February 9, 2011 

MEMORANDUM TO: Chairman Jaczko 

FROM: R. W. Borchardt /RA/

 Executive Director for Operations 

SUBJECT: INITIATIVES FOR IMPROVED COMMUNICATION OF 

GROUNDWATER INCIDENTS 

This memorandum provides the outcome of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 

Senior Management Review Group (SMRG) on two of the four themes described in the 

“Groundwater Task Force Report,” issued June 2010 (Agencywide Documents Access and 

Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML101680435). Specifically, the SMRG 

endorses, as described in this paper, the staff’s initiatives to create a more reliable and 

consistent NRC response and to strengthen trust. A separate Commission information paper 

will be submitted that describes the staff regulatory approach for addressing groundwater 

protection and the themes of reassessing the regulatory framework and maintaining barriers as 

designed to confine licensed material. 

Recent incidents at several nuclear stations, including Braidwood Generating Station, Oyster 

Creek Generating Station, Oconee Nuclear Station, and Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power 

Station, involving radioactive contamination of groundwater wells and soil have caused NRC 

licensees and the NRC to take actions to address the source of the radioactive material (e.g., 

buried piping leaks) and to communicate the impact of such incidents to the public and other 

external stakeholders. Although the NRC actions in each incident have been adequate to 

prevent off-site releases in excess of Federal limits, the incidents raise questions about (1) the 

completeness of NRC actions to date, and (2) whether those actions need to be augmented. 

To answer these questions, the NRC’s Executive Director for Operations established a 

Groundwater Task Force (GTF) on March 5, 2010. The purpose of the GTF was to reevaluate 

the recommendations made in the “Liquid Radioactive Release Lessons Learned Task Force 

Final Report,” dated September 1, 2006 (ADAMS Accession No. ML062650312), review the 

actions described in SECY-09-0174, “Staff Progress in Evaluation of Buried Piping at Nuclear 

Reactor Facilities,” dated December 2, 2009 (ADAMS Accession No. ML093160004), and 

review the actions taken in response to recent releases of tritium into groundwater by nuclear 

facilities. The purpose of the GTF’s review was to determine whether the NRC should augment 

the actions taken in response to recent incidents and the recommendations made in the Liquid 

Radioactive Release Lessons Learned Task Force Final Report. 

CONTACTS: Margie A. Kotzalas, OEDO/TBPM 

 301-415-1727 

 A. Louise Lund, NRR/DLR 

 301-415-3248
Chairman Jaczko - 2 - 

The GTF determined that the NRC is meeting its mission of protecting public health, safety, and 

the environment and is correctly applying requirements and properly characterizing the relevant 

issues. However, in view of stakeholder concerns, the GTF indicated that the NRC should 

consider some changes to its oversight of licensed material outside of its designed confinement. 

In its report, the GTF identified four major crosscutting themes that provide focus for its 

conclusions: (1) reassess the regulatory framework for groundwater protection, (2) maintain 

barriers as designed to confine licensed material, (3) create a more reliable NRC response, and 

(4) strengthen trust. 

The NRC established the SMRG to evaluate the GTF conclusions and recommendations, 

identify next steps, and make recommendations for the Commission’s consideration about 

potential policy or regulatory changes. Based on the GTF recommendations, the SMRG 

identified actions that the staff should undertake in the near term. These include development 

of an agency-wide community of practice for groundwater contamination issues, development of 

a standard protocol for split samples, improvements to the existing factsheets associated with 

groundwater protection and tritium, and consideration of the need for a generic communication 

to the industry. 

For longer term actions, the SMRG sought input from internal and external stakeholders. In 

order to focus public comment, the SMRG formulated questions based on the recommendations 

and conclusions of the GTF. These questions included the following: 

• Should the NRC’s oversight programs be modified to ensure greater consistency when 

addressing low risk, high public interest/confidence issues? 

• How can the NRC improve communications and support to other regulatory agencies, 

such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the States, in understanding and 

exercising respective roles and responsibilities related to groundwater protection? 

• How can the NRC increase confidence in its actions and communications related to 

groundwater protection? 

• What role could third party verification or assessment have in responding to groundwater 

incidents? 

These questions were published in the Federal Register on September 23, 2010 (75 FR 57987), 

for comment, and the NRC held a workshop on October 4, 2010 (ADAMS Accession 

No. ML102990500) to receive input from a diverse group of industry and public stakeholders. 

The actions developed and described below are intended to be responsive to the above-noted 

questions published in the September 23, 2010, Federal Register Notice. 

