ML19316D089
| ML19316D089 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 10/01/2019 |
| From: | Monica Ford Division of Nuclear Materials Safety I |
| To: | |
| References | |
| Download: ML19316D089 (4) | |
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RHODE ISLAND DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH QUARTERLY MONITORING CONFERENCE CALL October 1, 2019 Nuclear Regulatory Commission Attendees Rhode Island Department of Health Attendees Monica Ford, Region I Stephen Morris, Associate Director of Health James Trapp, Region I Joseph Catalano, Chief of Management Services Randy Erickson, Region IV Austin Olson, Supervisor, Radiation Control Program Lizette Roldan-Otero, NMSS Bill Dundulis, Risk Assessment Toxicologist Robert Johnson, NMSS Duncan White, NMSS BACKGROUND During the March 2016 Integrated Materials Performance Evaluation Program (IMPEP) review of the Rhode Island Agreement State Program (the Program), the review team found the States performance satisfactory for four performance indicators, satisfactory, but needs improvement, for one performance indicator, and unsatisfactory for one performance indicator. One recommendation was left open from the 2011 IMPEP review. On June 16, 2016, the Management Review Board (MRB) met to consider the proposed final IMPEP report. The MRB found the Program adequate to protect public health and safety, but needs improvement, and compatible with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRC) program. Upon its deliberations the MRB issued two additional recommendations to Rhode Island.
Additionally, the MRB directed that Rhode Island continue on monitoring, that calls between the Rhode Island Department of Health (RDH) and NRC staffs be conducted quarterly, and that a periodic meeting take place approximately one year from the 2016 IMPEP review with a second periodic meeting be held approximately 18 months after the first periodic meeting. The first periodic meeting was held with Rhode Island on March 9, 2017 with the MRB held on July 20, 2017. The MRB determined that quarterly calls should continue and that the next periodic meeting and IMPEP review should be held as scheduled in September 2018 and March 2020 respectively. A second periodic meeting was held on September 17, 2018 and the MRB was held on October 30, 2018. The MRB determined that Rhode Island should continue on Monitoring since a sustained period of performance had not yet been demonstrated by the Program and that the next IMPEP review should be held as scheduled in March 2020.
DISCUSSION OF PROGRAM STATUS Technical Staffing and Training (2016 IMPEP finding: Satisfactory but needs improvement)
The Program is composed of four technical staff members, a Program Supervisor, and a Chief (who is the Programs Radiation Control Program Director (RCPD)). The total effort allocated to support the Program is approximately 1.42 full-time equivalents (FTE). At the time of the March 2017 periodic meeting, there was one staff level vacancy. This was created in January 2017 when a staff member left to take another job within the Rhode Island Department of Health. The position was posted and a new employee started in April 2017. The newly hired employee has experience in both nuclear medicine and industrial radiography. In March of 2019 both the Chief and the Program Supervisor left the program. As of this call both positions have been filled (July and September 2019 respectively).
2 The Rhode Island Agreement State Program has a training and qualification manual compatible with the NRCs Inspection Manual Chapter (IMC) 1248. The two staff going through the qualification process have been assigned a training and qualification journal to complete. Both staff have been qualified to inspect several modalities independently and one individual is working to become a qualified license reviewer as well. Refresher training for technical staff is being tracked to ensure staff are meeting the 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> every 24 months requirement.
The 2016 MRB generated one recommendation for this performance indicator. The recommendation and its status are listed below.
Recommendation 1: The MRB recommends that the program management take measures to ensure proper documentation of inspection tracking dates and ensure the Rhode Island Agreement State Programs licensing and inspection files are complete.
Status: To address the first part of the recommendation, the former Program Supervisor had placed a white board in her office and had populated it with information pertaining to all of the Programs Priority 1, 2, and 3 licensees (which are separated by Priority and color coded). This could be accomplished since the Program licenses approximately 20 Priority 1, 2, and 3 licensees. The white board shows the last inspection completed and the next inspection due as well as the expiration date of the license. This keeps the information prominently displayed and can be easily consulted should a question about inspection due dates arise. During the June 2019 call, the Program stated that the white board is current through the end of calendar year 2019, however has not been updated since the supervisors departure in March. Going forward, the Program plans to use a tracking system that is already in use by the Rhode Island Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The Program hopes to be implementing this system for radioactive materials licensees by January 2020.
To address the second part of the recommendation, the Program originally trained two administrative support staff to support filing efforts and ensure the licensing and inspection files were complete. At the time of the January 2019 call, these staff worked with the Program for approximately one hour each day. Additional time was approved as needed including time working on Saturdays.
During the June 2019 call the Program stated that they mainly rely on one administrative assistant who dedicates about.5 FTE of their time to the Program. The Program stated that this is an appropriate amount of support and that licensing and inspection filing is being completed. There have been no changes since the June 2019 quarterly call.
Status of the Materials Inspection Program (2016 IMPEP finding: Unsatisfactory) and Technical Quality of Inspections (2016 IMPEP finding: Satisfactory)
During the 2016 IMPEP review, the team determined that 11 of 41 Priority 1, 2, 3, and initial inspections had been completed overdue resulting in 27 percent of inspections being completed overdue. The Program has since made inspections a focus area and has completed all Priority 1, 2, and 3 inspections in accordance with their assigned inspection frequencies. Two new licenses have been issued since the last IMPEP review. The Program stated that one of the initial licensees has not yet started work and has not possessed material since the license was issued over two years ago. The Program has visited the licensee several times and is working with the licensee to understand when operations may begin. The Program is aware of the regulation that states that a licensee will begin decommissioning if no work occurs within 24 months (RI equivalent to 10 CFR 30.36(d)) and is taking this into consideration going forward.
