**NRC INSPECTION MANUAL** RORP

MANUAL CHAPTER 0230

MORNING REPORT

0230‑01 PURPOSE

This chapter establishes the steps for regional and headquarters offices
to follow in preparing input for the Morning Report. This chapter also
provides guidance to minimize the reporting of duplicate or
insignificant information.

0230‑02 OBJECTIVE

Events at reactor and non‑reactor facilities, and other events that may
affect the public health and safety, must be monitored and evaluated for
plant specific and generic safety implications. The Morning Report
provides a mechanism for the Regions and Headquarters offices to
communicate information on events and issues that may not have already
been communicated by other means (i.e., preliminary notifications, event
notifications, licensee event reports).

0230‑03 DEFINITIONS

03.01 [Significant Item]{.underline}. An event, problem, or piece of
information that a regional or headquarters office believes does, will,
or may affect the safe and secure conduct of a licensed activity.

03.02 [Item of Interest]{.underline}. Items that the regional staff
believes may be of immediate interest to headquarters management. This
would include significant fitness‑for‑duty issues outside the scope of
10 CFR 26.73, important meetings, inspection findings that require
immediate attention, senior licensee or public interest visitors in the
regional office, or public interest visitors at licensee facilities.

0230‑04 APPLICABILITY

All regional and headquarters office staff shall comply with the
guidance in this manual chapter.

0230‑05 RESPONSIBILITIES

05.01 [Program Director, Operating Reactor Improvements Program (RORP),
NRR]{.underline}. Monitors operational events at reactor and non‑reactor
facilities, and is the NRR focal point for coordinating the short‑term
assessment of operating reactor events (which

include both reportable events and situations and conditions that have
an adverse effect on overall plant safety and performance). Also
coordinates the assignment of follow up activities that require
short‑term or long‑term licensing, inspection, or generic actions.

05.02 [Chief, Materials Safety and Inspection Branch (MSIB), IMNS,
NMSS]{.underline}. Monitors operational events involving materials and
fuel cycle activities and identifies significant operational events for
briefing the Director of NMSS.

05.03 [Director, Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and
Safeguards]{.underline}. Reviews significant operational events
involving materials and fuel cycle activities and determines what follow
up actions are necessary to address generic issues.

05.04 [Regional Administrators]{.underline}. Ensure that staff provides
input to the Morning Report in accordance with the provisions contained
herein.

0230‑06 REPORT PREPARATION AND TRANSMITTAL

06.01 Each regional office and headquarters division or branch, as
appropriate, should identify significant items and items of interest
(see definitions 03.01 and 03.02 above), and prepare a brief summary of
each item using the format provided in Exhibit 1. These summaries will
be used as input into the Morning Report.

06.02 Information exempt from public disclosure should not be included
in the Morning Report. The Morning Report is placed in the Public
Document Room soon after being prepared. Classified, safeguards, and
proprietary information are examples of information exempt from public
disclosure.

06.03 Allegations should not be included in the Morning Report. However,
if an allegation could affect the safety of the public, the Morning
Report may include the safety information.

06.04 Regional offices should transmit their input for the Morning
Report to headquarters in accordance with the existing procedures.
Questions regarding these procedures should be directed to the operating
experience section (OES), RORP, NRR.

06.05 If a regional office has no input for the Morning Report, then it
is not necessary for the region to send the message "Region (X) has no
report on (date)." If no input is entered into the system by the region,
then it will be assumed there is nothing for the Morning Report.

0230‑07 GUIDANCE CONCERNING MORNING REPORT INPUTS

07.01 [Additional Information to Supplement NRC Operations Center
Notifications]{.underline}. In conducting event follow up activities,
the staff relies on the timely receipt of information from various
sources. One such source is the Morning Report, which enables regional
offices and headquarters staff to exchange information in a systematic
way each day. This means of communication is particularly useful when
providing additional, significant information about a reportable event.
Immediate notifications to the NRC Operations Center are brief and are
prepared shortly after an event, and thus may not specify the details of
an event, its safety significance, or the licensee\'s plans for
resolution. The licensee also may not know this information at the time
of the notification. Therefore, the regional offices, including resident
inspectors, may need to determine what additional information would be
useful.

