"The CEO of Holtec International conceded his company may have violated U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules when it made a design change to canisters that pack spent nuclear fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

But Holtec boss Kris Singh, appearing Wednesday at a conference before NRC officials at the agency’s headquarters in Maryland, said the changes were minor and posed no safety issues to the public.

“This, if you were to quote Shakespeare, is much ado about nothing,” Singh said while delivering a 37-page PowerPoint presentation as part of a public NRC webcast. “At least that is our perspective.”

In the bureaucratic parlance of the NRC, the “pre-decisional enforcement conference” centered on whether Holtec should have alerted the federal agency before making changes to the design of aluminum shims that help center the highly radioactive nuclear fuel in a “fuel basket” inside the canisters..."