(Dollars in Thousands except whole dollars in narrative material) Nuclear Reactor Regulation - continued Since the TMI-2 accident, a significant portion of our resources have been concentrated on identifying lessons In The highest priority within the NRR Casework activities is given to operating license reviews, with the emphasis on the near-term OL applications. The major effort in this area has been to ensure that the TMIrelated requirements for near-term OL applications have been met prior to issuing new operating licenses. addition to the review of the implementation of TMI related requirements, the next series of OL applications require resources to resolve difficult technical problems in areas such as Seismic Design Criteria and BWR Mark II containment. Also the NRC has been working to adapt the Commission's TMI-2 Action Plan to the six pending Construction Permit (CP) applications involving eleven plants. This has resulted in issuing for public comment, NUREG-0718, "Proposed Licensing Requirements for Pending Applications for Construction Permits and Manufacturing License." During FY 1981, the NRC expects to issue to pending applicants a final version of MUREG-0718 to identify the necessary and sufficient TMI-related requirements that should be applied in CP reviews. In FY 1982, NRR will continue to implement the TMI-2 Action Plan items in OL, CP, and standard plant reviews. We estimate that these items will involve additional staff review in every licensing case. This will be in the form of increased depth and scope of review in technical areas such as human factors, accident analyses, plants systems (e.g., residual heat removal, containment, feedwater, instrumentation and control), accident and post-accident monitoring. The NRC caseload forecasts one new CP application for two units to be submitted in FY 1982. The following table summarizes new OL applications and planned OL licensing action completions in FY 1980-1982. In FY 1982, NRC will continue, at a reduced level, the Department of Energy Casework Laboratory Assistance Program to allow for an orderly completion of new license application reviews initiated in FY 1981 and provide for the acquisition of resources in critical skilled areas. Safety Technology. FY 1980 = $7,100 FY 1981 = $8,193 (124) FY 1982 = $9,200 (148) The safety technology program is directed at developing agency postions on significant issues that relate to the safety aspects of reactor design, construction and operation and to establish an integrated program to develop, review and maintain licensing and regulatory requirements. The activities encompassed in this program include: Unresolved Safety Issues (USIs) - Conduct activities to develop technological postions on safety-related Designated Generic Issues - Conduct activities to develop technical positions on issues that relate Generic Studies - Conduct management approved studies needed to support present and future licens- 76-227 0-81--4 (Dollars in Thousands except whole dollars in narrative material) Nuclear Reactor Regulation - continued Operating Experience Evaluation - Provide systematic assessments of reactor operating experience Research Coordination - Conduct activities related to interfacing with the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, including the development of NRR research needs to support licensing activities, participation in research review groups, reviewing contract proposals, assisting in contractor selection, and providing technical guidance for each research contract. Also to ensure that research results are documented and introduced into the licensing decision-making process. Risk Assessment - Performance of systematic reliability and risk assessments of nuclear power plants and their systems important to safety, with principal emphasis on new or potential safety issues. Identification of high risk accident sequences for consideration in new regulatory requirements or evaluation of existing requirements; applies probabilistic risk assessment to the analysis of new safety requirements, priority setting for resource allocation or other use of measures of safety significance. Regulatory Requirements - Maintenance and updating of the standard technical specifications for operating light water power reactors based on new regulatory requirements, new technical considerations and operating experience. Coordination of updates to the Standard Review Plans and the Standard Format and Content Guide. Performance of a continuing systematic evaluation of the adequacy of regulatory requirements for licensing and operation. Performance of analyses of relevant new information; establish and maintain a system for assessing safety significance and assignment of priorities for the resolution of new safety issues, including analyses of the value and impact of new regulatory requirements. Conduct activities related to interfacing with the Office of Standards Development. Code Analysis and Maintenance Evaluation, modification, vertification and maintenance of analytical tools, such as computer codes, for the performance of audit calculations. NRR redirected a large portion of its Safety Technology resources to address the high priority issues associated with the Three-Mile Island Unit 2 accident