NRC: SECY-06-0019 - Semiannual Update of the Status of New Reactor Licensing Activities and Future Planning for New Reactors
POLICY ISSUE
INFORMATION
SECY-06-0019
January 31, 2006
| FOR: | The Commissioners |
| FROM: | Luis A. Reyes Executive Director for Operations |
| SUBJECT: | SEMIANNUAL UPDATE OF THE STATUS OF NEW REACTOR LICENSING ACTIVITIES AND FUTURE PLANNING FOR NEW REACTORS |
This paper informs the Commission of the staff's new reactor licensing activities and accomplishments since the issuance of SECY-05-0139, "Semiannual Update of the Status of New Reactor Licensing Activities and Future Planning for New Reactors," dated August 4, 2005. In addition, this paper discusses strategies being developed to prepare for the challenges associated with projected increased licensing activities in 2007 and beyond.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff is preparing for the review of new reactor license applications that are projected to be submitted during the Fiscal Years (FY) 2007 and FY 2008. Consistent with Commission direction, the staff is developing plans and strategies for all low and medium uncertainty activities. Fundamental among the strategies is a "design-centered approach" presented in this paper. The staff is developing the licensing infrastructure and resources necessary to review these applications. This includes identifying, hiring (or contracting), and training the project management, technical, and support staff to review the anticipated applications. The NRC staff is also developing plans for updating and maintaining current and effective reactor guidance documents for staff and applicant use during the licensing of new sites and new reactors. The Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) staff is working with the regions to identify the organization to support implementation of the construction inspection program. A Commission paper describing the results of this effort will be sent to the Commission in the near future.
In addition, the NRC completed several key regulatory products including issuance of the final rule for the AP1000 design certification and drafting of a proposed rule revising Part 52 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR Part 52).
In SECY-01-0188, "Future Licensing and Inspection Readiness Assessment," dated October 12, 2001, the staff assessed its technical, licensing, and inspection capabilities, and described enhancements to support new reactor licensing. The staff also committed to giving the Commission semiannual updates of the status of new reactor licensing activities.
The April 6, 2005, Commission meeting staff requirements memorandum (SRM), "Briefing on Status of New Site and Reactor Licensing," dated May 10, 2005, directed the staff to develop an integrated plan for updating licensing review guidance, such as NUREG-0800, "Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants" (SRP).
Enclosure 1 
provides detailed information on recent new reactor projects including supporting infrastructure development for new reactor licensing activities and recent combined license (COL), design certification (DC), early site permit (ESP), and pre-application activities. In addition, this enclosure discusses the plan and current status for updating of the licensing review guidance. It also describes interactions with stakeholders.
During the FY 2007 budget process, the Commission directed the staff to provide an implementation plan, with major milestones, that concisely describes how the staff intends to identify, hire, and train new staff with the necessary talent and expertise, and further, provide the infrastructure, including adequate office space that will be needed to support the review of multiple applications. Enclosure 2 provides the staff activities and plans in response to the Commission's direction.
The NRC staff has completed a number of activities since the last status update paper and continues work on several key regulatory products in connection with new reactor licensing. Key activities, accomplishments, plans, and strategies are summarized below.
Key Activities and Accomplishments in New Reactors
AP1000 Design Certification
A supplement to the final safety evaluation report (FSER) for the AP1000 design was published on December 13, 2005, and the final rule was signed by the Secretary of the Commission on January 23, 2006. The final design certification rule was published in the Federal Register on January 27, 2006.
10 CFR Part 52 Rulemaking
The NRC staff forwarded to the Commission a revised proposed rule for 10 CFR Part 52, and conforming changes throughout Title 10.
Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor Design Certification
On August 24, 2005, General Electric (GE) submitted its application for the economic simplified boiling water reactor (ESBWR) DC under 10 CFR Part 52. By letter dated September 23, 2005, the NRC staff communicated the results of its acceptance review, which determined that portions of the application were not sufficient for the NRC staff to begin its review of those areas, and stating that the application would not be docketed until additional information was provided by GE. On October 24, 2005, GE responded to the staff's acceptance review letter and has made additional submittals providing information to address the specific issues identified by the staff. The staff performed an acceptance review of the additional information submitted by GE and has concluded that the ESBWR DC application, as amended and supplemented, was acceptable for docketing. By letter dated December 1, 2005, the staff informed GE of the acceptance review results. In addition, the staff stated that GE should assure that the open issue closure process is fully coordinated and standardized among the expected 2007 and 2008 ESBWR COL applications to minimize or eliminate re-review of open technical issues on each COL application. A notice was also published in the Federal Register on December 9, 2005, to announce docketing of the application.
