Nuclear Safety Research Conference (NSRC)
(formerly known as the Water Reactor Safety Meeting (WRSM)
October 22-24, 2001
Marriott at Metro Center
(775 12^th St. NW, Washington DC)

Objective: The panel will give an overview of ongoing programs and discuss the following: safety attributes of advanced designs, key issues with respect to licensing, key issues with respect to development, research needs/priorities, and the outlook for the future.

Potential Panel Makeup to Include:
NRC (RES and NRR); Industry (e.g., NEI, EPRI, Westinghouse, Exelon); International; Public Interest; State; Congressional; and DOE

Objective: To communicate specific research activities related to preparing the Agency to license an advanced design.

Potential Topics for Presentation Include:
- Pre-application activities (e.g., PBMR, GT-MHR,
IRIS)

- New technologies for advanced reactors

- Development of a Regulatory Framework for
advanced reactors

- Research needs for advanced reactors

- Use of prototype testing to validate analytical
tools

Objective: To provide a forum to discuss current research initiatives in addressing issues in human and environmental heath risk assessment.

Potential Topics for Presentation Include:
- NRC tools available and under development to support decommissioning decisions on sites of varying complexity

- Work underway to develop a probabilistic version of RESRAD-Build for release of buildings

- Inter-agency efforts to seek a common technological base for multi-media environmental modeling

- Long-term performance of engineered barriers

- Efforts underway to revise the basic methodologies for assessing human risk from radiation

Tuesday, October 23, 2001

Objective: To communicate recent accomplishments and future plans in the Office of Research's work to assess key safety and risk issues relating to the licensing of dry cask fuel storage devices.

Potential Topics for Presentation Include:

- Risk analysis of on-site dry cask storage

- Assessment of structural integrity for on-site storage

- Assessment of fuel and cladding for on-site storage

- Assessment of cask performance during transport

Objective: To discuss viewpoints of various stakeholders on some of the key policy and technical issues with emphasis on role of research in addressing them. Some of the key issues are: (1) recent experiences related to aging and degradation (e.g., recent experiences with primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC); (2) What may be the future challenges?; (3) How do we account for aging effects in the risk-informed regulations?; (4) How do we apply lessons learned to new designs (e.g., implementation of online monitoring)?; and (5) What research is needed to address current and future issues?

Potential Panel Makeup to Include:
US and international experts from
industry, regulatory, research, and public
interest groups

Objective: What issues should be addressed in an NRC safety research program, and is the current spectrum of research projects adequate?

Potential Panel Makeup to Include:
NRC (RES, NRR, NMSS, ACRS) and EPRI

Fuel Research Session (4:00-5:00)
(Coordinator: R. Meyer)

Objective: To communicate recent accomplishments in NRC's fuel research program and related programs that are used by NRC through cooperative agreements.

Potential Topics for Presentation Include:
- Japanese results on effects of hydrogen on behavior of Zircaloy during LOCA

- Russian results on mechanical properties of Zr-1% Nb cladding alloys (unirradiated and high burnup)

Objective: To concentrate on the current issues and research, and include representation of both regulatory and industry activities as appropriate.

Potential Topics for Presentation Include:

- Recent PWSCC events - Implications for the NDE and inspections, LBB considerations, repairs and mitigation, and needed research

- Aging issues and management in other industries (e.g., discussion of aging of aircrafts and FAA activities)

- Aging and wire system safety

- Methods to consider aging effects in probabilistic risk assessments.

- Materials and aging factors considered in the advanced design and current research

- Aging effects on structures and passive components

Wednesday, October 24, 2001

Objective: The panel will explore and seek innovative ways to communicate the role and the scope and content of the RES program, with particular emphasis on objectives, products, and regulatory applications.

Potential Panel Makeup to Include:
Trade Press, Public Interest, International, Industry, and Government

- Preliminary results on high-burnup fuel rod testing at ANL under reactor transient conditions and dry storage conditions

- Final plans and schedule for S0 test series in Cabri international program

- First release of NRC's FRAPTRAN fuel rod transient code by PNNL

- Coupling of STUK (Finland) GENFLO thermal-hydraulics code to NRC's FRAPTRAN code

- Overview of EPRI's Robust Fuel Program and EPRI's cooperation with NRC

Objective: To communicate recent accomplishments and future plans in the Office's work to risk-inform agency regulatory practices, showing the breadth and value of such activities as well as describe key technical issues. Key issues that will be addressed include: (1) second-generation importance measures to improve the realism and efficiency of risk-informed decision making; (2) risk-informing 10 CFR 50 technical requirements - status, issues, future plans; (3) assessment of uncertainties in modern risk analyses (e.g., PTS, SGTR); (4) assessment of human performance in modern risk analyses; (5) improvements in fire risk assessment methods and tools;(6) key perspectives from the review of seventy IPEEEs; (7) key issues in low power and shutdown risk analyses; and (8) use of risk analysis in nuclear material's regulation.

Potential Panel Makeup to Include:
NRC, Universities, EPRI