ML20217K051

Submits Response to Recommendations Made by Gao in Rept Entitled, Nuclear Regulation-Preventing Problem Plants Required More Effective NRC Action

ML20217K051
Person / Time
Site:	Dresden
Issue date:	08/18/1997
From:	Shirley Ann Jackson, The Chairman NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
To:	Bowsher C GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE
Shared Package
ML20217K048	List: ML20217K043 ML20217K051 ML20217K057
References
NUDOCS 9710220412
Download: ML20217K051 (7)

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The Honorable Charies A. Bowsher Comptroller General of the United States General Accounting ONice .

Washington, D.C. 20548

Dear Mr. Bowsher:

In accordance with the statutory obligation to respond to recommendations by the General .

Accounting Office (GAO), I am hereby submitting the NRC's response to the recommendations made by the GAO in its report entitled " Nuclear Regulation-Preventing Problem Plants Requires More Effective NRC Action." GAO recommended that the U.S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) develop strategies to more aggressively act on safety deficiencies when they are discovered. Specific responses to GAO recommendations are

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presented in the enclosure.

The NRC agrees that responsiveness to identified problems and management effectiveness are critical elem6nts of a licensee's performance. We have implemented a number of )

enhancements and are already working on a number of initiatives that directly relate to issues discussed in the GAO report. These actions include extensive evaluation and enhancement of the senior management meeting process, development and issuance of ;,T,Fcied guidance regarding the content and accuracy of each licensee's safety analysis report, and development of a process to improve the NRC management and verification oflicensee commitments. In addition, the strategies adopted in our strategic plan are aimed at correcting previously identified problems and findings in intamal and extemal audit and investigative reports, including the subject GAO report.

The overall improvement in safety performance of the commercial nuclear power industry, as indicated by a broad spectrum of industry and NRC performance indicators, is due in part to the success of NRC reactor oversight activities in helping to ensure that the NRC fulfills its mission of protecting public health and safety. However, I assure you that the NRC is -

committed to stnve for continued process improvements that help the NRC better fulfill its mission.

Sincerely,

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Shirley Ann Jackson

Enclosure:

Responses to GAO Recommendations 9710220412 971001 MMM PDR ADOCK 05000237 H pop --- - - - . . . .

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l GAO RECOMMENDATIONS AND NRC RESPONSES The General Accounting Office (GAO), in its report " Nuclear Regulation- Proventing Problem Plants Requires More Effective NRC Action," recommended several actions for the U, S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in order to develop strategies to more aggressively act on safet'/ deficiencies when they are discovuod. These recommendations, and the NRC's responses to them, are provided below.

RecommendathfL1:

Require inspection reports to fully document for all plants the status of the licensee's actions to address identified problems under NRC's corrective action requirements, induding timetables for the completion of corrective actions and how NRC will respond to nonconformance with planned actions.

NRC Response:

The NRC agrees with the recommendation to improve oversight of licensees' timely resolution of problems. The staff has long recognized the importance of the heensee's corrective actions and has several processes that focus considerable inspection effort and management attention on this area, as described below:

NRC inspectors review the arLquacy and timeliness of corrective actions taken by the licensees in response to violations of NRC requirements and deviations from licensing commitments, and they document this review in their inspection reports, which are public documents. These violations and deviations result from nonconformances identified during NRC inspections of the facility or by the licensee's own problem identification process.

• NRC inspectors routinely monitor, review, and vertfy the adequacy of licensee corrective actions. Since licensees annually identify thousands of deilciencies, NRC resource limitations demand that these inspections are performed on e selective basis, focusing on those issues that are most risk- and safety eignificant.

• in addition, the NRC reviews the licensee's corrective action program at each reactor facility on a periodic basis (Inspection Procedure 40500, " Effectiveness of Licensee Controls in identifying, Resolving, and Preventing Problems") to verify that the licensee is implementing an adequate program. ,

• NRC's enforcement policy specifies appropriate enforcornent actions for nonconformances with planned and required corrective actions. Additionally, to -

encourage licensees to identify and re, solve problems, the enforcement policy provides for mitigation of the sanction for timely identification and extensive corrective actions by the licensee.

Enclosure

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'# - However, problems id:ntified at the Millstone and Sclem plants relat:d to the licensees' .

( failure to tak3 prompt conective ceti:n, cs noted in the GAO report, indicate this crea i warrants greater attention fmm the NRC.

The staff has begun a review of its intomal processes to identify areas for improvement in assessing the timeliness, prioritization, engineering support, and quality of the corrective actions taken by licensees. Areas included in the staffs review are the plant perfortnance review, the systematic assessment of licensee performance, and the senior management meeting (SMM) processes. The agency is strengthening its processes for assessing the effectiveness of a licensee's conective action program by focusing on what a licensee has i dont as opposed to what it olans to do. In that regard, the NRC intends to provide additional guidance on how inspectors should close out issues identified in NRC inspection reports.

The staff is also developing a process to better identify and track licensing commitments and

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to verify their implementation.

While the NRC intends to follow mors closely the corrective actions for issues included in inspection reports, the NRC does not agree with the specific recommendation to track and document in the inspection reports the status of corrective actions for alllicensee-identified issues, including how NRC would respond to nonconformances with planned actions.

Criterion XVI of 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B, requires licensees to promptly identify and correct failures, malfunctions, deficiencies, deviations, defective material and equipment, and nonconformances. Given the sheer number of issues identified, the efforts required by the NRC to document and track deficiencies regardless of safety significance, as recommended in the GAO report, would be enormous and without a commensurate safety benefit.