Informed by these comments and the conclusions of the GTF, staff was assigned, with SMRG 

endorsement, to undertake a number of initiatives to strengthen trust and ensure greater 

reliability and consistency of the NRC’s response to leakage of radioactive effluents or potential 

contamination of groundwater. Some of the initiatives are directed solely at incidents of 

radioactive releases to the groundwater, but others are more broadly applicable to other 

incidents involving unintended radioactive releases. Some of the more significant initiatives are 

described below. 

 
Chairman Jaczko - 3 - 

Improved Communication Strategies

The NRC Communications Council (Council) has been tasked with developing a strategy for 

strengthening stakeholder confidence in NRC actions around reported incidents in which the 

safety risk may be low and stakeholder interest is high. This strategy will be used not only for 

incidents of unintended radioactive releases into the groundwater but also more broadly for 

other incidents and events. The Council is developing a comprehensive strategy to address 

strengthening stakeholder confidence in the NRC and is considering ways that the NRC can 

develop relationships with trusted sources such as public health officials as a method for 

strengthening credibility. Specifically, for loss of confinement and tritium issues, the Council is 

identifying improvements to the information on the NRC Web page such as more focus on 

health impacts rather than risk, greater use of plain language, and improved follow-up when 

leaks are identified. Additionally, the staff is preparing a factsheet describing the regulatory 

framework for groundwater for the different categories of licensees (i.e., power reactor, fuel 

cycle, uranium recovery). 

Improved Annual Effluent Reports

In Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 50.36a(2), the NRC requires licensees 

to submit annual effluent reports. Most licensees submit their annual reports by May 1 of the 

following calendar year; however, some licensees have different dates identified in their 

licensing-basis documents. Annual effluent reports for each power reactor licensee site are 

published on the NRC Web site. 

Starting in 2010, the staff is making changes to improve the user friendliness of this information. 

Data from the licensee-supplied reports are being compiled into a new, user-friendly format. 

This new report summarizes the information so that the user is not overwhelmed by the vast 

amount of data in the licensee-supplied reports but still has the necessary data to make 

informed decisions. The new summary report contains explanatory text about the data to make 

them more understandable. Graphical depiction of the data will allow the user to visually 

compare one plant to another without having to comb through pages of tables of numerical data. 

Finally, the data are normalized on a per-unit basis to allow comparison between different 

operating units. Steps are also being taken to improve the timeliness of publication of the staff’s 

summary report so that the report will be available on the NRC Web site in a quicker manner. 

International Outreach

The staff initiated a dialogue with international regulators to understand their regulatory 

approaches for groundwater protection, focusing on resolution of issues involving underground 

piping and tanks. The staff is also gathering information on domestic and international activities 

for modeling the movement of radioactive materials through the environment. In addition to 

keeping informed of international efforts in this area, the NRC will use this information to 

strengthen agency communication with domestic stakeholders about groundwater incidents. 

Communication with States

The staff is developing a standard protocol for engaging States on unintended releases of 

radioactive material. This protocol will incorporate lessons learned from groundwater incidents 

thus far and feedback from State representatives. In addition, the staff will consider approaches 
Chairman Jaczko - 4 - 

for engaging States by establishing communication channels through more than one State 

organization, such as the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors, State 

departments of public health or environmental quality, and Governor-appointed State Liaison 

Officers. Once established, this standard protocol and these communication channels will be 

beneficial for other incidents and events in which the NRC will need to engage States. 

cc: Commissioner Svinicki 

 Commissioner Apostolakis 

 Commissioner Magwood 

 Commissioner Ostendorff
Chairman Jaczko - 4 - 

for engaging States by establishing communication channels through more than one State 

organization, such as the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors, State 

departments of public health or environmental quality, and Governor-appointed State Liaison 

Officers. Once established, this standard protocol and these communication channels will be 

beneficial for other incidents and events in which the NRC will need to engage States. 

cc: Commissioner Svinicki 

 Commissioner Apostolakis 

 Commissioner Magwood 

 Commissioner Ostendorff 

DISTRIBUTION: EDATS: OEDO-2011-0117 

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EDO R/F 

ADAMS Accession Number: ML110050252 *via e-mail

OFFICE OEDO/TBPM TECH EDITOR* DAO NRR NRO* FSME* 

NAME MKotzalas KAzariah-Kribbs JAndersen ELeeds MJohnson CMiller 

DATE 01/07/2011 01/06/2011 01/07/2011 02/02/2011 01/31/2011 02/07/2011 

OFFICE NMSS* RGNIII* RES* OGC* EDO 

NAME CHaney MSatorius BSheron 

(JUhle for) 

SBurns 

(LLondon for) 

RWBorchardt 

DATE 01/28/2011 01/29/2011 02/04/2011 01/26/2011 02/09/2011 

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