational units of the Department of Energy, excluding those of the National Nuclear Security Administration.  The list of DOE elements is posted here.  (link to DOE Directives website).

Only DOE elements or persons working under contract to DOE elements (i.e., contractors) shall consign a DOE certified package for shipment.  NRC licensees or Agreement State licensees shall not consign a DOE certified package for shipment, but can transfer the material on-site to DOE elements or persons working under contract to DOE elements, for consignment of the package.  See NRC legal interpretation: Transfer by an NRC Licensee of Radioactive Material or of Radioactive-Contaminated Facility Components to the Department of Energy (External link to NRC website)

The following guidance is based on DOE Packaging Certification Program (PCP) consultation with NRC and DOT in 2017 and is consistent with how "overlapping" certificate revisions are currently addressed and implemented by DOE, DOT, and NRC in their respective certificates.  The following guidance for letter amendments was added in 2026 after consultation with NRC.   

Certificate Revisions of Type B or Fissile Packages certified by DOE
Certificates of Compliance (CoC) for Type B or fissile packages certified by DOE are revised periodically, for example, when the certificate is amended or renewed. The latest, approved certificate revision supersedes the previous revisions on the date of issue; however, the latest certificate revision typically includes an explicit condition to authorize use of a previous revision(s) of the certificate for a limited period of time, typically 12 months and not to exceed the expiration date. This condition provides users a reasonable amount of time to complete planned shipments and/or implement the latest version of the CoC in their package operating and maintenance procedures, if applicable.  This condition also allows use of the package and provides sufficient time for the latest certificate to be reviewed for endorsement by DOT (US Competent Authority) or revalidation by a foreign Competent Authority to authorize use of the package for export/import.

The DOE (and NRC) recognizes these issues and the need for CoC revisions to overlap for a limited period of time, except in the following cases.  No overlap period will be used: 

• If the certificate is being revised to correct a significant safety problem or error in a previous revision, or
• If the applicant requests that no overlap period is included.

DOE plans to limit the number of revisions that remain in effect at any one time, for consistency with NRC's practice. In general, only two revisions should be in effect at the same time. The previous revision will continue to be valid for a period of approximately one year, or until its expiration date, whichever occurs first. The overlap will be accomplished by including a condition in the new certificate revision that authorizes use of the previous revision for a specific period of time. As shown in the example below, DOE will include an additional condition (Condition No. "X" in the example) on essentially all revised certificates. For purposes of this example, the new revision is Revision No. 2 and issued on September 30, 2017.

"X. Revision No. 1 of this certificate may be used until September 30, 2018."

Letter Amendments to DOE Certificates
For limited shipments, DOE (and NRC) may issue a letter to authorize a change (amendment) to a DOE CoC, rather than amend (revise) the CoC directly.  The letter amendment specifies conditions of use and an expiration date, which supplement or supersede conditions in the underlying CoC.  A letter amendment is considered a stand-alone document and remains valid until its conditions are fulfilled or it expires, whichever occurs first.  There are no overlapping letter amendment revisions, but there may be, in rare instances, multiple letter amendments valid at the same time for the same CoC.    

Certificates Revisions issued by DOT
DOT certificates for Type B or fissile packages certified by DOE or NRC, special form radioactive materials, or uranium hexafluoride are revised when a certificate is amended or the expiration date is extended (i.e., renewed). DOT only supersedes previous certificate revisions to correct a safety problem or an error, or if specifically requested by the applicant; consequently, DOT does not limit of overlapping certificates like DOE or NRC.  The new (i.e., latest), certificate does not supersede previous certificate(s), unless it's explicitly stated; otherwise previous certificates may be used until they expire.  The DOT certificate expiration date typically includes the statement, "Previous editions which have not reached their expiration date may continue to be used."