SECY-21-0047, Annual Report to the Commission on Licensee Performance in the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program for Fiscal Year 2020
| ML21075A101 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 04/28/2021 |
| From: | John Lubinski Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards |
| To: | Commissioners NRC/OCM |
| Sun R | |
| References | |
| SECY-21-0047 | |
| Download: ML21075A101 (11) | |
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The Commissioners 1 DATE: April 28, 2021 SECY-21-0047 FOR: The Commissioners FROM: John W. Lubinski, Director Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
SUBJECT:
ANNUAL REPORT TO THE COMMISSION ON LICENSEE PERFORMANCE IN THE NUCLEAR MATERIALS AND WASTE SAFETY PROGRAM FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020 PURPOSE:
This paper provides the annual report for fiscal year (FY) 2020 on significant nuclear materials issues and licensee performance trends in the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program.1 This paper does not address any new commitments or resource implications.
SUMMARY
For FY 2020, the staff evaluated significant nuclear materials issues and licensee performance trends based on reportable events and operating experience associated with Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program licensees. With the exception of the review of escalated enforcement actions, this evaluation included both the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Agreement State licensees. The staff concluded that there are no significant nuclear materials issues or discernible adverse trends in licensee performance and that public health and safety were maintained. The staff did not identify any Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program licensees that met the criteria for discussion at the Agency Action Review Meeting (AARM).
CONTACT: Robert Sun, NMSS/MSST 301-415-3421 1 This paper does not specifically track independent spent fuel storage installation licensee trends. This paper also does not specifically track decommissioning licensee trends, which are discussed in the FY 2020 Decommissioning Program annual report, which is available at https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2025/ML20259A505.html.
The Commissioners 2 BACKGROUND:
On June 28, 2002, the Commission issued Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM) M020501, Briefing on Results of Agency Action Review MeetingReactors, 9:00 A.M., Wednesday, May 1, 2002, Commissioners Conference Room, One White Flint North, Rockville, Maryland (Open to Public Attendance). In the SRM, the Commission directed the staff to propose a process for providing the Commission with annual updates on significant nuclear materials issues (such as overexposures, medical events, and lost or stolen sources) and on adverse licensee performance.
In response to SRM M020501, the staff developed SECY-02-0216, Proposed Process for Providing Information on Significant Nuclear Materials Issues and Adverse Licensee Performance, dated December 11, 2002 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML022410435). On February 25, 2003, the Commission issued SRM-SECY-02-0216 (ADAMS Accession No. ML030560328), which approved the staffs proposed criteria and process and directed the staff to provide the report on an annual basis.
Subsequently, in SECY-08-0135, Revision of the Criteria for Identifying Nuclear Materials Licensees for Discussion at the Agency Action Review Meeting, dated September 16, 2008 (ADAMS Accession No. ML082480564), the staff updated the criteria to provide additional clarity and incorporate the NRCs current policies and procedures. The Commission approved the revised criteria and directed the staff to include an additional criterion pertaining to licensees that were discussed at a previous AARM but their corrective actions were ineffective in correcting the underlying performance issues. The Commission received the revised criteria for identifying nuclear materials licensees for discussion at the AARM in SECY-11-0132, Revision of the Criteria for Identifying Nuclear Material Licensees for Discussion at the Agency Action Review Meeting, dated September 20, 2011 (ADAMS Accession No. ML112280111).
DISCUSSION:
The NRC staff evaluated significant issues and licensee performance trends for FY 2020 using strategic outcomes and performance measure data, assessment of data reported to the Nuclear Material Events Database (NMED), fuel cycle operating experience (FC OpE), abnormal occurrence (AO) data, Integrated Materials Performance Evaluation Program (IMPEP) significant actions, input related to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE), programmatic self-assessment results and improvements, data derived through escalated enforcement actions, and significant licensee performance issues. The sections below present the results of the staffs evaluation with respect to this information, followed by overall conclusions on significant issues and licensee performance in the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program.
Strategic Outcomes and Performance Measure Data In the FY 2020 Agency Financial Report (AFR) (ADAMS Accession No. ML20321A325), the agency reported its FY 2020 performance results. The agency met its performance goals for both safety and security. While the agency met its performance goal for safety, there were two events which met the reporting requirement and are described below. These two events did not exceed the specific performance indicators target of three or less events per year.
