ML21162A045

Discussion with Fuel Facilities on Safety Margin, Smarter Licensing, and Low Safety Significance Issue Resolution (June 15, 2021)

ML21162A045
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Issue date:	06/15/2021
From:	Rowley J NRC/NMSS/DFM/FFLB
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JRowley NMSS/DFM/FFL 301.415.4053
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ML21162A043	List: ML21162A044 ML21162A045
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Discussion with Fuel Facilities on Safety Margin, Smarter Licensing, and Low Safety Significance Issue Resolution June 15, 2021 Public Meeting With Nuclear Energy Institute, Nuclear Fuel Cycle Industry Representatives, and the Public Jonathan Rowley, Project Manager Division of Fuel Management Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards 1

Meeting Category and Public Participation This is an Observation meeting. The public can ask questions to the U.S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff or make comments about the meeting topics at designated points on the agenda.

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Agenda Topic Time Speakers Jonathan Rowley, Project Manager Division of Fuel Management Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

Introduction (Purpose, Rules for Meeting) Shana Helton, Director Opening Remarks 10:00 AM Division of Fuel Management Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards NRC Janet Schlueter Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI)

Francis (Paul) Peduzzi, Chief Inspection and Oversight Branch Safety Margins 10:05 AM Division of Fuel Management NEI/Industry Public Q & A 11:35 AM Break 11:40 AM Matthew Bartlett, Project Manager Smarter Licensing Status Update 11:50 AM Division of Fuel Management Donnie Harrison, Senior Level Advisor Issues of Low Safety Significance Status Update 12:20 PM Division of Fuel Management NEI/Industry Public Q & A 12:50 PM Jonathan Rowley, NRC Summary and Closing Remarks 12:55 PM Shana Helton, NRC Janet Schlueter, NEI Adjourn 1:003PM

Opening Remarks Shana Helton, Director Division of Fuel Management Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards Janet Schlueter, Senior Director Fuel and Radiation Safety Nuclear Energy Institute 4

Safety Margins F. Paul Peduzzi, Chief Inspection and Oversight Branch Division of Fuel Management Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards 5

Key Messages

• Provide the final staff position for management measures compliance related to the discussion of Safety Margin.

• Communicate the staffs final position on the assessment of significance for failure of a management measure and failure to meet the requirements of 10 CFR 70.61(e)

(failure of an IROFS) as a result of the failure to meet 70.62(d) (management measures).

• Closeout the discussion of Safety Margins and move forward.

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Management Measures Compliance

• A licensee fails to meet 70.62(d) when management measures are inadequately designed, implemented, or maintained, such that they will not ensure that items relied on for safety (IROFS) are available and reliable to perform their function when needed, even when the performance requirements of 70.61(b), (c),

and (d) are satisfied.

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Staffs Position

• While the index of protection for a collection of IROFS for an accident sequence may exceed the minimum value needed to demonstrate compliance with 70.61(b), (c),

and (d), that margin does not eliminate the performance requirement of 70.61(e) that each IROFS be available and reliable to perform its intended function when needed and in the context of the performance requirements.

• The NRCs position on 70.61(e), is that the phrase when needed and in the context of the performance requirements of this section." does not alleviate a licensee from meeting the management measures requirements of 70.62(d) for all designated IROFS simply because 70.61(b), (c), and (d) are met.

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Staffs Position (cont.)

• The intent of 70.61(e) and 70.62(d), in part, is to provide assurance that the performance requirements of 70.61(b), (c), and (d) are met. Conversely, meeting the performance requirements of 70.61(b), (c), and (d) does not necessarily mean all requirements of 70.61(e) and 70.62(d) have been met.

• Margin provided by a collection of IROFS is not sufficient to ensure that each IROFS is available to perform its function in the context of the performance requirements.

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Assessing Significance

• A failure of a management measure that does not result in the failure of an IROFS in many cases is a low safety significance violation and is often dispositioned as having minor significance.

• There may be instances in which a failed management measure that does not result in the failure of an IROFS could result in a more than minor violation, for example if deemed to be a programmatic deficiency.

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Assessing Significance (cont.)

