ML25044A137
| ML25044A137 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 02/13/2025 |
| From: | Brian Benney NRC/NRR/DRO/IOEB |
| To: | Philip Mckenna Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| References | |
| Download: ML25044A137 (1) | |
Text
February 13, 2025 MEMORANDUM TO:
Philip McKenna, Deputy Director Division of Reactor Oversight Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation FROM:
Brian Benney, Reactor Operations Engineer Generic Communications and Operating Experience Branch Division of Reactor Oversight Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
SUBJECT:
SUMMARY
OF THE REACTOR OVERSIGHT PROCESS BIMONTHLY PUBLIC MEETING HELD ON JANUARY 29, 2025 On January 29, 2025, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff hosted a public meeting with the Nuclear Energy Institutes (NEIs) Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) Task Force executives, senior industry executives, and external stakeholders to discuss the staffs progress on initiatives related to the ROP. The meeting notice and agenda are located at ML25028A309.
ADVANCE Act Discussion 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.
During the meeting, security oversight and inspection was the primary focus of the ADVANCE Act discussion. The slides for the staff presentation are available at ML25027A321.
The first discussion gave an update on potential revisions to the ROP and highlighted that the staff has begun work on items that can be implemented throughout calendar year 2025. The goal will be to conduct inspector training at the June 2025 regional inspector counterpart meetings for the revisions that will be effective on July 1, 2025, and at the December 2025 regional inspector counterpart meetings for the revisions that will be effective on January 1, 2026.
The security oversight presentation outlined specific initiatives and timelines under consideration for physical and cyber inspection by the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response (NSIR). Some of the initiatives that are being proposed to meet Section 507 requirements, include revising the frequency for security inspection procedures, conducting a risk-informed evaluation of all of the security baseline inspection requirements to validate prioritization, developing a standardized inspection schedule and standardized request for information (RFI), reviewing the language in Inspection Manual Chapter 0612 for Very Low Safety Significance Issue Resolution (VLSSIR) to add clarity for security related issues, implement COMSECY 19-006 to reduce the number of force-on-force (FOF) exercises from two NRC conducted exercises to one exercise, revise the Baseline Security Significance Determination Process (BSSDP), and enhance the security issues forum process.
NEI provided a presentation on initiatives for the NRC to consider. The slides for the industry presentation can be found at ML25024A177. There were some common initiatives brought forward by both the NRC and NEI. Some of initiatives that NEI proposed include, optimizing the use of fleet-level inspections, optimize a standard RFI, credit existing performance indicators for inspection frequency efficiencies, re-allocate inspection resources to gain efficiencies, eliminate duplicative inspection requirements, revise the cybersecurity inspection program, eliminate blind testing submittals, redefine the minor/more-than-minor threshold, revise the BSSDP, optimize qualification for armed responders, credit licensee performance during FOF, and augment urine testing with oral fluid testing.
NEI encouraged the NRC staff to consider reviewing all initiatives to prioritize those that can be implemented sooner given process and resource constraints.
Differing Professional Views and Opinions Process The NRCs Office of Enforcement (OE) discussed potential updates to the Differing Professional Views and Opinions (DVP) process as part of the agencys implementation of the ADVANCE Act. This effort aims to ensure that differing views with potential impacts on agency decisions or schedules are evaluated based on their safety significance, in alignment with the ADVANCE Acts requirements.
As part of this effort, staff is evaluating and developing ways to:
Strengthen the consideration of safety significance within the DVP process.
Implement a tiered screening system to categorize concerns based on safety significance.
Identify critical factors for assessing the safety impact of differing views.
In addition to input received at this public meeting and the September 26, 2024, Federal Register Notice solicitation (89 FR 78916), staff has reviewed processes by other agencies, collected internal agency feedback, and reviewed program assessments and stakeholder comments. The NRC remains committed to continuously improving the DVP process to ensure concerns are addressed in a manner that is transparent, efficient, and proportional to their safety significance.
NEI offered to participate in additional public interactions to further refine the proposed enhancements, which staff will take into consideration as part of the development process.
Emergency Response Facility and Equipment Readiness - Performance Indicator (ERFER PI)
NRC staff provided clarification as to the intent of the ERFER-PI as approved by the Commission via SECY-23-0010. The intent of this PI is to provide a measure of the effectiveness of licensee EP staff in maintaining facilities and equipment necessary for effective implementation of the emergency plan. It is not intended to provide a measure of the effectiveness of how other licensee programs maintain other equipment necessary for emergency response; this is addressed in other areas of the ROP. The ROP was developed with the intent to have a PI for measuring EP staff effectiveness at being responsible for maintenance activities. The maintenance activities initially considered were those related to fixed sirens or for equipment and facilities necessary for emergency response. Siren maintenance (availability) was initially chosen for implementation of the ANS-PI within the EP Cornerstone of the ROP. However, with the retirement of the ANS-PI due to increased implementation of non-siren based ANS designs, the implementation of the ERFER-PI provides consistency with the overall intent of the ROP as initially developed. The ERFER-PI is intended to provide a measure for how licensee EP staff maintain the equipment within the emergency response facilities necessary to implement the risk-significant planning standards (RSPS), i.e.,
the technical support center (TSC) and emergency operating facility (EOF).