The Commissioners 3 The first event occurred in January 2020, when a patient received radiation therapy treatment and, 2 weeks later, the patients physician informed the authorized user that the patient was pregnant at the time of the treatment. The cause of the event was determined to be a weakness in the licensees policy to address pregnancy limitations and contraceptive measures between collecting the pregnancy test and therapy dosage administration. The policy in place during the event required a negative pregnancy test 7 days before the administration and relied on a negative declaration of pregnancy immediately before the administration. Patients were counseled to refrain from becoming pregnant following an administration but were not specifically counseled to refrain from becoming pregnant between the pregnancy test and the administration. In response, the licensee has revised its pregnancy policy to require a negative serum pregnancy test within 48 hours5.555556e-4 days <br />0.0133 hours <br />7.936508e-5 weeks <br />1.8264e-5 months <br /> before treatment instead of 7 days, and to require a nuclear medicine physician to reemphasize with each therapy patient the need to avoid pregnancy and to use contraception, particularly between the pregnancy test and the therapy date. Additional information about this event (#EN54498) can be found at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/2020/20200206en.html.
The second event occurred in July 2020 and involved the unintended exposure of seven individuals. This event was reported in the AFR due to the timing of the event and initial projected doses meeting the AO criteria. However, dose calculations have since confirmed that this event did not meet the AO threshold. The event occurred when two employees came into physical contact with a nuclear gauge source after the source tube broke off from the body of the gauge. Using the Electric Power Research Institute effective dose equivalent (EDE) calculation program developed for human exposure to hot particles and a computer code designed to estimate dose to the skin from a hot particle (VARSKIN 6.2.1), the calculated EDE (wholebody) dose to the two employees was 4.9 millisieverts (490 millirem), and the calculated aggregate skin dose was 0.29 sieverts (29 rem), both values below AO thresholds. The NRC and the Agreement State agreed that the actual exposure to the maximally exposed individual was closer to the values using the EDE and VARSKIN dose modeling approach and as such would not result in an AO. Additional information about this event (#EN54706) can be found at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/2020/20200702en.html.
Assessment of Data Reported the Nuclear Material Events Database The NRC reviews materials events to ensure timely responsiveness and a level of management involvement appropriate to the events significance. The Headquarters Operations Officer reviews, on an immediate basis, the more significant events requiring formal reports to the NRC Operations Center to determine whether they are significant enough to warrant immediate agency management awareness and possible action. Regional coordinators review all events reported to the Operations Center on a daily basis and evaluate them against AO and International Nuclear Event Scale reporting criteria, and agency management is briefed when necessary, depending on the significance and severity of the event. Response to significant events is managed with the appropriate level of agency resources, ranging from regional coordination with Analysis and Trending Groups (ATGs) to reactive inspections and orders issued to licensees. The ATGs identify possible issues or trends that may require additional agency action. For FY 2020, the ATGs evaluated events on an individual level and considered whether they showed any generic implications, trends, or need for additional communications they identified none. Events requiring only written reporting to the NRC are evaluated on a sampling basis as part of the inspection process, and as part of the annual evaluation of events included in the NMED. An example of an ATG event review is the medical event review, culminating in semiannual meetings conducted by the NRC's Advisory Committee on the
The Commissioners 4 Medical Uses of Isotopes during which the NRC staff and the Committee give presentations on the medical events from the past FY. The presentation includes the causes of those events, if known, as well as any recommendations for action. Regional coordinators also keep abreast of international events, for which there were no generic trends for FY 2020.
The NMED contains records of events involving nuclear materials reported to the NRC by its licensees, the Agreement States, and non-licensees. The staff evaluates these reports to identify events that are considered to be safety significant and their associated causes. The staff analyzes the NMED data for the main event types, aggregated for the evaluation of potential trends, and presented in an annual summary report (such as the NMED Annual Report at ADAMS Accession No. ML21049A151). Previous NMED Annual Reports, which include a detailed description of individual events, are available at https://nmed.inl.gov/.
To account for random fluctuations in the event data from year to year and to assess any trends, the staff reviews the data from the last 10 FYs. For the 10-year period from FY 2011 through FY 2020, a total of 4,512 events (697 NRC and 3,815 Agreement State) associated with materials licensees were reported to the NRC, compared to 4,567 events that were reported for the 10-year period from FY 2010 through FY 2019. The ratio of NRC events to Agreement State events (15 percent NRC events; 85 percent Agreement State events, from FY 2011 through FY 2020) is consistent with the ratio of NRC licensees to Agreement State licensees (12 percent NRC licensees; 88 percent Agreement State licensees, in FY 2020). These events represent a very small proportion of the total number of activities carried out. For the current 10-year period, the data indicate that the total number of events per year is stable.