in FY 1980 and FY 1981. Several of the planned activities were reduced or deferred until FY 1982. Concurrently, the TMI Action Plan tasks recommended (based on the various TMI investigations) the immediate implementation of effort directed at operational data analysis and reliability engineering and risk assessment. As a result, NRR's FY 1982 budget request represents an important need to re-establish several efforts that can no longer be deferred. The accomplishments which resulted are: Unresolved Safety Issues (USIs) - In FY 1980, staff reports with technical resolution for four USIS were issued for comment and final staff reports were issued for three USIS. In FY 1981, staff reports with technical resolution for three USIs are expected to be issued for comment; final staff reports for seven US1s are expected to be issued; and a proposed rule for another is expected to be issued. An additional four (three TMI-related) USIS have been identified in a report to Congress. Also, seven additional issues require further study to determine whether they should be designated as USIS. Designated Generic Issues - Presently there are over 100 designated generic issues. Work on these issues in FY 1980 and FY 1981 was deferred due to high priority TMI tasks. NRR is currently developing a plan under which designated generic issues identified prior to the TMI accident can be reprioritized in terms of their significance to safety. This will form the basis for the development of a program plan and schedule for the resolution of these issues. Generic Studies - Numerous TMI-related activities were conducted in FY 1979 and FY 1980, e.g., the TMI Lessons Learned Task Force (NUREGS 0578 and 0580); the Bulletin and Orders Task Force (NUREGS 0565, 0611, 0623, and 0645); the B&W Feedwater Transient Analysis (NUREG-0560); the development of the TMI Action Plan (NUREG-0660) and the development of licensing requirements resulting from TMI for near-term operating licenses (NUREG-0694). As a result of the TMI accident, numerous other studies have been identified; however, initiation of many of these studies has been deferred to FY 1982 due to the substantive reprogramming resulting from TMI. Such studies include radwaste system design and performance, upgrade of simulator training, expanded quality assurance programs and uncertainties in the performance predictions for safety systems. Operating Experience Evaluation - Consistent with the TMI Action Plan, program offices are to conduct special operational safety analyses to be coordinated with and results distributed as part of an integrated program on operating experience assessments. This effort will complement the activities of the Office of Analysis and Evaluation of Operational Data (AEOD). Since the centralized function was established, a systematic assessment of License Event Reports (LERS) including screening, evaluation, and follow-up was established to process approximately 5000 LER's per year which yielded about 2000 follow-up screenings and about 500 reviews. In addition, approximately 24 reports required careful review to determine whether there were generic implications indicated by the data and whether modifications to the licensing process or long-term actions were required. Approximately 12 reports prepared by the AEOD (Dollars in Thousands except whole dollars in narrative material) Nuclear Reactor Regulation - continued necessitated followup and response. Twenty-four Office of Inspection and Enforcement (I&E) Bulletins and Orders required detailed licensing review and some 24 detailed LER systematic historical searches for generic experiences were made to identify the statistical and technical significance of such events. Research Coordination During FY 1980, coordination of research involved review and endorsement of 36 Research Requests, review and approval of approximately 375 project work scopes and schedules, review of 137 Research Information Letters, review of approximately 700 research reports, review of approximately 80 reports for consideration of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) notification, review of the Five Year Research Plan, and NRR Office review and endorsement of the Annual RES Budget directed to NRR support. Risk Assessment - Prior to the NRR reorganization in April 1980, the risk assessment evaluations had been conducted under the congnizance of the initiating Division within NRR and with substantial assistance from the Probabilistic Analysis Staff of the Office of Regulatory Research. In FY 1980, a review of risk studies of the Zion, Indian Point, and Limerick reactors was initiated, two system reliability studies of important safety systems were conducted to support licensing reviews, and NRR participated in the Interim Reliability Evaluation Program (IREP) - five IREP reviews are expected to be completed in FY 1981. In addition, risk assessment was used to identify significant contributors to risk in developing the Annual Report to Congress on Unresolved Safety Issues. Regulatory Requirements - During FY 1980 considerable effort has been expended in developing the TMI Action Plan (NUREG-0660) and initiating the longer term TMI Action Plan requirements. Examples of these efforts include development of a plan for