NRC staff provided a positive operating experience brief related to how the Edwin Hatch nuclear power plant emergency preparedness staff maintained Alert and Notification System (ANS) operability during, and immediately after, Hurricane Helene.
The Next ROP Meeting The next ROP bimonthly public meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 26, 2025.
Communicating with the NRC Staff At the start of all ROP public meetings, the project manager provides contact information for the public to use to provide their name and affiliation as a participant in the meeting. This contact information is also provided for submitting questions and comments to the NRC staff. Please note that any questions and/or comments pertaining to the ROP can be sent to Mr. Brian Benney at Brian.Benney@nrc.gov. The Contact Us about ROP page on the ROP public website can also be used to submit questions and comments regarding the ROP (https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/oversight/contactus.html).
Conclusion 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 enclosure provides the attendance list for this meeting.
Enclosure:
As stated
- via email OFFICE NRR/DRO/IOEB/BC NRR/DRO/IRAB/BC NRR/DRO/DD NAME BBenney DAird PMcKenna DATE 2/11/2025 2/13/2025 2/13/2025
Enclosure LIST OF ATTENDEES REACTOR OVERSIGHT PROCESS BIMONTHLY PUBLIC MEETING January 29, 2025 - 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM NAME Organization1 Aaron McCraw NRC Abiola Oshunleti NRC Alan Konkal NRC Alex Prada NRC Alexandra Terres NRC Alonzo McSwain Unknown Amar Patel NRC Amy Chamberlain Southern Nuclear Anderson Wolfe NRC Andrew Mauer NEI Andrew Zach EPW Andy Rosebrook NRC Audrey Christiano NRC Avinash Jaigobind NRC Balla Barro NRC Bill Rautzen NRC Brian Benney NRC Brian Stander Unknown Bridget Curran NRC Carlos Sisco Winston and Strawn Caty Nolan NRC Cesar Castro Unknown César Castro Rendón Unknown Charles Murray NRC Chris Newton Unknown Christian Henckel NRC Christian Williams Constellation Nuclear Cindy Rosales-Cooper NRC Dan Geary NRC Daniel Daszkiewicz NRC Daniel Merzke NRC Dariusz Szwarc NRC David Aird NRC 1 Unknown organization indicates that the participants affiliation was not provided by the issuance of this meeting summary.
2 David Bradfield NRC David Garmon NRC David Hills NRC David Hostetter NRC Deann Raleigh Curtiss-Wright Don Johnson NRC Don Wong NRC Dwayne Myal NRC Edwin Lyman UCS Eric Bowman NRC Eric Brothman NRC Gabe Taylor NRC Gary Purdy NRC Gerald Glen Durham Jr Unknown Gladys Firgeroa-Toledo NRC Grace Spaulding NRC Gregory Suber NRC Harrison Ngo NRC Helen Levendosky AEP Ijaz Hafeez Unknown Jack Bell NRC Jan Boudart Unknown Jason Lising NRC Jay Bodnar Unknown Jeanette Arce NRC Jeff Bream NRC Jefferson Clark NRC Jeremiah Rey NRC Jeremy Wachutka NRC Jesse Brown Constellation Nuclear Jesse Rollins NRC John Cherubini Unknown John Giddens Entergy John Jarrell Unknown John Lupoe Unknown John McKirgan NRC John Robbins NRC Johnathan Zeitz State of New Jersey Jon Robb NRC Josh Rhodes NRC Joshua Berry NRC
3 Joylynn Quinones-Navarro NRC June Cai NRC Justin Knowles Constellation Nuclear Kara Smith NRC Kenneth Hussar NRC Kobe Oley NRC Larry Nicholson Certrec Corporation Maddie Blalock EPW Marc Ferdas NRC Mario Fernandez NRC Michael Whitlock Dominion Energy Michael Wilt Unknown Michelle Sutherland NRC Mike Annon Unknown Nicholas Taylor NRC Nicole Good STARS Alliance Noah Bolling NRC Odunayo Ayegbusi NRC Philip McKenna NRC Phillip Ollis Unknown Rebecca Sigmon NRC Robbin Ritzman Curtiss-Wright Roland Womack NRC Roy Linthicum Constellation Nuclear Russell Felts NRC Russell Thompson TVA Sailesh Thapa NRC Samir Darbali NRC Sarah Ramos Constellation Nuclear Stephen Campbell NRC Stephenie Pyle Entergy Steven Orth NRC Steven Roberts NRC Susan Perkins Unknown Suzanne Loyd Constellation Nuclear Tara Inverso NRC Thomas Hipschman NRC Vince Williams NRC