ML20045E375

Summary of January 28, 2020, Meeting with the National Organization of Test, Research, and Training Reactors

ML20045E375
Person / Time
Issue date:	02/19/2020
From:	Cindy Montgomery NRC/NRR/DANU/UNPL
To:	National Organization of Test, Research, & Training Reactors (TRTR)
Cindy Montgomery, NRR/DLP, 415-3398
References
Download: ML20045E375 (8)

Text

February 19, 2020 ORGANIZATION:

National Organization of Test, Research, and Training Reactors

SUMMARY

OF JANUARY 28, 2020, MEETING WITH THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF TEST, RESEARCH, AND TRAINING REACTORS On January 28, 2020, a Category 2 public meeting was held between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff and representatives of the National Organization of Test, Research, and Training Reactors (TRTR) at NRC Headquarters, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, via teleconference. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss NRC personnel changes, rulemaking, licensing, oversight, upcoming meetings, and other items of interest to the TRTR community. The meeting notice and agenda, dated December 19, 2019, are available in the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System at Accession No. ML19353D098. A list of attendees is provided as an enclosure. The following is a description of the topics covered by the NRC staff and the TRTR community.

John Monninger, Director, Division of Advanced Reactors and Non-Power Production and Utilization Facilities (DANU) discussed organizational and personnel changes. He introduced Brian Smith and Theresa Lalain, the new Deputy Division Directors for DANU. John Monninger gave an overview of advanced-and micro-reactor licensing and oversight. Greg Casto, Chief of the Non-Power Production and Utilization Facility Licensing (UNPL) Branch, is the point of contact for the TRTR community. John Monniger announced that Alexander Adams, Jr. and Anthony Mendiola retired from Federal Service and Travis Tate is the new Chief of the Non-Power Production and Utilization Facility Oversight (UNPO) Branch. The UNPO Branch welcomes two new inspectors, Phil OBryan, and Kevin Roche; the UNPL Branch welcomes Molly-Kate Gavello, Project Manager.

Greg Casto discussed providing the TRTR community with a summary of recent past violations to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 50.59, Changes, tests and experiments. He led the discussion on common license amendments, citing the recent license amendment request to eliminate the requirement for instrumented fuel elements, as a good example. A number of licensees may be requesting this in the near future.

Duane Hardesty discussed the status of the rulemaking on non-expiring licenses and the status of interpretation issues related to senior reactor operator staffing requirements, definition of licensed area, and definition of initial startup.

Steve Lynch led a discussion on other rulemakings and generic communications that could affect Non-Power Production and Utilization Facilities (NPUF). These included emergency planning for small modular reactors and other new technologies, regulatory improvements for production and utilization facilities transitioning to decommissioning, and financial qualifications for reactor licensing.

William Kennedy discussed actions required by the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA), including a maximum 2-year generic schedule for NPUF license amendments. The NRC continues to work to address Section 106 of NEIMA which amended NRCs authority to issue licenses under Subsection 104c. of the AEA. The amendment added a condition that a non-power reactor licensee may not recover more than 75 percent of its annual cost of owning and operating the facility through sales of non-energy services and energy combined, of which not more than 50 percent can be through sales of energy. This differs from the threshold the NRC currently uses to distinguish between commercial and non-commercial reactor licensees under 10 CFR 50.22, Class 103 licenses; for commercial and industrial facilities, which looks to whether more than 50 percent of the annual cost of owning and operating the facility is devoted to commercial activities, i.e., the production of materials, products or energy for sale or commercial distribution, or the sale of services, other than research and development or education or training. The NRC is considering the needneed for rulemaking and/or additional guidance to address the new criteria in NEIMA, and the input received from licensees and TRTR during the public meeting held in Idaho Falls on September 26, 2019, has helped inform this process.

Beth Reed discussed the rulemaking on enhanced weapons. The draft final rule will not only change the regulations as they pertain to enhance weapons, which does not apply to non-power reactors, but it will also update the regulations for event notification and suspicious activity reporting. The draft final rule package is being reviewed by the Office of the Executive Director of Operations and then will be sent to the NRC Commission.

