ML20295A681
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| ML20295A681 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 10/21/2020 |
| From: | Anthony Mcmurtray NRC/NMSS/DMSST |
| To: | |
| MCMURTRAY A/NMSS/MSST | |
| References | |
| Download: ML20295A681 (3) | |
Text
INDICO ID #141 IAEA 2020 International Conference on Radiation Safety Using Modern Risk-Informed, Performance Based Approaches to Enhance NRCs Materials Inspection Program Anthony McMurtray (Anthony.McMurtray@nrc.gov)
Duncan White (Duncan.White@nrc.gov)
History
- Original NRC materials inspection procedures (e.g., academic, commercial and medical) were risk-informed and were updated with additional risk-informed, performance based changes in the early 2000s. (Inspection Procedures 87121 -
87134; https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/insp-manual/inspection-procedure/)
- In 2018, a Working Group comprised of NRC and Agreement State personnel began an initiative to further risk-inform the primary materials inspection program procedure to allow flexibility in the performance of inspections (e.g., in-office reviews for low risk areas) and enhanced coordination and communication between NRC regional offices and Agreement State programs. A revision to NRCs primary materials inspection manual was subsequently issued as a result of this groups efforts in March 2020 (https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2003/ML20031D677.pdf)
Current Activities
- In 2020, a new Working Group started the next phase of activities to enhance the risk-informed and performance based aspects of the materials program, including changing the routine and event and incident response inspection procedures, as part of the NRCs initiatives to transform into a modern, risk-informed regulator. The charter for the working group can be found here.
- NRC and Agreement State managers and staff in the Working Group are currently revising all routine materials inspection procedures to further risk inform the procedures to align with revision to NRCs inspection manual
- Draft language to provide guidance for dispositioning low safety significant materials issues identified during inspections has been developed
- The Working Group is reviewing data collected during previous initiatives to support potential changes to the priority and frequency of several areas of materials inspections
- Scope of changes to materials event and incident response procedures has been defined 2
Next Steps
- Implement procedure changes to improve the efficiency of inspection efforts for licensees with facilities across NRC regions by strengthening communications and overall communications between regions
- Revise the materials inspection procedures to improve the coordination and communication with the Agreement States by leveraging the collective inspection and oversight efforts of the National Materials Program
- Explore providing inspectors with upgraded Information Technology to support inspection activities in the field
- Conduct outreach activities across the National Materials Program with NRC and Agreement States licensing and inspection personnel to provide information on the changes made to the materials inspection procedures
- Revisions for incorporating enhanced risk-informed and performance based updates into all materials inspection procedures scheduled for completion in 2021 3