ML20042D142

Commission Paper Providing Info on Placement of Research Work at CNWRA

ML20042D142
Person / Time
Issue date:	07/28/1989
From:	Taylor J NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO)
To:
Shared Package
ML20042D143	List: ML20042D142 ML20042E096 ML20042E098 ML20042E100 ML20042E102 ML20042E103
References
TASK-PII, TASK-SE NACNSRRC, SECY-89-225, NUDOCS 8908020294
Download: ML20042D142 (9)

Text

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ENCLOSURE C f"*%

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SECY-89-225 July 28, 198,9 g

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-POLICY ISSUE The Comissioners MOMOY gg:

-Trent James M. Taylor, Acting Executive Director for Operations

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4 RESEARCH AT THE CENTER FOR NUCLEAR WASTE REGULATORY ANALYS Subiect:

This paper provides information on the placesient'of research

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Cat:cory:

work at the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses :

g To provide information on-the following. requests in SRM

Purpose:

M890406A, Item 2, dated May 12, 1989:

Submit plans..for.'

1.- Transfer of. remaining HLW research to CNWRA according to L

the Criteria'of SECY_86-192; i

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If changes to the' Criteria are needed, propose the-

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changes;-

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Consistent with the proposed: changes, justify the location of individual contracts away from~the Center.

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Background:

SECY 86-192 contained criteria to be used for placement.of work outside the FFRDC which was-to be chosen to support the HLW licensing program. These criteria'are, listed in o

Attachment.1; essentially they provide for placing all HLW j.-

technical assistance and research work at the CNWRA absent compelling reasons to place the work elsewhere. Two of these f

criteria are most applicable to HLW research work placement.

L These are:-

1) High-level waste work requiring highly specialized facilities or expertise which the FFRDC does not possess.

i and does not have access-to through other available means.

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3) High-level waste work to be placed with a commercial l

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contractor as a result of acceptance of a bona fide unsolicited proposal-where conflict of interest and long-term continuity considerations do not override.

As a result of discussions at.a recent Connission briefing, a request was made to-address the ouestion of the Criteria for i

HLW research work placement with the request later amplified-as shown above..

Discussion:.

-1.

Transfer of remaining HLW-research to CNWRA.

A phase-in-plan was developed for work placesunt at the.

Center which showed the research component increasing to a level of $3.7M by FY 1990. -The in-progress and proposed work-to complete the initiation of.a $3,7M program at the Center is shown in Attachment 2.

The~ Center is not yet staffed to the level to be able-to accomplish the'recently identified.

work, but is working to recruit appropriate research: staff.

In. addition,'certain work currently in place outside the The Center which meets Criterion 1 will-continue in FY 1990.

FY 89 and FY 90 research program outsice the Center is

presented in Attachment 3.

2.

If changes to the Criteria.are needed. propose the changes.-

The staff has discussed this question at length and believes L

changes are not required at'present.- With regard to-I criterion 1, the. staff makes the. interpretation that 1

long-term research programs assigned to the. Center can-and should be accomplished primarily with in-house:(Center).

j staff. The objective is to build expertise directly with Center staff.

If work requires the utilization of facilities l

not readily available to the Center, the work will be placed with another contractor consistent with:this' interpretation of Criterion 1.

With this understanding, we believe that-the=

criteria do not need to be changed..

3.

Justify the location of individual' projects away from the j

Center.

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The hydrogeology program at the University of-Arizona is directed by internationally recognized-hydrogeologists and implements the theoretical and. experimental sides of a field' o

experimental program:in-unsaturated tuff that has been under development for more than three years. This program

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i represents an existing area of expertise which has been under contract to the NRC for about eight years and we:would like to maintain the association. The other University of Arizona project'is run by an internationally: recognized _ expert in' i

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The Commissioners

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rock mechanics who has become one of only a few experts who have studied sealing techniques from a perspective e

appropriate to HLW disposal. There is also a developed field l

site for in situ experiments associated with this project.-

The staff feels that these facts taken together are 1

compelling reasons for continuing these projects at the-University of: Arizona.

The performance. assessment work at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) will be in its-last year.in FY 2090.

It i

is a critical' component of:the offort to develop an inthouse staff performance assessment capability to be. supported by specific tasks at the Center..SNL has had an active performance assessment research program for over 10 years.

