ML24204A030
| ML24204A030 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 09/10/2024 |
| From: | NRC/OGC |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML24204A023 | List: |
| References | |
| CORR-24-0071 | |
| Download: ML24204A030 (1) | |
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ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 91 ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT OVERVIEW The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Annual Performance Plan and Report combines the performance reporting and planning requirements from the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA)
Modernization Act of 2010. The Annual Performance Plan and Report provides a comprehensive overview of the NRCs plans and progress toward achieving the goals and objectives described in the agencys Strategic Plan for FYs 20222026 5 and the agencys performance goals. The Annual Performance Plan and Report also monitors progress toward the agencys performance measures and provides historical performance results and upcoming targets.
BE RISKSMART FRAMEWORK The NRC is continuing its journey to become a more modern, risk-informed regulator. To achieve this vision, the Be riskSMART initiative focuses on how the agency will continue to use risk information, across all its regulatory programs, to make sound decisions. The Be riskSMART framework gives the staff confidence to consistently apply and communicate risk information for all NRC decisions without compromising its mission.
The Be riskSMART framework combines traditional risk-informed concepts into a plain language framework to apply and communicate risk insights for all kinds of NRC decisions, whether they are in the technical, corporate, or legal arena. The framework ensures the staffs basic understanding of how risk information is applied across the different program areas and allows the agency to effectively communicate how it uses risk information to make sound regulatory decisions.
The Be riskSMART framework includes guidance and steps for identifying and managing risk information (for issues where there is no predetermined answer in a law, regulation, or policy); performance metrics for how well the agency considers risk information; and training to ensure a common understanding of how risk information is applied across NRC program areas. In March 2021, the NRC issued NUREG/KM-0016, Be riskSMART: Guidance for Integrating Risk Insights into NRC Decisions, to provide detailed guidance on using the Be riskSMART framework and case studies from across a series of disciplines.
USING EVIDENCE FOR DECISION-MAKING The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act), signed into law on January 14, 2019, emphasizes collaboration and coordination to advance data and evidence-building functions in the Federal Government. The Evidence Act statutorily mandates Federal evidence-building activities, open Government data, confidential information protection, and statistical efficiency. Evidence includes fact finding, performance measurement, policy analysis, and program evaluation used to make critical decisions about program operations, policy, and regulations, and to gain visibility into the impact of resource allocation on achieving program objectives.
An evidence-building plan is a systematic approach for identifying and addressing priority questions relevant to an agencys programs, policies, and regulations. More broadly, it is a coordination tool to engage stakeholders in evidence planning and building to help achieve an agencys mission. The plan is intended to emphasize and foster an agency culture of learning and continuous improvement. Once the plan is implemented, decision-makers can use the resulting evidence to guide choices to improve the agency programs, policies, and regulations.
5 The NRCs Strategic Plan for FYs 20222026 is available at https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/plans-performance/strategic-planning.html.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 92 The NRC is committed to meeting the intent of the Evidence Act by evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of its programs and their contributions to achieving the agencys mission. Evaluations and other evidence-building activities conducted by the NRC are expected to adhere to the standards discussed in the NRCs Evidence-Building and Evaluation Policy Statement (86 FR 29683; June 3, 2021). The NRCs priority questions in the Evidence-Building Plan include key areas to support agency needs and the strategic goals and objectives for FYs 2022-2026.
STRATEGIC GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR FISCAL YEARS 20222026 The NRCs Strategic Plan for FYs 20222026 sets the strategic direction and aligns priorities for the agency over the next 4 years. Each strategic goal has supporting objectives and strategies that reflect the desired outcome and the NRCs role in achieving it. The NRC has established three strategic goals that are supported by eight strategic objectives.
Strategic Goal 1:
Ensure the safe and secure use of radioactive materials.
Safety and Security Objective 1.1:
Provide quality licensing and oversight of nuclear facilities and radioactive materials.
Safety and Security Objective 1.2:
Ensure regulatory requirements adequately support the safe and secure use of radioactive materials.
Safety and Security Objective 1.3:
Maintain emergency preparedness and response capabilities for NRC and NRC-licensed facilities.
Strategic Goal 2:
Continue to foster a healthy organization.
Organizational Health Objective 2.1:
Foster an organizational culture in which the workforce is engaged, adaptable, and receptive to change and makes data-driven and evidence-based decisions.
Organizational Health Objective 2.2:
Enable the workforce to carry out the agencys mission by leveraging modern technology, innovation, and knowledge management to support data-driven decisions in an evolving regulatory landscape.
Organizational Health Objective 2.3:
Attract, develop, and maintain a high-performing, diverse, engaged, and flexible workforce with the skills needed to carry out the NRCs mission now and in the future.
Strategic Goal 3:
Inspire stakeholder confidence in the NRC.
Stakeholder Confidence Objective 3.1:
Engage stakeholders in NRC activities in an effective and transparent manner.
Stakeholder Confidence Objective 3.2:
Uphold an NRC decision-making process that is data-driven and evidence-based while ensuring information is available and accessible to interested stakeholders.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 93 STRATEGIC GOALS AND PERFORMANCE MEASURES In conjunction with the development of the agencys Strategic Plan for FYs 2022-2026, the NRC developed performance goals and indicators for each strategic objective. Performance goals and indicators for Strategic Goal 1, which focus on safety and security, are output-based and describe the level of a particular measure over time.
Strategic Goals 2 and 3 focus on organizational health and stakeholder confidence, respectively. These strategic goals use outcome-based performance indicators, which reflect an assessment of actions that the agency has established to accomplish associated performance goals, and whether those actions are adequately supporting the agency in making progress toward achieving the intended results. These outcome-based performance indicators use target of heading in the right direction to reflect the fact that actions put in place should be supporting the agencys progress. The measures for these outcome-based indicators can also produce results of opportunity for improvement or heading in the wrong direction, depending on the results of the agencys annual assessment.
The memorandum Formation of the Programmatic Senior Assessment Team (PSAT), dated March 31, 2016 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System Accession No. ML16067A159), discusses the PSATs role in considering output-based performance indicators that are out of standard to ensure that mitigating strategies are in place. The PSAT addresses these performance indicators and associated mitigating strategies during the agencys Quarterly Performance Review.
The PSAT also makes the determinations for the NRCs outcome-based performance indicators, assessing whether established actions are supporting the agencys progress toward achieving the intended results. This assessment will also be supported by input from a third-party assessment team, who conducts an independent review that will inform the PSATs final determination. The PSAT will make this determination during the agencys Strategic Alignment Meeting.
STRATEGIC GOAL 1: ENSURE THE SAFE AND SECURE USE OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS The NRC is tasked with providing reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety, promoting the common defense and security, and protecting the environment. The agency accomplishes this through day-to-day activities such as reviewing, issuing, and renewing power reactor licenses and amendments; overseeing the safety and security of power reactor facilities, including the storage and transportation of spent fuel; and licensing and regulating non-power uses of radioactive materials, such as industrial and medical applications of radionuclides. Although licensees and certificate holders have the primary responsibility for the safe and secure use of licensed radioactive material that they possess, the NRC establishes regulatory requirements, develops guidance, maintains continuing regulatory oversight, and, when necessary, enforces compliance with agency requirements throughout the license term.
Safety and Security Objective 1.1 Provide quality licensing and oversight of nuclear facilities and radioactive materials.
Summary of FY 2023 Progress The NRC continues to provide quality licensing and oversight of nuclear facilities and radioactive materials in a manner that protects public health and safety, promotes the common defense and security, and protects the environment.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 94 Nuclear Reactor Safety Program The NRCs Nuclear Reactor Safety Program encompasses licensing and oversight of civilian nuclear power reactors and non-power production or utilization facilities (NPUFs) in a manner that adequately protects public health and safety. It also provides reasonable assurance of the security of such facilities and protection against radiological sabotage. This program contributes to the NRCs safety and security strategic goals through the activities of the Operating Reactors and New Reactors Business Lines, which regulate operating and new nuclear reactors to ensure they meet applicable requirements.
Operating Reactors Business Line The Operating Reactors Business Line encompasses the regulation of operating civilian nuclear power reactors and NPUFs in a manner that provides for reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety and promotes the common defense and security. The NRC establishes regulatory requirements for the design, construction, operation, and security of nuclear power plants, research and test reactors and NPUFs, in accordance with the provisions of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (AEA).
Through the activities of this business line, the NRC implements programs to meet its safety and security strategic goals in protecting the public, workers, and the environment from the radiation hazards of nuclear reactors. To ensure that plants and facilities are operating safely, the NRC licenses the plants to operate and the personnel who operate them.
The NRC provides continuing oversight of civilian nuclear reactors and verifies operator adherence to the agencys rules and regulations. The Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) is the NRCs program used to inspect, measure, and assess the safety and security performance of operating commercial nuclear power plants and to respond to any decline in their performance.
The FY 2023 significant accomplishments within the Operating Reactors Business Line include the following:
Successfully implemented the ROP baseline inspection program and conducted special inspections as needed to follow-up on safety-significant events; performed operator licensing, provided incident response coverage for hurricanes, and conducted all planned vendor inspections.
Provided ongoing robust licensing and oversight of non-power or utilization facilities, including:
issuance of the safety evaluation and final environmental impact statement ahead of schedule for Kairos Power LLCs CP application for its Hermes non-power test reactor; issuance of a renewed license for the GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC Nuclear Test Reactor and the University of California Davis; issuance of a letter authorizing restart of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research reactor; issuance of research and test reactor Information Notice for Operational and Safety Culture issues; issuance of the safety evaluation and final environmental impact statement for SHINE Technologies, LLCs operating license (OL) application; and acceptance of the Kairos Hermes 2 and Abilene Christian University Molten Salt Research Reactor CP applications.
Continued preparation for the licensing of accident tolerant fuel (ATF) by issuing: the regulatory basis for the increased enrichment rulemaking; amendments to approve insertion of lead test assemblies of increased enrichment and burnup; six ATF topical reports for increased enrichment, higher burnup, and doped pellets; guidance revisions to expand source term applicability; a Regulatory Issue Summary for ATF scheduling information; and the ATF Roadmap to Readiness, which provides anticipated milestones to maintain industry batch loading deployment timelines for the entire suite of near-term ATF, increased enrichment, and high burnup.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 95 Continued licensing and oversight of digital instrumentation and control (DI&C) by accepting the first two major DI&C upgrade amendments, issuing an expansion of the current DI&C common cause failure policy, and providing guidance to assist in DI&C upgrade inspection.
Issued the final safety evaluation for the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2 SLR application and also and continued regulatory improvements to prepare for increased SLR applications including issuance of the draft revised Generic Environmental Impact Statement for license renewal of nuclear plants to encompass both initial and SLR applications; prepared revisions to generic guidance to minimize the need to review common technical issues on a plant-specific basis; and accepted the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station, Unit 1, SLR application for review.
New Reactors Business Line The New Reactors Business Line encompasses the review, licensing, and oversight of the design, siting, and construction of new nuclear power reactors, including small modular reactors and advanced non-light-water reactors (non-LWRs). The new reactor activities ensure that new civilian nuclear power facilities are developed and regulated in a manner consistent with the NRCs public health and safety mission.
The NRC reviews new nuclear power reactor design certification, combined license, standard design approval, and early site permit applications, consistent with Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR)
Part 52, Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants. The NRC also reviews construction permits and OL applications for new nuclear power reactors, consistent with 10 CFR Part 50, Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities. The application process under 10 CFR Part 50, which was used for all currently operating reactors, involves separate applications for a CP and an OL.
The NRC conducts oversight of construction activities through inspections of facilities under construction. The NRC also updates its new reactor regulatory infrastructure to account for lessons learned, as well as interactions with all stakeholders during its licensing and oversight activities.
The FY 2023 significant accomplishments within the New Reactors Business Line include the following:
Performed the final construction assessment and completed all inspections under the construction Reactor Oversight Process for Vogtle Unit 4 to support the issuance of the Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations 52.103(g), Operation under a combined license finding, which authorized Southern Nuclear to load nuclear fuel and begin operations.
Performed licensing and oversight for Vogtle Unit 3 startup testing and power ascension operations until Southern Nuclear declared the unit to be in commercial operation.
Continued modernization of infrastructure for advanced reactor licensing by issuing the Advanced Reactor Content of Application Project and Technology-Inclusive Content of Application Project draft guidance documents for non-light water reactors and issuing an information paper for the vision of the NRCs advanced reactor construction oversight program.
