ML20029D028
| ML20029D028 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 03/09/1994 |
| From: | Taylor J NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | |
| References | |
| SECY-93-128, SECY-94-057, SECY-94-57, NUDOCS 9405030296 | |
| Download: ML20029D028 (11) | |
Text
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POLICY ISSUE SECY-94-057 March 9, 1994 FOR:
The Commissioners FROM:
James M. Taylor l
Executive Director for Operations
SUBJECT:
STATUS OF Aci10N PLAN FOR REGULATING FUEL CYCLE FACILITIES PURPOSl:
To inform the Commission of the status of the action plan for correcting weaknesses in the fuel cycle facilities safety program and the progress in acquiring additional staff to carry out the program set forth in SECY-93-128, j
" Status of Action Plan for Regulating Fuel Cycle Facilities," as requested by l
the Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM) of June 7, 1993.
l
SUMMARY
Meeting the schedule for the action plan, as provided in SECY-93-128, has received high-priority attention and a commitment of staff resources and I
technical assistance contracts.
Publication of an upgraded 10 CFR Part 70 and other related regulatory development activities in this action plan are currently on schedule.
BACKGROUND:
l In May 1993, the Commission was briefed on SECY 93-128, " Status of Action Plan for Regulating Fuel Cycle Facilities," which outlined five major programs and the resource implications for upgrading the fuel cycle facility safety Contacts:
Joan Higdon, NMSS NOTE:
TOLBE MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE i
504-2477 AT' COMMISSION BRIEFING ON MARCH 18, 1994 George Bidinger, NMSS 504-2683 9405030296 940309 PDR SECY 94-057 ppg om b8 L_ _ -__
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s The Commissioners program.
In a June 7, 1993 SRM, the Commission supported the staff's integrated approach to regulatory development and licensing and requested
... status reports on its progress in staffing up to carry out the program set i
forth in SECY-93-128."
l DISCUSSION:
REGULATORY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM The staff is moving forward expeditiously to meet the Commission's directive to establish a firm regulatory base for fuel cycle facility licensing and in;oection activities and for determining the adequacy of licensee performance.
Four principal projects in this program are concurrently under development in the Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards-(FCSS). These projects iavolve major revisions to 10 CFR Part 70, " Domestic Licensing of Specit.1 Ntclear Material;" publication of a guidance document on performing an interratea safety analysis (ISA); development of a standard review plan (SRP) for use by V. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing staff; and a replacement of the existing standard format and content guide (SF&CG),
Rogulatory Guide 3.52, dated November 1986.
l The cur rent status and schedule of these rojects are shown in Enclosure 1 and are discussed below.
B_evisions to 10 CFR Part 70 In October 1993, the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) c provided the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research with a user-need request for rulemaking and a preliminary draft of major revisions to the safety-regulations in Part 70.
The purpose of these revisions is to improve the rigorousness of the regulatory base, to clarify and refine existing requirements, to incorporate many of the recommendations of NUREG-1324,
" Proposed Method for Regulating Major Materials Licensees," dated February 1992, to utilize, where possible, performance rather than prescriptive regulations, and to reduce unnecessary burdensome regulatory requirements.
Publication of the proposed rule is currently on schedule for August 31, 1994.
The rulemaking package is expected to be forwarded to the Commission by July 15. 1994. The final rule is scheduled for publication by August 31, 1995. After publication of the proposed amendments to Part 70, staff expects t3 begin similar changes to Part 40, dealing with licensing of facilities that convert uranium mill product 'o uranium hexafluoride and other uranium products.
'f The Commissioners '
1 53 One of the major planned revisions to Part 70 is a requirement that applicants Although the likelihood of a significant release by a Part 70 prepare an ISA.
licensee has been characterized as small (see NUREG 1140, Regulatory Analysis on Emergency Preparedness for Fuel Cycle and Other Radioactive Material Licensees) an ISA is necessary for establishing system and component level safety margins, reducing uncertainty, and for identifying outlier scenarios that are precursors to unacceptable consequences.
The ISA will identify and evaluate the various hazards that could arise from, or affect control over, nuclear materials. This analysis would provide a basis for identifying the features of process areas that are important to safety and that would be subject to NRC regulation. The applicant would include the results of its ISA in any application for a license, a license renewal, or a license amendment.