We will continue this program in FY90:(see Attachment'3), but will terminate it thereafter. The work is being terminated after FY 1990 because of the need to avoid any potential for o'rganizational conflict of interest,.real or perceived, which was one of the primary reasons for establishing-the CNWRA. '

The NRC/RES-funded work at SNL is being conducted and managed:

within a management-structure that is separated from and- '

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independent of any DOE-funded waste management-activities.

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Further, there-is no DOE-funded waste management.line responsibility or authority for the NRC; funded work. The group working on' the NRC-funded effort is -developing a-t performance; assessment methodology-that will;be transferred to the NRC-in FY 1990, but testing and evaluation of the-..

methodology for:the Yucca' Mountain repository will be done by l

the.NRC staff. We expect the methodology to undergo l

significant changes after its transfer to NRC =LIn addition, the group working-on: the NRC-funded effort does not perform I

licensing reviews of DOE reports.

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.The remaining two programs not at the Center are highly:

leveraged cooperative programs, one domestic and one international, which represent unique' opportunities to: share the financial burden.of programs producing information important to the understanding of critical: phenomena to be considered in repository performance assessments; The other projects listed in Attachment 3 beingLterminated t

are lower priority only:by comparison'to those already discussed. They:are being terminated solely because of lack i

of sufficient funds.

l The FY90 research component of NRC-programs at the Center comprise an appreciable shift of research activities from

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other contractors to the Center. Among the activities to be transferred are geochemistry, and thermohydrologics. Both L

L RES and HMSS are connitted to the principle of establishing i

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9-J The Cosmissioners the Center as the long-term body of expertise in high-level.

We are, however, aware of some short-term-waste matters.

concerns that will require extra management attention from_us-.

in order to assure that critica1111 censing needs are amt.

-These concerns include:: (1)assuringthattheCenteradds such that there is.

staffsufficient.tomakeitatrue. Center [2)assuringthat not undue' reliance on subcontracting and l.-

transitional ~ losses of productivity are minimized.: As to

.this latter point, and'as noted in. Table 3, there are five projects which are eliminated in FY90 before completion due o

to the joint constraints of $3.7M' dedicated to the Center, and a total-of $5M high-level waste research funds available.

We'will= conduct periodic joint management reviews with the Center in order to assure the' smoothest possible transition.:

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mes M..Tay1 Acting xecutive Dir ctor for Operations Eticlosures:

1, 2. and 3 DISTRIBUTION:

Commissioners OGC OIG I.S S GPA EDO-

'ACNW ASLBP.

ASLAP.'

SECY

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-Attachment-1 s

CRITERIA FOR PLACEMENT OF WORK AT-THE FFRDC FROM~SECY 86-192 3

. POLICY Pursuant to Parts 16.501 and 16.503 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

-(FAR), NRC intendsLto negotiate.a minimum level of support, which would be an i

. obligation by the Government, and a maximum level, which would be a limit over which we would not exceed. - Within these minimus'and maximum limits, NRC would hava.the flexibility'to assign work on a best programmatic basis, based-on the:

criteria outlined below. These. limits can be changed:during the life of the-centract by mutual agreement. ' We' intend to add a-special clause which would usry-that, because this is-the first year of operating of the FFROC,-_the parties would be: flexible with respect to-the minimum:and maximum levels nigstiated-and would be willing to adjust those limits based on-acquired Lexperience.

CRITERIA-Thn FFRDC contractor has a singular and exclusive right to the work defined in i

its Charter until the Government has. met its-obligation for the minimum level, DThsrefore,-all-high-level waste work that requires technical assistance and/or-rassarch to fulfill NRC program responsibilities-under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and is within the purpose, mission and general' scope of.the FFRDC Charter will, by definition, be placed with'the FFADC contractor.. absent compelling reasons for placement'elsewhere, such as the~following:

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-1..High-level waste work requiring highly specialized facilities!or expertise which the FFRDC does not-possess and.does not have accessLto.through other' available means.

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All non-technical management, administrative and other support type work.

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High-level waste work to be placed with a commercial-contractor as a:

result of a bona fide unsolicited proposal where conflict of interest and long-term continuity considerations do.not override.

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.Non-mission oriented high-level waste work funded under financial-assistance arrangement, t

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The assignment of work to the FFRDC would exceed the~ negotiated maximum limit and NRC/FFRDC" management do not-wish to renegotiate a higher limit.

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RESEARCH PROGRAM ELEMENT PLAN (CMWRA) FOR FY 1990 Title FY'90 Direction FY'90 Funding

3 Active Projects 1.

Overall-Research

- Continue implementation'

$140K (OR-009) of Project Plan.

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Unsaturated Mass Continus implementation

$260K Transport (GE0-009) of Project Plan.

