Change Notice 05-022

IMC 2515 (Light-Water Reactor Inspection Program -- Operations Phase) has been revised to address recommendations from a Office of Inspector General's audit of the NRC's baseline inspection program (OIG-05-A-06) and:

- Provided basis and rationale for the baseline inspection procedure sample size, including a discussion of when, or why, to use more than minimum samples.

- Provided additional management guidance for assigning inspectors to perform inspection procedures to ensure that inspectors are adequately qualified for their assignments.

- Improved inspection guidance on whether performance of one inspection procedure sample can be counted as a sample for another.

- Clarified expectations and requirements for which inspection procedures cannot be deferred, plants where procedures cannot be deferred, criteria for deferring a procedure and reporting requirements when inspections are deferred.

- Added a program requirement for regions to maintain an inspection tracking system so that no more than four inspection procedures are deferred in a calendar year.

IMC 0308 (Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) Basis Document) has been revised to reflect updates to the ROP in physical protection and cross cutting issues since the start of the program, and minor editorial changes.

IMC 0308, Att 2 (Technical Basis for Inspection Program) has been revised to reflect numerous changes made to IMC 2515 inspection procedures (IPs) and inspection manual chapters (IMCs). These changes were made to the IPs and IMCs to address recommendations from numerous inspection program improvement initiatives, feedback from inspectors and to address recommended program changes from the Office of Inspector General's audit of the NRC's baseline inspection program. Additionally, clarification on other program details, such as the development of the inspection sample size, was added.

IMC 0308, Att 3 (Significance Determination Process Basis Document) has been revised to add clarity to screening a finding in Phase 1.

IMC 0308, Att 3, App B (Technical Basis for Emergency Preparedness Significance Determination Process) has been revised to add clarity to how findings should be assessed.

IMC 0308, Att 3, App C (Technical Basis for Occupational Radiation Safety Significance Determination Process) has been revised to add guidance to exposure control for occupational dose limits.

IMC 0308, Att 3, App I (Technical Basis for Operator Requalification Human Performance Significance Determination Process) has been revised to add guidance on the overall operator requalification program.

IMC 0308, Att 4 (Technical Basis for Assessment) has been revised to add guidance on old design issues, enforcement discretion, cross cutting issues, traditional enforcement, allegations, and deviations from the action matrix.

IMC 0308, Att 5 (Technical Basis for Enforcement) has been revised to add guidance on determining Severity Level IV violations assessed using the SDP.