Accepted the NuScale Standard Design Application using risk insights to identify focus areas, support a graded review, and set an aggressive 24-month review schedule.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 96 Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program The Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program encompasses the NRCs licensing and oversight of nuclear materials in a manner that adequately protects public health and safety. This program provides assurance of the physical security of the materials and waste and protection against radiological sabotage, theft, or diversion of nuclear materials. Through this program, the NRC regulates uranium processing and fuel facilities, research and pilot facilities, nuclear materials users (medical, industrial, research, and academic), spent fuel storage and transport, radioactive material transportation and packaging, decontamination and decommissioning of facilities, and low-level and high-level radioactive waste. The program contributes to the NRCs safety and security strategic goals through the activities of the Nuclear Materials Users, Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste, Fuel Facilities, and Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Business Lines.
Nuclear Materials Users Business Line The Nuclear Materials Users Business Line activities support licensing and oversight of industrial, medical, research, and academic uses of radioactive materials. These activities include licensing, inspection, oversight, source security, import and export authorizations, the Integrated Materials Performance Evaluation Program (IMPEP), and programmatic assistance to Agreement States. Agreement States are those States that have signed an agreement with the NRC in accordance with Section 274.b of the AEA, which authorizes the NRC to discontinue, and the State to assume, regulatory authority over certain materials cited in the AEA. With respect to Agreement States, the NRC has oversight responsibility to periodically review the State programs to ensure adequacy and compatibility. There are currently 39 Agreement States. Additionally, Connecticut, Indiana, and West Virginia have submitted letters of intent to become Agreement States.
This business lines activities also include intergovernmental communication and coordination, implementation of the Tribal Policy Statement and coordination with other Federal agencies on Tribal matters, and maintenance of major information technology (IT) systems to support the regulatory safety and security infrastructure needed to track the possession and use of nuclear materials.
The FY 2023 significant accomplishments within the Nuclear Materials Users Business Line include the following:
Facilitated consistent nationwide licensing for medical uses of radioactive materials through guidance for emerging technologies, including development of guidance for the Elekta Esprit Gamma Stereotactic Radiosurgery unit and Civaderm' Superficial Manual Brachytherapy device. Issued draft guidance for licensees to demonstrate compliance with patient release regulations which included values for new radionuclides being used in medicine for public review and comment.
Completed 9 IMPEP reviews of Agreement States. This included extensive monitoring, outreach, coordination, and support activities associated with the four Agreement State Programs on Heightened Oversight.
Completed a significant update to Inspection Manual Chapter (IMC) 2800, Materials Inspection Program guidance, helping the agency move forward with risk-informed enhancements, and addressing COVID-19 lessons learned from the implementation of the oversight programs. IMC 2800 now includes guidance for: implementing inspection programs during pandemics, collaborating across the National Materials Program (NMP), and coordinating oversight of licensees undergoing decommissioning.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 97 Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste Business Line The Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste Business Line activities support the licensing reviews and oversight of uranium recovery facilities and sites undergoing decommissioning. Decommissioning is the safe removal of a nuclear facility from service and the reduction of residual radioactivity to a level that permits the termination of the NRC license. The NRC regulates the decommissioning of complex materials sites, fuel cycle facilities, uranium recovery facilities, power reactors, and NPUFs, with the goal of license termination.
This business line also oversees the national low-level waste program and monitors the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) waste incidental to reprocessing activities at the Savannah River Site and the Idaho National Laboratory, consistent with the NRCs responsibilities under the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005. Other business line activities include interfacing with licensees, applicants, Federal and State agencies, Tribal governments, and the public.
The FY 2023 significant accomplishments within the Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste Business Line include the following:
Completed 25 licensing actions which included: the issuance of a new production license to Rare Element Resources for a planned pilot project in Wyoming to demonstrate a proprietary process to extract rare earth elements from ore; issuance of license amendment and final Environmental Impact Statement for UNC Church Rock site that would allow United Nuclear Corporation to transfer and dispose of uranium mine waste from the nearby Northeast Church Rock Mine Site; partial site release of La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor for unrestricted use; and issuance of a recommendation letter informing the Navy that the Surface Ship Support Barge (SSSB) site would meet the NRC unrestricted release criteria if the SSSB was a licensed site.
Issued a Technical Evaluation Report on the Savanah River Saltstone Performance Assessment in accordance with the NRCs monitoring role under the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2005. The technical evaluation evaluated the U.S. Department of Energys (DOEs) revised safety case for the disposal at the Saltstone Disposal Facility.
Coordinated with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on adding the Fansteel Site (Muskogee, Oklahoma), which is an NRC-regulated complex materials site undergoing decommissioning, to the Superfund National Priorities List. The NRC will continue its oversight role of the site and will work in cooperation with EPA Region 6.
Supported licensing and oversight for decommissioning programs with guidance updates and generic communication to the industry, which included: issuance of a major revision to Inspection Manual Chapter (IMC 2602), Decommissioning Fuel Cycle, Uranium Recovery, and Materials Inspection Program, and related inspection procedures that resulted in a more risk-informed performance-based inspection program; and the issuance of an Information Notice generic communication to make industry aware of the recent increase in fire protection issues at decommissioning reactor facilities and the importance of a robust fire protection program to prevent the release of radioactive material that could occur from fires involving contaminated plant equipment or waste.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 98 Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Business Line The Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Business Line activities support the safe and secure storage of spent nuclear fuel and the transport of radioactive materials. These activities include conducting safety, security, and environmental reviews of license applications for spent nuclear fuel storage casks and independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs), as well as performing safety and security reviews of radioactive material transportation packages. This work also includes reviewing storage system and ISFSI renewal applications, developing and updating related regulations and guidance, conducting safety inspections of transportation packages and storage cask vendors and fabricators, observing ISFSI operations, and performing security inspections of ISFSIs.
The FY 2023 significant accomplishments within the Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Business Line include the following:
Issued several significant licensing actions and associated environmental reviews, including a license to Holtec International for construction and operation of the HI-STORE Consolidated Interim Storage Facility in New Mexico, and a renewed license for the GE Hitachi-Morris Operation (GEH-MO)
Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) in Illinois for an additional 20-year term with expiration of May 2042.
Conducted 57 ISFSI core inspections including construction, preoperational testing, canister loading, and placement in a dry fuel storage system as well as 16 inspections of activities related to radioactive material package and spent fuel storage cask certificate holders to ensure these meet approved safety requirements.
Implemented increased use of risk during review of new amendments through staff training and use of risk tools during reviews of spent fuel dry cask storage system designs.
Issued Regulatory Guide (RG), RG-3.77, "Weather-Related Administrative Controls at Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations," Revision 0.
Issued the draft Safety Evaluation for a Topical Report on Radiological Fuel Qualifications Methodology for Dry Storage Systems. This is the second Topical Report for storage systems and the first in this technical area.
Completed 66 licensing reviews of transport package designs (including 2 reviews supporting increased enrichment and/or accident tolerant fuels), storage cask, and facility licenses and issued five rules to codify the Certificates of Compliance for spent nuclear fuel storage cask designs.
Fuel Facilities Business Line The Fuel Facilities Business Line encompasses the licensing and oversight of fuel cycle facilities in a manner that adequately protects public health and safety and promotes the common defense and security. The uranium fuel cycle begins with uranium ore that is mined and then milled to extract uranium from the ore. The conversion of the uranium changes it into a form suitable for enrichment. The enrichment process makes uranium suitable for use as nuclear fuel. The Fuel Facilities Business Line includes licensing and oversight activities related to fuel conversion, enrichment, and fuel fabrication. The Fuel Facilities Business Line also provides licensing and oversight support for a number of additional licensees that possess greater than critical mass quantities of special nuclear material (SNM), such as universities and research and test facilities.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 99 The FY 2023 significant accomplishments within the Fuel Facilities Business Line include the following:
Completed all core inspections for all fuel facilities and performed two Special Inspections in response to safety-significant events that occurred at facilities licensed under 10 CFR Part 70, and the operational readiness review (issued authorization letter) to allow American Centrifuge Plant to possess up to a Category II quantity of special nuclear material.
Issued a draft guidance document, NUREG-2212, Standard Review Plan for Applications for 10 CFR Part 70 Licenses for Possession and Use of Special Nuclear Materials of Critical Mass but Not Subject to the Requirements in 10 CFR part 70, Subpart H.
Completed significant licensing activities to support new fuels, including three amended 10 CFR Part 70 licenses to permit existing fuel facilities to increase uranium enrichment and manufacture fuel with high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), and accepted the TRISO-X license application to construct and operate a new fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which will manufacture fuel with HALEU. Additionally, published a New Fuels infographic and issued a New Fuels Public Website.
Developed a new foreign ownership, control, and influence (FOCI) program for performing the reviews of NRCs licensed fuel enrichment facilities and to enable NRC to make an independent FOCI determination.
SETTING THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR FY 2024 AND FY 2025 PERFORMANCE Using information gained from domestic and international operating experience, changes to the threat environment, climate change impacts, research, and lessons learned, the NRC maintains technically sound and rigorous licensing and oversight processes commensurate with the risk of the regulated activity. The NRC monitors the performance of licensees to ensure consistency with its safety and security mission. As part of its regulatory responsibilities, the NRC must protect classified and sensitive unclassified information related to U.S. Government programs for the physical protection and safeguarding of nuclear materials and facilities from unauthorized disclosure.
The NRC must make strategic decisions and ensure the following strategies remain a priority to successfully provide quality licensing and oversight of nuclear facilities and radioactive materials.
Promote risk-informed decision-making to result in effective and efficient oversight, rulemaking, and licensing and certification activities.
Maintain material safety and security through the NMP in partnership with Agreement States.
Uphold high-quality standards and technical proficiency.
Ensure that programs for the handling and control of classified and sensitive unclassified information are effectively implemented at the NRC and at licensed facilities.
Ensure that licensees have measures to address the potential for increased risk due to climate change.
Performance Measures Performance Goal 1.1.1: Prevent radiation exposures that significantly exceed regulatory limits.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 100 Performance Indicator: Number of radiation exposures that meet or exceed Abnormal Occurrence (AO) Criteria I.A.1 (unintended radiation exposure to an adult), I.A.2 (unintended radiation exposure to a minor), or I.A.3 (radiation exposure that has resulted in unintended permanent functional damage to an organ or physiological system). 6 Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 Operating Reactors Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
New Reactors Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Fuel Facilities Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Nuclear Materials Users Target 3
3 3
3 3
3 3
Actual 1
2 0
1 7 2 8 Performance Goal 1.1.2: Prevent releases of radioactive materials that significantly exceed regulatory limits.
Performance Indicator: Number of releases of radioactive materials that meet or exceed AO Criterion 1.B (discharge or dispersal of radioactive material from its intended place of confinement).
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 Operating Reactors Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
New Reactors Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Fuel Facilities Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Nuclear Materials Users Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Performance Goal 1.1.3: Prevent the occurrence of any inadvertent criticality events.
6 All references to the AO criteria in this section refer to the criteria approved by the Commission in SRM-SECY-17-0019, Staff Requirements SECY-17-0019Final Revision to Policy Statement on Abnormal Occurrence Reporting Criteria, dated August 24, 2017.
7 The event description can be found at the Event Notifications Reports website, under event number 55920.
8 The event descriptions can be found at the Event Notifications Reports website, under event number 56327 and 56761.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 101 Performance Indicator: Number of instances of unintended nuclear chain reactions involving NRC-licensed radioactive materials.
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 Operating Reactors Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Fuel Facilities Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Performance Goal 1.1.4: Prevent significant unauthorized disclosures of classified or safeguards information.
Performance Indicator: Number of significant unauthorized disclosures of classified or Safeguards Information by licensees as defined by AO criterion 1.C.5 (significant unauthorized disclosure of classified information or Safeguards Information by NRC employees or contractors, as defined by NRC internal criteria).
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 All Business Lines Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Agencywide Performance Indicators The NRC developed the following agencywide performance indicators, which cover the overall performance of the licensing and oversight program areas for the agency.
Percentage of Timely Completion of Final Safety Evaluations by the Generic Milestone Date for All Requested Activities of the Commission, as Identified by the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA), from a Licensee or Applicant Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 100%
100%
New indicator in FY 2022.
FY 2023 100%
98.7%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
Target adjusted to better reflect actual performance in this area.
This indicator includes all requested activities of the Commission from licensees or applicants that involve the issuance of a final safety evaluation accepted after July 13, 2019 (associated business line indicators include OR-27, NR-21, SF-12, DL-10, and FF-13). This includes design certifications, licenses, permits, license amendments, license renewals, certificates of compliance, power uprates, and any other requested activity, as applicable, that involves the issuance of a final safety evaluation processed for the agency. This is measured per the generic milestone schedules. Additional information on generic milestone schedules is available at https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/generic-schedules.html.
