ML24358A187
| ML24358A187 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 12/23/2024 |
| From: | Brian Benney NRC/NRR/DRO/IOEB |
| To: | Philip Mckenna Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| References | |
| Download: ML24358A187 (1) | |
Text
December 23, 2024 MEMORANDUM TO:
Philip McKenna, Deputy Director Division of Reactor Oversight Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation FROM:
Brian Benney, Senior Project Manager Generic Communications and Operating Experience Branch Division of Reactor Oversight Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
SUBJECT:
SUMMARY
OF THE DECEMBER 10, 2024, OBSERVATION PUBLIC MEETING ON THE NRCS IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ADVANCE ACT OF 2024 On December 10, 2024, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff from the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulations held a public meeting to discuss the implementation of the ADVANCE Act of 2024 and inform external stakeholders. Section 507 of the Act requires the NRC to develop and submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report that identifies specific improvements to the nuclear reactor and materials oversight and inspection programs carried out pursuant to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.) that the Commission may implement to maximize the efficiency of such programs through, where appropriate, the use of risk-informed, performance-based procedures, expanded incorporation of information technologies, and staff training. Key language in Section 507 includes optimizing resource use, revising inspection planning, evaluating the cross-cutting issues program, and aligning resource allocation with safety significance and licensee performance. This public meeting focused on ideas that could be implemented for operating reactor oversight and inspection in the Reactor Oversight Process (ROP)
The meeting notice and agenda are located at Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML24340A218. The slides for the staff presentation are available at ML24340A146. There were no requests by stakeholders to deliver prepared remarks. A list of meeting attendees is provided in the enclosure.
CONTACT: Brian Benney, NRR/DRO/IOEB 301-415-2767
The NRC staff provided an overview of the ongoing efforts for agencywide implementation of the ADVANCE Acts requirements. The NRC staff discussed how the staff has issued specific taskings to track actions that the staff is taking to implement requirements in the ADVANCE Act.
Slides providing a timeline for different ADVANCE Act Section 507 (Improving Oversight and Inspection Programs) taskings were also shared during the meeting. The slides also provided contact information for the Core Team and staff leading individual projects. The NRC staff also shared key features of its ADVANCE Act public website, including a repository of past and upcoming public meetings related to the Act and the availability of a feedback form to provide comments and questions to the NRC.
In its presentation of ADVANCE Act Section 507 progress, NRC discussed the initial schedule and how it intends to meet the requirements of the ADVANCE Act to enhance oversight and inspection programs, including revisions to the Reactor Oversight Process (ROP). The NRC staff discussed topics under consideration to meet the requirements of Section 507. These ideas included enhancements to operating reactor oversight for sustained licensee higher performance and adjustments to the IP 71152 Problem Identification and Resolution (PI&R) team inspection. Since the engineering inspection program is in the middle of its new four-year cycle, the NRC staff discussed that there are no immediate plans to discuss potential revisions to this program. The NRC staff will move up the effectiveness review of the engineering inspection program to begin in fourth quarter 2025 so that any future revisions can be implemented when the new cycle begins in January 2027.
The NRC staff also presented other ideas to meet the requirements of the Section 507 including: 1) reducing team inspection effort to one week onsite and one week remote, 2) reducing the effort and time spent on documenting very low safety significant issues, 3) revises the Cross-cutting Issues Program, 4) evaluating the current practice of dual-path findings for traditional enforcement violations, 5) revising the treatment of White findings such that licensees could get identification credit for finding their own issue that screens to White in the ROP and a change to the ROP Action Matrix such that White findings no longer aggregate to a degraded cornerstone in the Action Matrix, 6) making team inspection entrance meetings optional and making exit meetings virtual, and 7) improving the inspector library such that some documents dont need to be requested from the licensee for inspection effort.
The NRC staff also discussed some ideas that would take some longer-term effort including revising the ROP performance indicators and potentially reevaluating the organizational structure of the NRC inspection staff.
Industry representatives highlighted their commitment to improving efficiency and ensuring an effective oversight program by focusing on rapidly processing low safety significance items, embracing risk-informed, performance-based inspection approaches, and eliminating duplicative actions. Industry emphasized leveraging the almost 25 years of ROP data available to inform revisions to the ROP. The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) inquired about criteria for crediting sustained higher performance, such as extended periods in column 1 and whether security issues might exclude reverting to baseline reactor safety inspections. On Problem Identification and Resolution (PI&R), NEI noted that 10-15% of all inspection procedures activity contains PI&R inspection effort. Regarding team inspections, NEI encouraged exploring efficiencies like templates, focused document requests, and better preparation practices.
A member of the public inquired about plans for formal cost-benefit analyses for proposed changes, including quantifying safety and security risks alongside cost savings. The NRC staff acknowledged the importance of establishing evaluation criteria to evaluate the proposed revisions to the ROP while noting that more formal cost-benefit analyses are typically more common in rulemaking. The NRC staff emphasized that internal controls and program health assessments would remain intact, ensuring the underlying oversight structures are not altered and that the annual ROP self-assessment will continue to provide oversight and evaluation.
