ML20005E570
| ML20005E570 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 12/20/1989 |
| From: | Michelson C Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards |
| To: | Carr K NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20005E571 | List: |
| References | |
| ACRS-GENERAL, NUDOCS 9001080180 | |
| Download: ML20005E570 (3) | |
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UNITED $TATES
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7 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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,j ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REAC10R cAFEGUARDS 1
wasmwoTow. o. c. mss December 20, 1989 1
The Honorable Kenneth M. Carr Chairman U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comission Washington, D.C. 20555
Dear Chairman Carr:
SUBJECT:
PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO 10 fFR PART 55, OPERATORS' LICENSES, TO INCLUDE " FITNESS-FOR-DUTT PENALTIES The members of the Advisory Comittee on Reactor Safeguards discussed this issue during our 356th meeting, December 14-15, 1989. This matter was also discussed during a meeting of our Subcomittee on Human Factors on December 12, 1989._ Members of the NRC staff and representatives of the nuclear industry participated in these meetings.
We also had the benefit of the document referenced.
The staff has developed proposed rule changes to establish penalties for operators who hold licences under 10 CFR Part 55 and have failed to comply with the " fitness-for-duty" requirements of 10 CFR Part 26, Fitness-for-Duty Programs.
Amendments to 10 CFR Part 50 Domestic Licensing of' Production and Utilization Facilities, and 10 CFR Part 2 Rules of Practice for Domestic Licensing Proceedings, will require that compliance with the conditions and cutoff levels established in 10 CFR Part 26 becomes a conoition for holding an operator or senior operator license.
Failure to comply can result in sanctions ranging up to revocation of a license for a third offense.
We concur in the staff's plan to issue the proposed amendment for public Comment.
Sincerely.
.4 Carlyle Michelson Acting Chairman
Reference:
Draft SECY Paper for the Comissioners from James M. Taylor, Acting Executive Director for Operations,
Subject:
Proposed Revision of 10 CFR Part 55 to Require Compliance with Fitness-For-Duty Programs and Conform-ing Modification to Comission's Enforcement Policy, received November 20, 1989.
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December 21, 1989 The Honorable Kenneth M. Carr Chaiman U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comission Washington, D.C.
20555
Dear Chairman Carr:
SUBJECT:
C0HERENCE IN THE REGULATORY PROCESS In our last report to you on this subject, dated November 24, 1989, we listed a number of problems, but deferred any recommendations until we had had a chance to speak to the EDO.
This occurred so late in our December meeting that it was impossible to prepare a report on this n
important subject with the care that it deserves. We therefore beg your indulgence while we defer still another month.
Nonetheless, we have een briefed at this meeting on one of the increas-ingly important elements of the process--the SALP ratings and their use
--and believe it appropriate to single out the subject for individual treatment.
We know you are aware of some of the problems of external misuse of the ratings; we wish to address instead the internal purpose of the ratings themselves, from the viewpoint of coherence of the regulatory process.
The SALP ratings are extremely important to the licensee, for both economic and other reasons; it is therefore essential that the process through which they are determined be as objective and credible as it is possible to make it. We recognize that there is not available a set of fully objective performance indicators and that any rating system must therefore have an element of subjectivity.
It is then doubly important that the procedures incorporate a set of credible checks and balances to
. minimize the effect of the personal predilections of the board members.
Instead we learned from this briefing that the process is almost en-tirely (we were told 80%) in the hands of the Regional Administrator, who not only appoints most of the board from among his own personnel, but is even free to reject an SALP rating he doesn't like, and reconsti.
tute the board as he wishes.
The rating therefore provides still another weapon for the Administrator to enforce his personal views,-
effectively free of restraint. There is no appeal procedure.
Even with the best of Regional Administrators this strikes us as unwise--with the worst it could make a mockery of coherent regulation.
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d' The Honorable Kenneth M. Carr December 21, 1989 1
During our briefing, we were variously told that the purpose of an SALP rating is to advise the Regional Administrator (though he signs it), and then to help him advise the licensee. At the end it wasn't clear which.
We were also told that a licensee must exhibit a steady improvement _to keep his SALP rating constant, then that he needn't, and finally that he did.
If true, that is not consistent regulation.
Improvement toward what end*/ You may wish to read the transcript of our meeting.
We could continue, but the message is that your staff has created a process which is out of control.
If indeed all the questions we asked have reasonable answers, they were not known to the responsible staff elements, even during a prepared briefing devoted to the subject.
On this isolated exaniple of incoherence, we think you should make a clear statement of the purpose of SALP ratings, insist that your staff implement that purpose and no other, insist that the staff not use the ratings as weapons to enforce obedience to idiosyncratic policies that are not yours, greatly dilute the Regional autarchy in the process, and institute a workable set of checks and balances. Abuses of SALP abound, and they bring no credit to the regulatory process.
We also believe that this is a sufficiently important problem to justify consideration of suspension of the program and issuance of no new SALP ratings until enough reform measures are instituted to lend credibility to the process.
Sincerely, k -v Ca lyle Michelson Acting Chairman
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