Technical Advisory Committee of the Nuclear Risk Research Center
Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry
1-6-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-8126 Japan

November 15, 2015

Dr. George Apostolakis
Head, Nuclear Risk Research Center
Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry
1-6-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo, 100-8126 JapanSUBJECT:COMMENTS ON THE PROPOSED NRRC RESEARCH PLAN FOR
FISCAL YEAR 2016

Dear Dr. Apostolakis:
During the fourth meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Nuclear
Risk Research Center (NRRC), October 26-30, 2015, we met with NRRC staff toreview its proposed research plan. The purpose of our review was to provide
comments on the technical merit of the research plan and its relevance forsupporting NRRC's current mission.

CONCLUSION
Based on the prepared presentations, supplemental discussions with the NRRC
researchers, the current state of knowledge in Japan, and the current needs of theJapanese utilities, we conclude that the presented research topics are appropriate
and are supportive of the NRRC's mission.

BACKGROUND
One of the most important objectives of the research plan is to present thebackground and significance of the research needs including the proposed rationale,current state of knowledge, and potential contributions and significance of theresearch to the objectives of the center. The presentations provided a formal
statement of the objectives, gaps, and milestones of research activities that clearlyand concisely described what the proposed research is intended to accomplish.
Our review of the NRCC research plan was limited to the review of the statedpurpose and desired outcome of the activities and did not include a detailed reviewof the milestones or the completion time frame.

-1-DISCUSSION
During the fourth TAC meeting, the NRRC staff provided a high level presentation of
the center's research plan for our review and comment. The presentation mainly
concentrated on activities that are to be started in Fiscal Year 2016. These activities
focus primarily on applied scientific research that is concentrated on finding answers
to a specific problem. They include exploratory research topics and fact-finding(gathering information). In the non-external events technical areas, with oneexception, the primary objective of the proposed applied research areas is to collectand interpret currently available information (e.g., circuit analysis or fire frequencyestimations). The exception is the Human Reliability Analysis research area, which
is a combination of information gathering and state-of-knowledge improvement. The
natural external events research topics, which include seismic, tsunami,
tornado/typhoon, and volcano are exploratory (e.g., testing and understanding
causal relations) and predictive research.
Based on the prepared presentations, supplemental discussions with the NRRC
researchers, the current state of knowledge in Japan, and the current needs of theJapanese utilities, we conclude that the presented research topics are appropriate
and are supportive of the NRRC's mission.

Sincerely,John W. Stetkar
Chairman

REFERENCES
1.

"FY 2016 Research Plan - Risk Evaluation Team," Presentation to NRRC
Technical Advisory Committee, October 27-28, 2015, Proprietary.

2.

"R&D Related to Natural External Events," Presentation to NRRC TechnicalAdvisory Committee, October 27-28, 2015, Proprietary.

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