ML25066A203

March 13, 2025 Public Meeting: Advance Act Mission Statement Implementation Guidance

ML25066A203
Person / Time
Issue date:	03/07/2025
From:	Luis Betancourt, Aaron Mccraw, Annie Ramirez NRC/EDO
To:
References
Download: ML25066A203 (1)

Text

ADVANCE Act Mission Statement Implementation Guidance Public Meeting Will Begin Shortly Points of

Contact:

Aaron McCraw, Aaron.McCraw@nrc.gov Annie Ramirez, Annie.Ramirez@nrc.gov Luis Betancourt, Luis.Betancourt@nrc.gov Public Meeting Information: ML25056A065 or https://www.nrc.gov/pmns/mtg?do=details&Code=20250262

Agenda

• Meeting Logistics

• Introductions

• NRC Presentation

• Public Comments 2

Meeting Logistics

• Participants are in listen-only mode until the designated comment session.

• Note for virtual participants: the chat feature has been disabled for this meeting.

• No regulatory decisions will be made at todays meeting.

• This meeting was publicly noticed on February 25, 2025.

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ADVANCE Act Mission Statement Implementation Guidance NRC Public Meeting March 13, 2025

Scope of Meeting The scope of this meeting is to provide an overview of the actions underway at the NRC to develop mission statement implementation guidance, as required by Section 501 of the ADVANCE Act, and to obtain feedback from stakeholders.

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6 ADVANCE Act Section 501 By July 9, 2025, update the mission statement, and upon completion of the update to the mission statement, submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report that describes:

The updated mission statement; and The guidance that the Commission will provide to staff of the Commission to ensure effective performance of the mission of the Commission.

SRM-SECY-24-0083: Mission Statement Update Options Pursuant to Subsection 501(a) of the ADVANCE Act of 2024 submit an information paper to the Commission providing the guidance to ensure effective performance of the mission...

should cite specific, practical examples of actions that serve to clarify how to effectively implement and successfully execute the mission.

Mission Statement General guidance explaining effective implementation of the mission statement for all NRC staff Appendices on expectations for the agency organizational functions 7

Guidance Outline

8 Element I Element II Element III Element IV Mission Statement The NRC protects public health and safety and advances the nations common defense and security by enabling the safe and secure use and deployment of civilian nuclear energy technologies and radioactive materials through efficient and reliable licensing, oversight, and regulation for the benefit of society and the environment.

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• These slides share ideas under consideration for general guidance and expectations, which will be further developed.

• Slides 10-16 include the current outline for the general guidance.

• The current outline focuses on clarity rather than consistency when structuring the bullets under each element.

• Higher-level bullets convey the main message.

• Sub-bullets explain how we plan to achieve it.

• At this stage, there may be some redundancy between the bullets under each element.

• The number of bullets does not indicate the importance of each element.

Status of Development

10 Element I - The NRC protects public health and safety and advances the nations common defense and security

• North Star: Safety and Security

• All conversations should start with the assessment of safety/security significance or impact

• Risk inform every decision

• Apply every step in Be riskSMART

• Be riskSMART will be revised to emphasize the need to use all relevant data, evidence and information to make decisions

• Credibility

• Demonstrate professional excellence in all we do

• Produce high quality products

• Maintain knowledge of state-of-practice/art in your area General Guidance Under Consideration

11 Element II - by enabling the safe and secure use and deployment of civilian nuclear energy technologies and radioactive materials

• Timeliness

• Adaptability, flexibility and agility in updating our processes and approaches

• Actively consider the impact of schedule modifications on both staff and external entities

• Timely review applications, including those with emergent technologies

• Embrace new technologies, tools and methods (e.g., artificial intelligence)

• Goal-driven

• Focus on output and outcome

• Perfection is the enemy of good General Guidance Under Consideration

12 Element II - by enabling the safe and secure use and deployment of civilian nuclear energy technologies and radioactive materials

• Goal-driven (continued)

• Accept an appropriate amount of risk

• Set strategic direction

• Leadership positions: Dont just direct a change; bring staff along

• Customer service oriented among ourselves and with external stakeholders

• Help each other

• Have a mindset to start with yes and look for solutions to problems

• Be proactive/anticipate needs

• Strategic Direction Initiative on consulting vs. guidance General Guidance Under Consideration

13 Element III - through efficient and reliable licensing, oversight, and regulation

• Principles of Good Regulation

• Apply unfailingly in discussing options and recommending the path forward

• Project management

• Allocate resources commensurate with safety/security significance or impact

• Prompt resolution of differing views

• Understand and adjust priorities

• Account for interdependencies

• Individual and organizational performance management

• Cant manage what we dont measure

• Use enterprise risk management to mitigate and overcome challenges General Guidance Under Consideration

14 Element III - through efficient and reliable licensing, oversight, and regulation

• Individual and organizational performance management (cont.)