Operating Reactors Business Line (OR-27)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2021 100%
100%
New indicator in FY 2021.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 102 Percentage of Timely Completion of Final Safety Evaluations by the Generic Milestone Date for All Requested Activities of the Commission, as Identified by the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA), from a Licensee or Applicant FY 2022 100%
99.8%
The staff continues to (1) conduct monthly workload management meetings to monitor and assess potential schedules at risk, utilizing advance data tools; (2) capture improvements in the reactor program system to enhance milestone tracking and identify schedule challenges early (e.g., updated work aids and training); (3) evaluate project-specific schedules and identify those potential cases extending beyond the generic milestone schedules; and (4) review existing licensing inventory to identify other requested actions that may impact this indicator.
FY 2023 100%
99.5%
The staff has modernized internal processes, to maximize data analysis opportunities through (1) development and implementation of workflow tools for improved tracking capabilities; (2) real-time and historical performance tools to ensure transparency in driving improvement in metrics and schedule performance; (3) monthly workload management meetings to monitor and assess potential schedules at risk, to hold staff accountable to schedules; and (4) continuing to review and evaluate the existing licensing inventory to potential risks, for early intervention and communication. Of note, in some cases circumstances outside the NRC staffs purview limit the amount of influence on the projected outcome.
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 99%
Target adjusted to better reflect actual performance in this area.
New Reactors Business Line (NR-21)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2021 100%
100%
New indicator in FY 2021 FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 99%
Target adjusted to better reflect actual performance in this area.
Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Business Line (SF-12)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2021 100%
100%
New indicator in FY 2021 FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 99%
Target adjusted to better reflect actual performance in this area.
Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste Business Line (DL-10)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2021 100%
100%
New indicator in FY 2021 FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 99%
Target adjusted to better reflect actual performance in this area.
Fuel Facilities Business Lines (FF-13)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2021 100%
100%
New indicator in FY 2021 FY 2022 100%
100%
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 103 Percentage of Timely Completion of Final Safety Evaluations by the Generic Milestone Date for All Requested Activities of the Commission, as Identified by the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA), from a Licensee or Applicant FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 99%
Target adjusted to better reflect actual performance in this area.
Average Percentage of Time Allotted Used in the Established Schedule for All Requested Activities of the Commission, as Identified by NEIMA, from a Licensee or Applicant Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 115 or 75 88.1%
FY 2023 115 or 75 91.5%
FY 2024 115 or 75 FY 2025 115 or 75 This indicator includes all requested activities of the Commission from licensees or applicants that involve the issuance of a final safety evaluation accepted after July 13, 2019 (associated business line indicators include OR-29, NR-22, SF-14, DL-11, and FF-14). This includes design certifications, licenses, permits, license amendments, license renewals, certificates of compliance, power uprates, and any other requested activity, as applicable, that involves the issuance of a final safety evaluation processed for the agency. This is measured per the established schedule issued to a licensee or applicant for the requested activity. A result of 100 percent indicates that, on average, actions within the reporting period were completed on the established schedule completion date. A result above or below 100 percent indicates that actions were completed after or before the established schedule completion date on average (e.g., a result of 90 percent indicates that the actions within the reporting period were completed, on average, 10 percent earlier than the established schedule completion date).
Operating Reactors Business Line (OR-29)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 115 or 75 81%
New indicator in FY 2022.
FY 2023 115 or 75 89%
FY 2024 115 or 75 FY 2025 115 or 75 New Reactors Business Line (NR-22)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 115 or 75 86%
New indicator in FY 2022.
FY 2023 115 or 75 73%
For new reactors, some licensing actions were prioritized to support operational needs resulting in completion of the reviews ahead of schedule. While this demonstrates review efficiency, it also caused the average review time for new reactor licensing actions to be completed faster than the 75% metric.
FY 2024 115 or 75 FY 2025 115 or 75 Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Business Line (SF-14)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 115 or 75 92%
New indicator in FY 2022.
FY 2023 115 or 75 103%
FY 2024 115 or 75 FY 2025 115 or 75
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 104 Average Percentage of Time Allotted Used in the Established Schedule for All Requested Activities of the Commission, as Identified by NEIMA, from a Licensee or Applicant Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste Business Line (DL-11)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 115 or 75 93.4%
New indicator in FY 2022 FY 2023 115 or 75 92.5%
FY 2024 115 or 75 FY 2025 115 or 75 Fuel Facilities Business Line (FF-14)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 115 or 75 88%
New indicator in FY 2022 FY 2023 115 or 75 100%
FY 2024 115 or 75 FY 2025 115 or 75 Percentage of Required Inspections Completed in Accordance with the Applicable Inspection Manual Chapters for the Fiscal Year Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 98%
100%
FY 2023 98%
98.2%
FY 2024 98%
FY 2025 98%
This indicator includes the completion of required inspections under applicable inspection manual chapters agencywide (associated business line indicators include OR12.1, SF15, NM05, DL12, and FF15).
Operating Rectors Business Line: Percentage of All Required Baseline Inspection Procedures Completed for All Plants (OR-12.1)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 99%
100%
FY 2020 99%
100%
FY 2021 99%
100%
FY 2022 99%
100%
FY 2023 99%
99.5%
FY 2024 99%
FY 2025 99%
Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Business Line: Percentage of Inspections Completed in Accordance with Inspection Manual Chapter 2690 (SF-15)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 98%
100%
New indicator in FY 2022.
FY 2023 98%
100%
FY 2024 98%
FY 2025 98%
Nuclear Materials Users Business Line: Percentage of Safety Inspections of Materials Licensees Completed on Time (NM-05)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 98%
100%
FY 2020 98%
99%
FY 2021 98%
99%
FY 2022 98%
100%
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 105 Percentage of Required Inspections Completed in Accordance with the Applicable Inspection Manual Chapters for the Fiscal Year FY 2023 98%
100%
FY 2024 98%
FY 2025 98%
Decommissioning Low-Level Waste Business Line: Percentage of Required Inspections Completed in Accordance with the Applicable Inspection Manual Chapter* (DL-12)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 98%
100%
New indicator in FY 2022.
FY 2023 98%
100%
FY 2024 98%
FY 2025 98%
- Includes the completion of required inspections under Inspection Manual Chapter (IMC) 2561, Decommissioning Power Reactor Inspection Program, for decommissioning power reactors; IMC 2602, Decommissioning Oversight and Inspection Program for Fuel Cycle Facilities and Materials Licensees, for decommissioning materials sites; and inspections of uranium recovery facilities under IMC 2641, In Situ Leach Facilities Inspection Program, and IMC 2801, Uranium Recovery and 11e.(2) Byproduct Material Facility Inspection Program.
Fuel Facilities Business Line: Inspection Manual Chapter 2600 (FF-15)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 98%
100%
New indicator in FY 2022.
FY 2023 98%
100%
FY 2024 98%
FY 2025 98%
Other Performance Indicators The NRC developed the following performance indicators, which cover the overall performance of the licensing and oversight program areas for Operating Reactors, Nuclear Materials Users, and Fuel Facilities Business Lines for the agency.
Operating Reactors Business Line Licensing Percentage of Reviews Completed within Resource Estimate* (OR-28)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 80%
96.5%
New indicator in FY 2022 FY 2023 80%
95.5%
FY 2024 80%
FY 2025 80%
- Percentage of reviews, including issuance of final safety evaluations, completed within 125 percent of resource estimates issued to licensees or applicants for all requested activities of the Commission, as identified by NEIMA.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 106 Oversight Number of Final Significance Determinations Issued More Than 255 Days from the Start Date for All Potentially Greater-Than-Green Findings* (OR-13.1)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2021
<1 3
This is a new indicator for FY 2021. Three significance determinations were finalized beyond the 255-day timeline.
This delay was primarily attributed to additional time required to establish the appropriate risk significance of the findings.
FY 2022
>10 then 10% or 10 then 1 3
Three significance determinations were finalized beyond the 255-day timeline. Delays associated with these findings are attributed to a first-of-a-kind cybersecurity issue, added time deliberating the appropriate performance deficiency or risk significance, and additional time required to review licensee provided information.
FY 2023
>10 then 10% or 10 then 1 2
Two significance determinations were finalized beyond the 255-day timeline. Delays associated with both of these findings are attributed to additional time needed to deliberate the appropriate performance deficiency. The staff conducted a self-assessment of the timeliness of the Significance Determination Process program in CY2022 (ML22335A003). In the report, the review team offered several recommendations to improve the SDP - both related to the metric definition and efficiencies within the process itself. For FY 2023, three of the five recommendations in the report have already been implemented, with the remaining two pending issuance and implementation of IMC revisions planned for FY 2024.
FY 2024
>10 then 10% or 10 then 1 FY 2025
>10 then 10% or 10 then 1
- Applies to all findings for which a preliminary determination that the finding is potentially greater-than-Green (e.g., to be determined, apparent violation, or preliminary greater-than-Green finding) is transmitted to the licensee, regardless of final significance. The 255-day timeframe is based on the identification date of the issue of concern (i.e., the date an issue of concern was self-revealed or the date the NRC became aware of the underlying condition leading to the issue of concern) and is the target the agency strives for when conducting significance determination process reviews. If there are more than 10 greater-than-Green findings in the FY, the target is less than or equal to 10 percent. If there are 10 or fewer greater-than-Green findings in the FY, the target is less than or equal to one finding.
Percentage of Technical Allegation Reviews Completed in 360 Days or Less* (OR-16)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 100%
100%
FY 2020 100%
100%
FY 2021 100%
100%
FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 107 Percentage of Technical Allegation Reviews Completed in 360 Days or Less* (OR-16)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
- Includes the calculations for the New Reactors Business Line for the same indicator and is reported under the Operating Reactors Business Line.
Percentage of Enforcement Actions Where Investigation Is Involved Completed in 330 Days or Less* (OR-18)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 100%
100%
FY 2020 100%
100%
FY 2021 100%
100%
FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
- Includes calculations for the New Reactors Business Line for the same indicator and is reported under the Operating Reactors Business Line.
Percentage of Investigations that Developed Sufficient Information to Reach a Conclusion on Wrongdoing Completed in 12 Months or Less (OR-19)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 85%
92%
FY 2020 85%
97%
FY 2021 85%
96%
FY 2022 85%
100%
FY 2023 85%
100%
FY 2024 85%
FY 2025 85%
Percentage of Investigations Completed in Time to Initiate Civil and/or Criminal Enforcement Action (OR-20)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 100%
100%
FY 2020 100%
100%
FY 2021 100%
100%
FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
Percentage of Force-on-Force Inspections Performed as Scheduled within the Calendar Year (OR-30)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2023 100%
100% New indicator in FY 2023.
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 108 Nuclear Materials Users Business Line Licensing Percentage of Licensing Application Reviews for New Materials Licenses and License Amendments (Excluding Change of Control Amendments)
- Completed in 90 Days or Less (NM-01)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019*
92%
97%
FY 2020*
92%
95%
FY 2021*
92%
93%
FY 2022*
92%
94%
FY 2023*
92%
100%
FY 2024*
92%
FY 2025 92%
- Beginning in FY 2019, this indicator description excludes change of control amendments. The process for reviewing change of control amendments involves public notification and legal steps that are more complex and require more time than for other typical amendment reviews. Change of control amendments are now captured under NM-03.
Percentage of Licensing Application Reviews for Materials License Renewals and Sealed Source and Devices Reviews and Associated Licensing Actions, and Change of Control Amendments*
Completed in 180 Days or Less (NM-03)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019*
92%
99%
FY 2020*
92%
97%
FY 2021*
92%
94%
FY 2022*
92%
92%
FY 2023**
94%
100%
FY 2024**
94%
FY 2025 94%
- Change of control amendments were added to this indicator description beginning in FY 2019. As of FY 2019, change of control amendments that were being captured in NM-01 are captured under NM-03.
- Beginning in FY 2023, the target will be increased to 94 percent. The use of data analytical techniques will improve the efficiency of internal processes to monitor workload and to predict and manage schedules.
Oversight Percentage of Technical Allegation Reviews Completed in 360 Days or Less*(NM-08)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 100%
100%
FY 2020 100%
100%
FY 2021 100%
100%
FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
- This target also includes the calculations for the Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste Business Line for the same indicator and is reported under the Nuclear Materials Users Business Line.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 109 Percentage of Enforcement Actions in which Investigation Is Involved Completed in 330 Days or Less* (NM-10)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 100%
100%
FY 2020 100%
100%
FY 2021 100%
100%
FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
- This indicator also includes calculations for the same indicator for the Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste, Fuel Facilities, and Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Business Lines.
