ML25161A073
| ML25161A073 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 06/10/2025 |
| From: | Geary D NRC/NRR/DRO |
| To: | Philip Mckenna NRC/NRR/DRO |
| References | |
| Download: ML25161A073 (1) | |
Text
June 10, 2025 MEMORANDUM TO: Philip McKenna, Deputy Director Division of Reactor Oversight Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation FROM:
Dan Geary, Reactor Operations Engineer Reactor Assessment Branch Division of Reactor Oversight Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
SUBJECT:
SUMMARY
OF THE PERFORMANCE INDICATOR PUBLIC WORKSHOP HELD ON JUNE 5, 2025 On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff hosted a public meeting with the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), other senior industry executives, and various external stakeholders to discuss preliminary concepts for a holistic review and revision of the Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) Performance Indicator (PI) program as part of ADVANCE Act Section 507 activities. The topics discussed during this meeting are described below.
Working Group Charter, Initial Concepts, and International Benchmarking The NRC staff provided a presentation (ML25155A058) discussing the PI working groups charter (ML25125A115), initial high-level concepts for the effort, international benchmarking considerations, and a planned schedule.
The discussion identified that the purpose of the working group is to perform a comprehensive review of ROP PIs, which will inform a potential re-evaluation of the role of PIs in the assessment process and re-baselining of the inspection program to meet ADVANCE Act directives to review the balance of oversight and inspection resources commensurate with safety significance and licensee performance. The timeline for the working groups efforts includes initial results provided to NRC management in September 2025, an initial SECY draft completed by November 15, 2025, and the SECY provided to the Commission by April 1, 2025.
The discussion also included an overview of the initial set of PIs and the PI changes that have occurred since the implementation of the ROP.
Initial concepts discussed by the NRC staff included the potential for PIs, or a subset of PIs, to no longer be tied to Action Matrix movement but to inform inspection activities as part of the baseline inspection program. Adjustments to the existing PIs, such as change of significance thresholds, elimination of an existing PI, and creation of new PIs are potential outcomes of the effort. The staff also identified the desire to enhance efficiency for any new PIs by leveraging data that the industry already compiles as part of their own performance monitoring efforts. The program would need to have flexibility to make adjustments early in implementation to ensure
that the PIs are providing a reliable, meaningful indication of plant performance. NRC staff identified that while new PIs would have the goal of informing hours allocated to the baseline inspection program with a goal to reducing overall baseline inspection resources, new PIs may result in additional time required for NRC validation of submitted PI data using Inspection Procedure 71151, Performance Indicator Verification.
The NRC staff also indicated that proposed changes to PIs would be benchmarked against other international nuclear regulators, as applicable. NRC staff noted that several international regulators mirror the NRCs current approach to PIs and that International Atomic Energy Agency Tecdoc 1141, Operational Safety Performance Indicators for Nuclear Power Plants is currently undergoing revision.
Industry Thoughts and Open Discussion Industry representatives stated that the nuclear power industry has gathered a wealth of data and operating experience in the years since the ROP was first implemented. The PI effort provides an opportunity to leverage this knowledge to make PIs more risk-informed.
Industry representatives stated that use of data that is already provided to INPO for potential new PIs could result in increased burden on industry personnel as data provided to NRC requires a higher validation pedigree. Industry noted that they already provide other data to the NRC for functions other than PIs that may be useful to consider for new PIs. Industry representatives and NRC staff agreed that industry performance monitoring and ROP PIs perform different functions, where industrys indicators for performance have a goal of operational excellence while the ROP PIs monitor for compliance to regulations.
Industry representatives recommended that any new PIs should be focused on areas that would provide the greatest return on investment when considering data gathering and validation time against corresponding reductions in inspection effort. It was also recommended that the working group perform a review of the current PIs to identify their ties to the current baseline inspection program and determine if there are opportunities to further utilize them in lieu of inspection samples.
Conclusion At the end of the meeting, NRC and industry representatives gave closing remarks. The industry representatives and NRC management both expressed appreciation for the open dialogue during the meeting. The next public workshop, intended to include breakout sessions for PIs based on ROP cornerstone, is anticipated to be held on July 22.
The following link contains the meeting agenda and other information: ML25155A644 The enclosure provides the attendance list for this meeting.
Enclosure:
As stated
- via email OFFICE NRR/DRO/IRAB NRR/DRO/DD NAME DGeary PMcKenna DATE 6/10/2025 6/10/2025
Enclosure LIST OF ATTENDEES PERFORMANCE INDICATOR PUBLIC WORKSHOP June 5, 2025 - 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM Name Organization1 Name Organization Dan Geary NRC Veena Gubbi New Jersey DEP Phil McKenna NRC Bill Rautzen NRC Tim Riti NEI Grace Spaulding NRC John Giddens Entergy Sarah Obadina NRC Amy Chamberlain Southern Jazmin Flores NRC Tony Zimmerman Duke Alex Garmoe NRC Odunayo Ayegbusi NRC Eric Riggs NRC Tanvir Siddiky NRC Jerry Humphreys New Jersey DEP Don Wong NRC Rob Burg EPM, Inc Russ Felts NRC Kenneth Kolaczyk NRC Desiree Davis NRC Jana Berman Curtiss-Wright Jeremiah Rey NRC Casey Smith NRC Rebecca Sigmon NRC Joel Jenkins NRC Jason Carneal NRC Ian Bitner Energy Northwest Elias Haddad NRC Peter Boguszewski NRC David Garmon NRC Phil OBryan NRC Heather Jones NRC Maribel Valdez FPL Charles Murray NRC Aron Lewin NRC Brian Benney NRC Jake Davis NRC Christopher Henderson NRC Justin Knowles Constellation Jason Schussler NRC Jefferson Clark NRC Jesse Brown Constellation Joy Jiang Breakthrough Institute Linda Dewhirst NPPD Edwin Lyman UCS Jodie Olberding NPPD Jennifer Beaton NRC Lauren Helstosky Dominion Martin Phalen Unidentified Brian Yip NRC Christopher Riedl TVA Robin Ritzman Curtis-Wright Devin Bradshaw NRC Mike Maiuro PSEG Deann Raleigh Curtiss-Wright Anthony Jones NRC Brad Bergemann NRC Melisa Krick Talen Energy Cole Cahill Unidentified Michael Smith NEI Jeff Connors Xcel Energy Sam Cohen NRC Richard Mogavero NEI Jonathan Zeitz New Jersey DEP Charlotte Shields NEI 1 Unidentified organization indicates that the participants affiliation was not provided by the issuance of this meeting summary.
2 Name Organization1 Name Organization Molly Keefe-Forsyth NRC Courtney Huskey INPO Rachel Qian NRC Mateo Lopez Margarita CSN Harrison Ngo NRC Molly Marsh Constellation Jannette Worosilo NRC Andrea Kock NRC Andrew Mauer NEI Matthew Hardgrove NRC Len Cline NRC Amanda Mivanyi NRC Eric Nour NRC