A statistically significant decreasing trend over the 10-year period was identified in the number of NRC-regulated events (total number, combining all event types). However, the decreasing number of NRC-regulated events is consistent with the decreasing number of NRC licensees over the 10-year period as more NRC-regulated States shift into Agreement States. The NRC staff concluded that this trend was not an indication of a significant issue or performance trend.
Also notable is the FY 2020 dip in the number of events (FY 2019486 events; FY 2020322 events). Although the most recent years data typically show many fewer records than their final value when subsequent updates and late reports are added, the current year numbers are still less than typical at this point in the reporting process. The number of reported events decreased for all tracked event types, except for medical events, which remained stable. The staff has a presumption that this decrease is related to the effects on the U.S. economy of the COVID-19 PHE and does not identify risks that warrant detailed investigation.
Based on an analysis of the data reported to NMED, the staff determined that events reported in FY 2020 reflect consistent event reporting across both NRC and Agreement State licensees.
Nonetheless, the staff will continue to monitor event trends.
Fuel Cycle Operating Experience The staff tracks fuel cycle events through the FC OpE Program. The FC OpE Program provides technical and licensing staff, inspectors, and management with key insights that can inform inspection planning, licensing reviews, and program changes. The staff evaluated the numbers and types of events since calendar year (CY) 2007 and used statistical analyses to identify trends in performance, determine contributing factors, and evaluate the safety significance of
The Commissioners 5 those events. The number of reported events decreased from CY 2019 to CY 2020, from nine events in CY 2019 to two events in CY 2020 (ADAMS Accession No. ML21082A071). One of these events involved radiation protection and offsite medical treatment of injured employees working in contaminated areas, and the other involved radioactive materials fire protection performance, which did not include any significant radiological issues. These events did not represent significant issues that warranted immediate actions from the staff or generic communication to the industry. In addition, no events were reported in CY 2020 in the areas of criticality and operational safety, which have previously been the most common performance areas for reportable events. There were also no international events that would have generic implications for the U.S. fuel facility industry.
The staff is initiating an effort to evaluate the FC OpE Program and explore how to provide more meaningful insights, based on a variety of relevant data sources and best practices from other operating experience programs. The staff plans to obtain insights and results from this initiative by this December.
Abnormal Occurrence Data The FY 2020 Report to Congress on AOs contained 9 FY 2020 events (compared to 9 AOs in FY 2019) involving nuclear materials as AOs. Seven events involved Agreement State licensees, and the remaining two events involved NRC licensees. Eight AOs were medical events as defined in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 35, Medical use of byproduct material. The one non-medical event AO involved an unintentional human exposure event. The eight medical event AOs are consistent with the proportion of medical event AOs compared to prior years and represent a very small percentage, approximately 0.007 percent, of the estimated number of nuclear medicine and radiation therapy procedures involving radioactive material performed in the United States annually.2 Based on its analysis of the events, the staff did not identify any safety-significant trends or safety concerns among medical licensees. However, in FY 2020, the staff issued generic communications to alert the medical community of poor practices associated with yttrium-90 medical procedures and strontium-82/rubidium-82 generator elution events and issues. These information notices can be found at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/gen-comm/info-notices/2019/.
Integrated Materials Performance Evaluation Program The IMPEP continues to be effective in fulfilling its objective of evaluating the adequacy and compatibility of Agreement State and NRC materials programs. Agreement State and NRC programs continue to adequately protect public health and safety, despite challenges presented by the ongoing COVID-19 PHE. During FY 2020, the NRC and Agreement State staffs conducted six IMPEP reviews. Due to travel restrictions associated with the COVID-19 PHE, five FY 2020 IMPEP reviews were rescheduled to take place in FY 2021. As of the date of this report, three of those five IMPEP reviews have been completed, and the two remaining IMPEP reviews are scheduled to be completed in FY 2021. No IMPEP reviews identified major performance issues with the compatibility of the protection of health and safety through Agreement State or NRC regional materials programs. Additional details appear in the Annual 2 Based on data in the IMV Benchmark Report Radiation Therapy October 2010, IMV Medical Division, Inc.
The Commissioners 6 Report on Agreement States and the NRCs Radioactive Materials Programs for Calendar Year 2020 (ADAMS Accession No. ML21063A525).
