''There should be a boundary drawn,'' said Dr. Richard Meserve during a visit to SRS. ''Exactly where that line should be drawn, I don't know enough yet to answer.

''It's not been an issue confronted by the commission itself.''

The commission, which licenses and monitors the nation's nuclear-power plants and civilian nuclear facilities, would oversee the proposed mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel fabrication facility at SRS.

The plant would dispose of at least 36 tons of weapons-grade plutonium by using it in fuel for nuclear power plants. It also would create radioactive wastes that might be stored and treated at the site.

Some observers have questioned whether the commission's authority would extend to MOX-generated wastes stored at SRS facilities. Those plants largely are self-regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy, and are overseen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state agencies.

In the early 1990s, the Energy Department flirted with the idea of having the commission regulate nuclear-defense sites such as SRS, but the idea was abandoned.

Nevertheless, the commission enjoys a good working relationship with the Energy Department, Dr. Meserve said.

''We interface with the Energy Department in a variety of different areas,'' he said. ''I'm not aware of any problems.''

Dr. Meserve said he visited the site to get acquainted with its work and its facilities.

During his daylong tour, he examined the proposed site of the MOX plant, said Rick Ford, an Energy Department spokesman at SRS. Dr. Meserve also visited the site's radioactive-waste burial grounds, its F-Canyon plant for reprocessing nuclear materials, the Defense Waste Processing Facility, and the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory.

Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409 or bhaddock@augustachronicle.com.