[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 55 (Tuesday, March 23, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14019-14020]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-7030]


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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)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
(street or P.O. box)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
(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]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P