• A failure to meet the requirements of 10 CFR 70.61(e) (failure of an IROFS) as a result of the failure to meet 70.62(d) (management measures) will likely result in a SL IV or minor violation even if the performance requirements of 70.61 (b), (c), and (d) are met.

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Safety Margins Discussion Summary 12

Public Participation At this time, the public is afforded an opportunity to ask questions and/or provide comments on the following topic:

- Safety margins 13

Status of the Smarter Licensing Program Matthew Bartlett, Project Manager Fuel Facility Licensing Branch Division of Fuel Management Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards

Contact:

Matt Bartlett Matthew.Bartlett@nrc.gov NMSS/DFM/FFLB 301-415-7154 14

Smarter Licensing Program

• Status Update The NRC staff are working to implement the recommendations based on the following schedule:

• Near-Term - Fall, 2021

• Mid-Term - Spring, 2022

• Long-Term - to be determined based on resources and priorities Current focus is to incorporate the Near-Term recommendations into the Division Instructions (DI):

• LIC-FM-1 Licensing Overview,

• LIC-FM-2 Acceptance Review Process,

• LIC-FM-3 Requests for Additional Information (RAIs), and

• LIC-FM-4 Safety Evaluation Reports (SERs) 15

Smarter Licensing Program

• Near-Term Activities Staff is working to incorporate the following recommendations into the DIs

• NT-0 (16, 19, and 31) - Update, implement, and publish DIs

• NT-1 (1, 2, 3, 6, and 29) - Align on schedule and the scope of reviews

• NT-2 (4, 7-P2, and 27-P1) - Support early interactions

• NT-3 (5, 10-P2, 17, and 28) - Provide for flexibility and tracking of metrics

• NT-4 (7, 8, 9, 10-P1, 11, 12, 13-P2, and 28) - Ensure consistent development of RAIs and SERs After implementation, the staff will review the DIs to determine what portions can be made publicly available 16

Smarter Licensing Program

• Mid-Term Activities Staff will develop additional guidance to facilitate implementation of the recommendations.

MT-1 (15, 18, 21, 25-P1, and 27-P2)

• Provide training on the DIs.

• Develop job-aids for key topics (scope of the SER, early alignment, etc.)

• Create a roadmap with instructions/templates to facilitate license reviews.

- Some activities are on-going and will increase as the DIs are finalized 17

Smarter Licensing Program

• Long-Term Activities Work on these recommendations will be processed as resources and priorities allow Several recommendations are currently under development including:

• Guidance for management turn-over (LT-1_13)

• Standard review plan for greater than critical mass facilities (LT-3-20)

The remainder of activities are pending, subject to a decision to move forward:

• Capture and utilize lessons learned (LT-2_14)

• Update NUREG-1520 (LT-2_23)

• Create a licensee specific roadmap for regulations, guidance, procedures, job aids, etc. (LT-4_24 and LT-4_25b)

• Develop guidance for new types of applications (LT-4_29) 18

Smarter Licensing Program QUESTIONS/COMMENTS 19

Issues of Low Safety Significance ACTIVITY STATUS UPDATE Donnie Harrison, Senior Level Advisor Division of Fuel Management Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards 20

High-level Enabling Guidance incorporated into Inspection Manual Chapters Aspects of inspection LSSIR - scoping and issue Inspection screening could also address LSSIR Draft progressive screening questions with supporting frequency-consequence matrices developed to help screening process 21

Tabletop Working Group Exercises to Test and Refine Talked Through Process Process for 1 Issue LSSIR - Questions worked, but each invoked discussion & multiple Inspection different considerations Welcome Industry examples - Need implementation Send to guidance to understand intent Mirabelle.Shoemaker@nrc.gov of process & level of effort 22

Tabletop Exercises to Test and Refine More Tabletops?

Process Very few issues LSSIR identified - mining TAR and URI logs Working Group considering if more useful to focus on the licensing area 23

Discussion &

Questions 24 24

Public Participation At this time, the public is afforded an opportunity to ask questions and/or provide comments on the following topic:

- Smarter licensing status update

- Issues of low safety significance status update 25

Summary and Closing Remarks Jonathan Rowley, NRC Shana Helton, NRC Janet Schlueter, NEI 26