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NRC AMENDS REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is amending its regulations on notification and reporting requirements for operating nuclear power plants. The changes will retain reporting for significant events that the agency needs to review in its efforts to identify and resolve safety issues. However, the changes will reduce or eliminate the unnecessary reporting burden associated with events of little or no safety significance. Overall, these changes will help the NRC and its licensees to better focus their efforts on the most safety significant issues. The amendments revise the requirements (10 CFR 50.72 and 50.73) to reduce the reporting burden associated with events of little risk significance. They also extend the reporting times consistent with the need for prompt NRC action. Current regulations require initial notification of events from licensees to the NRC within one hour, four hours, or 30 days depending on the level of emergency classification and the need for prompt NRC action. Under the revised regulations, there are four types of reporting requirements (one-hour, four-hour, eight-hour, and 60 days). For those events requiring immediate NRC action, such as emergency declarations, reports will continue to be required within one hour. For those events where there may be a need for the NRC to take a reasonably prompt action or respond to heightened public concern, such as events that involve the health and safety of the public or onsite personnel for which a news release is planned or notification to another government agency has been or will be made, reports will be required within four hours. In the case of events where there may be a need for NRC action within a day, such as initiating a special inspection, reports will be required within eight hours. An example of such an event would be an event or condition that could keep a system from fulfilling its safety function. Written licensee event reports will be due within 60 days after discovery of a reportable event or condition, instead of within 30 days as was previously required. Details of the proposed rule changes were published in the Federal Register on July 6, 1999. A draft report, "NUREG-1022, Revision 2, "Event Reporting Guidelines 10CFR 50.72 and 50.73," was made available for public comments concurrently with the proposed rule. The NRC also held public meetings and a public workshop to discuss the proposed rule change in 1999 and 2000. The final rule incorporates many of the comments received from members of the public and the industry. The new rule and the supporting documents will be posted to the NRC's homepage at: http://ruleforum.llnl.gov and will be available for inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room located at NRC headquarters at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The revised regulation will become effective 90 days after its publication in a forthcoming edition of the Federal Register. # # # # # | |||||||||||
