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INFORMATION REPORT SECY-01-0024 February 7, 2001
Contact: D. Terao, OEDO
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Reactor Oversight Process The Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) Initial Implementation Evaluation Panel (IIEP) held its third meeting, which was open to the public, on January 22-23, 2001, in Bethesda, Maryland. During this meeting the Inspection Program Branch staff made presentations on: ROP self-assessment data and insights; current ROP initiatives and status; status of recommendations and issues identified in the Pilot Program Evaluation Panel report and the Commission Staff Requirements Memorandum on SECY 00-0049. NEI/PADS Electronic Fingerprint Conference On January 29, 2001, staff, from the Reactor Safeguards Section and the Division of Personnel Security, participated in the NEI/PADS Electronic Fingerprint Conference held at the Crystal City Marriott, Arlington, VA. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss electronic fingerprint submission under the current rule 10 CFR 73.57. The agenda included a discussion of network design including the NRC-FBI Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) connection, policy development regarding fees and submittal reconciliation, a review of approved hardware and software, vendor presentations, and interactions with live demonstrations of the vendor equipment. NRC Regulatory Issue Summary 2001-05: Guidance on Submitting Documents to the NRC by Electronic Information Exchange or on CD-ROM Dated January 25, 2001 The NRC issued this Regulatory Issue Summary (RIS) to inform the addressees that they may now submit documents to the NRC over the internet by the electronic information exchange (EIE) process or on CD-ROM if they follow certain procedures. The guidance herein is applicable to most documents submitted to the NRC pursuant to 10 CFR Part 50; exceptions are noted in the background discussion. GE Circuit Breaker Users Group Meeting On January 22-24, 2001, NRR staff participated in a meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, of the EPRI/NMAC (Nuclear Maintenance Applications Center) General Electric Circuit Breaker Users Group. This group of licensee engineers, training personnel, and maintenance technicians, meets annually to discuss maintenance and refurbishment guidance, as well as other issues regarding low- and medium-voltage circuit breakers manufactured by General Electric. Representatives from General Electric, INPO, and third party vendors also attended the meeting. The INPO representative discussed the findings from the evaluation of 60 plants concerning SOER 98-2, "Circuit Breaker Reliability." The NRC representatives discussed GE circuit breaker operating experience reported to the NRC in 2000, attended sessions on emerging issues with GE breakers, and listened to presentations by third party vendors offering overhaul and maintenance services, as well as vacuum replacement breakers for existing GE air-magnetic breakers in safety-related applications. The staff also discussed the changes to 10 CFR 50.65(a)(4) (the maintenance rule) as they relate to assessing and managing risk associated with circuit breaker maintenance activities. NUREG on Respiratory Protection NUREG/CR-0041, Revision 1, "Manual of Respiratory Protection Against Airborne Radioactive Material," was published January 2001 and distributed on January 30, 2001. The NUREG is being issued as a technical supplement to the 1999 revision of Subpart H "Respiratory Protection and Controls to Restrict Internal Exposure In Restricted Areas" of 10 CFR 20, and to Regulatory Guide 8.15, "Acceptable Programs for Respiratory Protection," Revision 1, October 1999. It imposes no requirements. Rather, it is intended to provide licensees with technical assistance on establishing and administering programs. The NUREG provides licensees with the technical bases for industry good practices, offers suggestions for program content, and presents facts about problems previously experienced in respiratory protection programs. V.C. Summer Weld Repair The licensee for V.C. Summer is continuing work on repairs to all the locations in the nozzle-to-spool piece weld in the "A" reactor coolant hot leg which showed indications under radiographic examination. The repairs are complete except for one location where the licensee ground all the way to the inside diameter of the weld to remove a radiograph indication; this location is about four inches long and wide enough to require a backing plate to allow installation of the new weld root. Minimizing radiation doses to the workers performing the repair is an important factor in the licensee's decision-making process. The licensee expects to complete the repairs in the next few days. Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company On Friday, January 26, 2001, the Maine Yankee directors announced that they had chosen to continue decommissioning of the plant under Maine Yankee management. This decision maintains the approach Maine Yankee has followed since May 2000, when the company terminated its contract with Stone & Webster, which entered bankruptcy proceedings. Maine Yankee will continue managing the group of contractor firms that are performing specific decommissioning tasks. In addition, the board also announced several management changes, the most significant being that Wayne Norton, formerly Vice President-Decommissioning, has been named president of Maine Yankee. He will have overall responsibility for management of decommissioning and the company. Mike Meisner, an Entergy executive who served under contract as Maine Yankee's president since February 1998, has been named Chief Nuclear Officer. He will be responsible for nuclear safety, regulatory affairs, and external relations issues.