Percentage of Investigations that Developed Sufficient Information to Reach a Conclusion on Wrongdoing Completed within 12 Months or Less* (NM-11)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 85%
94%
FY 2020 85%
58%
Investigations are unpredictable; complex issues, Department of Justice (DOJ) involvement, or standards for conducting thorough investigations can cause them to go beyond the self-imposed timeliness standard. During FY 2020, only 12 investigations were closed in this category of which 4 were delayed in closing in order to resolve unforeseeable issues. However, this did result in a comprehensive review of the investigation timeliness standards and the Office of Investigations has updated policy and guidance, increased operational oversight, and updated performance standards.
FY 2021 85%
95%
FY 2022 85%
100%
FY 2023 85%
99.5%
FY 2024 85%
FY 2025 85%
- This indicator also includes calculations for the same indicator for the Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste, Fuel Facilities, and Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Business Lines.
Percentage of Investigations Completed in Time to Initiate Civil Enforcement and/or Criminal Prosecution Action* (NM-12)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 100%
100%
FY 2020 100%
100%
FY 2021 100%
100%
FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
- This indicator also includes calculations for the same indicator for the Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste, Fuel Facilities, and Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Business Lines.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 110 State, Tribal, and Federal Programs Percentage of Materials Programs with More Than One Unsatisfactory Performance Indicator (NM-23)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 0%
14%
New indicator in FY 2022. Two programs (Mississippi and Washington) had more than one unsatisfactory performance indicator, and the NRC is engaging to support those State programs, consistent with their performance improvement plans. To address broader contributing issues, the NRC has formed a joint working group with Agreement States to assess potential enhancements to ensure the effective and proactive assessment of performance across the NMP.
FY 2023 0%
0%
FY 2024 0%
FY 2025 Discontinued Indicator NM-24 will replace NM-23 starting in FY 2025.
Percentage of National Materials Programs on Enhanced Oversight or Probation* (NM-24)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2025 15%
New indicator in FY 2025. This indicator replaces NM-23.
- This metric measures NMP performance by tracking the percentage of programs that are on enhanced oversight (e.g., monitoring, heightened oversight) or probation.
Fuel Facilities Business Line Oversight Percentage of Technical Allegation Reviews Completed in 360 Days or Less* (FF-08)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 100%
100%
FY 2020 100%
100%
FY 2021 100%
100%
FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
- This target also includes the calculations for the Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Business Line for the same indicator and is reported under the Fuel Facilities Business Line.
Percentage of Force-on-Force Inspections Performed as Scheduled within the Calendar Year (FF-16)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2023 100%
N/A New indicator in FY 2023. There were no Fuel Facilities Force-on-Force Inspections scheduled in FY 2023.
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 111 Safety and Security Objective 1.2 Ensure regulatory requirements adequately support the safe and secure use of radioactive materials.
Summary of FY 2023 Progress The NRC continues to ensure that the agencys regulatory requirements adequately support the safe and secure use of radioactive materials. The NRCs regulations impose requirements that licensees must meet to obtain or retain a license or certificate to use nuclear materials or operate a nuclear facility. These regulations govern the use of materials at such nuclear facilities as power plants, research reactors, uranium mills, fuel facilities, and waste repositories; the use of materials for medical, industrial, and academic purposes; and the transportation of materials.
The NRC Initiates a new rule or a change to an existing rule when, for example, there Is a need to do so to ensure adequate protection of public health and safety and the environment. Additionally, any member of the public may petition the NRC to develop, change, or rescind a rule. The Commission directs staff to begin work on a new rulemaking activity through approval of a staff rulemaking plan. During FY 2023, the NRC pursued substantial rulemaking activities within the Nuclear Reactor Safety Program and the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program Business Lines. The current status of the agencys rulemaking activities are available at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/rulemaking-ruleforum/active/ruleindex.html.
Within the Operating Reactors Business Line, the agency supported rulemaking activities including proposed rules for ASME Code Cases and Update Frequency for ASME Code Editions 2021-2022 and Renewing Nuclear Power Plant Operating Licenses - Environmental Review; and final rules for ASME Code Editions 2019-2020, Fitness-for-Duty Drug Testing Program Requirements, Inflation Adjustments to the Price-Anderson Act Financial Protection Regulations, and Enhanced Weapons, Firearms Background Checks, and Security Event Notifications.
Within the New Reactors Business Line, the agency published the NuScale Small Modular Reactor Design Certification final rulemaking and submitted the 10 CFR Part 53 draft proposed rule to the Commission.
Within the Nuclear Materials Users Business Line, the agency supported rulemaking activities including: (1) issuance of the draft proposed rule on Radioactive Source Security and Accountability; (2) publication of the proposed rule on Decommissioning Financial Assurance for Sealed and Unsealed Radioactive Sources; (3) publication of the regulatory basis for the rulemaking on Rubidium-82 Generators, Emerging Technologies, and Other Medical Use of Byproduct Material; (4) issuance of preliminary proposed rule language for reporting nuclear medicine extravasations as medical events; (5) closure of one petition for rulemaking on industrial radiograph operations and training; and (6) early stakeholder engagement on the rulemaking to develop a regulatory framework for fusion energy systems.
Within the Corporate Support Business Line, the staff received Commission approval to initiate rulemaking to revise Part 110 to incorporate clarifying changes on advanced reactor concepts into NRC regulations governing exports of nuclear reactor components and material.
The agency leveraged Be riskSmart Principles to: conduct a widely attended public risk forum with panelists from across the government to share best practices and successes and expand risk-informed decision-making across business lines; used the Very Low Safety Significance Issue Resolution process three times, enabling inspectors to promptly disposition very low safety issues; reviewed 35 licensing application requests to adopt risk-informed operational programs that afforded licensees increased operational flexibility to focus on risk-significant activities and issued the associated safety evaluations; and issued an update to the Risk-Informed Process for Evaluations (RIPE) temporary staff guidance TSG-DORL-2021-01, Revision 3, Risk-Informed
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 112 Process for Evaluations, to incorporate enhancements to the process from feedback received from the first application using RIPE.
The NRC continued to develop several documents that contain guidance for applicants and licensees, as well as internal and external stakeholders. The agencys FY 2023 significant accomplishments include the following:
Released the Level 3 Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) Project reports on the Level 1, 2, and 3 PRAs for the reactor, at-power, for internal fires, seismic events, high winds, and other hazards.
Issued draft NUREG-2212, Standard Review Plan for Applications for 10 CFR Part 70 Licenses for Possession and Use of Special Nuclear Materials of Critical Mass but Not Subject to the Requirements in 10 CFR part 70, Subpart H, for public comment.
Completed standard technical specification efforts including publication of NUREG-2194, Standard Technical Specification for Westinghouse Advanced Passive 1000 (AP-1000) and the full conversion of Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station technical specifications to the Improved Standard Technical Specification (NUREG-1431).
Developed and published Revision 1 to Regulatory Guide 5.71, Cybersecurity Program for Nuclear Power Reactors to support the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape and the upcoming new and advanced reactor applicants. This resulted in ensuring that the industry has up-to-date guidance reflecting the state-of-the-art in industrial cybersecurity.
Issued Information Notice (IN)-2023-01 to provide international and domestic operating experience relating to high energy arcing fault events (HEAFs) and to discuss qualitative and quantitative risk insights derived from operating experience using the NRCs LIC-504 analysis. This IN also provides information about the availability of a new probabilistic risk assessment HEAF methodology developed by the NRCs Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research in collaboration with the Electric Power Research Institute.
SETTING THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR FY 2024 AND FY 2025 PERFORMANCE The NRC continues to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its safety and security regulatory framework through application of lessons learned, historical and contemporary data, and institutional knowledge. The NRCs regulatory framework will be strengthened as it incorporates risk-informed, performance-based approaches and revises regulatory requirements based on insights gained from the use of risk analysis tools while fulfilling its mission.
The NRC must make strategic decisions and ensure the following strategies remain a priority to successfully ensure that regulatory requirements adequately support the safe and secure use of radioactive materials.
Maintain and further risk-inform the current regulatory framework using information gained from operating experience, lessons learned, external and internal assessments, technology advances, research activities, and changes in the threat environment.
Proactively identify, assess, and address safety issues, threats, vulnerabilities, and security risks.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 113 Leverage institutional knowledge, including that of Agreement States, to identify key areas of regulatory improvement.
Performance Measures Performance Goal 1.2.1: Prevent accident precursors and reductions of safety margins at commercial nuclear power plants that are of high safety significance.
Performance Indicator: Number of malfunctions, deficiencies, events, or conditions at commercial nuclear power plants (operating or under construction) that meet or exceed AO Criteria II.A-II.E (commercial nuclear power plant licensees).
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 Operating Reactors Target 3
3 3
3 3
3 3
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
New Reactors Target 3
3 3
3 3
3 3
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Performance Goal 1.2.2: Prevent accident precursors and reductions of safety margins at non-reactor facilities or during transportation of nuclear materials that are of high safety significance.
Performance Indicator: Number of malfunctions, deficiencies, events, or conditions at non-reactor facilities or during transportation of nuclear materials that meet or exceed AO Criteria III.A or III.B (events at facilities other than nuclear power plants and all transportation events).
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 Fuel Facilities Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Decommissioning and Low-Level Waste Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Performance Goal 1.2.3: Prevent sabotage, theft, diversion, or loss of risk-significant quantities of radioactive material.
Performance Indicator: Number of instances of sabotage, theft, diversion, or loss of risk-significant quantities of radioactive material that meet or exceed AO Criteria I.C.1 (stolen, abandoned, or unrecovered lost), I.C.2 (radiological sabotage), or I.C.3 (substantiated case of actual theft, diversion, or loss of a formula quantity of Special Nuclear Material (SNM) or inventory discrepancy).
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 All Business Lines Target 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
Actual 1 9 0
0 0
2 10 9 In 2019, an NRC Agreement State reported the theft of three industrial radiography cameras that were recovered by law enforcement within hours. The event description can be found at the Event Notifications Reports website, under event number 54033.
10 In 2023, NRC Agreement States reported the theft of two industrial radiography cameras that were recovered by law enforcement. The event description can be found at the Event Notifications Reports website, under event number 56396 and 56222.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 114 Agencywide Performance Indicator The NRC developed the following agencywide performance indicator, which covers the overall performance of the research program areas for the agency.
Combined Score on a Scale of 1 to 5 for the Technical Quality of Agency Research Technical Products*
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 4.0 4.62 FY 2023 4.0 4.75 FY 2024 4.0 FY 2025 4.0
- This indicator includes the average technical quality score of all research products (associated business line indicators include OR-23 and NR-18). The NRC has developed a process to measure the quality of research products on a five-point scale using surveys of end users to determine the usability and added value of the products.
Operating Reactors Business Line: Combined Score on a Scale of 1 to 5 for the Technical Quality of Agency Research Technical Products* (OR-23)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 4.0 4.26 FY 2020 4.0 4.64 FY 2021 4.0 4.58 FY 2022 4.0 4.6 FY 2023 4.0 4.75 FY 2024 4.0 FY 2025 4.0
- As appropriate, the NRC will develop and add other mechanisms to this process to measure the quality of research products.
New Reactors Business Line: Combined Score on a Scale of 1 to 5 for the Technical Quality of Agency Research Technical Products* (NR-18)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 4.0 4.68 FY 2020 4.0 4.41 FY 2021 4.0 4.44 FY 2022 4.0 4.68 FY 2023 4.0 4.75 FY 2024 4.0 FY 2025 4.0
- As appropriate, the NRC will develop and add other mechanisms to this process to measure the quality of research products.
Safety and Security Objective 1.3 Maintain emergency preparedness and response capabilities for NRC and NRC-licensed facilities.
Summary of FY 2023 Progress The NRC continues to maintain an incident response program that oversees required emergency response activities for the NRC, NRC-licensed facilities, and radioactive materials licensees. The NRCs incident
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 115 response program relies on the agencys Headquarters Operations Center (HOC) (Rockville, Maryland) and four Regional Incident Response Centers (Region I in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; Region II in Atlanta, Georgia; Region III in Lisle, Illinois; and Region IV in Arlington, Texas). The agencys response provides expert consultation, support, and assistance to State and local public safety officials responding to an event.