Cindy Montgomery discussed meetings relevant to the interests of the TRTR community:

September 28 - October 1, 2020, TRTR Annual Conference, will be hosted by the Purdue University, in Chicago, Illinois, at the Swissotel. A request was made for the TRTR community to provide the NRC with potential topics.

March 10 - 12, 2019, Regulatory Information Conference, Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, North Bethesda, MD. The advanced reactors sessions are:

o T3 Licensing, Storage and Transportation of Fuels for Accident Tolerant and Advanced Non-light Water Reactor Fuels o W15 The Future of Space Nuclear Power Systems and Why the Regulatory Framework Matters o W17 Nuclear Regulatory Relations: Enablers and Barriers for Advanced Reactor International Cooperation o W19 Advanced Reactors: Licensing Modernization o W28 Seismic Safety Approaches for Advanced Non-light Water Reactors o Th32 NRC and DOE [Department of Energy] Regulatory Preparations for the Export of Advanced Reactors o Th34 Micro-Reactors: The Next Big Thing Part 1 (The Drivers) o Th39 Micro-Reactors: The Next Big Thing Part 2 (Authorization & Licensing)

Future 2020 TRTR Executive Committee Teleconferences are scheduled for Tuesdays, May 19, August 25, and November 17, 2020.

Please direct any inquiries to me at (301) 415-3398 or by electronic mail at Cindy.Montgomery@nrc.gov.

/RA/

Cindy K. Montgomery, Project Manager Non-Power Production and Utilization Facility Licensing Branch Division of Advanced Reactors and Non-Power Production and Utilization Facilities Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

Enclosure:

As stated cc: w/enclosure: See next page

Addressee List for Research and Test Reactor Licensees Dr. David M. Slaughter, President and Reactor Administrator Aerotest Operations Inc.

3455 Fostoria Way San Ramon, CA 94583 Mr. Ethan Taber, Reactor Manager Missouri University of Science and Technology Nuclear Reactor Facility 250 West 13th Street Rolla, MO 65409-0630 Mr. Walter Dale Tomlinson Interim Reactor Facility Director Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute 4555 South Palmer Road, Building 42 Bethesda, MD 20889-5648 Mr. Andrew T. Cook Manager of Engineering and Operations Nuclear Reactor Program Department of Nuclear Engineering North Carolina State University Campus Box 7909 2500 Stinson Drive Raleigh, NC 27695-7909 Mr. Paul J. OConnor, Ph.D.

Facility Director Dow Chemical TRIGA Research Reactor Dow Chemical Company Building 1602 Midland, MI 48674 Mr. Andrew Kauffman, Associate Director Ohio State University Nuclear Reactor Laboratory 1298 Kinnear Road Columbus, OH 43212-1154 Mr. Matt Feyrer, Site Manager GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Vallecitos Nuclear Center 6705 Vallecitos Road Sunol, CA 94586 Dr. Steven R. Reese, Director Oregon State University 100 Radiation Center Corvallis, OR 97331-5903 Dr. Marylou Dunik-Gougar Reactor Administrator Idaho State University Professor of Nuclear Engineering 921 S. 8th Avenue, MS 8060 Pocatello, ID 83209-8060 Dr. Kenan Unlu, Director Radiation Science and Engineering Center Breazeale Nuclear Reactor Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802-2301 Dr. Alan Cebula Nuclear Reactor Facility Manager Kansas State University 112 Ward Hall Manhattan, KS 66506-5204 Dr. Thomas H. Newton, Deputy Director National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST Center for Neutron Research U.S. Department of Commerce 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 6101 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-6101