Early Site Permit Activity
In accordance with the ESP project schedules, the staff issued a draft safety evaluation report (SER) and a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for (1) the Dominion Nuclear North Anna, LLC (Dominion), ESP application for the North Anna site; (2) the Exelon Generation Company, LLC (Exelon), ESP application for the Clinton site; and (3) the System Energy Resources, Inc. (SERI), a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation, ESP application for the Grand Gulf site. The staff also issued the final SER for the Dominion ESP. In addition, on August 26, 2005, the NRC staff issued a supplemental draft SER for the Exelon ESP application, and on October 21, 2005, the final SER for the ESP application filed by SERI. On October 24, 2005, Dominion notified the NRC staff that it would be revising its North Anna ESP application. On November 2, 2005, the NRC staff issued a letter to Dominion and requested Dominion to inform the NRC staff of the date for submission of the revised application, and that the staff would make a determination on the potential impacts to the final EIS and the SER upon receipt of Dominion's revised submission. On January 13, 2006, Dominion submitted a stand-alone supplement to the North Anna ESP application. The staff is currently reviewing this supplement. It is a substantial change to the normal cooling design which impacts many sections of the application. Therefore, the staff plans to reissue the draft EIS and issue a supplement to the final SER.
Multinational Design Approval Program (MDAP)
In a September 8, 2005, SRM, the Commission approved moving forward with Stage 1 of MDAP, where NRC and its counterparts in other countries interested in participating in the program will determine working arrangements for cooperation in DC reviews. Since that time a number of discussions have been held and letters of intent have been exchanged with respect to multinational participation in the evolutionary power reactor (EPR) design certification review. In the near future, NRC staff will meet with their counterparts in France and Finland to work out the areas of cooperation for review at both the pre-application and application stages.
Regulatory Treatment of Operational Programs in the COL Process
Commission paper SECY-05-0197, "Review of Operational Programs in a Combined License Application and Generic Emergency Inspections, Tests, Analyses, and Acceptance Criteria," was issued on October 28, 2005. This paper states that if a COL applicant can fully describe all the operational programs and their implementation (all operational programs which are required by regulation and that the staff expects to review in a COL application)—with inspections to verify their implementation, with the exception of emergency planning—then the NRC would not require inspections, tests, analyses, and acceptance criteria (ITAAC). The staff proposed that a COL include license conditions associated with the timing of program implementation.
Advanced Reactor (Non-Light-Water Reactor) Activities
The NRC staff continues to engage in activities related to advanced reactor designs (i.e., non-light water reactor designs). These include the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) next generation nuclear plant (NGNP) project, the pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR) pre-application review, and high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) knowledge management. PBMR (Pty) Ltd. continues to interact with the staff in pre-application review activities supporting the PBMR design, an HTGR design. These activities are discussed in Enclosure 1 .
New Reactor Plans and Strategies
Since the last update, the number of expected COL applications for the period FY 2007 through FY 2009 has increased to a total of 11, and several of these applications will be for dual unit sites. Table 1 lists the NRC staff's anticipated activities for FY 2006 through FY 2008. The activities listed for FY 2008 reflect the NRC staff's best estimates for applications based on industry information.