The regional office may also use input to the Morning Reports to provide
timely information to supplement information already reported by the
licensee. This supplemental information would help the headquarters
staff better understand what occurred during an event. It could also be
used by the region to discuss specific licensee and regional office
follow‑up activities (referencing Management Directive 8.3 and risk
insights as appropriate). Information submitted as input to the Morning
Report is not a substitute for detailed evaluations which should be sent
by memoranda to the appropriate headquarters office.

07.02 [Regional Perspective on Safety Related or Risk Significant
Items]{.underline}. The regional office perspective on a matter (whether
it constitutes a reportable event or not) is an important part of the
staff\'s overall information gathering capability. Consequently, the
regional offices are encouraged to use their input to the Morning Report
to provide their views on safety significant items that may be outside
the scope of immediate notification requirements.

07.03 [Event Cause and Corrective Actions Established]{.underline}. A
reportable event is followed until an informed decision can be made
regarding its safety significance. Input for the Morning Report should
be made (if the staff has not already been informed) when the underlying
cause of the event has been identified and the course of corrective
action established, particularly when the matter may have generic
implications.

07.04 [Risk Significant Inspection Findings and Generic
Issues]{.underline}. Input for the Morning Report should include
significant inspection findings that are similar to those of recent
reportable events. The report should also include significant findings
from headquarters and regional team inspections that could have generic
or site‑specific safety implications.

07.05 [Selected Plant Management Changes]{.underline}. Routine
management changes at nuclear power plants should not normally be
included as input to the Morning Report. However, plant management
changes at facilities with significant issues, that have had recent
public interest or media attention, may be of particular interest to
stakeholders should be considered for inclusion in a Morning Report.

07.06 [NRC Staff Visits to Plant Sites or Region Offices]{.underline}.
In general, routine visits by regional office or headquarters
individuals to a site should not be included in the input to the Morning
Report. Such routine items include: attendance at Resident Inspector
seminars; plant visits for routine, periodic discussions; and,
enforcement conferences that do not deal with new or novel issues or
circumstances. If the meeting was non-routine, or included significant
issues, then it should be included in the input to the Morning Report.

07.07 [Part 21 Issues]{.underline}. The operating experience section
(OES), RORP, NRR reviews all 10CFR Part 21 reports to evaluate the
safety or risk significance and generic applicability of the reported
defect or noncompliance. If it is determined that the issue may be
safety or risk significant or may have generic applicability, then OES
will disseminate this information using an Information Notice or other
generic communication. However, if OES determines that the issue has low
safety or risk significance and limited generic applicability then the
information may be disseminated in the Morning Report rather than a
generic communication.

07.08 [Avoid Duplication of Status Reports]{.underline}. If an event or
issue has already been communicated by other documented means then it is
not necessary to issue a Morning Report unless there is new, important,
or updated information to provide. These other means of communication
include, but are not limited to, Preliminary Notifications pursuant to
MC 1120 or 10CFR reporting requirements.

END

Exhibit 1: Format for Morning Report

EXHIBIT 1

[FORMAT FOR INPUT OF MORNING REPORT]{.underline}

MORNING REPORT (Date) MR NO: 0‑00‑0000

> Licensee: Event Number:
>
> Facility: Event Date:
>
> Unit: \[ \] \[ \] \[ \] Region:
>
> Rx Info: Location Code:
>
> Dockets: \[        \] \[         \] \[        \]
>
> Notification Date & Method:
>
> Subject:
>
> Contact:
>
> (   ) ‑ (   ) ‑ (   ) ‑
>
> Description \[ \]
>
> Regional Action \[ \]