Escalated Enforcement Action Review Escalated enforcement actions include Severity Level I, II, and III notices of violation; civil penalties; notices of violation to individuals; orders to modify, suspend, or revoke NRC licenses or the authority to engage in NRC-licensed activities; and orders issued to impose civil penalties. In FY 2020, the agency issued 26 escalated enforcement actions involving NRC materials licensees (including fuel cycle facilities).
For FY 2020, the number of escalated enforcement actions for the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program decreased by 14 (35 percent) from the total number of actions issued in FY 2019 (40). The 26 escalated enforcement actions issued in FY 2020 represent a significant decrease over the prior FY and are also approximately 43 percent less than the average annual number of escalated actions issued to materials licensees and fuel cycle facilities for the prior 5-year period, between FY 2015 and FY 2019 (46). The staff has a presumption that this decrease in escalated enforcement actions is related to the effects on the U.S. economy of the COVID-19 PHE and does not identify risks that warrant detailed investigation.
Licensees Identified with Significant Performance Issues For FY 2020, the staff identified no nuclear materials licensees that met the criteria in SECY-11-0132 for discussion at the AARM.
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards Oversight Activities during the COVID-19 PHE Following the onset of the COVID-19 PHE, the staff communicated with licensees and Agreement States to track any impacts on the operations of facilities, understand the need for potential regulatory relief at materials facilities, and monitor site conditions for inspection planning purposes. The staff used the information and insights obtained to assess the ability to continue to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety, based on impacts to facility operations and ability to travel.
Licensing Actions In March 2020, before the imposition of COVID-19-related travel restrictions, NMSS business lines began assessing the potential for PHE-related disruption to its licensees. NMSS determined that the ability of licensees to comply with their licenses would be impacted should travel restrictions be imposed. This would be particularly true if licensees or contractors were not permitted to travel to locations for the use of nuclear material. It would also impact the licensees ability to obtain external refresher training.
The NMSS business lines exercised their authority to provide exemptions from NRC regulations and amendments to license conditions and technical specifications when applicable criteria were met. Licensees that anticipated that they would be unable to comply with a regulatory requirement or license condition contacted the NRC, which considered those requests for relief on a case-by-case basis. If the requirements for an exemption or amendment were met, the NRC provided written approval for a specified time period. The NMSS staff also developed templates and specific procedures to expedite NRC review of requests to assist in this process.
The Commissioners 7 In coordination with other offices, NMSS issued a letter to licensees on April 7, 2020 (ADAMS Accession No. ML20092H614), describing options and processes for regulatory relief. NMSS business lines conducted numerous public meetings with NMSS licensees to further publicize the process for requesting regulatory relief, as well as to solicit information concerning the need for such relief. Additional follow up public meetings took place in the fall of 2020. The NRC has issued approximately 50 exemptions across all business lines to date, which can be found through https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/covid-19/materials/index.html.
Inspections Nuclear Materials User (NMU) business line inspections have continued to maintain reasonable assurance of adequate protection during the COVID-19 PHE. The NMU business line adapted to the changing environment by using in-person, total remote, and hybrid inspection methods.
Although the business line continues to strive to complete inspections on schedule and in accordance with established timeliness metrics, meeting an agency timeliness metric for inspection is not the sole consideration in reaching a decision on whether to conduct an inspection. The staff made inspection scheduling decisions with a focus maintaining reasonable assurance of adequate protection and the risks to agency inspectors and licensee employees health and safety. During March-December 2020, the NRC conducted 256 inspections, 9 of which were late (3.5 percent). However, the inspections conducted were of high quality, and the very small number of late inspections indicates that the NMU business line inspection program continues to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety for the NMU program. Nonetheless, the business line has formed working groups (WGs) to better align activities to maximize opportunities, is closely monitoring the impact of inspection scheduling, and has implemented new internal processes for quarterly reporting to the business line lead.
Inspection of fuel cycle facilities to fulfill the core inspection program has continued during the pandemic. Inspections have been conducted either onsite, remotely, or a combination of both.
Portions of inspection procedures, previously delayed due to site and local conditions early during the PHE, were scheduled to be completed on site in December 2020 for one fuel cycle facility. Due to deteriorating COVID-19 conditions at the site and in the surrounding area in the December timeframe, the onsite portion of these inspections was not conducted and could not be rescheduled within a timeframe to meet inspection timeliness requirements. As a result, the NRC did not meet the AFR metric for fuel facility inspections for CY 2020. The staff evaluated the impact of the deviation on nuclear safety, security, and the environment. This resulted in some additional (beyond the CY 2021 standard core inspection program) limited inspections in CY 2021 in the areas of plant modifications, emergency preparedness, environment, and material control and accounting. No additional inspections were recommended for the areas of criticality safety, operations, fire protection, and waste management, since these areas were already scheduled for inspection in CY 2021.