| FY 2006 | FY 2007 | FY 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Complete 3 ESPs North Anna Clinton Grand Gulf |
||
| Start Southern (Vogtle) ESP | Continue Southern ESP | Continue Southern ESP |
| DC pre-application activities for EPR, PBMR, ACR, and IRIS | DC pre-application activities for EPR, PBMR, ACR, and IRIS | DC pre-application activities for EPR, PBMR, ACR, and IRIS |
| Continue ESBWR DC | Continue ESBWR DC | Continue ESBWR DC |
| Start EPR DC | ||
| Start PBMR DC | ||
| Pre-application activities for 11 potential COL applicants | Pre-application activities for 11 potential COL applicants | Pre-application activities for 11 potential COL applicants |
| Start Dominion (North Anna) COL | Continue Dominion COL | |
| Start South Carolina E&G COL | Continue SC E&G COL | |
| Start Duke COL | ||
| Start NuStart 1 (Bellefonte) COL | ||
| Start NuStart 2 (Grand Gulf) COL | ||
| Start Southern (Vogtle) COL | ||
| Start Constellation COL | ||
| Start Progress Energy (Harris) COL | ||
| Start Progress Energy (Florida) COL | ||
| Start Entergy (River Bend) COL | ||
| Regulatory Infrastructure Development and Technical Development | Regulatory Infrastructure Development and Technical Development | Regulatory Infrastructure Development and Technical Development |
| Start NGNP interactions with DOE | Continue NGNP interactions with DOE | Submit Joint NGNP licensing strategy to Congress |
| * Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR), pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR), Advanced Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) Reactor (ACR), and International Reactor Innovative and Secure (IRIS)Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Department of Energy (DOE) | ||
Design-Centered Review Approach
During the recent reorganization of NRR, the Division of New Reactor Licensing (DNRL) was formed, which contains the New Reactor Licensing Branch (NRBA) and the New Reactor Infrastructure Planning Branch (NRPB). DNRL is the responsible project management organization for DC application reviews, ESP application reviews, COL application reviews, and new reactor pre-application activities. DNRL manages the necessary regulatory infrastructure to support new reactor licensing activities, including rulemaking, interaction with stakeholders on issues pertaining to new reactors. DNRL is developing a comprehensive strategy to prepare the Agency to review new reactor licensing applications. Currently, NRC is faced with the challenge to develop an approach by mid FY 2007, which will allow the staff to review effectively 2 DCs, 1 ESP, and 11 COL applications. The staff intends to develop a "design-centered approach" for its DC and COL reviews. This approach will use, to the extent practicable, a "one issue-one review-one position" strategy in order to optimize the review effort and resources needed to perform these reviews; that is, the staff will conduct one technical review for each reactor design issue and use this one decision to support the DC and multiple COL applications. Clearly, the DC and COL applicants will need to achieve a consistent level of standardization.
Currently, the staff envisions that its proposed design-centered approach will focus its reviews of the three designs (AP1000, ESBWR, and EPR) by using standardization and coordination of approaches and applications; require complete and high-quality applications; increase the use of the DC rulemaking to codify issue closure; and, to a practical extent, by using single technical evaluations to support multiple COL applications. In addition, the staff is currently developing the process for implementing the design-centered review program and envisions that this approach will require a multi-layered project management team for each design, use dedicated technical review resources, and that the plans and schedules for controlling these reviews will be at a new level of detail and integration. The staff, as part of its design-centered efforts, is assessing the technical expertise and resources needed in FY 2007, FY 2008, and FY 2009 to support this approach. This developmental effort will be used to inform: the hiring process by identifying the necessary talent and expertise the program will need; training needs for new staff; office space and information technology support needs; and the FY 2008 budget proposal.
On December 13, 2005, NRC senior management held a public meeting with senior officials from potential COL applicants, who have formed a group called the New Plant Oversight Committee (NPOC). The participants discussed areas such as standardization of COL applications and the use of a design-centered process to standardize the licensing basis for the design-specific COL applications.
The staff has developed a resource and schedule model for new reactor activities and is using the model to develop FY 2008 budget proposals and potential FY 2007 budget supplemental requests. Preliminary estimates indicated that the design-centered approach can reduce staff resource needs by 40 percent as compared to the resources needed for conducting independent reviews of each application. The model will be used to optimize the review schedule by addressing critical path items early.
Regulatory Issue Summary on Staff Resource Allocations
Consistent with Commission direction, the staff will develop the new reactor licensing budgets to accommodate all low and medium uncertainty projects. However, as discussed previously in SECY-05-0139, the staff will give higher priority to DC activities that could culminate in the submission of one or more COL applications, consistent with current planning and budgetary assumptions. To effectively implement the FY 2008 design-centered review strategies, and resource allocation models for the COL applications, the staff will issue a regulatory issue summary (RIS) to convey the following:
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The staff will request that the industry identify a reference COL application for each of the standard designs (AP1000, ESBWR, or EPR). The reference COL application will identify the technical areas to be considered standard for a given design among all the COL applications which reference that design. The applicants that submit an application after the reference COL application, using the same design, will need to inform NRC if they are following the same standard application or identify areas that are different from the standard application. NRC staff expects to perform concurrent reviews of COL applications that are based on the reference COL application and this information will determine the schedule by which these applications will be reviewed. Various site-related aspects, such as security and emergency planning, will also affect the application review schedules. If a plant deviates from the standard design, the application will be considered a custom application, and the schedule and resources will be established on an application-by-application basis. The staff recognizes that other reactor designs are being developed and will consider these additional design-centered groups once there is a commitment to submit multiple COL applications using the design. The staff will also request that COL applicants establish firm schedules for submission of their applications.