2 The Program has continued to be attentive to reciprocity inspections. Staff completed two inspections of five candidate licensees in calendar year 2016 (40%); two inspections of six candidate licensees in calendar year 2017 (33%); and three inspections of four candidate licensees in calendar year 2018 (75%). The Program stated during this call that reciprocity inspections for 2019 were being completed and that it was confident that it was meeting the goal of inspecting greater than 20% of candidate licensees. Supervisory accompaniments of all qualified inspection staff were completed in calendar years 2016, 2017, and 2018. The Program stated that they have completed some supervisory accompaniments for 2019 and will ensure all qualified inspectors are accompanied before the end of the calendar year.
The 2016 IMPEP team kept open one recommendation from the 2011 IMPEP review for the performance indicator Status of Materials Inspection Program. The recommendation along with its status are listed below.
Recommendation 2: The team recommends that the State take appropriate measures to conduct priority 1, 2, and 3 inspections and initial inspections in accordance with the inspection priority in IMC 2800.
Status: Since the 2016 IMPEP review, the Program has made inspections a focus area. All Priority 1, 2, and 3 inspections have been completed in accordance with the assigned inspection Priority listed in the NRCs IMC 2800. Two new licenses requiring an initial inspection were issued since the 2016 IMPEP review. Staff has completed one initial inspection but for this licensee, since no material is present, will need to do a follow-up initial inspection within 12 months or once the licensee receives material (whichever comes first). The second new license was issued during the summer of 2019 and the initial inspection is being planned (not to exceed 12 months from the date of license issuance).
Technical Quality of Licensing (2016 IMPEP finding: Satisfactory)
The Program has approximately 42 specific licensees. The Program takes all received licensing actions and places them in a computer tracking system and assigns them a log number. This database is very generic and does not contain any security-related information.
All licensing actions received are worked on by qualified staff. Once the work on each incoming action is complete, the action undergoes a concurrence review by a senior staffer. Normally licenses are signed by either the Program Supervisor or Chief, however since these two positions were vacant up until recently, senior staff has been signing the licenses. All renewals are current and there is no backlog of renewal actions. All other licensing actions that have been received (amendments, initials, terminations) have been in process for less than six months. Licenses are on a 10 year renewal cycle.
Staff is aware of the continuing revisions to the NRCs NUREG 1556 series and plans to update licensing guidance as appropriate.
The MRB for the 2016 IMPEP review generated one recommendation for this performance indicator.
The recommendation along with its status are listed below.
Recommendation 3: The MRB recommends that program management develop and implement an action plan to reduce the licensing renewal backlog.
Status: The Program did not specifically develop and implement an action plan to address this recommendation. However, work was done to complete all backlogged renewals. At the time of this
4 call all renewals have been issued and the Program had no licensees in timely renewal. The Program is aware of the need to complete renewals in a timely manner and will ensure timely completion of renewal actions received going forward.
Technical Quality of Incidents and Allegations (2016 IMPEP finding: Satisfactory)
The Program is aware of the need to maintain an effective response to incidents and allegations. The Program uses a system called Aspen Complaints Tracking System (ACTS). Incidents are quickly reviewed for their effect on public health and safety and staff is dispatched to perform onsite investigations when necessary. The Program communicates reportable incidents to the NRCs Headquarters Operations Center and Region I. The Program has received no reportable events since the 2016 IMPEP review.
The Program stated during this call that a formal procedure for incident and allegation response did not exist. The NRCs Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards State Agreements procedure SA-200, Compatibility Categories and Health and Safety Identification for NRC Regulations and Other Program Elements, lists procedures that pertain to response to events and allegations as a compatibility category C. Compatibility category C means a program element, the essential objectives of which should be adopted by the State to avoid conflicts, duplications or gaps. The manner in which the essential objectives are addressed need not be the same as NRC, provided the essential objectives are met. The Program stated that they would ensure procedures were in place to meet this requirement. Additionally, at the time of the June 2019 call, the Program was provided with a copy of the Allegations procedure used by the NRCs Headquarters Operations Officers to use as a template.
Compatibility Requirements (2016 IMPEP finding: Satisfactory)
In 2016 Rhode Island enacted state statute 42-35-5 into its General Laws. This statute requires that the Program must recodify all of their rules into the new format as described by the Rules and Regulations Formatting and Filing Manual by December 31, 2018 or they will not be able to enforce against them. The Program stated that it met the timeline and its amended regulations went into effect on January 1, 2019. The NRC comments on the final regulations will be addressed by the Program along with changes associated with Regulations Amendment Tracking Sheet IDs 2018-1 and 2018-2 later this year. The Program stated that it believed all comments would be addressed and finalized before the IMPEP review in 2020.
The Programs regulations are subject to sunset requirements. The Program must refile their regulations every five years. The Program last completed a refiling in January 2017. The next refiling is scheduled for 2022.
Conclusion The Program continues to improve and has acted on the recommendations that were made during the 2016 IMPEP review. The Program recently filled the two managerial vacancies and is continuing work to qualify the newer staff to perform independent inspections and licensing actions for all modalities.
The Program has made inspection timeliness a priority and has performed no inspections overdue since the last IMPEP review. Additionally, the Program completed all of its outstanding licensing renewals and had no licensing backlog at the time of this call.
Next Quarterly Call: December 2019 (tent.)