Activating the NRC incident response program brings teams of specialists, as needed, to the HOC and Regional Incident Response Centers. These teams obtain and evaluate event information, assessing the events potential impact on public health and safety and the environment. The NRC staff and management at the HOC coordinate with the NRC Chair, Commission, Office of Public Affairs, and Office of Congressional Affairs any needed communications with the news media, State government, Federal agencies, members of Congress, and the White House.
The NRC ensures that all licensees have effective preparedness and response programs in place to address an emergency. Every two years, each operating nuclear power plant performs a full-scale emergency preparedness exercise inspected by the NRC and evaluated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Operating nuclear power plants conduct additional emergency drills between full-scale exercises to maintain their preparedness and proficiency in responding to emergencies.
The NRC enhanced its internal cybersecurity posture in the face of evolving threats and new federal guidance by authorizing all agency information systems and subsystems under Federal Information Security Management Act requirements. The agency was recognized as a top-scoring agency on the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) Scorecard 15.0 for Best in Scorecard Category -
Cyber at the FITARA Awards, the only awards program based on General Accountability Office data.
The staff also published Revision 1 to Regulatory Guide 5.71, Cybersecurity Program for Nuclear Power Reactors to support the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape and the upcoming new reactor applicants on the horizon. This resulted in ensuring that the industry has up-to-date guidance reflecting the state-of-the-art in industrial cybersecurity.
Nuclear power plants must be able to successfully defend against a set of hypothetical threats that the agency refers to as the design-basis threat. These hypothetical threats challenge a plants physical security, personnel security, and cybersecurity. The agency continuously evaluates this set of hypothetical threats against real-world intelligence to ensure safety and security. The NRC verifies that licensees are complying with security requirements through its baseline inspection program. This includes force-on-force inspections designed to test a facilitys defenses against the design-basis threat. Force-on-force inspections are held at each nuclear power plant once every 3 years, employing a highly trained mock adversary force to attack a nuclear facility. In FY 2023, 100% of the scheduled force-on-force inspections were completed.
During FY 2023, staff developed, planned, and coordinated efforts to conduct NRCs participation in two major Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) exercises, Eagle Horizon (EH) 2022 in October 2022 and EH 2023, in September 2023. The staff coordinated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other Federal partners and ensured that the NRCs plans for exercise conduct met all federal COOP requirements.
SETTING THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR FY 2024 AND FY 2025 PERFORMANCE Readiness to respond to an incident or emergency and reduce the consequences if one occurs is a key element in achieving the NRCs goal of safe and secure use of radioactive materials. The NRC emphasizes the integration of safety, security, and emergency preparedness as the basis for the agencys primary mission of adequately protecting public health and safety. The NRC uses risk-informed and performance-based approaches to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the regulatory framework that appropriately considers defense in depth and risk insights. These approaches ensure that multiple layers of defense protect
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 116 against accidents and their effects to ensure that the risk to the public is acceptably low. In this approach, the NRC does not rely solely on preventing emergencies but also recognizes that provisions in approved emergency plans are included to mitigate the effects of emergencies, should they occur.
The NRC must make strategic decisions and ensure the following strategies remain a priority to successfully maintain emergency preparedness and response capabilities for the NRC and NRC-licensed facilities.
Ensure that the NRC maintains its readiness to respond to incidents and emergencies involving NRC-licensed facilities and radioactive materials, other events of domestic and international interest, and public health emergencies or other emergencies involving NRCs facilities and workforce.
Ensure that licensees have programs and plans in place to enable an NRC finding of reasonable assurance that adequate protective measures can and will be taken in the event of a radiological emergency.
Performance Measures Performance Goal 1.3.1: Prevent substantial breakdowns of physical security, cybersecurity, or material control and accountability.
Performance Indicator: Number of substantial breakdowns of physical security, cybersecurity, or material control and accountability that meet or exceed AO Criteria I.C.4 (substantial breakdown in physical security, cybersecurity, or material control and accountability) or I.C.3 (substantiated case of actual theft, diversion, or loss of a formula quantity of SNM or an inventory discrepancy).
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 All Business Lines Target 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
Actual 0
0 0
0 0
Agencywide Performance Indicator The NRC developed the following agencywide performance indicator, which covers the overall performance of the emergency response program areas for the agency.
Emergency Response Performance Index* (ERPI)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 117 Emergency Response Performance Index* (ERPI)
- This indicator includes the percentage assessment of the agencys readiness to respond to a nuclear or terrorist emergency situation or other events of national interest. Includes specific subindicators for the agency (associated business line indicators include OR-26, SF-13, NM-22, and FF-12) that will be assessed and updated on an annual basis to reflect the agencys readiness to respond. Examples may include (1) training and qualifications of the different incident response teams are sufficient to ensure enough personnel are trained and qualified for different incident response positions, (2) communications systems at NRC Headquarters (HQ) and in the backup location are properly maintained and tested to ensure licensees and other stakeholders can report incidents consistent with the NRCs regulatory requirements, and (3) facility/functional availability at NRC HQ and in the backup location is properly maintained to ensure availability for notification and response for licensee events.
Operating Reactors ERPI (OR-26)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2021 100%
100%
New for FY 2021. This indicator is being added because a new internally tracked subindicator, Critical Incident Response Positions, is being included as part of the rollup to the ERPI, which provides a more accurate measure for monitoring the NRCs readiness.
FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation ERPI (SF-13)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 100%
100%
New for FY 2022. This indicator is being added because a new internally tracked subindicator, Critical Incident Response Positions, is being included as part of the rollup to the ERPI, which provides a more accurate measure for monitoring the NRCs readiness.
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 118 Emergency Response Performance Index* (ERPI)
Nuclear Materials Users ERPI (NM-22)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2021 100%
100%
New for FY 2021. This indicator is being added because a new internally tracked subindicator, Critical Incident Response Positions, is being included as part of the rollup to the ERPI, which provides a more accurate measure for monitoring the NRCs readiness.
FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
Fuel Facilities ERPI (FF-12)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2021 100%
100%
New for FY 2021. This indicator is being added because a new internally tracked subindicator, Critical Incident Response Positions, is being included as part of the rollup to the ERPI, which provides a more accurate measure for monitoring the NRCs readiness.
FY 2022 100%
100%
FY 2023 100%
100%
FY 2024 100%
FY 2025 100%
STRATEGIC GOAL 2: CONTINUE TO FOSTER A HEALTHY ORGANIZATION The health of an organization is a vital factor that affects its capacity and capability to continuously improve.
Focusing on organizational health provides opportunities to strengthen the workforce, culture, technology, and decision-making, which in turn enhances performance.
Organizational Health Objective 2.1 Foster an organizational culture in which the workforce is engaged, adaptable, and receptive to change and makes data-driven and evidence-based decisions.
Summary of FY 2023 Progress The NRC strives for a successful outcome of this goal by facilitating continuous learning and innovation, knowledge management, diversity, and inclusion; promoting and sustaining a strong safety culture; fostering creativity and innovation; connecting vision with action; and continuously adapting and striving to be a healthy organization. The NRC continued implementing the agencys culture improvement strategy with a focus on coaching and empowerment, recognizing and sharing different viewpoints, taking innovative approaches and discussing risk, showing mutual support and shared responsibility, and bringing the whole self to work.
The NRC continued to take proactive steps to support the organizations culture. The FY 2023 significant accomplishments to support Organizational Health Objective 2.1, specifically Performance Goal 2.1.1, include the following:
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 119 Conducted biannual Executive Leadership Seminars for all supervisors that support desired leadership behaviors.
Continued to include lessons on culture and the Leadership Model behaviors within the NRCs Leaders Academy.
Continued the inclusion of the Leadership Model narratives in Senior Executive Service performance plans.
Held quarterly EDO town hall meetings to broadly share information and engage the staff on emergent topics of wide interest.
Facilitated monthly meetings with the Change Agent Network to share information about organizational health and maintain engagement with staff.
Continued to identify ways to improve culture across the agency as well as demonstrate support for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) initiatives.
In FY 2023, the NRC continued implementing innovative solutions to enable and promote a risk-informed mindset within all business lines to support and empower employee decision-making. The FY 2023 significant accomplishments to support Organizational Health Objective 2.2, specifically Performance Goal 2.1.2, include the following:
Reinforced the use of the Be riskSMART framework and conducted training to support leaders with delegating decisions and approvals downward to empower lower levels of management and first-line supervisors.
Conducted a widely attended public risk forum with panelists from across the government to share best practices and successes and expand risk-informed decision-making across business lines and issued an update to the Risk-Informed Process for Evaluations (RIPE) temporary staff guidance TSG-DORL-2021-01, Revision 3, Risk-Informed Process for Evaluations, to incorporate enhancements to the process from feedback received from the first application using RIPE.
NRC staff submitted more than 250 ideas in FY 2023 to IdeaScale, the innovation platform.
SETTING THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR FY 2024 AND FY 2025 PERFORMANCE As the NRC adapts to new technologies, changes in the industry, work environment changes, and agency innovation, the agency continues to invest in its staff with a focus on inclusion and excellence. The NRC strives for an environment in which everyone is engaged and accountable for creating a healthy and inclusive culture that embraces diversity and enables everyone to excel. The NRC encourages its staff to look for opportunities to implement transformative and innovative ideas and remain agile in its work.
The NRC must make strategic decisions and ensure the following strategies remain a priority to successfully foster an organizational culture in which the workforce is engaged, adaptable, and receptive to change and makes data-driven and evidence-based decisions.
Maintain a high-performing, diverse, engaged, and agile workforce supported by a healthy organizational culture with a focus on safety, security, and continuous improvement to meet mission needs.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 120 Continue to achieve mission excellence as a modern, risk-informed regulator that keeps pace with technological innovations.
Promote innovation and development of new ideas by the NRC workforce.
Promote an organizational culture that embraces inclusion by recognizing the importance of a diverse workforce.
Inform the agencys decisions by weighing diverse and competing staff perspectives, having respect for self and others, being open-minded and inquisitive, and using all available processes to address differences of opinion.
Performance Measures 11 Performance Goal 2.1.1: Foster an organizational culture that represents shared values, assumptions, beliefs, and behaviors.
Performance Indicator: Annual assessment of the actions in place to foster a desired organizational culture.
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 All Business Lines Target N/A N/A N/A N/A Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Actual N/A N/A N/A N/A Opportunity for improvement The 2023 Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) results revealed that work remains for the NRC to realize its self-identified ideal culture which focuses on Constructive behaviors (See Figure 13).
11 Several of the performance indicators below show N/A, as these are associated with goals newly added for FY 2023 and lack available data for previous years.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 121 Figure 13 OCI Results (2021 & 2023)
Additionally, data from the 2023 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) suggests that many components of the agencys culture are heading in the right direction to support the desired culture (See Figure 14), with positive scores related to interpersonal relationships between supervisors and employees (Supervisors Sub-Index: 87% favorable), perceptions of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA Index: 76% favorable),
and performance confidence (Performance Confidence Index: 89% favorable). However, the Leaders Lead Sub-Index, which reflects employee perceptions of leadership integrity, communication, and motivation of the workforce, identifies an opportunity for improvement, with the sub-index receiving a 60% favorable rating. For these reasons, Performance Goal 2.1.1 is identified as an opportunity for improvement for the agency.
Figure 14 FEVS Results (2022 & 2023): Components of Agency Culture Performance Goal 2.1.2: Empowering decision-making across the agency.
Performance Indicator: Annual assessment of the actions in place to empower staff decision-making.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Humanistic-Encouraging Affiliative Achievement Self-Actualizing Approval Conventional Dependent Avoidance Oppositional Power Competitive Perfectionistic Constructive Styles Passive/Defensive Styles Aggressive/Defensive Styles 2020 Percentile 2023 Percentile Ideal Percentile 63%
87%
76%
89%
60%
87%
76%
89%
67%
85%
76%
89%
Leaders Lead Supervisors DEIA (Overall)
Performance Confidence
% Favorable 2022 2023 Medium-Sized Agencies (2023)
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 122 Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 All Business Lines Target N/A N/A N/A N/A Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Actual N/A N/A N/A N/A Opportunity for improvement Data from both the 2023 FEVS and 2023 OCI survey suggest that the NRC scores lower than comparative benchmarks on many items related to the empowerment of staff decision-making (See Figures 15 and 16). As such, NRC leadership is focused on fostering an environment that supports and empowers more staff-level decision-making (OCI, 2023), consistent with the NRCs established Leadership Model. Based on this, it has been determined that Performance Goal 2.1.2 is an opportunity for improvement for the agency.
