License Renewal Roadmap
Implementation of the License Renewal Roadmap (SECY-24-0026)
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Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM) M231102, “Staff Requirements – Strategic Programmatic Overview of the Operating Reactors and New Reactors Business Lines”
In SRM M231102, “Staff Requirements – Strategic Programmatic Overview of the Operating Reactors and New Reactors Business Lines” dated December 11, 2023, the NRC Commission directed the following:
“Within three months, the staff should provide the Commission with a roadmap to restore the license renewal program to a path of timely and predictable reviews and achieve the goal of 18-month reviews. The roadmap should include action items and deadlines to risk inform renewal reviews, leverage operating programs, leverage previous reviews, and leverage the agency’s and industry’s operating experience in aging management. It should also include dates for achieving staffing levels appropriate for the workload and request any resource allocation or reallocation, if necessary, that the Commission would need to provide. The staff should provide routine updates on roadmap progress.”
SECY-24-0026, “Achieving Timely Completion of License Renewal Safety and Environmental Reviews (License Renewal Roadmap)”
SECY-24-0026, “Achieving Timely Completion of License Renewal Safety and Environmental Reviews (License Renewal Roadmap)” dated March 28, 2024, describes the staff’s goal to achieve timely and predictable 18-month license renewal reviews while reducing resources and providing reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety.
The License Renewal Roadmap entails initiatives for both the safety and environmental reviews.
For the safety review, the staff developed a 3-phase approach to improving the efficiency and timeliness:
- Phase 1, “Process Improvements,” comprising of seven process improvement initiatives that leverage best practices from new and advanced reactor reviews that have contributed to timely and cost-effective safety decisions, was applied to all LR and SLR reviews starting March 29, 2024.
- Phase 2, “Tiered Approach,” tailors the level of staff’s review by incorporating risk insights, leveraging operating programs, previous reviews, NRC and industry operating experience with aging management, and taking into consideration consistency with NRC guidance documents. The Tiered Approach was established in April 2024 and is currently being piloted on the Dresden Nuclear Power Station, Units 2 and 3, subsequent license renewal review and the Clinton Power Station, Unit 1, license renewal review.
- Phase 3, “Additional Process Improvements,” will optimize audits, safety evaluations, and leverage information technology to improve efficiency before the receipt of the next application (estimated: April to June 2025).
Additional efficiencies are expected in February 2025 upon issuance of updates to NUREG-2191, “Generic Aging Lessons Learned for Subsequent License Renewal (GALL-SLR) Report,” and NUREG-2192, “Standard Review Plan for Review of Subsequent License Renewal Applications for Nuclear Power Plants.”
For the environmental review, the staff will continue to implement process improvements to active and future reviews to increase efficiency. This includes streamlining the EIS development process with hybrid audits and use of requests for confirming information, expand the use of incorporation by reference to eliminate duplicative information across the EIS chapters, and make improvements to administrative processes for draft EIS reviews and comment processing.
On May 16, 2024, the NRC Commission approved SECY-24-0017, “Final Rule – Renewing Nuclear Power Plant Operating Licenses – Environmental Review,” an update to NUREG-1437, “Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants (LR GEIS).
Additionally, on May 30, 2024, the staff issued SECY-24-0046, “Implementation of Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 National Environmental Policy Act Amendments,” to evaluate the National Environmental Policy Act requirements set forth in section 321 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
The NRC staff continues to engage with the Nuclear Energy Institute, industry, and members of the public to discuss opportunities improve the efficiency of license renewal reviews. As part of the engagements, the staff is recommending staggering submittals (1 application every 3 months) to the NRC to aid with workload management and schedules.
SECY-24-0026A, Supplement to SECY-24-0026, “Achieving Timely Completion of License Renewal Safety and Environmental Reviews (License Renewal Roadmap)”
On April 15, 2024, the staff issued SECY-24-0026A, Supplement to SECY-24-0026, “Achieving Timely Completion of License Renewal Safety and Environmental Reviews (License Renewal Roadmap).” The supplement provided a detailed analysis of resource usage for two ongoing license renewal projects to illustrate the efficiency gains already being achieved.