Resolution of Generic Safety Issues: Abstract ( NUREG-0933, Main Report with Supplements 1–35 )

This report summarizes the results of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) evaluations and documents the resolution of generic safety issues. The NRC staff evaluations were effective in identifying and resolving in a timely manner those generic issues that had a significant potential risk to nuclear power plants.

The staff divided the issues into seven groups:

1. "TMI Action Plan Items," documented in NUREG-0660⁴⁸ and NUREG-0737⁹⁸
2. "Task Action Plan Items," documented in NUREG-0371,² "Task Action Plans for Generic Activities (Category A)," U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), November 19782 and NUREG-0471,³ "Generic Task Problem Descriptions (Categories B, C, and D)," NRC, June 19783, as well as all Unresolved Safety Issues (USIs) not originally identified in these two documents
3. "New Generic Issues," identified from various sources
4. "Human factors Issues," documented in NUREG-0985, "U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Human Factors Program Plan," NRC, August 1983, (Rev. 1) September 1984, (Rev. 2) April 1986⁶⁵¹
5. "Chernobyl Issues," documented in NUREG-1251¹¹⁴⁷
6. "Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards Issues"
7. "Fukushima Issues," NUREG KM-08, "Reflections on Fukushima: NRC Senior Leadership Visit to Japan," and a NUREG titled, "Knowledge Management: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Response to Address Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Accident," to be release at future date.

The staff excluded from prioritization/screening those issues primarily concerned with the licensing process or environmental protection and not directly related to safety. Future supplements to this report will include new issues added to the Generic Issues Program and updated information on issues that have been resolved or completed major milestones.

Management Directive (MD) 6.4, "Generic Issues Program," (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML14245A048) describes the agency's process for resolving generic issues. Before the implementation of MD 6.4, the safety priority rankings were HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW, and DROP. These rankings were based upon risk-significance estimates, the ratio of risk to cost, estimates of impacts if resolutions to the safety issues were implemented, and the consideration of uncertainties and other quantitative or qualitative factors. After the initial issuance of MD 6.4 in 1999, the agency discontinued the use of the priority ranking model described above, and all generic issues that were screened in and assigned a number were considered to be highly significant. When the NRC revised MD 6.4 in 2015, the generic issue process was reduced to three stages: Screening, Assessment, and Regulatory Office Implementation. The flowchart below gives an overview of the generic issue process.