Figure 15 FEVS Results (2022 & 2023): Employee Voice Figure 16 OCI Results (2021 & 2023): Empowerment Sub-Scale 54%
46%
73%
54%
47%
77%
57%
52%
72%
How satisfied are you with your involvement in decisions that affect your work?
Management involves employees in decisions that affect their work.
I can influence decisions in my work unit.
% Favorable 2022 2023 Medium-Sized Agencies (2023) 2.8 3.7 3.7 4.0 2.7 3.8 3.8 3.1 3.4 3.5 3.8 1.9 4.2 4.2 4.2 There's little chance of getting anything done about one's ideas (reverse-coded)
Management is interested in employees' suggestions Employees are actively involved in improving the organization I have the authority and influence needed to carry out my responsibilities Mean (5-Point Scale) 2020 Baseline Mean 2021 Pulse Mean 2023 OCI Mean Constructive Benchmark
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 123 Organizational Health Objective 2.2 Enable the workforce to carry out the agencys mission by leveraging modern technology, innovation, and knowledge management to support data-driven decisions in an evolving regulatory landscape.
Summary of FY 2023 Progress The NRC continues to carry out the agencys mission by leveraging modern technology, innovation, and knowledge management to support data-driven decisions in an evolving regulatory landscape. The NRCs approach focuses on modernizing information technology (IT) tools and systems, improving business processes, enhancing access to data for more risk-informed decision-making, modernizing the agencys network, and improving stakeholder experience.
To support the development, modernization, and enhancement of agency operational and IT to support the mission, the NRC aims to prioritize the development and enhancement of tools and applications that support the mission, increase staff engagement with tools and applications, and foster forward-thinking by executing strategic plans and embracing modern technologies. The NRC implemented several enhancements to the IT infrastructure to ensure an effective work environment. The FY 2023 significant accomplishments to support Organizational Health Objective, 2.2, specifically Performance Goal 2.2.1, include the following:
Migrated Government Furnished Equipment Mobile Devices to Microsoft Intune from MaaS360. These developments present a greater cost savings in maintenance and operation activities and allow the NRC to eliminate the need for IBM licensing for MaaS360, while strengthening the agencys security posture on mobile devices.
Transitioned the Personal Identity Verification card issuance system to Government Services Administration USAccess from DigiCert. These changes provided increased services, greater cost savings, and strengthened security for the agency.
Implemented a user friendly full-text search application known as Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Content Search, using modern cloud based cognitive technologies to improve the user experience for 5.2 million records. ADAMS is the official recordkeeping system and document repository for the NRC. This internal application enables stakeholders with a secure, role-based, intuitive interface to search, filter, export, and download the results for effective analysis and decision-making. The simplified user interface allows users to obtain meaningful insights and consistent results within milliseconds.
Modernized additional systems including eRAI, Technical Review Package and NRC International Cooperation and Engagements.
Developed the Telework Agreement Data Application, which is designed to provide staff a secure, flexible, user-friendly experience in the submission and approvals of telework agreements. The telework application empowers stakeholders with a secure, role-based, flexible interface to view, submit, approve, and generate reports for analysis in future decision-making.
Published the final Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategic Plan for FY 2023 - 2027. The AI Strategic Plan ensures staff readiness to effectively and efficiently review and evaluate AI applications for NRC-regulated activities. Additionally, staff held the fourth Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Regulatory Applications Public Workshop: AI Characteristics for Regulatory Consideration.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 124 SETTING THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR FY 2024 AND FY 2025 PERFORMANCE Modernizing the agencys technology and increasing staff access to information are central to maximizing the capability of the workforce, expanding the agencys ability to attract the best talent, and facilitating timely and high-quality regulatory decisions. Technologies will enhance the NRCs ability to capture critical insights and more effectively transfer important regulatory knowledge.
The NRC must make strategic decisions and ensure the following strategies remain a priority to successfully enable the workforce to carry out the agencys mission by leveraging modern technology, innovation, and knowledge management to support data-driven decisions in an evolving regulatory landscape.
Recognize and act on current and future IT needs to effectively carry out the NRCs mission.
Ensure that the NRCs data strategy is effective in enhancing access and using internal and external data for decision-making.
Introduce new technologies to enhance decision-making, improve knowledge management, and accelerate innovation in the agencys regulatory activities.
Performance Measures Performance Goal 2.2.1: Enhance innovation, knowledge management, and data-driven and evidence-based decision-making.
Performance Indicator: Annual assessment of the actions in place for the development, modernization, and enhancement of agency operational and information technologies to support the mission.
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 All Business Lines Target N/A N/A N/A N/A Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Actual N/A N/A N/A N/A Heading in the right direction The agency target for completing 80% of planned IT/IM Modernization Plan milestones was exceeded in FY 2023. Additionally, data from the 2023 OCI survey reveal that most NRC staff agree that the use of technology has improved the agencys mission execution (See Figure 17). Based on these datapoints and the FY 2023 achievements, it has been determined that the agency is heading in the right direction for Performance Goal 2.2.1.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 125 Figure 17 OCI Results (2021 & 2023): Technology Improving Mission Execution Organizational Health Objective 2.3 Attract, develop, and maintain a high-performing, diverse, engaged, and flexible workforce with the skills needed to carry out the NRCs mission now and in the future.
Summary of FY 2023 Progress The NRC continues to promote strong employee engagement and to attract, develop, and maintain a high-performing, diverse, engaged, and flexible workplace with the skills needed to carry out the NRCs mission.
The NRC is also taking steps to implement recommendations to strengthen the hybrid work environment and ensure that its workforce has the tools and resources to effectively achieve its mission.
To maintain an adaptable and skilled workforce through workforce planning and staff training and development, the NRC aims to refine selection and recruitment processes to align with workforce planning efforts and improve strategies for filling vacant positions at the agency, develop and grow the workforce to ensure staff remain skilled and adaptable, and retain talent by developing a work environment that supports employee needs and maintains employee engagement.
The FY 2023 significant accomplishments to support Organizational Health Objective, 2.3, specifically Performance Goal 2.3.1, include the following:
Initiated a program evaluation of the agencys Strategic Workforce Planning process, to identify opportunities for improvement to the program.
Continued a hiring initiative to recruit and employ 279 new hires, which included holding a career expo in the spring of 2023, placing the second cohort of the Nuclear Regulatory Apprenticeship Network into permanent positions in the offices and Regions, holding a robust summer hire program, and converting students into the Co-op Program.
Maximized efficiencies within the hiring process by supporting interoffice/regional hiring efforts and encouraging broader use of existing hiring flexibilities to fill multiple vacancies. Significant steps were taken to enhance data collection and tracking capabilities such as updating the Human Capital Dashboard to include hiring data that provides agency leadership valuable information on the status of recruitment and selection cases.
Recommended funding for 41 Research and Development grants totaling $17,889K supporting nuclear safety research and continued incentives to encourage partnerships with minority servicing institutions 79%
81%
2023 2021
% Agreement The use of technology has improved the agencys mission execution.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 126 under the UNLP. For the UNLP, the agency hosted numerous seminars to present the results of this research and to strengthen ties with the universities.
Established the NRC Connect program and continued the engagement with the NRCs Ambassador Program to better integrate new employees and retain current employees.
Renovated several key spaces across the agency including the NRC HQ Conference Center, one floor at the NRCs HQ facility, and the auditorium at NRC HQ. These renovations support a healthy workplace environment that incorporates new technologies to increase effectiveness and provides an appealing atmosphere that is supportive to employee morale.
To enhance knowledge management at the NRC, the agency aims to share knowledge management initiatives, tools, and accomplishments, and implement knowledge management practices across the agency as well as to develop and improve upon existing knowledge management initiatives, practices, and tools. To develop and improve upon existing knowledge management activities, a program evaluation was conducted on the agencys knowledge management program The FY 2023 significant accomplishments to support Organizational Health Objective, 2.3, specifically Performance Goal 2.3.2, include the following:
Continued to publish quarterly knowledge management newsletters to share initiatives, practices, tools, and accomplishments across the agency.
Held Nuclepedia Wiki Wednesday sessions to facilitate training and user adoption of the platform.
Conducted weekly knowledge management sessions hosted by the regional offices.
Hosted agencywide KNOWvember events.
Conducted skills mentoring through the conduct of competence-based qualification activities.
SETTING THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR FY 2024 AND FY 2025 PERFORMANCE The NRC realizes that to attract, develop, and maintain highly skilled and educated professionals, it must be an employer of choice that provides personnel with access to the tools to perform their jobs and a workplace that promotes strong employee engagement. The agencys approach for this objective focuses on ensuring that the NRC has a highly trained workforce that is knowledgeable about the regulatory processes that govern agency actions and the regulatory principles inherent in making the agency a strong and independent regulator.
The NRC must make strategic decisions and ensure the following strategies remain a priority to successfully attract, develop, and maintain a high-performing, diverse, engaged, and flexible workforce with the skills needed to carry out the NRCs mission now and in the future:
Ensure that the agency is an employer of choice that offers a work culture and workplace environment that attracts and retains highly motivated employees who are engaged, adaptable, high-performing, and receptive to change.
Ensure that the NRC has a workforce with the right skillsets to achieve the agencys goals now and in the future by integrating the results of strategic workforce planning into its hiring activities, enhancing recruiting efforts, and streamlining hiring practices.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 127 Maintain a high-performing, inclusive, and engaged workforce by rewarding high performers, enhancing career paths, promoting diversity, and creating a continual learning culture with cross-training opportunities for career advancement.
Improve knowledge management by identifying and capturing critical information and leveraging the agencys investment in modern information management (IM) and technology to enhance information accessibility and searchability.
Improve performance and productivity by investing in technical, professional, and management training and accountability and encouraging leadership development.
Performance Measures Performance Goal 2.3.1: Develop and maintain a high-performing workforce.
Performance Indicator: Annual assessment of the actions in place to maintain an adaptable and skilled workforce through workforce planning and staff training and development.
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 All Business Lines Target N/A N/A N/A N/A Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Actual N/A N/A N/A N/A Opportunity for improvement The agency hired and onboarded 279 new employees, with an additional 46 new employees hired and awaiting an onboard date in Q1 FY 2024. Progress has been made towards the Calendar Year (CY) 2023 aspirational hiring goal (i.e., 400 external hires in CY 2023).
Regarding employee development, 2023 FEVS data indicates that most NRC employees are satisfied with the amount of professional development they receive. For example, 73% of staff agree that they receive the training they need to do their job well (See Figure 18). Additionally, the NRCs Training & Development Spend Per Employee in CY 2022 was $4,908, which is a greater investment in employee development than many comparable government agencies (e.g., National Science Foundation, DOE, Department of Education, Office of Personnel Management, and Department of Labor). Overall, most NRC staff feel that the NRC workforce is adaptable; 83% of staff agreed to Employees in my work unit adapt to changing priorities on the 2023 FEVS survey.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 128 Figure 18 FEVS Results (2022 & 2023): Employee Development Considering employee engagement and retention, 2023 FEVS data also suggests that employees report intrinsic feelings of motivation towards their role (Intrinsic Work Experience Sub-Index: 77% favorable; Employee Experience Index: 73% favorable), but slightly lower levels of global satisfaction indicate a potential opportunity for improvement (Global Satisfaction Index: 66% favorable). (See Figure 19)
Figure 19 FEVS Results (2022 & 2023): Employee Satisfaction and Experience Overall, the agency attrition rate for FY 2023 was relatively low at 7% and has decreased from the 9% attrition rate that the agency experienced in FY 2022 (See Figure 20). Additionally, on the 2023 OCI survey, NRC staff shared their perceptions around the extent to which they expected to be with the organization in two years. The average response for the item was 3.5 out of a 5-point scale (1 = Not at all, 5 = To a very great extent). The mean for 2023 slightly decreased from the 2020 baseline (M = 3.6) and was below the constructive benchmark for the item (M = 4.0).
75%
74%
75%
73%
75%
70%
I am given a real opportunity to improve my skills in my organization.
I receive the training I need to do my job well.
% Favorable 2022 2023 Medium-Sized Agencies (2023) 67%
78%
No Data for FY 2022 66%
77%
73%
70%
77%
78%
Global Satisfaction Intrinsic Work Experience Employee Experience
% Favorable 2022 2023 Medium-Sized Agencies (2023)
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 129 Figure 20 Agency Attrition Data by Fiscal Year The agency is taking many positive steps to support maintaining an adaptable skilled workforce and has been successful in several areas, but due to remaining staffing gaps, Performance Goal 2.3.1 has been identified to be an opportunity for improvement for the agency.
Performance Goal 2.3.2: Enhance the agencys decision-making through knowledge management.