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In addition to the standardized approach discussed above, the staff is working with external stakeholders to develop a set of guidelines to define the expectations for interactions between the NRC and the applicants during the licensing process. The guidelines will provide a predictable and consistent method for acceptance and technical review of applications, and includes guidance for: pre-application interactions; quality and completeness; scheduling application reviews; and responses to requests for additional information.
Regulatory Infrastructure Development
The resources included in the NRC FY 2006 budget for infrastructure development are being used to hire and train staff, and update and revise the SRP and existing regulatory guides (RGs), as well as to develop a new COL application regulatory guide which follows the format of RG 1.70, "Standard Format and Content of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants." This new RG will be applicable to all light-water reactor COL applications whether referencing a certified design, an ESP, both, or neither. This will be a consistent and efficient compilation of application guidance, and where appropriate, an endorsement vehicle for portions of Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) 04-01, Revision D, "Draft Industry Guideline for Combined License Applicants Under 10 CFR Part 52." Infrastructure development and knowledge management for high-temperature gas-cooled technologies are included in Enclosure 1 and hiring and training strategies are addressed in Enclosure 2 .
On July 6, 2005, the staff provided the Commission SECY-05-0120, "Security Design Expectations for New Reactor Licensing Activities." On September 9, 2005, the Commission issued an SRM approving the actions proposed in SECY-05-0120. One of the actions proposed was to conduct a rulemaking to require applicants to submit a security assessment and target set analysis. This rulemaking is expected to be completed by September 23, 2007. The rule will be completed to support COL applications under review at that time. Currently, NRR staff is coordinating with the Offices of Nuclear Security and Incident Response and Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) to develop the guidance for the security assessment and target set analysis.
In support of the new reactor licensing process, the staff continues to consult with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in matters relating to emergency planning and preparedness, including security-related matters. Specifically, pursuant to Section 657 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, before issuing a license for a utilization facility, the NRC will consult with DHS concerning the potential vulnerabilities of the location of the proposed facility to terrorist attack.
Listed below are the actions or activities committed to by the staff in this paper.
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The staff will develop a "design-centered approach" strategy to review DC and COL applications. In addition to developing this program, the staff is preparing a RIS to inform all potential applicants for combined licenses of this strategy.
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The staff will provide the Commission with additional details regarding the planned implementation of MDAP Stage 1 and the scoping of MDAP Stage 2.
New reactor licensing activities continue to be focused on reviewing applications for DCs and ESPs and on preparing for the review of multiple COL applications. The staff is developing the necessary strategies and plans to undertake these reviews. The staff is planning to accelerate the development of the technical infrastructure needed to complete these reviews and the regulatory infrastructure that will make the licensing process more efficient and effective. The NRC staff continues interacting with stakeholders to ensure openness in these activities and to ensure that any future planning reflects the most recent industry information about application submission schedules.
As part of planning for the anticipated number of COL and DC applications expected in FY 2008, NRC received additional funding in FY 2006 and requested an increase in the FY 2007 budget to acquire personnel and develop infrastructure in FY 2006 and in FY 2007.
NRR is currently hiring staff to meet the projected full-time equivalent (FTE) for FY 2007; however, FY 2006 FTE utilization will not be exceeded. The impact of the NRR staffing increases will be reflected in the budget adjustments for FY 2007 and FY 2008. As of mid-January 2006, NRR has hired 84 employees in both technical and support areas. The Office of Human Resources and NRR will be conducting a job task analysis to assess the increased training needs for new employees. These additional FTE are being used to update the regulatory infrastructure (e.g., SRP) to support the anticipated multiple, simultaneous new licensing reviews expected in FY 2008. RES is also currently hiring additional staff to support the planned FY 2007 new reactor FTE allocation approved by the Commission in August 2005.
Over the last several months, the expected number of new reactor licensing activities has increased significantly. For example, the expected number of COL applications has increased from 4 to 11. Therefore, in order to be prepared, additional resources above those that are currently planned for it will be necessary in FY 2007 to accelerate efforts for technical development and regulatory infrastructure. We will also be addressing the resource implications of this workload during the FY 2006 mid-year resource review process.
The Office of the General Counsel has reviewed this paper and has no legal objection. The Office of the Chief Financial Officer has reviewed this paper for resource implications and has no objection.
/RA/ Luis A. Reyes |
| Enclosures: |
| CONTACT: | Steven D. Bloom, NRR/DNRL |