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards/Regional Division Directors' Counterpart Annual Meeting From January 30 to February 1, 2001, the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS)/Regional Division Directors' Counterpart annual meeting was held at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Headquarters. Attendees from each region and each NMSS Division met with one another, and with their counterparts from the Office of State and Tribal Programs, the Office of Enforcement, the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, the Office of Human Resources, and the Chief Financial Officer to discuss topics of general interest in the nuclear materials and waste arenas. The theme for this year's meeting centered on how the managers would most effectively implement upcoming programmatic changes and current and future challenges likely to be faced. Meeting between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Enrichment Corporation On January 29, 2001, management and staff from the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards and the Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards met with representatives from the U.S. Enrichment Corporation (USEC) to discuss the status of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) review of USEC's higher assay upgrade project certificate amendment request. The objectives of the meeting were to discuss a recent technical issue which arose during NRC review of USEC Nuclear Criticality Safety Evaluations/Analyses, to discuss the proprietary nature of the documents USEC has been submitting, and discuss general programmatic issues which will be addressed in NRC's Compliance Evaluation Report. Several paths to resolution for these issues were discussed and NRC plans to issue the certificate amendment in mid-March. Envirocare's Request for Approval to Dispose of Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program Material From the Wayne and Maywood, New Jersey, Sites Partially Granted By letter of January 26, 2001, the Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards approved, in part, Envirocare of Utah's (Envirocare's) request of September 15, 2000, to receive material for disposal at it's 11e.(2) cell from the Wayne and Maywood, New Jersey, Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) sites. Partial approval was granted as a result of the staff's issuance of Director's Decision DD-00-06 on December 13, 2000, clarifying that the staff lacked jurisdiction over tailings produced at a facility not licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on the effective date of the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978 (UMTRCA), or thereafter. After meeting the conditions specified in the January 26, 2001, letter, disposal of the material from that portion of the Maywood site currently under NRC license would be authorized. The FUSRAP material at the Maywood site, not under NRC license, would be authorized for disposal at Envirocare's 11e.(2) embankment only after having met the interim guidance issued by NRC on November 30, 2000, on disposal of non-11e.(2) byproduct material in tailings impoundments. The interim guidance is attached to NRC Regulatory Issue Summary 2000-23 as "Recent Changes to Uranium Recovery Policy." Because the Wayne site was not under NRC or Agreement State license on the effective date of UMTRCA, or thereafter, material from the site does not constitute 11e.(2) byproduct material and can be disposed only after having complied with the interim guidance specified above. As described in the interim guidance, authorization to dispose of this non-11e.(2) byproduct material would be permitted only after Envirocare's submittal, and NRC's approval, of a request to amend Envirocare's license. Exercising Enforcement Discretion, NRC would not object to continued disposal of pre-UMTRCA mill tailings since NRC understands that the Wayne and Maywood site material is similar, in all respects, to materials already being disposed of in the 11e.(2) cell. Meeting with the Department of Energy and Moab Mill Trustee On January 24, 2001, staff from the Division of Fuel Cycle Safety
and Safeguards met with representatives of Pricewaterhouse Coopers (the
Moab Mill trustee), and the Department of Energy (DOE
American Society of Testing and Materials C26 Winter Meeting On January 22-23, 2001, staff from the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) attended an American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) C26.13 High-Level Waste and Spent Fuel and C26.07 Low-Level Waste Joint Subcommittee meeting in Reno, Nevada. Staff attended this meeting to present the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) interest and request for risk informing the revision of ASTM C1174 "Standard Practice for Prediction of the Long-Term Behavior of Materials, Including Waste Forms, Used in Engineered Barrier Systems (EBS) for Geological Disposal of High-level Radioactive Waste." Risk informing the standard could provide adequate direction to those who choose to reference that standard for high-level waste, long-term storage issues. The Subcommittee assigned sections for revision to members, with the first draft due at the June 24, 2001, meeting in Norfolk, Virginia. The Subcommittee presented status reports and current needs of several additional standards that are being drafted. Steering Committee Meeting and Workshop on DECOVALEX On January 21-27, 2001, staff from the Division of Waste Management attended the Steering Committee Meeting and Workshop on DECOVALEX (DEvelopment of COupled Models for VALidation of EXperiments) project in Japan along with the staff from the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses (Center). Technical teams from the funding organizations presented results on work being conducted on Coupled Thermal-Hydrological-Mechanical