Performance Indicator: Annual assessment of the actions in place to enhance knowledge management through the identification and capturing of critical information and leveraging the agencys investments in modern IM and technology.
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 All Business Lines Target N/A N/A N/A N/A Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Actual N/A N/A N/A N/A Opportunity for improvement The preliminary results of the evaluation of the agencys knowledge management program revealed that while most staff at the NRC feel that knowledge management is important, they feel less positively about the NRCs culture and processes around knowledge management (See Figure 21). Staff were also asked about resources used to access and contribute to knowledge, and less than 20% of NRC staff report using Nuclepedia, an internal knowledge management resource, when they need to find job-related information. The program evaluation identified that there is an opportunity to define the boundaries of what constitutes knowledge management and define the critical knowledge that should be captured at the NRC. Additionally, there is a need for standardized guidance and procedures for knowledge management as well as knowledge management accountability metrics. For these reasons, Performance Goal 2.3.2 is an opportunity for improvement.
200 188 181 250 197 7%
7%
7%
9%
7%
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
9%
10%
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 Separations Agency Attrition Rate
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 130 Figure 21 Preliminary Results from Knowledge Management Program Evaluation STRATEGIC GOAL 3: INSPIRE STAKEHOLDER CONFIDENCE IN THE NRC The NRC values building confidence with all stakeholders. Confidence is forward looking and reflects stakeholder belief in the integrity of future agency actions and decisions. To maintain stakeholder confidence and trust, the agency must engage in a transparent, open, and independent manner and make data-driven and evidence-based decisions.
Stakeholder Confidence Objective 3.1 Engage stakeholders in NRC activities in an effective and transparent manner.
Summary of FY 2023 Progress The NRC continues to engage stakeholders in the agencys activities in an effective and transparent manner.
To achieve this goal, the NRC promotes transparency, openness, and independence in its regulatory activities by fostering engagement and providing multiple ways for members of the public to be informed and participate in the agencys regulatory activities. The NRC continues to publish and provide information to stakeholders through its website (www.nrc.gov); operates the agencys Public Document Room at its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland; and holds public meetings virtually and in-person throughout the country.
The FY 2023 significant accomplishments to support Stakeholder Confidence Objective 3.1, specifically Performance Goal 3.1.1, include the following:
Began a literature review of stakeholder engagement principles and practices in FY 2023, so that applicable lessons learned could be implemented to support stakeholder confidence in the NRC.
Completed substantial preapplication activities with 12 vendors on 12 topical report reviews to support timely and efficient future licensing reviews within the New Reactors business line.
Hosted the 35th Annual Regulatory Information Conference (RIC), with over 20 technical sessions and a special Plenary session from the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency. This was the first ever hybrid RIC, with almost 4,000 registrants (an increase of approximately 1,000 from the previous year), including representatives from nearly fifty countries - either joining in person or virtually.
34%
52%
86%
The NRC has efficient processes for capturing important job relevant knowledge.
The NRC has a strong culture for sharing knowledge.
Knowledge management is important for me to be successful in my role at the NRC
% Agreement
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 131 Worked to foster proactive and meaningful interactions with external stakeholders including the following:
Held public meetings to discuss industry priorities on further use of risk in spent fuel activities and current and planned licensing activities within the Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation business line.
Presented at the National Transportation Stakeholders Forum, which includes participation from Tribes and State organizations.
Represented the U.S. in international forums through International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Nuclear Energy Agency committees.
Participated and presented at the Uranium Recovery & Low-Level Waste Workshop with Agreement States.
Participated and presented at the National Mining Association Uranium Recovery Workshop.
Supported 6+ public meetings and interactions with the Indian Point decommissioning oversight board.
Conducted multiple public meetings regarding fuel enrichment and fabrication activities to engage Federal and State partners, local government, and interested members of the public.
Held multiple meetings with Fuel Facility stakeholders to hear from applicants, licensees and vendors, and public discussions on NRC fees.
Conducted Tribal outreach on multiple licensing and programmatic activities, including first-of-a-kind outreach for a meet and greet with the Navajo Nation President.
Provided a timely and coordinated interagency response with Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, in partnership with DOE and Department of the Interior, in the context of consultation related to strategic uranium reserves in Utah.
Hosted a digital exhibit at the 2023 Regulatory Information Conference to showcase NRCs meaningful and proactive engagement with Tribal Nations in the agencys decision-making.
Relaunched the F-201, Fuel Cycle Processes Seminar (hybrid) and held two offerings for internal and external stakeholders with 100+ students including federal, state, and Tribal government partners.
SETTING THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR FY 2024 AND FY 2025 PERFORMANCE It is key to public confidence that the NRC engage with diverse stakeholders with a wide range of views and expertise, learn from them, and communicate in clear and accessible ways. The NRCs mission is carried out on behalf of the American people, which makes nuclear regulation the publics business. As such, it should be transacted openly and candidly to maintain the publics confidence. The NRC must make strategic decisions and ensure the following strategies remain a priority to successfully engage stakeholders in NRC activities in an effective and transparent manner.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 132 Foster proactive and meaningful interactions with States, Tribes, other governmental and nongovernmental organizations, the regulated industry, the international regulatory community, and other members of the public.
Provide a fair and timely process to allow public involvement in NRC decision-making.
Review and refine performance measures for Performance Goal 3.1.1.
Performance Measures Performance Goal 3.1.1: Enhance the effectiveness and transparency of stakeholder engagement.
Performance Indicator: Annual assessment of the actions in place to build stakeholder confidence through effective communication, by providing multiple ways stakeholders can provide feedback and input, and by ensuring the NRC staff is communicating clearly and openly.
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 All Business Lines Target N/A N/A N/A N/A Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Actual N/A N/A N/A N/A Heading in the right direction Considering internal stakeholder perspectives, 2023 FEVS survey data (See Figure 22) suggests that only 58% of NRC staff are satisfied with the information they receive about what is going on in the agency.
However, the majority (84%) of NRC staff do feel confident in the agencys ability to accomplish its mission, which is an indicator that internal stakeholder confidence is high.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 133 Figure 22 FEVS Results (2022 & 2023): Internal Stakeholder Confidence Regarding external stakeholders, the agency has met or exceeded its targets regarding external stakeholder communication. More specifically, 88% of agency priority targets for metrics related to the timeliness of inspections, reviews, and safety evaluations were met or exceeded in FY 2023. The agencywide Freedom of Information Act response timeliness percentage was 94% in FY 2023 and 98% of Category 1, 2, & 3 meetings in FY 2023 had a meeting notice placed on the public meeting schedule website at least 10 days in advance of the meeting. Finally, the NRC received a score of 78% on the Annual American Customer Satisfaction Index for Federal Web Sites which passed the agencys target of 76%. Overall, it has been determined that the agency is heading in the right direction for Performance Goal 3.1.1.
Stakeholder Confidence Objective 3.2 Uphold an NRC decision-making process that is data-driven and evidence-based while ensuring information is available and accessible to interested stakeholders.
Summary of FY 2023 Progress The NRC continues to uphold a data-driven and evidence-based decision-making process while ensuring information is available and accessible to interested stakeholders to build stakeholder confidence and foster engagement. In an effort to employ and incorporate high-quality data and information to support agency decision-making processes, the agency aims to continue to mature the agencys management of data through staff training, modern IT and data analytics tools, and data management process improvements; continue to improve and apply enterprise data skills, tools and techniques to inform decision-making; and foster a principle of openness in sharing with external stakeholders. Further, to facilitate data and information sharing with the public, the agency focus areas include maturing analytical techniques to uncover insights from operational data and introducing modernized tools and implementing data capture and analysis techniques to uncover opportunities for service improvement.
The FY 2023 significant accomplishments to support Stakeholder Confidence Objective 3.2, specifically Performance Goal 3.2.1, include the following:
Expanded the use of data and tools to inform licensing and oversight decisions through agency initiatives such as the Operating Experience Hub, Mission Analytics Portal (MAP) and the external Mission Analytics Portal (MAP-X) programs, and the Standardized Plant Analysis Risk dashboard.
These initiatives enable the NRC to leverage technology, performance data, and metrics to improve 62%
86%
58%
84%
62%
82%
How satisfied are you with the information you receive from management on what's going on in your organization?
My organization is successful at accomplishing its mission.
% Favorable 2022 2023 Medium-Sized Agency (2023)
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 134 estimates, communication, and address challenges related to licensing reviews. The MAP-X platform currently has 14 users across 7 licensees. In total, 16 submittals to MAP-Xs relief request module have been received, with 4 submittals received in FY 2023. This platform allows for alternative methods of communication and information sharing between the agency and licensees.
Published the final Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategic Plan for FY 2023 - 2027 to ensure staff readiness to effectively and efficiently review and evaluate AI applications for NRC-regulated activities.
The FY 2023 significant accomplishments to support Stakeholder Confidence Objective 3.2, specifically Performance Goal 3.2.2, include the following:
Participated in the Nuclear Energy Institute Used Fuel Forum and the Electric Power Research Institute Extended Storage Collaboration Program.
Hosted 823 public meetings that provided information to stakeholders, including the following:
Hosted the first Decommissioning Lessons Learned Public Meeting Workshop with industry.
Conducted an interactive public workshop with industry on Discrete Radioactive Particles.
Held a public Fuel Facilities Construction Oversight Workshop.
Hosted the 2023 National State Liaison Officer Conference in June 2023, which serves as a forum to discuss items of mutual interest between the NRC and the Governor appointed State Liaison Officers.
Launched a public webpage to streamline communications and educate the public on aspects of decommissioning.
Issued a first-of-a-kind public Tribal Consultation Tool to highlight the NRC mechanisms for consulting with the Tribes and clarify the differences to further inform the development of a future formal Consultation guidance under the Tribal Policy Statement.
Published a New Fuels infographic and issued a New Fuels Public Website.
Developed and delivered training during nuclear safety assistance workshops, both bilaterally and multilaterally, to regulators in more than 100 countries. Of particular interest, successfully developed and conducted workshops on the Physical Protection of Radioactive Sources for both French-and English-speaking countries of the Forum of Nuclear Regulatory Bodies in Africa.
SETTING THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR FY 2024 AND FY 2025 PERFORMANCE The agency strives to increase transparency in decision-making processes and decisions by increasing the quality, availability, and sharing of information. The NRC must make strategic decisions and ensure the following strategies remain a priority to successfully uphold an NRC decision-making process that is data-driven and evidence-based while ensuring information is available and accessible to interested stakeholders:
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 135 Engage stakeholders to ensure awareness and understanding of the NRCs regulatory requirements and decisions.
Develop effective communication strategies to explain how the NRC addresses risk and uncertainty in the decision-making process.
Make information about the NRCs regulatory activities available and accessible to interested stakeholders.
Ensure that stakeholders are aware of opportunities for public engagement in the NRCs decision-making processes, particularly members of the public who may be disproportionately impacted by the agencys decision.
Ensure that the NRC maintains and publishes accessible and comprehensive information by transforming agency information and siloed databases.
Leverage feedback received from a broad range of stakeholders in the agencys decision-making processes.
Maintain a high standard of quality and clarity in NRC documents to promote confidence in the agencys work.
Review and refine performance measures for Performance Goal 3.2.1 and 3.2.2.
Performance Measures Performance Goal 3.2.1: Employ and incorporate high-quality data and information to support agency decision-making processes.
Performance Indicator: Annual assessment of the actions in place to identify and disseminate data and evidence used to facilitate programmatic and organizational decision-making and policymaking.
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 All Business Lines Target N/A N/A N/A N/A Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Actual N/A N/A N/A N/A Opportunity for improvement Data from the 2023 OCI survey suggests that about half of NRC staff feel that the use of risk information and data have improved the quality of agency decision-making (See Figure 23).
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 136 Figure 23 OCI Results (2021 & 2023): Agency Decision-Making Data regarding external stakeholder perspectives of the agencys data-informed decision-making are not currently available. However, the NRC is committed to evidence-based decision-making and prioritizes fulfilling the requirements of the Evidence Act. The agency has an evidence-building plan, conducts a capacity assessment, and builds an annual evaluation plan. Additionally, the agency engages in numerous evidence-building activities, including evaluation, identifying priority questions, research, and rulemaking.
Overall, Performance Goal 3.2.1 is an opportunity for improvement for the agency, particularly in relation to the lack of data available to track the agencys progress on the goal.
Performance Goal 3.2.2: Provide the public timely access to information to ensure transparency and inclusiveness of the agencys decision-making process.