At the end of the meeting, NRC and industry management gave closing remarks. The industry representatives expressed appreciation for the open dialogue and willingness of NRC staff to hear industry views. The NRC management stressed the importance of the NRC being focused on providing reasonable assurance of public health and safety when considering changes to the ROP. The NRC staff also discussed that the next ADVANCE Act Section 507 public meeting for the ROP is planning to be scheduled for January 15. 2025.
The enclosure provides the attendance list for this meeting.
Enclosure:
List of Attendees
- via email OFFICE NRR/DRO/IOEB NRR/DRO/DD NAME BBenney PMckenna DATE 12/23/2024 12/23/2024
Enclosure U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Meeting on NRCS Implementation of the ADVANCE Act December 10, 2024 Participant List Aaron McCraw NRC Alec Hobbs NRC Alex Prada NRC Allison Trudell NRC Alysia Bone NRC Amy Christine Chamberlain Southern Andrew Bowman Unknown Andrew Mauer NEI Anthony Masters NRC Atif Shaikh NRC Audrey Christiano NRC Avinash Jaigobind NRC Balla Barro NRC Bernadette Baca NRC Beth Sienel NRC Bill Rautzen NRC Billy Dickson NRC Blake Welling NRC Bradley Wicker Dolan TVA Brian Benney NRC Carolyn Wolf NRC Charles Murray NRC Cherish Alston NRC Cheryl Khan NRC Chris Speer NRC Christian Henckel NRC Cordie Dorman NRC Dalaina Boyer Unknown Dale Delisle NRC Dan Bradley NRC Dan Geary NRC Dan McHugh NRC Daniel Merzke NRC David Young NEI Deann Raleigh Curtiss-Wright Derek Widmayer NRC Don Wong NRC Dwayne Myal NRC Edwin Lyman UCS Eric Bowman NRC Eric Brothman NRC Eric Iliyev NRC Eric Miller NRC Ethan Adams NRC Eucherius Rosario NRC Frank Young NRC Fred Madden Certrec Gabe Taylor NRC Geoffrey Miller NRC Glenn Dentel NRC Grace Pennington NRC Greg Halnon NRC Gregory Stock NRC Harral Logaras NRC Ijaz Hafeez NRC Jack Bell NRC Jack Parrott NRC James Gaslevic NRC Jay Robinson NRC Jeff Bream NRC Jennifer Dalzell NRC Jeremiah Rey NRC Jeremy Wachutka NRC Jesse S Brown Constellation Nuclear John Egdorf Unknown John Hanna NRC John Hughey NRC John McKirgan NRC John Monninger NRC Jonathan Fiske NRC Joy Jiang Breakthrough Institute Julio Lara NRC Justin Wearne PSEG Kenneth Armstrong NRC Kevin Coyne NRC Kevin Michael Ellis Duke Energy Kimberlee Edwards NRC Kimberly Dawn Hulvey TVA Kyle Poolman NRC Larry Nicholson Certrec Linda Dewhirst Cooper Nuclear Station Lundy Pressley NRC Maddie Blalock EPW Maribel Valdez Unknown Marissa Bailey NRC Mark Hagen NRC Mark Henrion NRC Marlena Tatkowski NRC Mario Fernadez NRC Marty Murphy Xcel Energy Matthew Fannon NRC Matthew Humberstone NRC Matthew Leech NRC Michael Benson NRC Michael Fadden NRC Michael Hay NRC Michael K Scarpello D.C. Cook Mike Franovich NRC Mike King NRC Musab Abuhamdan NRC Muzammil Siddiqui NRC Naeem Iqbal NRC Nicole Good STARS Alliance Nikki Warnek NRC Noah Bolling NRC Norbert Carte NRC Pasquale Razzano Unknown Paul Laflamme NRC Paul Rades NRC Phil Lashley Vistra Corp Phil Pfeiffer Unknown Phyllis Clark NRC Prema Chandrathil NRC Rani Franovich Nuclear Rose LLC Rebecca Sigmon NRC Reinaldo Rodriguez NRC Richard Ramson NRC Richard Skokowski NRC Rob Burg EPM Inc.
Rob Krsek NRC Robert Williams NRC Robin Ritzman Curtiss-Wright Rod Adams Unknown Russell R Thompson TVA Sarah Elkhiamy NRC Sam Sayampanathan NRC Sara L Scott Xcel Energy Shakur Walker NRC Shilp Vasavada NRC Shyrl Coker NRC Stephen Campbell NRC Stephen Laherty Unknown Steve Janicki NRC Steven Roberts NRC Tammie Rivera NRC Tara Inverso NRC Terri McLaughlin NRC Tim Barvitskie NRC Tim Marshall NRC Tim Riti NEI Timothy Gardner Reuters Viktoria Mitlyng NRC Zachery Hollcraft NRC Zahra Mohaghegh Unknown