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Thermohydrology

_ Continue implementation

$300K

.(THER-005) of Project Plan.

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Seismic / Rock Mechanics Continue _ implementation

$400K (S/RM-011) of Project Plan.

5.

Integrated Waste Complete reassessment /

$500K Package Experiments revision of Project Plan based on peer review and implement Plan as revised.

Projects Under Development 6.

Stochastic Analysis Complete and implement

$150K of Flow and Transport Project Plan, 7.

Geochemical Analogs Complete and implement

$350K Project Pian.

8.

Modeling Sorption Complete and implement

$500K Mechanisms Project Plan.

New Starts 9.

Waste Container Develop Project Plan-and-

$300K Sealing ~ Techniques implement after approval,

10. Ground-water Transport Develop _ Project Plan and'

$120K Analyses implement after approval, i

11. Large Scale Flow and Develop Project Plan and

$285K Transport implement after approval.

12. Performance Assessment Develop Project Plan and

$150K Issues implement after approval.

13. Ground-water Recharge Develop Project Plan and

$215K implement after approval.

$3670K TOTAL

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Attachment.3 INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS-1989 1990 1990s TTunds-in excess of budget)

J Hydrogeology (U. of AZ)

(2 FINS)

$409K' $400K

< Maintain established center of excellence at U. of.

'AZ<with-unique facilities and-scientific invastigators.

$200K $200K

R ck Mechanics (U. of AZ)

(Shaft and borehole sealing) Maintain highly i

-qualified and respected scientific investigator cnd' established field facility in this specialized i;

arsa of investigation and thus also maintain a scurce of new ideas and peer review.

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-i Materials Degradation;(3 FINS)-

$460K1 0

(460)

Terminate existing. programs.at NIST and Cortest Columbus in excess of funding.

If Center can ccquire apprcpriateLsenior staff some of this work 1

may be reinitiated at'a later date. -(See note j

below.)

ll'i Performance Assessment Methodology (ends FY90)

$500K $500K

Continue performance assessment work at SNL to 11 completion (FY'90) because of the importance of this work, SNL's established record in area (10 y;ars). and need to transfer technology in this sp2cialized area of investigation.

-i G:schemical Heat Pulse

.$200K 0-(200) l (Mineral. Alteration Analog) Terminate established n tural: analog program at SNL involving-field

-i measurements' program,' laboratory tests and Lanalytical modeling of mineral alteration in the i

presence.of a heat pulse.

Completion of program which was planned in FY90 is in excess of funding.

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0-(75)

Sat'ratedLThermohydrologics u

j Terminate saturated flow work-(currently on

' n3-cost extension) on thermohydrologics and; coupled processes under'the direction of a highly _

l qualified scientific investigator. _ Completion of pr$ gram which was in FY91 is-in excess of FY90-

> : f undi ng.-

$1769K $1100K ' TTf57*'

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-Q The' amount in. (- ) represents funds required to complete projects in FY90 which is in excess of HLW research budget and must be terminated.

Of the J

< projects to,be terminated for FY90, the one of most concern-to the staff is

-Materials Degradation:.This topic will be the subject of a management ireview meeting in the near future.

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INTERNATIONAL AND OTHER COOPERATIVE PROGRAMS AGREEMENTS 1989 1990 Bilateral exchange agreements with JAERI,-

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NAGRA, and CEA

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International agreements provide access to the prtgrams of other nations with similar interests.-

Th;se are mutually beneficial and provide another

' dimension for competition ideas. new approaches cnd peer review.

MULTI-SPONSORED PROGRAMS ~

-INTRAVAL.

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INTRAVAL represents a-cooperative effort'of-l thirteen nations'to explore the validation of models for the prediction ~ of transport of:

radionuclides from a repository.

The-participants are the world's experts in this' area and there is no substitute for the experience gained in the effort.or the peer review afforded to the NRC efforts.

International Alligator Rivers-

$178K

$180K i

' Analog Project (OECD - five countries).

Natural i

-Analegs are natural systems where the effect-of pr: cesses on geologic _ time scales or in geologic ssttings can be studies. 'This project is highly-laveraged thru. contributions for four countries cnd access to the drilling records of the developing mining company, New ideas and peer

• review are additional benefits.

<Clicates of:the Holocene.

$50K

$50K A Unique NSF program participated in by many E f fsderal: agencies providing a predictive capability L o assess potentials for climatic change at the t

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Yucca Mt. site.

Total

$228K

$230K s

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