ML19253C239
| ML19253C239 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Seabrook  |
| Issue date: | 11/05/1979 |
| From: | Harold Denton Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| References | |
| SECY-79-602, NUDOCS 7911300289 | |
| Download: ML19253C239 (4) | |
Text
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L UNITED STATES November 5,1979 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION SECY-79-602 WASHINGTON, D. C. 20555 INFORMATION REPORT u%,
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Harold R. Denton, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation 5dject:
REVIEW OF REPORTS ON NRC SPONSORED RESEARCH Purcose:
To inform the Ccemission of steps being taken by NRR to institute a more systematic plan and peccedures for identifying those reports on NRC sponsored research that could impact the licensing precess and should be provided promptly to Boards and Panels.
Discussion:
The New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution (NECNP),
an intervenor in the Seabrook Station proceeding, filed a supplementary petition dated September 26, 1979 seeking Ccamission review of the decision of a majority of the Appeal Board on the issue of the seismic design of the Seabrook facility.
This petition referred to two additional reports sponsored by the NRC and authored by Dr. Chinnery who had provided testimony for the NECNP during the evidentiary hearing over two years ago.
With regard to these reports, the NECNP petition indicated, "It is regrettable that the staff should fail to notify the Aopeal Board of this infornation so that it could be taken into account in t.1e recent opinions."
In addition to the two reports by Dr. Chinnery, there are approximately seventy other reports of research sponsored by the NRC dated 1976 or later which are con-cerned with the geology and/or seismology af the New England
Contact:
W. A. Paulson, NRR 49-2S037 1440 407 2 $'
7911300
The Commissioners region of the United States. Although these reports were reviewed to determine if they made a significant demonstra-tion that the staff position concerning the appropriate seismic design criteria should be modified for facilities under review in New England, they were not examined in the detail necessary to detemine whether they might reason-ably be considered to affect any of the seismic issues which a board or the Commission might consider relevant to the Seabrook proceeding. A more detailed examination of these reports has been accelemted and copies of these publicly available research raports were furnished to the Commission and copies were made available to the parties of the proceeding upon request.
NRR Review of NRC Sconsored Research Recorts The NRC staff has the obligation to promptly notify Licensing Boards, the Appeal Panel, and the Ccmmission of new infomation which is considered by the staff to be relevant and material to one or more licensing proceedings. RES, 50, I&E, and the EDO staff offices have the responsibility to send information to NRR or NMSS when developing or receiving infomation that could be relevant and material to a proceeding.
In turn, NRR or NMSS has the responsibility for assessing information developed within their offices or received frem other offices and f.orwarding the infomation to the Boards as appropriate.
Reports on NRC sponsored research is one source of new infor-mation. The recent experience in the Seabrock proceeding prompted a review by NRR management of the mhnner by which such reports are considered for Board notification within NRR.
NRR's experience has shown that Board Notifications are based on infomation received by the NRR staff frcm a number of sources including the results of research sponsored by the NRC. However, there has been a lack of systematic assignment of responsibility for the review of NRC sponsored research reports within NRR with regard to assessing the infomation for possible licensing impact including Board notification.
RES estimates that about 400 reports were issued in Fiscal Year 1979 as the result of NRC sponsored research.
About 15 percent of RES reports are forsarded to NRR with Research Information Letters documenting the completion of substantial bodies of research work. Reports forwarded in this manner do receive a formal review by NRR to detemine the applicability of the completed research work to the licensing prccess.
Research results are also transferred through research review group meetings and other meetings witn RES and their contractors.
NRR is reviewing the established distribution lists for the varicus categories of research reports to assure that the reports will be made available to NRR upon publication.
NRR 1440 508
The Commissioners.
practice has been to forward those research reports re-ceived to the cognizant branches within NRR for review; however, there has been no requirement for documentation of the result of that review.
Existing agency procedures require that RES provide written recommendations to NRR regarding possible transmittal to the Boards of information which may have licensing implications. While some preliminary infor-mation has indeed been transmitted to NRR on this basis, ad-ditional use of this method of information transmittal would be beneficial.
The manpower required to systematically review and document the review results for research reports is estimated to be 8 man-years per year based upon a one-week review per report.
NRR has not budgeted for this activity of either in FY 1980 or FY 1981.
In addition, the Three Mile Island accident is currently causing a significant manpower diversion. As a result, NRR is establishing immediately a shcrt tem cor-rective program for new reports and developing a long term plan to request enough manpower to review all the NRC spon-sored research reports within sixty (60) days of receipt.
Short Tenn Corrective Plans
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The short tenn corrective program will s,i steMze th NRR review of research reports for possible Board and Panel notification. This program will apply only to future reports. Because of fenpower problems, ue do not plan to review the backlog of reports except for those related to the geosciences involving the Seabrook proceeding and a related matter involving the Indian poirt prcceeding.
We also expect tht in the short tem, t here will be many reports that we will not be able to review within sixty (60) days because of manpower problems.
In these esses, the Boards will be sent unreviewed repo-ts.
The goal of the long tem program is to review all the reports within sixty (60) days if receipt by NPR.
The short term progrun includes the following elements:
a.
Obtain all research reports on t mely basis, b.
Assign responsibility to a speci fic NRR division and branch, c.
Define responsibility of NRR reviewers in the conduct of the review, d.
Establish a follow-up system to assure that reviews are completed by NRR reviewers in timely manner, 1440 509
The Commissioners e.
Establish a system to assess the results of the review 'for possible licensing impact including interface with licensing board notification procedures, f.
Set-up a system so that all reports not reviewed within sixty (50) days are automatically sent to appropriate Boards.
We also intend to apply this system to the review of ACRS consultant reports and to reports issued under NRR's Tech-nical Assistance contracts. This short tem program will be fully implemented within about 30 days.
Long Tem Plan We plan to submit an Action paper to the Ccmmission by the end of CY 1979 with the details of the long tem program. Currently, we envision requesting sufficient resources for a one-time review of each report within 60 days of receipt. The results of the review will be cataloged and screened for licensing impact, including possible Board notification.
In addition, the results will be retrievable for use in future licensing actions.
We plan to coordinate this long tem program with the Office of Management and Program Analysis with regard to tracking the review and the retrieval of the results.
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Harold R. Denton, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation DISTRIBUTION Ccm1ssioners Comission Staff Offices Exec Dir for Operations ACRS Secretatiat 1440 H0
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