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February 15, 2007
The Commission has disapproved the proposal to conduct an independent assessment of the implementation of the Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) at the Indian Point facility and other facilities in other Regions. The staff should continue to look for ways to improve the ROP as part of the annual self assessment process. The staff performed a very thorough and detailed comparison of the inspection elements in the ROP to those areas inspected during the Maine Yankee Independent Safety Assessment (ISA) and concluded that the current inspection procedures, coupled with NRC review standards, provide essentially full coverage of key aspects of the ISA. Thus, the key inspection elements of the ISA are already being performed at each operating nuclear power plant in the country on a routine basis. The Commission acknowledges that the new Component Design Basis Inspection is currently underway at Indian Point Unit 2 and is scheduled to be performed at Unit 3 in the fourth quarter of 2007. This inspection is a comprehensive team inspection to verify that design bases have been correctly implemented for selected risk significant components and that operating procedures and operator actions are consistent with design and licensing bases. This is to ensure that selected components are capable of performing their intended safety functions. The Commission also notes that the staff currently conducts an annual self-assessment of the ROP. It was also noted that the ROP has recently undergone independent assessments by the NRC Office of the Inspector General (Audit Report OIG-05-A-06, "Audit of NRC's Baseline Inspection Program," dated December 22, 2004) and the United States Government Accountability Office (Report GAO-06-1029, "Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Oversight of Nuclear Power Plant Safety Has Improved, but Refinements Are Needed," dated September 27, 2006). The results of both of these assessments were positive, identifying only minor opportunities for enhancement. The staff should coordinate with the Office of Public Affairs, the Office of Congressional Affairs, and other involved offices as appropriate, to ensure that this Commission decision, its rationale and basis, and relevant supporting documents, including the staff's comparison table of the ROP with the previous inspection performed at Maine Yankee, are expeditiously made publicly available. The Office of the Secretary will make the attached changes to the Comparison document
provided as enclosure 2 to COMSECY-06-0068 Attachment: Changes to Enclosure 2 to COMSECY-06-0068
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