Public Workshop To Provide Information on the Pilot Plant Performance Indicators

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Public Workshop To Provide Information on the Pilot Plant

Performance Indicators

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will hold a public

workshop to provide information to selected NRC inspectors and licensee

staff of the Reactor Oversight Process Pilot Program. This meeting is

open to the public.

DATES: The workshop will be held from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. April 12

through April 15, 1999. The first two hours of the workshop on April 12

will be dedicated to check-in procedures.

ADDRESSES: The workshop will be held at the Holiday Inn, 1250 Roosevelt

road, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: August Spector at 301-415-2140 or Lee

Miller at 423-855-6510, Mail Stop: O-5H4, Inspection Program Branch,

Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On January 8, 1999, the staff issued SECY-99-007, forwarding the

staff's recommendations for a new reactor oversight process. On January

20, 1999, the staff briefed the Commission on the staff's proposal

described in SECY-99-007. The following issues represent a brief

summary of the concepts presented in SECY-99-007.

Over the last 10 years, commercial nuclear power plants have been

operated safely and overall plant performance has improved. This

improvement in plant performance can be attributed, in part, to

successful regulatory oversight. Despite this success, the agency has

noted that the current reactor oversight process (1) is at times not

clearly focused on the most safety important issues, (2) consists of

redundant actions and outputs, and (3) is frequently subjective, with

NRC action taken in a manner that is at times neither scrutable nor

predictable.

In the new regulatory oversight process:

There will be a risk-informed baseline inspection program

that establishes the minimum direct inspection effort for all

licensees.

Thresholds will be established for licensee safety

performance, below which increased NRC interaction would be warranted.

Adequate assurance of licensee performance will require

assessment of both performance indicators (PIs) and inspection

findings.

Both PIs and inspection findings will be evaluated against

risk-informed thresholds, where feasible.

Crossing a PI threshold and an inspection threshold will

have the same meaning with respect to safety significance and required

NRC interaction.

The baseline inspection program will cover those risk-

significant attributes of licensee performance not adequately covered

by PIs.

The baseline inspection program will also verify the

accuracy of PI data collection and analysis and provide for event

response, as appropriate.

Enforcement actions will be focused on issues that are

risk significant.

Guidelines will be established for identifying and

responding to unacceptable licensee performance.

Additionally, the staff will pilot the new reactor oversight

process during a 6-month period beginning in June 1999. The purpose of

the pilot program is to exercise the new processes (PI reporting,

inspection, assessment, and enforcement), to identify process and

procedure problems and make appropriate changes and, to the maximum

extent possible, evaluate the effectiveness of the new process. Full

implementation of the new oversight process will commence pending

successful completion of the pilot program, as measured against pre-

established success criteria. A notable feature of the pilot program is

the use of the Pilot Program Evaluation Panel, consisting of NRC, NEI,

industry, public, and State representatives, to aid in evaluating the

effectiveness of the pilot program. This workshop will focus on the

pilot plant participants and specifically address performance indicator

reporting requirements.

Scope of the Public Workshops

The NRC will hold a four day workshop from April 12-15, 1999 to

provide information on the new performance indicator reporting

requirements to selected NRC inspectors and licensee staff

participating in the Reactor Oversight Process Pilot Program. In order

to meet the objectives of the workshop, active participants will be

limited to 48 NRC and licensee personnel who will be participating in

the pilot program. Other interested parties may observe, up to a total

of 150 additional individuals. NRC and licensee staff may choose to

rotate cognizant individuals into the active participant ranks as

applicable. 18 slots will be reserved for the nine pilot plants, 25 for

the regional offices, and five seats reserved for NRC Headquarters and

Regional Senior Reactor Analysts. The pilot plants are: Hope Creek,

Salem Units 1 and 2, Fitzpatrick, Prairie Island Units 1 and 2, Quad

Cities Units 1 and 2, Shearon Harris, Sequoyah Units 1 And 2, Ft.

Calhoun, and Cooper.

The agenda for the workshop will consist of the following:

[[Page 14020]]

--Day 1: registration and check-in, opening remarks, and initiating

events performance indicators

--Day 2: mitigating systems and barrier performance indicators.

--Day 3: barrier performance indicators (continued) and Emergency

Preparedness performance indicators.

--Day 4: occupational exposure, public exposure, and physical

protection performance indicators.

Note: Each day will end with a question and answer session.

Workshop Pre-Registration

Active participants and observers at the workshop are requested to

pre-register with the NRC approximately two weeks before the workshop.

Attendees may pre-register in either of the following ways:

(1) Fax to Elaine Toro at (301) 415-3707

(2) Mail to: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Attn: Elaine Toro,

Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Mailstop O5H4, Washington, D.C.

20555-0001

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 17th day of March, 1999.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

William M. Dean,

Chief Inspection Program Branch, Division of Inspection Program

Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

Cornerstone Performance Indicator Workshop Registration, Holiday

Inn, Glen Ellyn, IL, April 12--15, 1999

(Please Print)

Name:------------------------------------------------------------------

(last) (first)

Title:-----------------------------------------------------------------

Address:---------------------------------------------------------------

(department, division or unit)

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(street or P.O. box)

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(city) (state) (zip code)

Pilot Plant (Yes/No)---------------------------------------------------

Telephone (home):------------------------------------------------------

Telephone (business): (ext)--------------------------------------------

E-mail:----------------------------------------------------------------

Name (for name badge):-------------------------------------------------

Mail your registration form to: Elaine Toro, Nuclear Regulatory

Commission, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Mail Stop O-5H2,

Washington, DC 20555.

Fax your registration form to: 301-415-3707 Attention: Elaine

Toro.

THIS REGISTRATION FORM IS FOR THE WORKSHOP ONLY. PLEASE MAKE

HOTEL RESERVATIONS SEPARATELY.

[FR Doc. 99-7030 Filed 3-22-99; 8:45 am]

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