A guidance document is being developed that will include a description of alternate methods and methodologies for performing comprehensive ISAs that would be acceptable to the NRC for fuel cycle licensees or license applicants to use in performing their ISAs.
In May 1993, a contract was awarded through the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) Interagency Agreement to Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) for technical assistance in developing this document.
This effort is currently on schedule for publishing in August 1994, concurrently with publishing the proposed Part 70 rule for public comment.
Staff has been working closely with industry during the rule and guidance development process. An outline of the proposed ISA document was presented to representatives of the fuel cycle industry at an ISA public workshop on August 27, 1993. The workshop provided a forum for licensees to provide NRC and SRTC representatives with information on the safety. analysis methods they currently are using or plan to use and their current capabilities to perform such analyses. The draft document will be discussed at an upcoming workshop scheduled for May 4, 1994.
Copies will be publicly available for review before the workshop.
SRP and SF&CG The remaining two high-priority projects under development are an SRP and an SF&CG.
The SRP will provide a standardized approach for staff in reviewing license applications for authorization to possess and use special nuclear material. The SRP will also assist licensees in understanding staff's approach and bases for reviewing license applications.
Following the public comment period, this document will be further refined, if necessary, to acco'mmodate subsequent changes to the proposed rule. The SF&CG will provide guidance tc applicants and licensees regarding the type and depth of information in license applications that are necessary for regulatory decisions.
In May 1993, a task force of Headquarters and regional staff developed the initial oraft of the SRP. NMSS staff made further revisions, end in November 1993, held four public workshops to obtain information relevant tc the
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The Commissioners development of the acceptance criteria sections for the various areas of review within the SRP. After the workshops, the draft SRP was revised; an outline is shown in Enclosure 2.
Information presented at these workshops and written comments received through the Facility Operations Committee (FOC) of the U.S. Counsel for Ene.rgy Awareness will assist the NMSS staff in improving the regulatory base.
In December 1993, after a competitive evaluation, a contract was awarded through the DOE Interagency Agreement to Oak Ridge National Laboratory for technical assistance in further development of the SRP and the SF&CG.
Both the SRP and SF&CG, in preliminary draft form, are currently on schedule for inclusion with the rulemaking package; this package will be forwarded to the Commission by July 15, 1994.
Completed draft versions of the SRP and SF&CG wili be available, through the NRC's Public Document Room, early in the 75-day public comment period for the proposed rule.
Since the rule and companion documents are being developed on parallel tracks, some lead time is required to incorporate changes to these documents as the Part 70 rule is developed.
Science Applications Inte national Corporation (SAIC) and SRTC are also providing technical assistance in developing recommendations for the chemical safety and ISA portions of these documents.
It is anticipated that their input will be completed in time to consider their recommendations in the July 1994 version of the SRP.
LICENSE RENEWALS During this past year, staff has developed and implemented aggressive schedules for completing license renewals (see Enclosure 3). The proposed schedule for renewals was accelerated so that seven major fuel cycle licenses will be renewed by the end of 1997, instead of 2003, which was the previous projected date.
The renewal for one major facility is scheduled for completion in 1994, renewals for four facilities are scheduled in 1995, and renewals for the two remaining facilities are scheduled in 1997.
This activity is proceeding on this revised schedule.
Since the NMSS reorganization in February 1993, renewals for six other facilities have been completed. These facilities are Department of the Army, Eastman Kodak, General Electric Vallecitos, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, and Seattle University.
Although the license renewh1 activity is occurring concurrently with revisions to Part 70 that will ultimately affect the license-renewal process, license renewals will be approved under existing regulations. However, if licensees volunteer to follow draf t SRP guidance it will be used by staff during the renewal process. The intent is that when the final revised Part 70 is' issued, the NRC will iequire licensees to modify their then-current license (possibly quite recently renewed) to conform to the new rule. This approach should minimize the impact on licensees and NRC staff resources after the revised-rule becomes effective.
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The Commissioners Some licensees have agreed with this approach, whereas other licensees have indicated that they are not interested in pursuing a renewal until the new rule is issued. The staff recognizes that some licensees may prefer to wait for the issuance of the revised rule.