modeling studies in connection with their respective high-level waste (HLW) disposal programs. After the workshop, the participants visited Japan's Geological Isolation Basic Research Facility at Tokai, and the Underground Research Laboratory at the Tono Geoscience Center. Both the facilities are run by Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute. The DECOVALEX project is in its third and final phase and is scheduled to run until December 2002, when a final report will be published. Of great interest to the U.S. HLW disposal program is the participation of the Swedish, Japanese, French, and Spanish modeling teams (in addition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)/Center and Department of Energy (DOE) teams) in evaluating the results of the Drift-Scale Heater Test being conducted at the Yucca Mountain site by the DOE. Although the teams are still in the early stages of evaluation, the temperature predictions made by most teams compare favorably with measured values. When thermal impacts are coupled with mechanical and/or hydrological behavior, wide ranges of results are predicted depending on the limitations and capabilities of the models used. The NRC/Center team will continue to actively participate in the project until the final report is published. Technical Exchange Meeting with the Department of Energy On January 31, 2001, staff from the Division of Waste Management held a technical exchange meeting with the Department of Energy (DOE) to discuss DOE's data verification and software qualification processes. The Yucca Mountain project uses many forms of inputs subject to appropriate quality control (e.g., Technical Information and Data). DOE's Corrective Action Report LVMO-98-C-002 reported deficiencies in the documentation of data listed as "Qualified" in the DOE Technical Data Management System. Investigations into the deficiencies resulted in all data being categorized as "To Be Verified." Also, processes and procedures were developed by DOE to screen and track data used in calculations, analyses and models. At this meeting, DOE provided background for the data program development and an overview of the data verification and software qualification processes. DOE also demonstrated how the data verification and software qualification processes resolve the issues of traceability and reproducibility to ensure defensible, regulatory-compliant documents are produced. On-Site Representatives Attend Clark County Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Advisory Committee Meeting On January 24, 2001, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) On-Site Representatives (ORs) attended a public meeting of the Clark County Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Advisory Committee, at the Committee's request. Among the items discussed during the meeting were the results of a recent public opinion poll on the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, transportation issues and a status update from Clark County's Nuclear Waste Division. Attending were representatives from affected units of local government, citizen groups, and Tribal constituents, as well as staff members from the offices of U.S. Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign. The meeting provided an opportunity for effective exchange of information and views. Regular participation and continued involvement by the ORs in community meetings, such as this, represent an important extension of the NRC's public outreach program. Meeting with Pacific Gas and Electric Regarding Spent Fuel Storage at Diablo Canyon On January 25, 2001, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) staff met with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff to discuss the status of the proposed application for an independent spent fuel storage installation at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. The PG&E staff confirmed that it plans to submit an application for a site specific 10 CFR Part 72 license for Diablo Canyon in April 2001. The discussions focused on how to coordinate concurrent reviews of site specific operational and environmental issues with the review of the Holtec Hi-Storm cask design amendment. PG&E staff also described the California Coastal Commission environmental review process and identified potential interactions between the Coastal Commission and NRC. NRC is planning to conduct a public information meeting near Diablo Canyon in mid-March 2001. Meeting with the Nuclear Procurement Issues Committee, Dry Storage Quality Working Group, Concerning Its Dry Cask Storage Audits and Initiatives On January 25, 2001, the Spent Fuel Project Office (SFPO) met with representatives of the Nuclear Procurement Issues Committee (NUPIC), Dry Storage Quality Working Group (DSQG). The DSQG presented information on the working group's membership, structure, and objectives. The DSQG also described its three-phase process for auditing dry cask storage system designers and fabricators, and for assisting licensees in spent fuel storage installation site implementation. SFPO management acknowledged the efforts by NUPIC and the DSQG to improve performance in the dry cask storage arena and expressed an interest in attending future DSQG meetings and in observing future audits. Lake City Army Ammunition Plant On January 25, 2001, the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant (LCAAP) regulators
{NRC, EPA The EPA, MDNR, and the licensee stated that although there are still difficult decisions that remain to be made they believed that the process was working well. Further, they agreed that their already aggressive schedule to complete the EE/CA could be improved by at least 30 days. The positive working effort developed by this group of regulators for remediation of Area 10 of LCAAP will yield a positive outcome for the regulators, the licensee, and the public.
Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research RES Staffer Works on IAEA Code on Siting Requirements An NRC staff representative from the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) was invited by the Director, Division of Nuclear Installation Safety of the IAEA, to participate in a meeting in Vienna, Austria, to prepare a revision of the "Code on the Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Siting." This Code covers the full range of siting topics from earthquakes and tornadoes to human-induced external events. The RES staffer's assistance was requested because of his expertise in this area. The RES staff representative worked with IAEA staff and drafted a revision of the Code that will be titled "Safety of Nuclear Installations: Siting Requirements." The document will be forwarded first to the Nuclear Safety Standards Group and then to the Member States for approval before final acceptance by the IAEA. The draft emphasizes the use of probabilistic analysis techniques for the assessment of natural and human-induced external hazards to characterize the uncertainties in the hazard assessment. The approach will also be used in nuclear power plant PRAs. The IAEA Code is written at a high conceptual, non-prescriptive level; the U.S. Code is consistent with the IAEA Code. Report on "A Study of Control Room Staffing Levels for Advanced Reactors," NUREG/I-0137 NUREG/I-0137, "A Study of Control Room Staffing Levels for Advanced Reactors," prepared by the OECD Halden Reactor Project was recently published. This NUREG/IA reports on the results of a study and can be used as part of the technical basis for review guidance on control room staffing levels for advanced reactor applications. The report documents the results of an empirical study conducted by the Halden Reactor Project of operator and plant performance in simulators at the Loviisa Nuclear Power Station, which represented the conventional control room, and at the Halden Man Machine Laboratory (HAMMLAB), which represented the advanced plant control room. Two control room staffing configurations were employed in each plant setting: a staffing configuration reflecting the requirements of 10 CFR 50.54 (m); and a staffing configuration that involved a reduced number of control room operators. Five risk-important scenarios were chosen to evaluate the effects of plant type and crew size on performance. Measures included ratings of crew performance and transient management; operator workload; situation awareness; and team interaction. The findings of the study revealed a number of effects of crew size and plant type, and their combination on operator performance. The report documents the study and discusses the implications and issues raised by this performance-based evaluation of control room staffing requirements for advanced passive reactors. The report concludes that: "... decisions about control room staffing should be based upon design features including function allocation, automation, integration, and plant-specific characteristics (e.g., passive system performance). Validation and verification using measures of operator and crew performance are necessary to determine the staffing complement needed to operate the plant."
Incident Response Operations Preliminary Notifications
Office of Administration Acquisition Training On February 1, 2001, the Division of Contracts and Property Management presented a mandatory Acquisition Certification and Training Program module entitled, "Contract Administration." This all-day training module focuses on monitoring contractor performance, spending controls, modifying contracts and agreements and remedying contractual problems. Each participant received a course manual that serves as a reference tool for project managers in performing their day-to-day responsibilities. A mandatory in-house two-day course, "Better, Faster, Cheaper - Making Acquisition Reform Work" was presented to DCPM staff on January 31 - February 1, 2001. Presented by ESI (George Washington University), this course provided a comprehensive review of the wide range of procurement innovations that have been developed in recent years. The course provided useful information for contracting staff to: develop evaluation factors that complement the objectives of commercial item acquisition and performance-based contracting; maximize the effectiveness of using simplified acquisition procedures to purchase commercial items and services; and focus market research efforts to provide meaningful data to support the acquisition strategy process. Each participant received a course manual which will serve as a reference tool.