• Meaningful metrics at every level

• Dont just measure/analyze

• Use to quantify efficiency gains

• Reward desired behaviors

• Organizational effectiveness

• Align organizations with budget structure

• Adopting good practices across business lines

• Consistency among regions

• Work across organizational boundaries

• Leadership positions: Remove barriers that impede your teams success

• Clarity of expectations

• Whether giving or receiving direction General Guidance Under Consideration

15 Element IV - for the benefit of society and the environment.

• Public service motivation

• Setting ambitious organizational goals

• Continuously challenging ourselves to improve

• Consider both what can go wrong and also what can go right in applying Be riskSMART

• Meaningful public engagement

• Operate with the highest degree of transparency

• Leverage tools and methods appropriate for the audience

• We are all responsible for our culture: promote desired behaviors and be a model for others

• Principles of Good Regulation should direct our work

• Values should guide our interactions General Guidance Under Consideration

16 Element IV - for the benefit of society and the environment.

• Courageous and bold

• Leadership at all levels

• Staff is empowered to identify new approaches

• Break the cycle of we have always done it that way

• Questioning attitude

• Ownership; personal responsibility and accountability

• Mistake tolerance; continuous learning; from what we did well and what we did with our mistakes General Guidance Under Consideration

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• What do you think of these ideas for the general guidance?

• What other ideas for the general guidance should be included?

Feedback on the General Guidance Under Consideration

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• Licensing

• Oversight

• Emergency preparedness and incident response

• Rulemaking

• Research

• Partnering with Agreement States

• Project and performance management

• Mission support

• Communications

• With the public

• With licensees and applicants

• With Congress

• With Tribes

• With Federal partners

• Legal

• Budget/Finance

• International Functional Areas of Staff Applicability for Expectations in the Appendices

• apply risk-informed principles when strict, prescriptive application of deterministic criteria such as the single failure criterion is unnecessary to provide for reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety. (SRM-SECY-19-0036).

• Proactively consider initiating exemptions on a case-by-case basis.

• Use pre-application engagement to understand unique technical aspects and align on regulatory paths.

• Complete draft safety evaluation reports with placeholders before requesting additional information.

• Streamline safety evaluation content.

• Increase use of audits and requests for confirmatory information.

• Plan resources and timelines and track execution.

19 Licensing Staff Expectations Under Consideration

• Focus inspection samples on those with the greatest risk significance.

• A successful inspection is one where objectives have been met regardless of whether an issue or violation is identified.

• If an issue can reasonably be determined to be of very low safety/security significance AND would take a significant amount of time to resolve, then the inspector is empowered to not follow up any further or enter the Very Low Safety Significance Issue Resolution (VLSSIR) process.

• Complete inspection activities on schedule and within allotted resources; in-office review should only be used if the licensee has not provided key information by the end of the inspection and there is a possible risk-significant issue.

20 Oversight Staff Expectations Under Consideration

• Adopt a business mentality; develop clear outcomes supported by return on investment.

• Develop and maintain a multi-year plan to guide budget priorities consistent with environmental scan and mission workload.

• Use state-of-the-art techniques and technologies to modernize both mission and mission support processes (e.g., data analytics and artificial intelligence).

• Focus on the quality and timeliness of qualification training to address changing mission needs.

• Use Strategic Workforce Planning to enhance readiness for anticipated workload.

21 Mission Support Staff Expectations Under Consideration

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• What do you think of these ideas for functional areas and expectations on the slides?

• What other functional areas or expectations should be included?

Feedback on the Staff Expectations Under Consideration

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• Continued guidance development o Town Hall Meetings with NRC staff o Feedback solicitation

• Updates to internal SharePoint Site to convey updates

• Putting the guidance into action o Management directives o Office instructions and other procedures o Individual/organizational performance expectations and recognition o Metrics to demonstrate performance o Training Next Steps, Rollout and Implementation

Upcoming Milestones

• Information paper due to the Commission (May 2025)

• Report due to Congress (July 2025) 24

How to Follow Our Progress Follow NRCs ADVANCE Act implementation with this Dashboard 25

How to Stay Engaged For NRCs public meeting information on ADVANCE Act activities 26

Contact us with ADVANCE Act questions, comments, and ideas 27 How to Ask Questions and Submit Ideas

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To Participate Today

1) Use the Raise Hand button to indicate your desire to make a statement.

Teams: Use the raise my hand button Phone: Press *5

2) Wait for facilitator to acknowledge your turn to speak.

3) Unmute yourself Teams: Use the unmute/mic button Phone: Press *6 29