early resolution of safety issues and a plan for assessment of the safety of all current operating reactors (including the efforts required by Section 110 of Public law 96-295). In addition, some 15 new Regulatory Guides and 20 revisions were completed. Also, coordination between NRR and the Office of Standards Development (SD) was maintained on 130 active tasks in process. In FY 1981, the Standard Review Plan will be revised to incorporate the TMI lessons learned and to correlate with 10 CFR; the NRC response to Section 110 Public Law 96-295 will be developed and a proposed rule for a new technical specifications concept will be issued. Code Analysis and Maintenance - NRR will continue to review vendor thermal-hydraulic analytical methods. This will include an assessment of operator guidelines (including multifailure events), the review and evaluation of transient events at operating reactors, TMI Action Plan items, and class 9 reviews. In FY 1981, activities will emphasize small break loss-of-coolant accidents and transient evaluations and assessment. In FY 1982, NRR will continue to: Resolve the currently identified Unresolved Safety Issues, including the development of guidelines for implementing the solution to Operating Reactors and Casework activities. Current planning and programming projects the identification of six new USIs in FY 1982. It is anticipated that six USI's will be resolved each fiscal year. Approximately six staff-years and $250.000 are required for each USI based upon an average working period of approximately 30 months from adoption to initiation of planned implementation. Provide input to the resolution of high priority generic issues, other than USI's, which have been categorized in NUREG-0410. The staff is currently developing a plan under which generic issues can be prioritized in terms of their significance to safety. This plan will form the basis for the development of a program plan and schedule for the resolution of these issues. Perform high priority generic studies, including TMI Action Plan effort, for tasks whia have arisen since the Designated Generic Issues were drafted and their priorities established, pa .icularly in the areas of reactor systems, equipment qualification, radiological assessment, effluent reatment, core performance, and safety systems interaction. Review, analyze, and develop NRC posit ons on the basis of the results of these generic studies and incorporate the findings into the regulatory and licensing process. NRR will provide assessments in support of evaluation of operating experience using reliability and risk assessment techniques to determine whether failure rates, common failures, and human factors considerations, as trends, contribute substantially to dominant risk sequences. Continue systematic assessments of reactor operating experience to detect patterns in abnormal occurences and to identify precursors of possible hazardous events. Resource requirements are based on the NRC caseload forecast for operating reactors, the increasing number of Licensee Event Reports, an increased sensitivity by the licensee to reportable operational data, evaluation of more detailed information and the need to feed back the analysis into the licensing process. Continue to coordinate effort for establishing NRR immediate and long-term research needs and review of research reports. Audit the utilization of research results in the regulatory process. Perform evaluations of specific safety issues for operating reactors and in support of backfitting requirements associated with the SEP; perform evaluations of specific issues in case reviews, and review reliability studies submitted by the applicant for safety systems; develop guidelines for reliability engineering techniques to be implemented by the licensees; and apply risk assessment to the analysis of (Dollars in Thousands except whole dollars in narrative material) Nuclear Reactor Regulation continued new safety requirements in support of Unresolved Safety Issues. This effort includes consideration of Revise Standard Technical Specifications and Standard Review Plans to incorporate the lessons learned NRR will continue to emphasize small break loss-of-coolant accidents and transient evaluations in our assessment of vendor codes. By the end of FY 1982, computer input decks will be developed for all light water power reactor plant types to support rapid evaluation of licensing problems. TMI Cleanup.. ........... FY 1980 $1,806 (10) FY 1981 $1,473 FY 1982 = $1,100 (21) This activity, begun in April 1980, provides the overall review, direction and oversight of TMI-2 cleanup operations including; technical and management supervision of the related NRC inspection, licensing, analysis, public information, and government relations actions onsite, in the Middletown, PA office and in the Washington, DC area. NRC will continue to ensure the maintenance of protection of public health and safety and the environment during decontamination and disposal of radioactive waste from TMI-2. In FY 1980 reviews and determinations were prepared for the environmental assessment related to the use of EPICOR-II for decontaminating water in the auxiliary and fuel handling building, the assessment related to the purging of the