Oversight Activities Assessment NMSS is undergoing a phased approach for its COVID-19 PHE Oversight Activities Assessment effort. Phase A of this effort consisted of evaluating feedback received through a survey to all the staff with responsibility for implementing the oversight programs in the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety arena and through numerous engagements discussing implementation of the oversight program among the leadership team and staff. Additional feedback was solicited from external stakeholders during several public meetings. Phase A consisted of the NMSS program
The Commissioners 8 staff assessing feedback from inspectors on oversight activities conducted during the first several months of the PHE, at a time when the duration of the PHE could not be anticipated, with a goal of sharing challenges and good practices in implementing the oversight programs during the PHE. Overall, feedback indicated that interim inspection program guidance, issued by NMSS in June 2020, was effective and appropriate and that remote inspections were a sufficient alternative to onsite inspection during periods of travel restrictions, although there are opportunities for information technology (IT) improvements. Currently, the staff is initiating Phase B of this effort, in which it will conduct a more comprehensive assessment of the implementation of the oversight programs during the PHE. The goal of Phase B is to recommend potential enhancements to the inspection programs based on experiences during the COVID-19 PHE. These enhancements will enable continued effective implementation of the oversight programs and position them for success in the future. The staff will gather insights from the workforce and stakeholders during this review and will keep the Commission fully informed of the status and results of this effort, which it expects to complete in August 2021.
In February 2021, NMSS reviewed practices and feedback across the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program and identified the need to clarify business line expectations and ensure consistency in decision making and documentation related to inspection adjustments.
Specifically, NMSS identified a need to clarify and align the timeframes for periodic review of the inspection manual chapters (IMCs) and establish and align the business lines where necessary on the definition of program adjustments and documentation of such adjustments. NMSS issued interim guidance on inspection activities in a memorandum dated February 19, 2021 (ADAMS Accession No. ML21048A030 [non-public]), and directed all the business lines to collectively review IMCs related to the definition of inspection adjustments and the documentation and reporting of these adjustments to provide consistency in terms, determining the manner for conducting inspections, and reporting adjustments in inspections to appropriate Headquarters business line managers.
Programmatic Self-Assessments and Improvements NMSS Self-Assessment Related to Enforcement Activities in the Division of Fuel Management, Inspection and Oversight Branch In 2020, NMSS completed an internal enforcement program self-assessment related to the characterization of non-escalated enforcement, in accordance with the agencys Enforcement Policy, Enforcement Manual, and related guidance in the area of Certificate of Compliance holders for transportation packaging and spent fuel dry cask storage systems, as approved under 10 CFR Part 71, Packaging and transportation of radioactive material, and 10 CFR Part 72, Licensing requirements for the independent storage of spent nuclear fuel, high-level radioactive waste, and reactor-related greater-than-Class C waste. The internal self-assessment provided the opportunity to communicate best practices, provide knowledge transfer for participants, promote consistency, and identify any improvements needed in office-level guidance.
The self-assessment focused on inspections of Certificate of Compliance holders activities related to the design, fabrication, and quality assurance programs of transportation packaging and spent fuel dry cask storage systems, and to 10 CFR Part 21, Reporting of defects and noncompliance.
The Commissioners 9 The staff conducting the self-assessment concluded that inspection reports were very informative and communicated comprehensive inspection information and that inspectors correctly applied the Enforcement Policy and Manual to disposition violations as either non-escalated or escalated enforcement. The staff also concluded that, for non-escalated enforcement, inspectors correctly dispositioned Severity Level IV violations as either non-cited violations or by issuing notices of violation, and properly distinguished between Severity Level IV and minor violations. The staff did identify small inconsistencies in documentation of negative observations and minor violations, and in the processing of inspection reports (e.g., concurrence and tracking of inspection findings). While the staff noted that these small inconsistencies did not create any safety concerns, it recommended updating IMC 0610, Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards Inspection Reports, dated May 18, 2004, to reflect the latest guidance in the Enforcement Manual and suggested staff-level training to promote consistency in the processing of inspection reports. As a result, the staff will revise IMC 0610 in 2021 and will provide training on these revisions to the spent fuel storage and radioactive materials transportation packaging inspection staff. The results of the self-assessment appear in a report dated December 22, 2020 (ADAMS Accession No. ML20290A774 [non-public]).