Chief Information Officer Freedom of Information and Privacy Act Requests received during the Period of January 26, 2001 through February 1, 2001:
Office of Human Resources
Office of Public Affairs Media Interest The Region I Regional Administrator and staff met with the editorial board of the Journal News in New York to discuss the Indian Point event. A reporter interviewed the resident inspectors of the Indian Point plant. Region II staff were interviewed by a reporter from El Nuevo Dia, a newspaper in Puerto Rico, for an article on the Viecques situation. The Grand Gulf senior resident inspector will be interviewed for "a day in the life" story by a local CBS-TV affiliate in Jackson, MS.
Office of International Programs Japanese Team Visit On January 29, 2001, a team from the Japanese Nuclear Power Plant Life Engineering Center (PLEC) of the Japan Power Engineering and Inspection Corporation (JAPEIC) met with NRC staff from RES and NRR to introduce the research and development activities of their newly created organization, and to learn about NRC plant- aging activities. They are especially interested in NRC's work in cable aging and identified this as an area of possible cooperation. Austrian Observer for the Temelin OSART The IAEA will conduct an Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) visit to the Temelin, Czech Republic, VVER-1000 nuclear power plant, February 12 to March 1, 2001. To provide transparency and direct access to information regarding safety of the plant, Austria proposed, and the IAEA and Czech representatives agreed, to place an Austrian observer on the OSART team. The observer is a metallurgist from the Austrian National Nuclear Reserarch Center in Seibersdorf. The OSART team will also include an NRC staff member from NRR as Assistant Team Leader, and another NRC employee (currently working at IAEA) as a Cost-Free Expert.
Office of the Secretary
Commission Correspondence
Federal Register Notices Issued Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company; Haddam Neck Plant; Docket No. 50-213-OLA; Establishment of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board
Region I Millstone 1 Decommissioning Advisory Committee On Thursday evening, February 1, 2001, a meeting of the Millstone 1 Decommissioning Advisory Committee (MIDAC) was held at the Millstone Station simulator building, Waterford, CT. The MIDAC is a subcommittee of the Connecticut State Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee, and is the local citizen's advisory panel for the decommissioning of Millstone 1. The Director, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I and staff from Region I and NRR made presentations on decommissioning and regulatory matters, as well as the status of the review of the two missing fuel pins, and responded to questions from the committee. The 2½ hour meeting was attended by several members of the public and media.
Region II Carolina Power and Light Company - H. B. Robinson On January 29, 2001, the Director, Division of Reactor Safety and selected staff held an exit meeting at the H. B. Robinson nuclear facility in Hartsville, SC. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the results of NRC review of the licensee's performance in an Emergency Preparedness Indicator. Carolina Power and Light Company - Harris On January 30, 2001, an open Regulatory Conference for the Harris nuclear facility was held in the Region II office. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the risk significance of thrust bearing failure and inoperability of the "C" charging/safety injection pump at the Harris site.
Region III Region Holds Kewaunee Plant Regulatory Conferences On January 30, 2001, Region III staff members met with members of the Nuclear Management Co. and Kewaunee (Wisconsin) plant officials in the regional office for two regulatory conferences. During the first conference, participants discussed a potential white finding associated with strainers in the plant's auxiliary feedwater system. During the second afternoon session, participants discussed two inspection findings in the emergency preparedness area, one of which resulted in a potential white finding and the other a yellow finding.
Region IV New Vice President at Waterford 3 Nuclear Plant Entergy Nuclear announced that effective today, February 1, 2001, John T. Herron will become the Vice President - Operations at the Waterford 3 nuclear plant, succeeding Charles M. Dugger. Mr. Herron was recently the vice president at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant and previously was the plant manager at the Sequoyah Nuclear plant and the Cooper Nuclear Station.
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to tour the Atlas site at Moab, Utah. The tour focused on the recent earthwork
completed by the trustee, and discussed future work that can be done by
the trustee prior to transfer of the Atlas Moab site to DOE, as required
by the Defense Authorization Act for FY 2001. A representative of
the state of Utah was also present. The trustee has installed a wick drain
dewatering system near the center of the pile, has reworked some of the
side slopes of the pile, and has moved contaminated material to the top
of the pile. Earthmoving work has ceased, as the money that the trustee
allocated for such work has been spent, and most of the equipment has
been removed from the site.