Information Notice No. 93-60: Reporting Fuel Cycle and Materials Events to the NRC Operations Center

                                 UNITED STATES
                         NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
               OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY AND SAFEGUARDS
                            WASHINGTON, D.C.  20555

                                August 4, 1993

NRC INFORMATION NOTICE 93-60:  REPORTING FUEL CYCLE AND MATERIALS
                               EVENTS TO THE NRC OPERATIONS center 

Addressees

All fuel cycle and materials licensees.

Purpose

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is issuing this information notice to
alert addressees to recent problems with personnel reporting safety-related
events to the NRC Operations Center that are not prepared to provide necessary
information.  It is expected that recipients will review the information for
applicability to their facilities and consider actions, as appropriate, to
avoid similar problems.  However, suggestions contained in this information
notice are not NRC requirements; therefore, no specific action nor written
response is required. 

Description of Circumstances

Changes to the incident reporting requirements in 10 CFR Parts 30, 40, and 70
(56 FR 40757), and the emphasis on criticality safety controls (NRC Bulletin
91-01) have increased the number of event reports to the NRC Operations Center
from fuel cycle and materials licensees.  This is in addition to the numerous
reports made by reactor licensees pursuant to 10 CFR Part 50.  The
Headquarters Operations Officers (HOOs) who receive reports at the NRC
Operations Center are responsible for documenting each report and determining
whether the immediate attention of the NRC technical staff is required.  In
several cases, callers have not been prepared to answer HOO questions about
the facility or the event.

Discussion

HOOs are engineers who have received extensive training in emergency response
procedures and reactor operations, but they are not familiar with every
facility licensed by NRC.  Therefore, licensees should avoid industry jargon
and technical terms (beyond generally accepted engineering terms) when
reporting events to the NRC Operations Center.  Personnel reporting events
should be prepared to answer questions about licensee operations, equipment
functions, and the safety significance of events to workers and the public. 
Licensees may wish to verify that personnel responsible for reporting events
are properly trained and sufficiently knowledgeable of licensee operations to
explain the events completely and correctly. 

9307290112.

                                                      IN 93-60
                                                      August 4, 1993
                                                      Page 2 of 2


Personnel reporting events should be prepared to answer questions similar to
the following:

     1.  What type of facility (or operation) is involved?

     2.  What chemical process or physical operations are involved?

     3.  What is the chemical form and physical form of the material involved?

     4.  At what point in the process did the event occur?

     5.  What is the safety significance of the event?

     6.  Have releases occurred and are future releases possible?

     7.  What safety systems (including safeguards systems) are affected?

     8.  What corrective actions are being taken?

NRC has developed forms to help HOOs document safety-related event reports. 
An example of the form for fuel cycle and materials incidents is attached for
your information.  

This information notice requires no specific action nor written response.  If
you have any questions about the information in this notice, please contact
one of the technical contacts listed below or the appropriate regional office.



ORIGINAL SIGNED BY

Robert F. Burnett, Director               Carl J. Paperiello, Director
Division of Fuel Cycle Safety             Division of Industrial and
  and Safeguards                            Medical Nuclear Safety
Office of Nuclear Material Safety         Office of Nuclear Material Safety
  and Safeguards                            and Safeguards


Technical contacts:  Kevin M. Ramsey, NMSS
                     (301) 504-2534

                     C. N. (Mike) Smith, NMSS
                     (301) 504-3497

Attachments:
1.  Fuel Cycle and Materials Event Notification Worksheet
2.  List of Recently Issued NMSS Information Notices
3.  List of Recently Issued NRC Information Notices
.