ML20035D945
| ML20035D945 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 04/21/1992 |
| From: | Quittschreiber Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards |
| To: | Jerrica Johnson NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20035D940 | List: |
| References | |
| ACRS-2817A, NUDOCS 9304140141 | |
| Download: ML20035D945 (5) | |
Text
- -
/
'o UNITED STATES 8
~'%
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION e
ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS a,
a wAssincrow. o. c. 20sss
?'*, * *... $~
i i
April 21, 1992
.I r
i MEMORANDUM FOR:
Jim J nson,, Technical Assistant, OCM/IS j
FROM:
' #6frIIthchreioer, Technical Assistant
SUBJECT:
DRAFT MINUTES OF CHAIRMAN SELIN'S DISCUSSION AT THE APRIL 2, 1992 ACRS MEETING Attached is a copy of the draft minutes of the portion of the April 1992 ACRS meeting at which Chairman Selin talked to the Committee about 1) a proposal for conduct of. future ACRS activities, and 2).
i the nuclear power program in Eastern Europe.
t I would appreciate your comments as wall as any the' Chairman cares
{
to provide regarding this interpretation of that portion of the April-ACRS meeting.
A copy of the final approved' set of minutes l
will be sent to.the NRC's Public Document Room - after they ' are.
i certified as the official minutes of thel meeting.
l l
Please send any~ comments you may have on this matter to me or give j
me a call-at 492-9518 with your comments.
l
Attachment:
As stated M
W' l
u_
AV l
1
. AMM A 9304140141 920603
.j PDR-. ACRS-2817A-PDR 7
l i
l DRAFT MINUTES 384TH ACRS MEETING APRIL 2-4, 1992 i
I.
Meetina with NRC Chairman Selin Note:
Mr.
G.
Quittschreiber was the Designated Federal Official for this portion of the meeting.
Chairman Selin met with the Committee and discussed the following
(
matters.
i Proposal for Future ACRS Activities e
Chairman Selin noted that he had been considering how the Committee could be more useful to the Commission and proposed that "beyond the statutory responsibilities," the Committee should consider the three following overall areas of work:
l
?
AREA 1.
The Committee should work on those specific topius on l
which the Commission requests the Committee's help (e.g.,
contribution of the regulatory process to reactor safety based on a retrospective look,at events that have actually occurred). These may or may not be specific work assignments required.by statute.
Interaction on these items would be directly with the Commissioners.
L AREA-2.
The Committee should focus more on a relatively small number of long term continuing issues (e.g., Use of DAC, ITAAC, and PRA in the regulatory process).
Chairman Selin sugg'ested that at the most there should only. be three or four of these important " continuing issues." These issues are expected to be long-term matters that both the Committee.and commission will have agreed are useful topics for the Committee's attention.
i Chairman Selin suggested that one such area of possible Committee
{
involvement might be computer sof tware in nuclear plants.- He noted the following reasons as to why this area needs special attention
- a 1.
Not much experience in nuclear plants 2.
The staff is not strong in this area.
3.
Unlike hardware, you can't test the computer codes based I
on the design requirements, but need the actual software to test it.
Chairman Selin suggested that it would be helpful to get empirical evidence on human performance to be used in PRAs, based on actual operator performance-during emergencies, as' opposed to concentrating only on material and' equipment performance.
r
1 2
Assignments in this area could include items identified by the Commission or the committee. Although interactions regarding items in this area would be primarily with the staff, the Commission would be kept informed by periodic status reports and meetings.
Those issues that cannot be resolved by interaction with the staff / staff management would be elevated to Commission level.
Since such "long term" items will involve a
considerable expenditure of resources, a mechanism is needed to reach mutual agreement between the Commission and Committee that they are worth pursuing.
The Committee's Key Technical
- Issues, developed during the Baltimore retreat and agreed to in a Committee Memorandum to File dated February 7,
1992, were mentioned briefly.
Chairman Selin suggested that this set of issues are of the type where the Committee and Commission should agree that they are appropriate matters for the Committee to give in-depth attention.
(Note: in a separate but related meeting, Chairman Selin noted that the Commissioners are primarily policymakers and are not normally involved in specific technical decisions.)
AREA 3.
The Committee should work more directly with the senior staff managers in those areas where the staff would benefit from Committee advice.
He suggested that the staff would respond to the Committee's advice in these areas directly. The status of this work would be reported to the Commission occasionally.
In this area, the Committee would contribute by addressing technical matters even though the main audience is the office directors and the staff rather than the Commission.
Gs11eral Comments and
Conclusions:
Based on the distribution suggested, the reports sent directly to the Commission would be " leaner and more focused." The Commission could respond to these reports directly.
He noted that the Committee deserves the Commission's full attention to those things it brings to the Commission's attention.
Chairman Selin sees his suggestions as a way to help the ACRS and the NRC staff work closer ^together.
He suggested that he would leave it to the Committee to find a way to work more closely with the senior managers on specific issues, not just by inviting them to Committee meetings on those projects on which the staff is working.
3
3 The Nuclear Power Procram in Eastern Europe e
During a general discussion with the Committee on items of current interest, Chairman Selin reported briefly on his recent trip to Russia and the Ukraine.
He agreed to provide the Committee a copy of his trip report.
(Note:
This trip report was distributed to the members on April 17, 1992.)
He noted that the people associated with the nuclear programs in these countries, especially in the upper technical echelons, do *now what to do technically, but are f aced with organization, resou. :e, and incentive problems.
Chairman Selin suggested that what he thought was needed to solve their nuclear reactor plant problems was a three level approach as follows:
1.
Initiate immediate and relatively cheap set of safety measures to fund inspectors, raise the pay of operators, clean up operating procedures, fire protection, etc.,
to be performed by plant people at a relatively small cost (probably $10 million a plant).
2.
A $10-$15 billion kitty ($100 to $200 million per reactor) expended over five years for such things as better instrumentation, better controls, emergency systems, etc. This would be conditioned on seeing real long term commitment by the Eastern European countries on matters to upgrade and maintain the safety of their nuclear power plants.
3.
Real economic and regulatory reform, where the pricing would be reasonable so that proper construction could be done to finish the newer / safer reactors already under construction with phasecut of the older /less-safe reactors.
Chairman Selin noted that there is a significant organizational problem in the Eastern European nuclear programs, in that the regulators don't have much " swing," making it is difficult for the West to coordinate with them.
l In response to a question ' rom Mr. Ward concerning the NRC's role, Chairman Selin noted that Russian laboratories are doing useful research (by keeping good people involved).
There are a number of joint nuclear related projects being considered at the White House level.
He noted that accounting in the proliferation area, though complex, is conceptually straightforward, and less expensive to resolve than the nuclear plant safety issue.
In response to a question from Dr. Shewmon, concerning the use of fissionable weapons material in reactors, Chairman Selin said that mixing the nuclear weapons grade material with the nuclear reactor fuel would help provide the fuel for Eastern European reactors for the supply of energy for many years.
However, to accomplish this would require making broad policy decisions since there would be problems with handling and storing the fuel.
He noted that this is not only an issue for the Eastern European reactors, but needs to be looked at in this country as well.
.i i
h i
t ATTACHMENT B DELETION FOIA EX(b) (6) f 6
3-7