Teachin g Notes

Operationa l Reacto r Safet y Course

Lecture : 2 3 – Curren t R e gulator y Issues

Objective :

W h ile the U S nuclear plants a r e ope rating at ex ceptiona l ca pacity f ac t o r leve ls and the industry is now considering the construction of new plants, m a ny new a nd long standing technical an d regulato r y issues ex is t that need to be reso lv ed. The objective of this lecture is to provide a high le vel review of some of these issues to rem i nd students that safe nuclear operations requires constant vigila nce and action.

Ke y Point s t o Brin g Out:

Slid e num be r Point s

2 This slide provides an overview of som e of the key regulatory issues being addressed by the NRC. Point out the role of enhanced security due to the 9-11 attack s and recent ground contam ination events th at h a ve occurred that ra ise the question of safety culture and addressing problem s on a tim ely basis.

3 Although not new, reactor vessel inte grity is im portant since it is the m ost lifelim iting component that can not be easily replaced. W ith license renewals, th is could becom e i m portant again.

4 PW R sump perform ance . This i ssue was thought to be settled but recent n ew infor m ation has raised th e issue ag ain . Recall pas t lectures of the im portance of th e su mp recircu l ation sys t em for post accident cooling of th e core and containm ent.

5 Prim ary coolant sys t em weld issu es for various welds containing certa in alloy s needs cons tant in spection and repair in term s of overlays.

6 Fire protection is again important due to new test results of a certa in type of insulation Hym ec. Since NRC published Appendix R, num erous dif f i culties have arisen in term s of dem onstratin g com pliance. New criteria are being developed. Use of fire PRAs

is being encouraged to balance ri sk understanding of key system f ailures.

7 New challen g es and regu latory requirem e nts for s ecurity and terrorism are costing utilities billio ns of dollars to upgrade plants to new design basis threats. Explai n what is being done to reflect what is ava i lable in the p ublic lite ratu re.

8 Ground water contam ination are large public perception im pact events that alm ost shutdown Brookhaven National Laboratory even though the health impact was m i ni m a l. The lesson of these events is to address even insigni f i c a n t issue s pro m ptly that c an becom e large public problem s.

9 Go over the details of NRC' s en forcem ent process to appreciate NRC responds to violations - self identified by the utility and those of the NRC. Note the role of the utility response in how NRC responds - role of the Corrective Ac tion Process. Also note use of the Reacto r Oversight Process and th e Significan ce Determ ination Process.

10 The purpose of this im portant slide of an enforcem ent action is to show that violation involved a failu re of the utilit y to take timely corrective action under Appendix B which is the appendix that deals with Q u ality Assu r ance progr a m s.

11 The next ex am ple of enforcem en t action is to point out how seem ingly insignificant things such as painting som e thing, led to a system f ailure. This sho w s the im portance of spe cif icity in m a intenance work particularly on saf ety sign if ica n t equipm ent.

12 The key point in this summary slid e is the need for vigilance and constant attention to detail and th e importance of NRC oversight to assure com p liance. The role of the industry should also be m entioned as part of the long term technical resolution of generic issues for th e industry which will co ntinue as lon g as plants are operating.

There are m a ny m o re issues that could be discussed as they em erge . I would suggest reviewing the list of open generic issues for a status of how the industry and N RC is doing to resolve them and when.

MIT OpenCourseWare http://ocw.mit.edu

22.091 / 22.903 Nuclear Reactor Safety

Spring 200 8

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