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IN RESPONSE, PLEASE
REFER TO: M071024B

November 13, 2007

The Commission was briefed by representatives from the nuclear power industry and the NRC staff on the status of construction and inspection programs for new reactors.  In addition, the Commission was briefed by members of the public and a local government official on the importance of public participation and their experiences with NRC’s new reactor licensing process.

The Commission communicated its continued commitment to promote public participation in the agency’s regulatory processes.  The Commission commended the staff on its progress since its last briefing on new reactor issues.  The Commission strongly supports the staff’s continued outreach efforts to the public, especially to communities located near proposed new reactor sites.  The staff should ensure that documents necessary for staff to make their licensing finding are readily available to the public in a timely manner.  Educating interested stakeholders on the use of information technology in accessing the flow of information throughout the new plant licensing process may be useful.

In addition to recent domestic construction experience, for example, at Browns Ferry 1 and vessel head replacements, international experience in design, construction, and inspection of new reactors increasingly provides valuable lessons.  The staff should keep the Commission informed on how these lessons are being incorporated into NRC’s programs.

The staff should provide an information paper to the Commission with its plan for assessing and meeting our training and infrastructure (e.g. simulator) needs to accomplish inspections and operator licensing related to new reactors, including pre-construction, construction, and operations phases. 

The staff should continue to analyze the resources needed for current and future inspections, reviews, and audits within the vendor inspection program as the vendor list grows and should inform the Commission if resource constraints could preclude accomplishment of an adequate program. 

The staff should submit recommendations to the Commission on ways to reduce the future use of Design Acceptance Criteria for designs that are not yet certified.

The staff should brief the Commission Executive Assistants on important considerations related to a possible decision to make the titles of all SECY papers available to the public.

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Wednesday, November 14, 2007