reactor building atmosphere, and the analysis of the financial aspects of TMI-2 cleanup; the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement related to "Decontamination and Disposal of Radioactive Waste from the March 28, 1979 accident at TMI-2" was published for comment; and the NRC plan of action for TMI-2 cleanup was issued. An assessment related to the first manned reentry into the TMI-2 reactor building since the accident was made, and the interim criteria for the conduct of TM1-2 cleanup activities was developed. During FY 1981 NRC will complete the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement; an inspection of the licensee's radiation protection program; and will continue to review licensee recommended design criteria, operating procedures, and all details of equipment utilized for the TMI-2 Cleanup process. In FY 1982, the NRC will continue to maintain coverage by the NRC technical staff at the site to review and approve licensee cleanup activities, to oversee implementation of these activities so as to ensure adequate protection of public health and safety, and to verify that NRC rules and regulations are being followed, and prepare necessary environmental assessments for the various phases of the TMI-2 cleanup process and revise technical specifications as needed to assure adequate protection of the public health and safety. Conduct special evaluations of problems that arise during the course of facility decontamination and of fuel removal and disposal. In cooperation with the Department of Energy (DOE), develop and implement a plan for the safe disposal of radiologically contaminated materials resulting from TMI-2 cleanup activities. Also, in cooperation with the DOE, Electric Power Research Institute, and General Public Utilities, plan and conduct an investigation of the TMI-2 cleanup process on decontamination technology, radioactive waste handling, and fission product release, transport, and disposition. Information obtained will be used to ensure that cleanup activities are conducted in a manner that will minimize risk to public health and safety. Assess the environmental impact of each phase of the TM1-2 cleanup effort. Supplements to the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement will be prepated and issued as needed. Continue to monitor the 10 individuals who have received excessive exposure to radiation at TMI since the March 1979 accident. Management Direction and Support.......FY 1980 = 0 (85) FY 1981 = 0 FY 1982 = 0 This effort includes the five major functions necessary to support the NRR regulatory and licensing activities. Director's Office Consists of the Director and the Planning and Program Analysis Staff. The Director develops and administers regulations, policies, and procedures required for regulating nuclear reactors; provides overall management and guidance on major program goals and objectives; and performs other functions necessary to execute the NRC reactor licensing program. The Planning and Program Analysis Staff provides administrative support for managing and coordinating NRR programs and resources. The staff establishes priorities, schedules, and resource allocations; forecasts resource needs; and performs long and short-term program planning. The staff also manages all personnel adminstration matters and prepares, reviews, and recommends administrative operating procedures, policies, and directives. In addition, the staff provides technical coordination and oversight for resolution of special technical problems, provides technical assistance to the Director, and serves as the NRR interface with the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS). (Dollars in Thousands except whole dollars in narrative material) Nuclear Reactor Regulation continued Support to Others - Includes direct technical assistance to other NRC offices (except for the Offices of Standards Development and Nuclear Regulatory Research), other Federal agencies, and support of international technical exchange programs. Contract Management - Includes defining objectives and scopes of work, selecting contractors, and guiding and reviewing technical progress on NRR contracts for technical support on specific licensing and generic activities. Staff Development - Resources to provide training to ensure that the NRR staff remains knowledgeable in the technical fields associated with nuclear reactor safety and public health. The normal training requirements of the administrative and supervisory staff are included. Correspondence - Resources to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and to outside inquiries from the Administration, Congress, other Federal Agencies, and the general public. In FY 1982, NRR will continue to provide the policy management, direction, technical and administrative assistance to ensure that the functions of the office are carried out efficiently and effectively; provide on a limited basis NRR technical manpower support as requested; select contractors and monitor progress on NRR contracts for technical assistance on specific licensing applications and generic activities; provide for minimal staff training; and continue to respond, in a timely manner, to the increasingly large volume of correspondence received by NRR. |