Regulatory Support

ARSS staff has been supporting NRC for over 25 years in its regulation and oversight of commercial nuclear power plants. This support has included the development of key data systems and performance indicators as part of our efforts in performing operating experience reviews. We continue to have the core staff in place who, for the past 20 years, have analyzed event data and documented lessons learned from commercial nuclear power plant operations. Our analysis tool (PRINCE—the system formerly known as SCSS) has 5 million plus operating experience records developed from the analysis of 50,000 LERs. Our analysts have worked in the commercial nuclear industry and possess a keen understanding of plant operations and safety to be able to develop insights and identify trends based upon evaluations of operating experience including nonconformance reports, plant start-ups, operational readiness reviews, LERs, etc. Our staff is currently supporting NRC in updating selected Standard Review Plan (SRP) sections, including such topics as overpressure protection for PWRs, ESBWR isolation condensers, reactor core isolation cooling (RCIC) system, standby liquid control system, I&C, and ITAAC. ARSS staff also have licensing experience based upon commercial nuclear power plant experience as well as supporting DOE in its efforts to obtain a license in the United States for a mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility and its efforts to assist Russian regulatory entities to identify the necessary changes to license a comparable MOX facility in Russia as well as various reactor types to be modified to use MOX fuel. An ARSS staff member is currently a member of a DOE team examining the licensing issues and strategies for burner reactors that are a part of DOE's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP).

• Operating Experience Review and Analysis (OpE)