ML20059F983
| ML20059F983 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 12/23/1993 |
| From: | Taylor J NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | |
| References | |
| SECY-93-357, NUDOCS 9401210001 | |
| Download: ML20059F983 (5) | |
Text
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RELEASED TO THE PDR la Ah ca m,'@
y e
2,
,c, POLICY ISSUE (InfOrmation)
December 23, 1993 SECY-93-357 E08:
The Commissioners ERQM:
James M. Taylor Executive Director for Operations
SUBJECT:
ANNUAL STATUS REPORT ON LICENSING ACTIONS, FISCAL YEAR 1993 EURP_Q3I:
To inform the Commission of the status of HRR licensing actions and of NRR's progress in meeting licensing inventory age goals.
DACKGROUNQ:
As discussed in the June 9, 1989,.memorandun to the Commission, " Operating Reactor Licensing Actions and Technical Specifications Improvements," NRR established goals to control the size of the licensing action inventory, and to improve our responsiveness to Licensee's requests for license amendments.
The maximum inventory level was set at an average of 25 actions per plant (109 x 25 - 2,725). The goals for responsiveness to licensee's requests called for 80 percent of the actions in the inventory to be less than or equal l
to 1 year old and 95 percent to be less than or equal to 2 years old; 100 l
percent of the inventory was to be less than or equal to 3 years old; no I
actions were to be older than 3 years old. These goals are still in effect, and have been implemented as standards in the Agency's Performance Measurement program.
Contact:
Peter Krayer, NRR 504-1240
' In this paper " licensing actions" refers to those items requiring review and approval by the staff prior to licensee implementation.
NOTE:
TO BE MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE IN 10 WORKING DAYS FROM Tile DATE OF TIIIS PAPER.
9401210001 931223
'Nfd, PDR SECY 93-337 PDR 1(
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1 i
i l
The Commissioners 2
DISCUSSION:
Although NRR has not yet fully achieved it's goals with regard to l
responsiveness, progress has been achieved both in reaching the goals and in reducing the median age of actions in inventory.
The licensing action inventory level has increased slightly, from the FY 92 level of 1,143 to 1,187 actions at the end of FY 93. The increase is due to a rise in the number of actions received from licensees -- the rate of completion in NRR has stayed roughly constant over time. Through the year, NRR received 70 more actions-than were completed.
FY 93 LICENSING ACTIONS incoming vs. Completed A
1so-
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iihiillhlll 10/92119212/921/93 2/93 3 93 #93 543 e/93 7/93 a/93 g/93 Ir.cs.As
--- completed Source: WISP,10/15/93 Figure 1 Figure I shows licensing action completions against receipts, by month, for FY 1993.
The overall slow upward trend of receipts through the Fiscal Year continues a longer-term trend discussed below.
Figure 2 puts the fiscal year data into historical perspective.
Significantly, incoming licensing action requests have been trending upward over the past two fiscal years, although completions have largely kept pace with the incoming workload.
In FY 93, however, the number of actions in invertory has also shown an upward trend -- the first four-quarter increase in the inventory since FY 91.
i
'The Commissioners 3
4 LICENSlhggig TRENDS 3000-2500-l 2000-
[
8 J
500-O 10 2Q 30 4Q 10 20 30 4Q 10 2Q 30 40 1Q 2Q 30 4Q FY90 FY91 FY92 FY93 3 Incoming Actions
- Inventory Completed Actions sam: mr.t._m 2 ;,.,_.. wwmason Repow, FY 90 98 Figure 2
-I The increase in the rate of incoming licensing actions, as well as the increase in the overall inventory, is due to a combination of factors. NRR's successful efforts at reducing the licensing backlog, particularly in reducing the number of actions over.three years old, may have increased licensees' inclination to submit amendment requests. Of the 1187 licensing actions, over 95% are plant-specific requests, voluntarily initiated by licensees seeking some type of relief. Another related factor is NRR's Cost Beneficial Licensing Action (CBLA); effort, which allows NRR reviewers to assign higher ariority to requests of relatively low safety significance when ' identified as having a high payoff to licensees. Based on the staff's increased receptiveness, four licensees ENTERGY, VEPCO, FPC and NEU,-have established CBLA programs and have submitted CBLAs to the staff for review.
(These licensees have indicated that if approved by the staff, these CBLAs will save their utilities approximately $167 million.) The licensees' programs identify their submittals as cost beneficial licensing actions and provide an estimated cost savings of the action.
Figures 3 and 4 document NRR's progress in achieving goals for responsiveness to licensee requests.
In FY 92, NRR conducted a detailed analysis of the L
oldest licensing actions and concluded that many of them were multi-plant actions opened in~ response to an event at an operating plant. 'A concerted i
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a
The Commissioners 4
RESPONSIVENESS TO LICENSEE REQUESTS 838 Age of Ucensing Actions, FY 93 800-
/
/
AGE 0-1 1-2 2-3
>3 GOAL
>80%
<15%
<5%
0%
g 7/
AC11JAL 71 %
21 %
7%
2%
F 400-
//
48 a$le o
< 1 Year Old 12 Years Old 2-3 Years Old
> 3 Years Old -
SOURCE: WISP,11/16/93 Figure 3 effort to bring these issues to closure has resulted in a significant reduction in the number of oldest actions. At the end of FY 91, 11% of the inventory was over three years old; at the end of FY 92, 4.3%; at the end of FY 93, 1.8%.
l Figure 3 shows the number of licensing actions in each age goal category.
The percentage of licensing actions less than or equal to 1 year old was 70.6 percent at the end of FY 1993, up from 61 percent at the end of FY 92. 91.5 percent of the inventory was less than or equal to 2 years old, up from 83 percent at the end of last year. 98.2 percent of actions were less than or equal to 3 years old, up from 96 percent last year.
1.8 percent of inventory was over 3 years old at the end of FY 93; the level was 4.3 percent at the end of FY 92.
Figure 4, on the following page, illustrates NRR's steady progress in reducing the median age of the licensing action inventory.
In 1993, the median age dropped to 7 months, continuing a downward trend. For comparison, there were 1,187 licensing actions in the inventory at the end of this Fiscal Year as j
opposed to 1,143 actions at the end of FY 1992; there were 21 licensing actions over three years old at the end of FY 93 compared to 49 actions over three years old at the end of FY 92.
l
The Comissioners.
5 MEDIAN AGE OF LICENSING ACTIONS 12.7 12-11.2 9.8 10-8-
7,0 02 6-2-
1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 SOURCE: WISP,11/16/93
/
Figure 4 In sumary, the size of the licensing action inventory is within target levels. The number of actions in inventory, and the number of incoming actions, increased by about 5 percent each in FY 93, a trend which is expected to continue over the next few years.
es M.
' ylor ecutive Director for Operations DISTRIBUTION:
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