Moreover, this task could cause the NRC to redirect increasingly scarce resources away from oversight of ongoing performance and safety issues.

{ Recommendation 2:

Make licensees' responsiveness to identified problems a major feature of the information provided to the participants of the Senior Management Meetings, including how NRC will respond if problems go uncorrected. For example, NRC should describe the range of sanctions that it will impose on the licensees on the basis of the potential seriousness of their failure to resolve problems within a predetermined time. These sancdons should range fmm assessing fines to involuntary shutdown of the plant.

NRC Response: '

The NRC agrses that the licensee's responsiveness to identified problems '.s a critical performance criterion. The current NRC inspection and enforcement programs have well-established requirements that focus on this criterion. - (See the response to GAO

.. recommendation 1.)

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• R: cent ch:ng:s to the SMM process, including dIv:l:pment cf an SMM nuclear power plant 3 1 performance cvaluation t:mpl:te, havo clearly cmphasiz:d the importance of cvaluating the licensee's responsiveness to identified problems. The staff has recently strengthened the ,

conective action evaluation criteria found in the " Staff Guidelines for Restart Approvar' (Inspection Manual Chapter 0350), which is the guidance document used by the staff in assessing plants that are in an extended shutdown as a result.of performance issues. In addition, the Commission directed the staff to further improve the SMM process by developing better indicators that can provide a more objective basis for judging whether a plant should be placed on or removed from the NRC Watch Ust. These improved performance indicators and objectNo measures will enhance staff's ability to take appropriate regulatory actions including additional enforcement where past enforcement actions have not been effective.

It should be recognized that the NRC's enforcement policy already identifies sanctions for licensees that fall to resolve problems within a definitive period. The NRC's enforcement policy provides for matching sanctions for a violation to the safety and regulatory significance of the violation and establishes a graduated system of sanctions that include noncited violations, notices of violations, civil penalties, and orders to modify, suspend, or revok0 a license. The NRC clearty imposes more substantial penalties for more significant problems.

In determining the significance of a problem and the appropriate enforcement sanction, the established process also takes into considervion (1) the licensee's previous opportunity to identify and resolve the problem and (2) the len@i of time the problem remained unresolved because of the licensee's failure to take conective actions.

The enforcement history has been an important consideration in the SMM process. However, enforcement actions are taken on a timely basis and are not delayed until the next SMM. As a part of our effort to improve the SMM and the licensee performance assessment process, we will consider ways to enhance the use of enforcement informat>on.

1 Recommendation 3:

Require that the assessment of management's competency and performance be a mandatory component of NRC's inspection process.

."RC Response:

NRO agrees that the performance of the licensee's management is instrumental in the licenset's operational safety performance. It has been, and remains, the staffs practice to conduct performance-based inspections in all areas of facility operation and design and, on the basis of the inspection results, to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the licensee's management. In this regard, the evaluation of tnanagement effectiveness has

. . been an important part of the NRC assessment process.

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As part of its cffart to improve the SMM process, the staff is investigating the devel:pment of j management effectiveness assessment tools to improve the current plant performance

, evaluation methodology. This methodology will evaluate variour insights more timely and systematically to identify instances in which management is not effective. Future decisions will be made regarding implementation after the staff completes development activities and successfully tests implementation.

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ACTION EDO Principal Correspondence Control FROM: DUE: 08/27/97 EDO CONTROL: G970600 DOC DT 08/09/97 FINAL REPLY:

Dnvid A. Kraft NuclC2r Energy Information Service (NEIS)

TO:

Chairman Jackson FOR SIGNATURE OF : ** GRN **

CRC NO: 97-0830 Collins, NRR DESCt ROUTING:

GAO REPORT ON NRC REGULATIONS -- CONCERNS ABOUT Callan NRC'S LACK OF ASSERTIVENESS IN REGULATING Comed Thadani AND ILLINOIS POWER Thompson Norry Blaha Burns DATE: 08/18/97 Beach, RIII ASSIGNED TO: CONTACT:

HRR Collins

.SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS OR REMARKS:

Put EDO and Chairman on for concurrence. ,

Chairman's office to review response prior to dicpatch.

NRR RECEIVED: AUGUST 19, 1997 NRR ACTION: DRPW:ADENSAM -

NRR ROUTING: COLLINS MIRAGLIA ZIMMERMAN SHERON DUE TO NRR DIRECTOR'S OFFICE ROE TRAVERS BY f ,

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B0HRER ' ' ' /

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OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY CORRESPONDENCE CONTROL TICKET PAPER NUMBER: CRC-97-0830 LOGGING DATE: Aug 14 97 ACTION OFFICE: EDO AUTHOR: DAVID KRAFT AFFILIATION: ILLINOIS ADDRESSEE: CRAIRMAN JACKSON LETTER DATE: Aug 9 97 FILE CODE:

SUBJECT:

GAO REPORT ON NRC REGULATION ACTION: Direct Reply DISTRIBUTION: CHAIRMAN, [ Hb SPECIAL HANDLING: SECY TO ACK CONSTITUENT:

NOTES: OCM #9866 (CRAIRMAN SHOULD REVIEW PRIOR TO DISPATCH)

DATE DUE: Aug 29.97 SIGNATURE: .

DATE SIGNED:

[ AFFILIATION:

I EDO -- G970600

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