However, in the near term, this could adversely affect our objective.of improving the rigorousness of the fuel cycle safety program in a timely manner.
INSPECTION PROGRAM As part of the NMSS reorganization in February 1993, an Inspection Section was formed in FCSS. This section's mission includes performing enhanced chemical and criticality safety inspections with regional support and to continue the material control & accounting (MC&A) inspections.
Emphasis has been placed on refining the inspection procedures for nuclear criticality safety (NCS) inspections and developing procedures for chemical process safety.
FCSS wil, begin refinement of the existing NCS inspection procedures after recruitment of a senior nuclear criticality safety inspector.
The revised criticality safety inspectica peacedures will identify those areas of criticality safety that will be verified by Headquarters and/or regional staff.
Work has begun in developing appropriate chemical process safety inspection procedures.
Technical assistance for developing these procedures is being previded by SAIC, which has experience in chemical safety and Occupational Safety and Health Administration's process safety management.
For the development stage of this work, SAIC staff is scheduled to visit five sites.
The date for compl-ting both the procedures and these site visits is April 1994.
This activity is currently on schedule.
After development of these procedures, an NRC inspection team, with contractor assistance, will perform an initial round of chemical process safety inspections at licensed facilities to ensure appropriate application.
These inspections are scheduled between July 1994 and January 1995. It is anticipated that beginning in February 1995, chemical safety inspections will be conducted solely by NRC staff.
TRAINING PROGRAM Staff been reviewing and evaluating the safety requirements currently unde'r development for fuel cycle facilities and the causes of problems that led to safety events. To enhance the licensing and inspection staffs understanding of the technology associated with these matters, nine courses
.I have been identified that would require mandatory attendance. These courses
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The Commissionere deal with such diverse subjects as management systems and structures, ISAs, criticality safety, sampling and measurement, mechanical and chemical process hazards, and uranium enrichment.
Staff is working with NR.C's Technical Training Center (TTC) to develop five of these courses.
To date, a statement of work has been prepared to initiate revisions of two existing courses and development of three new courses.
It is anticipated that three courses will be ready for presentation in Fiscal Year 1994 and two courses for presentation in Fiscal Year 1995.
Concurrently, staff is planning to issue a contract that will provide technical assistance to the staff in developing a course on management systems and structures.
Since the breakdown of management systems is a principal cause of problems at these facilities, more focus is needed on the license review and inspection of these systems.
Arrangements for the development of the remaining three courses are under discussion.
In parallel with the above activities, efforts are underway to revise the inspection manual chapter that specifies the training requirements for fuel cycle inspectors. These revisions are necessary to ensure that sufficient time is allotted for employees to qualify as inspectors.
LICENSEE SELF-ASSESSMENT PROGRAM The staff previously noted in SECY-93-128 that the F0C is taking a role in developing performance indicators and in exploring various self-assessment techniques.
F0C verbally stated that they are developing a straw man self-assessment program, similar to the key factors used by the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations.
To date, F0C does not have a schedule to complete this effort. The staff continues to encourage industry to take the lead in this initiative and to propose a program to the NRC for consideration.
FOC has stated that it expects to continue with these same activities under the newly created Nuclear Energy Institute, effective in the second quarter of 1994.
RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS:
In the Commission memorandum, " Status Report on Filling Vacancies in the Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards (FCSS)," dated August 6,1993, it was noted that progress had been made in either filling or identifying individuals to fill nine of the twelve vacancies.
Subsequently, FCSS was successful in filling eight of those original nine vacancies.
Since then, FCSS has been successful in hiring a criticality specialist.
Staff continues to work closely with the Office of Personnel to identify potential candidates to fill the remaining three vacancies--two in the nuclear criticality area and one in the chemical safety area. At this time, two potential candidates for those positions are under review.
'b The Commissioners,
COORDINATION:
The Office of the General Counsel has reviewed this paper and has no legal objection.
./
. m a es M. Ta. or
/ tecutive Director J
[/
for Operations
Enclosures:
1.
Action Plan for Fuel Cycle Safety Regulatory Development 2.
Proposed Outline of the SRP 3.