Performance Indicator: Annual assessment of the actions in place to enhance timeliness and access to discoverable and usable high-quality data sets and information.
Business Line FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 All Business Lines Target N/A N/A N/A N/A Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Heading in the right direction Actual N/A N/A N/A N/A Opportunity for improvement Regarding the NRCs aim to provide the public timely access to information, the majority of staff feel that the NRC prioritizes customer service and meeting the needs of the NRCs customers (See Figure 24). Though this data does not directly measure the provision of access to high-quality data sets and information to external stakeholders, these patterns may be representative of staff willingness to meet the needs of the agencys external stakeholders, which may include providing access to data and information.
45%
54%
42%
53%
The use of risk information has improved the quality of the agencys decision-making.
The use of data has improved the quality of the agencys decision-making.
% Agreement 2021 Pulse Mean 2023 OCI Mean
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 137 Figure 24 FEVS Results (2022 & 2023): Customer Service The NRC website and social media pages provide additional opportunity for the NRC to share information to the public. The NRC website had over 3.2 million unique visitors in CY 2022 (up from almost 3.1 million in CY 2021) and had over 3.4 million unique visitors as of September 2023. The NRC website includes a vast amount of information available for public review, including a record of Generic Communication documents such as Regulatory Issues Summaries and Documents for Comment. The Generic Communications webpage was requested over 4,800 times in CY 2022 and over 7,400 times in CY 2023 (as of September 2023).
Additionally, over the past three calendar years, NRC social media pages have received increasing engagement, with the community size (i.e., number of followers) for each platform growing year over year (See Figure 25).
Figure 25 Social Media Community Growth (Number of Followers) by Calendar Year 66%
77%
91%
65%
79%
92%
74%
83%
91%
Employees in my work unit consistently look for ways to improve customer service.
Employees in my work unit consider customer needs a top priority.
Employees in my work unit meet the needs of our customers.
% Favorable 2022 2023 Medium-Sized Agencies (2023) 11,416 18,000 38,000 10,831 16,392 31,995 13,470 26,096 Facebook X/Twitter LinkedIn 2021 2022 2023 (As of Sep)
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 138 Finally, the NRC website provides the public access to 35 high-value datasets. Some of the available datasets receive heavy engagement; for example, the Reactor Status dataset has received over 670,000 requests in CY 2023. The Reactor Inspection Reports for the Last Year dataset was the second-most requested dataset in CY 2023, with over 1,900 requests as of September 2023. The NRC does not currently collect stakeholder perspectives regarding whether the available information meets the needs of external stakeholders, and the NRC has an opportunity to improve their current data collection practices to better understand stakeholder access to datasets and information. For these reasons, Performance Goal 3.2.2 is an opportunity for improvement for the agency.
OTHER PERFORMANCE INDICATORS Corporate Support Business Line The NRCs Corporate Support Business Line involves centrally managed activities that are necessary for the agency to accomplish its mission. These activities include acquisitions, administrative services, financial management, human resource management, and IT/ IM, among others.
Acquisitions Percentage of Spend Under Management* (CS-03)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 38%
52%
New indicator in FY 2019.
FY 2020 40%
122%
FY 2021
$101.1M
$116.3M Target will be equal to the target set for Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990 agencies by the Presidents Management Council for FY 2021. As of FY 2021, the target is in dollars, not percentage.
FY 2022 83%
90.1%
Target equal to the target set for CFO Act of 1990 agencies by the Presidents Management Council for FY 2022.
FY 2023 87%**
87.4%
Target equal to the target set for CFO Act of 1990 agencies by the General Services Administration (GSA) for FY 2023.
FY 2024 89%**
Target equal to the target set for CFO Act of 1990 agencies by the GSA for FY 2024.
FY 2025 TBD Target will be equal to the target set for CFO Act of 1990 agencies by the GSA for FY 2025.
- Spend under management is a key measure of an agencys use of smart buying practices, such as strong strategic leadership and oversight and the collection and sharing of critical data, including terms and conditions, performance, and prices paid.
Administrative Services NRC Total Leased Portfolio in Usable Square Feet (USF)* (CS-20)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 855,000 USF 842,265 USF New indicator in FY 2022. This indicator replaces CS-18.
FY 2023 797,000 USF 797,000 USF FY 2024 797,000 USF FY 2025 713,000 USF
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 139 NRC Total Leased Portfolio in Usable Square Feet (USF)* (CS-20)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment
- Represents the total agency portfolio, including the regions. The Technical Training Center was inadvertently included in the indicator description in the Congressional Budget Justifications for FYs 2022 and 2023.
Financial Management Percentage of Eligible Bills Issued by the Established Deadlines (CS-22)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2023 98%
100%
New indicator in FY 2023. This indicator replaces CS-06.
FY 2024 98%
FY 2025 98%
Percentage of Incorrect Invoices for Fee Recovery (CS-23)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2023
<1%
0 New indicator in FY 2023. This indicator replaces CS-06.
FY 2024
<1%
FY 2025
<1%
Human Resource Management Percentage of Key Human Capital Indicators Met* (CS-16)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 75%
100%
FY 2020 75%
75%
FY 2021 75%
100%
FY 2022 75%
50%
The human capital targets for benchmark customer satisfaction and staffing levels were not met.
FY 2023 75%
50%
The human capital targets for benchmark customer satisfaction and staffing levels were not met.
FY 2024 80%
Target adjusted to incorporate an additional subindicator on time to hire.
FY 2025 80%
- The specific subindicators that will be included under this indicator will be evaluated and updated on an annual basis to reflect agency needs. For FY 2022 and FY 2023, the subindicators included the:
Benchmarking Customer Satisfaction Survey results, the NRCs staffing levels, the Learner Engagement Index training indicator, and the discrimination complaint processing timeliness. For FY 2024 and FY 2025, the four subindicators described in the above sentence are included in addition to the time to hire subindicator.
Information Technology/Information Management The NRC's Score on the Annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) for Federal Websites* (CS-10)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 73 80 FY 2020 73 81 FY 2021 76 78 Target adjusted to better reflect actual performance in this area.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 140 The NRC's Score on the Annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) for Federal Websites* (CS-10)
FY 2022 76 80 FY 2023 76 78 FY 2024 76 FY 2025 76
- The ASCI measures citizen satisfaction with over 100 services, programs, and websites of Federal government agencies. Government entities use the ASCI to track user satisfaction with the quality of their services over time and compare these results to those of other organizations in both the private and public spheres. The ACSI also provides cause-and-effect analysis to help agencies focus resources where improvements will have the most impact.
Percentage of Projects within Schedule and within Budget Based on Information Collected for Major IT Investments Reported to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) IT Dashboard (CS-13)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2019 80% projects on schedule and on budget 95%
New indicator in FY 2019.
FY 2020 85% of projects within schedule, and 80% of projects within budget 94%
FY 2021 85% of projects within schedule, and 80% of projects within budget 95%
FY 2022 85% of projects within schedule, and 80% of projects within budget 100%
FY 2023 85% of projects within schedule, and 80% of projects within budget 93%
FY 2024 85% of projects within schedule, and 80% of projects within budget FY 2025 85% of projects within schedule, and 80% of projects within budget Cybersecurity Threat Management Effectiveness (CS-21)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2022 B
B New indicator in FY 2022. The target for this indicator is based upon a letter grade.
FY 2023 75%
100%
The target for this indicator changed from a letter grade to a percentage.
FY 2024 B
The target for this indicator is based upon a letter grade.
FY 2025 3*
The current formula for calculating this metric is no longer used government-wide due to changes in the Federal Information Security Management Act legislation. The target was revised to 3.
This metric combines the assessment of the agencys Inspector General and cybersecurity performance management goals.
- Effective FY 2025, the metric is based on two key assessment factors: (1) the average Agencywide Adaptive Risk Enumeration score overall government differential (NRC score < Federal score) and (2) the annual Federal Information Security Management Act score. The metric composition has evolved in response to managing information security threats due to increasingly sophisticated threats and frequent cyber incidents underscore the urgent need for effective information security.
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 141 FISCAL YEAR 2023 DISCONTINUED INDICATOR Corporate Support Business Line Financial Management Percentage of Collections Achieved When Compared with Projected Collections (CS-06)
Fiscal Year Target Actual Comment FY 2017 100%
98.1%
FY 2018
>98%
98.9%
The target was reduced to 98 percent to comply with the regulatory requirement to collect approximately 90 percent of the agencys appropriation.
FY 2019
>98%
99%
FY 2020 98%
97%
Deferred issuance of invoices for 3 months due to economic disruption from the COVID-19 public health emergency.
FY 2021*
98%
98.9%
FY 2022 98%
98%
FY 2023 Discontinued Replaced with indicators to assess the timeliness (CS-22) and accuracy (CS-23) of license fee invoices.
- Starting in FY 2021, NEIMA requires the NRC to recover 100 percent of the relevant budget authority of the Commission less the excluded activities to the maximum extent practicable.
MAJOR MANAGEMENT PRIORITIES AND CHALLENGES As stated in the NRCs Strategic Plan for FYs 2022-2026, the agencys vision is to Demonstrate the Principles of Good Regulation (independence, openness, efficiency, clarity, and reliability) in performing our mission. The agency strives to implement these principles with effective, realistic, and timely regulatory actions to meet its safety and security goals and objectives. Additionally, the NRC is committed to exercising judicious stewardship over agency resources in implementing corporate and mission support functions, such as financial management, human resources management, acquisition planning and execution, IT/IM, and administrative support services. The NRC routinely encourages and reminds all employees to identify ways of enhancing effectiveness, efficiency, and innovation in conducting their work.
The NRC is committed to developing and maintaining a highly qualified workforce and provides a variety of position-specific training for its staff. In addition, the NRC has implemented a Program Management Improvement Accountability Act community of practice where agency program and project managers share best practices and lessons learned and discuss project management tools, techniques, and methodologies to manage projects.
The NRC employs novel methods to enhance its approach to regulating civilian nuclear technology and fully realize its goal of becoming a more modern, risk-informed regulator. In practice, this means maintaining a parallel focus on fulfilling the agencys important safety and security mission while striving to embrace innovative approaches, novel and diverse ideas, and new technologies that support carrying out agency responsibilities in the most effective and efficient manner. It also requires a sustained emphasis on developing an engaged, equipped, and skilled workforce that adapts effectively to an evolving workload and dynamic circumstances with agility and flexibility.
Finally, the NRC is committed to using data-driven and evidence-based methods to facilitate and support agency decision-making. The Evidence Act emphasizes collaboration and coordination to advance data and evidence-building functions by statutorily mandating evidence-building activities, open government data,
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN AND REPORT FY 2025 Congressional Budget Justification l 142 confidential information protection, and statistical efficiency. The Evidence Act has driven a systematic rethinking of government data management, along with the advancement of evaluation as an essential component of evidence-building within agencies. The Evidence Act included new reporting requirements (i.e.,
evidence-building plan, capacity assessment, and annual evaluation plan) and a requirement to establish and implement an agency evaluation policy. These elements of the Evidence Act continue to influence evidence-building and evaluation activities at the NRC.
The NRCs evidence-building plan, capacity assessment, and annual evaluation plan fulfill, in part, requirements of the Evidence Act. The NRC also submits, as part of its annual budget submission to the OMB, a separate evidence submission, which provides requested information on relevant evidence-building activities.
DATA VALIDATION AND VERIFICATION The NRCs PSAT verifies on a quarterly basis that the performance data included in this report is complete and reliable, as required by the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010. The progress of the indicators is monitored regularly, and accomplishments, risks, and mitigation strategies are documented, reviewed, and discussed by the PSAT, comprised of Business/Product Line Leads, on a quarterly basis during Quarterly Performance Review Meetings (as described in Management Directive 6.9, Performance Management (ML18073A261)).
The NRC has verification and validation techniques in place, which provide reasonable assurance of the completeness and reliability of all performance data contained in this Annual Performance Plan. These techniques include the following:
verifying, on a quarterly basis, the accuracy, reliability, completeness, consistency, and availability of data collected through internal control practices.
validating, on a quarterly basis, that the data are rational and acceptable by using data validation techniques that check data type, format, range, and consistency.
reviewing, on a quarterly basis, the accuracy, completeness, and utilization of all indicator data submitted by Business/Product Line leads and continuously making adaptations to its systems and processes as needed.
LOWER PRIORITY PROGRAM ACTIVITIES The Presidents Budget identifies the lower priority program activities, where applicable, as required under the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010. The public can access the volume at:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/.
For FY 2025, the NRC has not identified any lower priority program activities.