Dr. Melinda Krahenbuhl, Director Reed Reactor Facility Reed College 3203 S.E. Woodstock Boulevard Portland, OR 97202-8199 Dr. Robert Bean, Director Purdue University Radiation Laboratory School of Nuclear Engineering 400 Central Drive West Lafayette, IN 47907-2017 Dr. Wei Ji, Director Reactor Critical Facility Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 110 8th Street JEC 5040 Troy, NY 12180 3590 Dr. Wesley D. Frey, Reactor Director McClellan Nuclear Research Center University of California, Davis 5335 Price Avenue, Building 258 McClellan, CA 95652-2504 Dr. Cameron Goodwin, Director Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center 16 Reactor Road Narragansett, RI 02882-1165 Dr. George E. Miller, Reactor Supervisor Nuclear Reactor Facility Department of Chemistry University of California 1102 Natural Sciences 2 Irvine, CA 92697-2025 Dr. John Hurtado, Interim Department Head Texas A&M University Nuclear Engineering Department 3133 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-3133 Dr. Donald Wall, Facility Director University of Florida Training Reactor P.O. Box 116400 Gainesville, FL 32611 Dr. Sean McDeavitt, Director Nuclear Science Center Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station 1095 Nuclear Science Road, MS 3575 College Station, TX 77843-3575 Ms. Amber Johnson, Director Nuclear Reactor and Radiation Facilities University of Maryland Department of Materials Science and Engineering 4418 Stadium Drive, Room 1104 College Park, MD 20742-2115 Mr. Christopher Farwell Interim Reactor Supervisor U.S. Geological Survey P.O. Box 25046, MS 974 Denver Federal Center Denver, CO 80225 Mr. Leo Bobek, Reactor Supervisor University of Massachusetts Lowell Nuclear Radiation Laboratory One University Avenue Lowell, MA 01854 Mr. Matthew Lund, Interim Director Utah Nuclear Engineering Program Joseph Merrill Engineering Building 50 S. Central-Campus Drive, Room 1206 Salt Lake City, UT 84112 Dr. David J. Robertson, Reactor Facility Director University of Missouri-Columbia Research Reactor Center 1513 Research Park Drive Columbia, MO 65211

Mr. Robert Agasie, Reactor Director Nuclear Reactor Laboratory University of Wisconsin - Madison 1513 University Avenue, Room 1215 Madison, WI 53706-1687 Mr. Robert D. Busch, Ph.D., P.E.

Nuclear Engineering Department 1 University of New Mexico MSC-01-1120 Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001 Mr. Corey Hines, Director Washington State University Nuclear Radiation Center 50 Roundtop Drive Pullman, WA 99164 1300 Mr. Paul Whaley, Associate Director Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory The University of Texas at Austin 10100 Burnet Road, Building 159 Austin, TX 78758 Mr. John P. Foster, Director of Reactor Operations Nuclear Reactor Laboratory Massachusetts Institute of Technology 138 Albany Street, MS NW12-110 Cambridge, MA 02139

ML20045E375

• concurred via e-mail NRC-001 OFFICE NRR/DANU/UNPL/PM NRR/DANU/UNPL/LA* NRR/DANU/UNPL/BC NRR/DANU/UNPL/PM NAME CMontgomery NParker GCasto CMontgomery DATE 02/03/2020 2/18/2020 2/19/2020 2/19/2020

Enclosure LIST OF ATTENDEES JANUARY 28, 2020, MEETING WITH THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF TEST, RESEARCH, AND TRAINING REACTORS Name Organization Thomas Newton National Institute of Standards and Technology Sarah Don Massachusetts Institute of Technology Les Foyto University of Missouri-Columbia Bruce Meiffert University of Missouri-Columbia Guy Steingass University of California, Davis Dan Cronin University of Florida Cameron Goodwin Rhode Island Atomic Energy Commission Hilary Lane Nuclear Energy Institute Steve Reese Oregon State University Siaka Yusuf Dow Chemical Melinda Krahenbuhl Reed College Amber Johnson University of Maryland Luke Gilde University of Maryland Scott LaSalle North Carolina State University Sean OKelly Avdvanced Test Ractor, Idaho National Laboratory Jeffrey Guether The Pennsylvania State University Clive Townsend Purdue University Robert Agasie University of Wisconsin - Madison Cindy Montgomery U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Greg Casto U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Steven Lynch U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Travis Tate U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission John Monninger U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Theresa LaLain U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Brian Smith U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Geoffrey Wertz U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Patrick Boyle U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission William Kennedy U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Craig Bassett U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Beth Reed U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission William Schuster U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Duane Hardesty U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Michelle DeSouza U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Michael Balazik U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Molly-Kate Gavello U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Xiaosong Yin U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission