Home > Electronic Reading Room > Document Collections > Commission Documents > Commission Papers (SECY) > 2005 > SECY-05-0126

POLICY ISSUE
(Notation Vote)

SECY-05-0126

July 15, 2005

• PURPOSE
• BACKGROUND
• DISCUSSION
• Reactor GSIs
• Non-Reactor GSIs
• Reporting
• RECOMMENDNATION

PURPOSE:

To present the annual summary of activities related to generic safety issues (GSIs), and to recommend discontinuing future annual summaries.

BACKGROUND:

Since 1983, the staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has adhered to the practice of providing the Commission with an annual update of the progress made in resolving GSIs. The Commission reinforced this practice in a staff requirements memorandum (SRM) dated May 8, 1998, in response to SECY-98-030, “Implementation of [Direction-Setting Issue] DSI-22 Research,” in which the Commission directed the staff to provide an annual summary of activities related to open reactor and non-reactor GSIs.

Management Directive (MD) 6.4, “Generic Issues Program,” dated December 2001, delineates the NRC’s program for addressing reactor and non-reactor generic issues (GIs). Specifically, the program described in MD 6.4 comprises seven stages, including (1) identification, (2) initial screening, (3) technical assessment, (4) regulation and guidance development, (5) regulation and guidance issuance, (6) implementation, and (7) verification. Candidate generic issues may be identified by organizations or individuals either within or external to the NRC.

Generally, safety concerns associated with operating events, research results, or risk assessments form the basis for the identification of GIs by the NRC staff, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS), the nuclear industry, or the public. After an issue is identified, the staff conducts an initial screening exercise to determine whether it should be processed as a GSI, excluded from further analysis, or sent to another NRC program for review. In the technical assessment stage, the staff determines whether the issue involves adequate protection, safety enhancement, or burden reduction. In addition, the staff’s related technical findings become the basis for developing or revising agency rules, guidance, and programs. In the final three stages, the agency issues new or revised regulations or guidance, which are then implemented by licensees and/or certificate holders, and verified by the NRC. GIs identified after March 1999 have been processed in accordance with MD 6.4. In addition, all open GSIs are periodically reviewed in accordance with the MD 6.4 criteria for possible designation as unresolved safety issues (USIs), and the management directive contains additional Congressional reporting requirements for the subset of GSIs that meet those USI criteria.

The NRC’s Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) tracks the status of all GSIs in the agencywide Generic Issue Management Control System (GIMCS) and documents the initial screening analyses and disposition of all issues in NUREG-0933, “A Prioritization of Generic Safety Issues.”

DISCUSSION:

Since the staff issued its previous report to the Commission (SECY-04-0156) on August 27, 2004, two new GIs have been identified (GIs 198 and 199), and one has been screened and added to the list of GSIs that require technical assessment (GI 196). As a result, 16 GSIs remain to be resolved as the staff continues to follow the MD 6.4 process of identifying and resolving reactor and non-reactor GSIs.

Reactor GSIs

The RES staff is responsible for screening all new GIs associated with nuclear reactor power plants, and performing the technical assessments of those GSIs that the screening identifies as warranting further processing. The Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) is responsible for developing and issuing regulations or guidance that may be recommended in the technical assessments, and subsequently verifies the implementation of the resultant regulation or guidance by licensees and/or certificate holders. The staff also conducts an “adequate protection evaluation” for each newly identified GSI to determine whether plants should continue operating while the issue is being resolved.

Over the past several years, the number of new GIs identified has decreased to an average of approximately two per year, and the staff has closed 836 of the 849 reactor generic issues identified since the inception of the generic issues program in 1976. The attachment to this paper describes the 13 reactor GIs that remain open at this time and summarizes the status of their initial screening, technical assessment, and regulation and guidance development. The following subsections summarize the activities related to reactor GIs since the staff issued its previous report to the Commission on August 27, 2004.

Identification

The staff identified two new GIs for initial screening:

198 Hydrogen Combustion in PWR Piping

199 Implications of Updated Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Estimates in Central and Eastern United States

Initial Screening

The staff completed the initial screening of the following GI:

196 Boral Degradation

The staff began the initial screening of the following GI:

197 Iodine Spiking Phenomena

Technical Assessment

The following seven GSIs are undergoing technical assessment:

80 Pipe Break Effects on Control Rod Drive (CRD) Hydraulic Lines in the Drywells of BWR MARK I and II Containments

156.6.1 Pipe Break Effects on Systems and Components

163 Multiple Steam Generator Tube Leakage

185 Control of Recriticality Following Small-Break LOCAs in Pressurized-Water Reactors (PWRs)

188 Steam Generator Tube Leaks/Ruptures Concurrent with Containment Bypass

193 Boiling-Water Reactor (BWR) Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS)Suction Concerns

196 Boral Degradation

Regulation and Guidance Development

Regulation and guidance development continued on the following three GSIs:

186 Potential Risk and Consequences of Heavy Load Drops

189 Susceptibility of Ice Condenser and MARK III Containments to Early Failure from Hydrogen Combustion During a Severe Accident

191 Assessment of Debris Accumulation on PWR Sump Performance

Non-Reactor GSIs

The NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) has primary responsibility for processing non-reactor GSIs through all stages of MD 6.4, and RES tracks the status of unresolved non-reactor GSIs in the quarterly updates of GIMCS. The attachment to this paper describes the three non-reactor GSIs that remain open at this time, and summarizes the status of their technical assessment or regulation and guidance development. The following subsections summarize the activities related to non-reactor GSIs since the staff issued its previous report to the Commission on August 27, 2004.

Identification

The staff did not identify any new GI for screening.

Initial Screening

No initial screening activities were warranted during this reporting period.

Technical Assessment

The following two GSIs are undergoing technical assessment:

NMSS-7 Criticality Benchmarks Greater than 5% Enrichment

NMSS-14 Surety Estimates for Groundwater Restoration at In Situ Leach Facilities

Regulation and Guidance Development

Regulation and guidance development continued on the following GSI:

NMSS-16 Adequacy of 0.05 Weight Percent Limit in 10 CFR Part 40

Reporting

The following reports provide information on the staff’s progress in resolving GSIs:

1. Monthly: RES provides input to Section III, “Status of Issues in the Reactor Generic Issue Program,” of the monthly status report to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, on the NRC’s licensing activities and regulatory duties. The RES input focuses on significant accomplishments in resolving open reactor GSIs during each calendar month.

2. Quarterly: In addition to the RES quarterly GIMCS report mentioned above, NRR publishes the Director’s Status Report on Generic Activities which includes the status of reactor GSIs that are undergoing regulation and guidance development.

3. Annually: A report on the resolution status of selected reactor GSIs is included in NUREG-1542, “U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Performance and Accountability Report,” which is published annually. In addition, the NRC publishes annual supplements to NUREG-0933 to document the initial screening analyses and the disposition of GSIs that were closed during the reporting period (July 1 to June 30).

In addition, the operating plans of the responsible offices track the schedule for the completion of each GSI.

In its continuing effort to improve the efficiency of its activities, the staff has noted some redundancy in its reporting of GSI information. Specifically, this annual report to the Commission duplicates the information that the staff provides in its quarterly GIMCS and NRR Director’s reports. Similarly, the information on significant accomplishments, initial screening results, and the final disposition of GSIs in this report is also provided to the Commission in the monthly report to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, the annual Performance and Accountability Report (NUREG-1542), and NUREG-0933, as described above.

RECOMMENDATION:

The staff currently produces several periodic reports that document progress in resolving GSIs. However, the staff recommends that the Commission discontinue this annual report in order to eliminate the redundancy that presently exists in the various reports. The staff will continue to use the aforementioned reporting mechanisms to meet the intent of DSI-22 and provide updates to the Commission on activities related to all open GSIs.

Attachment:

Description and Status of Open GSIs as of July 5, 2005

Privacy Policy | Site Disclaimer
Thursday, February 22, 2007