Web-Based Licensing Modernization The Web-Based Licensing (WBL) System is transforming and modernizing the day-to-day operations pertaining to radioactive materials licensing and oversight in an efficient, secure, and safe manner. This system maintains approximately 3,200 active NRC license and certificate records issued by the NRC across five NRC business lines. It stores and tracks, on average, 2,000 licensing or certification actions annually (new applications, amendments, renewals, and terminations). However, the WBL goes beyond facilitating traditional radioactive materials licensing and maintaining data. The WBL provides regulators with the IT tools needed to manage the life cycle of licensing, certification, inspection (includes storing and tracking of nearly 700 inspection actions annually), and reciprocity activities all in one place. Ongoing enhancement projects in FY 2021 include integrating the WBL with ADAMS such that NRC users can profile and submit documents to ADAMS from the WBL and an active hyperlink to the document is returned to the WBL; submission of applications for materials licenses through the WBL interface and allowing external users to check on the status of their application; and improving functions to track NRC staff actions not directly associated with licensing and oversight (e.g., IMPEP reviews, guidance development, WG activities). In addition, to support the agencywide initiatives on data analytics and visualizations, data from the WBL are being placed in an agencywide cloud-based data warehouse along with data from the Human Resources Management System, the Cost Accounting Code system, and the Reactor Program System. The data warehouse allows data collected across the NRC and stored in different IT systems to be brought together in a format that can be mined for use on dashboards, providing the agency with greater ability to analyze and identify trends within the data.
Reactor Decommissioning Financial Assurance Working Group In September 2019, the NRC formed an interoffice WG to leverage legal, licensing, and oversight expertise to evaluate the existing reactor decommissioning financial assurance regulations and licensing and oversight processes. New decommissioning business models have emerged over the last decade that involve accelerated decommissioning schedules and accelerated decommissioning trust fund withdrawals, which result in less time for the decommissioning trust fund to grow during decommissioning. They also typically involve ownership by limited liability companies dedicated to decommissioning. The WG was assigned
The Commissioners 10 to comprehensively document and evaluate whether the existing reactor decommissioning financial assurance program remains adequate with respect to how decommissioning is likely to be accomplished in the future, and whether the NRC has the appropriate infrastructure to identify any potential challenges.
Based on its review of the reactor decommissioning financial assurance regulations and of the NRCs experience implementing these regulations, and after two public meetings, the staff determined that there were no regulatory gaps or policy issues. Specifically, with respect to expedited decommissioning, the regulations still ensure sufficient funding through annual updates of decommissioning cost estimates and reporting to the NRC. With respect to limited liability companies as licensees, the regulations already include changes made in 1998 and 2002 to address financial assurance in light of the potential deregulation of nuclear power plants. In its final report (ADAMS Accession No. ML20120A550), the WG recommended several enhancements to the NRC power reactor decommissioning financial assurance guidance and procedures implementing the licensing and oversight processes to improve program effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency.
OVERALL CONCLUSIONS:
Based on the review of event data and assessment of key events, the staff concludes that the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program is functioning effectively to protect public health and safety. The staff concluded that there are no discernible adverse licensee performance trends or significant nuclear materials issues.
COORDINATION:
The Office of the General Counsel has reviewed this paper and has no legal objections.
Signed by Lubinski, John on 04/28/21 John W. Lubinski, Director Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
- via email NMSS/MSST/MSEB OFFICE NMSS/MSST/MSEB NMSS/MSST R-IV/DRP NAME RSun RS CEinberg CE KWilliams KW AVegel AV DATE Mar 16, 2021 Mar 19, 2021 Mar 26, 2021 Apr 7, 2021 OFFICE R-I R-II NMSS/DFM* NMSS/DUWP NAME DLew DL LDudes LD AKock AK PHolahan PH DATE Apr 7, 2021 Apr 7, 2021 Apr 7, 2021 Apr 7, 2021 OFFICE R-III R-IV OGC/NLO* QTE*
NAME JGiessner JG SMorris SM MZobler MZ KAzariah-Kribbs KA DATE Apr 7, 2021 Apr 7, 2021 Apr 9, 2021 Apr 15, 2021 OFFICE NMSS NMSS JLubinski NAME JLubinski JL RLewis for RL DATE Apr 23, 2021 Apr 28, 2021