License Renewal Schedule DISTRIBUTION:
Commissioners OGC OCAA OIG OPA OCA OPP REGIONAL OFFICES EDO ACNW SECY b
i 2
a 1
ACTION PLAN FOR FUEL CYCLE SAFETY REGULATORY DEVELOPMENT Project Completion Date Revisions to Part 70, " Domestic Licensing of Special Nuclear Material" Forward user-need request to Office of 10/5/93
+
Nuclear Regulatory Research (Completed)
Forward rulemaking package to Commission 7/15/94
+
Publish proposed rule 8/31/94 Public comment period 9/1-12/20/94 Publish final rule 8/31/95 Integrated Safety Analysis Guidance Document Award inter-agency agreement to Savannah 5/5/93 River Technology Center _
(Completed) 8/3/93 Complete guidance document outline (completed)
Hold public workshop to review draft 8/27/93-guidance document outline (Completed)
Hold public workshop to review final guidance document
-5/4/94.
Include ISA guidance document in rulemaking-package 8/31/94 ENCLOSURE 1 a
0' t
ACTION PLAN FOR' FUEL CYCLE SAFELY REGULATORY DEVELOPMENT (cont'd)
Project Completion Date Chemical Safety Recommendations for SRP and SPECG Award technical assistance contract to
+
Science Applications International 9/1/93 Corporation (Completed)
Discuss chemical safety recommendations for SRP and SF&CG at May workshop 5/4/94 Incorporate chemical safety recommendations into preliminary draft BRP and SF&CG 7/15/94 Standard Review Plan (SRP) and Standard Format and Content Guide (SF&CG)
Develop initial SRP 5/20/93
.(Completed)
Hold public workshops on acceptance 11/93 criteria sections of the SRP (Completed)
Award inter-agency agreement to Oak Ridge 12/1/93 National Laboratory (Completed)_
Discuss ISA chapters for SRP and SFECG at workshop 5/4/94 Include preliminary draft BRP and SF&CG in a
rulemaking package 7/15/94
s O'
BTANDARD REVIEW PLAN FOR THE REVIEW OF THE HEALTH AND SAFETY BECTIONS OF FUEL PROCESSING FACILITY LICENSE APPLICATIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS
[ INDIVIDUAL CHAPTERS EACH DESCRIBE THE INFORMATION THE REVIEWER EXPECTS TO FIND RESPECT 1VELY IN THE SAFETY PLAN.AND IN THE SAFETY ANALYSIS REPORT]
Introduction General Information 1.0 1.1 Facility and Process Description 1.2 Institutional Information 2.0 Organization / Management Control and Oversight 2.1 Organizational Responsibilities and Authorities 2.2 Safety Committees 2.3 Audits and Self-Assessments 2.4 Reviews of Design Changes 2.5 Human Factors 2.6 Investigations of Abnormal Events 2.7 Training and Qualification 2.8 Maintenance 2.9 Procedure Development / Approval 2.10 Recordkeeping/ Reporting 2.11 Quality Assurance 3.0 Integrated Safety Analysis Radiation Protection 4.0 Nuclear Criticality Safety 5.0 Chemical Process Safety 6.0 Fire Protection 7.0 Waste Management 8.0 9.0 Emergency Preparedness
- Radiological Contingency Plan 10. 0' -
Environmental Protection
- Environmental Report 11.0 -
Decommissioning
- Decommissioning Funding Plan ENCLOSURE 2
L 3.,
LICENSE RENEWAL SCHEDULE Renewal Major Fuel Cycle Licenses Date -
in Renewal 9/94 1.
Combustion Engineering (Hematite) l 2.
Babcock & Wilcox 5/95 (Naval Nuclear Fuel Division) 3.
Westinghouse Electric 6/95 4.
Allied-Signal 8/95 Siemens Power Corporation 12/95 5.
6.
General Electric 2/97 (Wilmington) 7/97 7.
General Atomics Renewals Completed Date 12/93 l
1.
D,epartment of the Army j
12/93 2.
General Electric (Vallecitos Nuclear Center) 12/93 3.
Purdue, University 11/93 4.
Seattle University l
6/93 5.
Pennsylvania State University 4/93 6.
Eastman Kodak l
l ENCLOSURE 3
..