POLICY ISSUE 

INFORMATION

July 23, 2008 SECY-08-0104

FOR: The Commissioners 

THRU: E. Roy Hawkens 

 Chief Administrative Judge 

FROM: Daniel J. Graser 

Licensing Support Network Administrator 

SUBJECT: LICENSING SUPPORT NETWORK PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION - 

SEMIANNUAL REPORT 

PURPOSE: 

This is to inform the Commission, in accordance with 10 C.F.R. § 2.1011(c)(5), of the status of 

the Licensing Support Network (LSN) and the activities of the LSN Administrator (LSNA) for the 

six-month period ending June 30, 2008. 

BACKGROUND: 

The Commission’s Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM) dated January 31, 1992, directed 

the submission of a semiannual report on the activities of the LSNA (formerly the Licensing 

Support System (LSS) Administrator). The scope of this semiannual report includes LSN 

program activities from January 1, 2008, through June 30, 2008. 

 

DISCUSSION: 

I. Activities 

A. Licensing Support Network Administrator (LSNA) and Staff

Patricia Hall, whose hiring was noted in the previous report and who had lead responsibility for 

quality assurance activities, accepted a position with the Office of Information Services. Due to 

budget constraints, her LSN position will remain unfilled until next year. Quality assurance 

responsibilities will be covered during the interim by the LSN Project Manager, Matt Schmit. 

CONTACT: Daniel J. Graser, LSNA/ASLBP 

 301-415-7401 
B. Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA)-Related Activities

Dr. Andrew Bates of the Office of the Secretary (SECY) continues to serve as the LSN Advisory 

Review Panel (LSNARP) Chair. 

C. LSN Advisory Review Panel (LSNARP) Activities

No LSNARP meetings occurred during the reporting period. 

D. LSN Administrator Guidelines

No new LSNA Guidelines were promulgated and no existing LSNA Guidelines were revised 

during the reporting period. The technical bases for LSN operations, including participant 

organization technologies, remain stable. 

E. Interactions with Other NRC Offices and Entities

1. The Commission 

The previous LSNA semiannual report (SECY-08-0011) was submitted to the Commission on 

January 25, 2008. 

2. Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) and Office 

of Information Services (OIS)

Interactions on LSN matters with the Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) 

and their OIS-based support organization dealt primarily with routine document collection 

maintenance issues. During the reporting period, the LSNA attended a number of meetings 

with the Department of Energy (DOE) that were conducted by NMSS staff to coordinate the 

technical specifications for the license application eventually submitted on June 3, 2008. These 

meetings helped ensure that the electronic versions of the application would be technically 

compatible with the LSN and NRC’s ADAMS intake requirements. 

The LSN staff worked with NMSS headquarters and CNWRA staff in response to their requests 

for advanced training in the use of the LSN. 

LSN staff met with NMSS representatives on February 14, 2008, to provide information on the 

processing time needed for the NRC staff to add a large volume of e-mails to its LSN collection. 

NMSS has not indicated when that activity may commence; however, the LSN project team 

stands ready to begin processing these documents into the LSN as soon as we are advised 

they are available. 

F. Interactions with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Civilian 

Radioactive Waste Management on Its Efforts and Readiness to Meet LSN 

Commitments

DOE submitted a license application to NMSS for review on June 3, 2008. Reporting period 

interactions with DOE before and after the application was submitted consisted of routine 
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operations to add its newly generated materials and to process revisions to prior LSN 

bibliographic records. 

G. Interactions with Other Participants in Conjunction with Their Efforts to be 

Ready to Meet LSN Commitments

All potential parties (other than DOE and NRC staff) were to have their document collections 

certified as complying with the requirements of 10 C.F.R. Part 2, Subpart J, by January 17, 

2008. As of that date, sixteen (16) organizations had submitted certifications, and one 

organization – the State of California Energy Commission - was still “in process.” The two 

organizations that put up LSN websites for the first time in the period just prior to the deadline 

were the above mentioned California Energy Commission and the City of Caliente, Nevada. 

Subsequently, LSN staff was in contact with the State of California Department of Justice and 

the Timbisha Shoshone tribal government. Both organizations have expressed an interest in 

participating in the Yucca Mountain licensing proceeding and are exploring LSN compliance 

requirements for their organizations. We will continue to work with those two organizations as 

requested. 

With the exception of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, which has a long history of 

involvement with the LSN program, and the Nuclear Energy Institute representing the nuclear 

energy and technologies industry, LSN staff have had no requests for LSN compliance 

assistance from any other citizen, environmental, or public interest group. 

 H. LSN Project Plan Implementation

 1. Ongoing Upgrades and Expansion to the LSN

There are no upgrades to, or expansions of, the LSN production system currently underway. 

AT&T Government Services, the LSN contractor team, is testing a new release of the LSN 

search and retrieval software, AutonomyTM version 7.0, at the LSN test and development 

laboratory at its offices in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. We currently are looking toward possible 

deployment sometime in the last half of CY 2008 when it will not disrupt activities in the 

adjudicatory proceeding. At the current rate of participant additions, we are confident that the 

LSN capacity to index materials should be adequate at least through the end of FY 2009. 

 2. Administration of the LSN

Project management performance by the LSN staff continues to achieve planned system 

milestones for user access, participant support, and document loading timeliness. 

Entering this reporting period, the LSN was comprised of 15 participant organizations containing 

3,620,856 documents. During the six-month reporting period an additional 36,853 documents 

were added. Two new participant organizations -- the City of Caliente and the State of 

California Energy Commission -- were added to the LSN in the two weeks prior to the deadline 

for participant certification of collections. One participant organization -- the City of Las Vegas, 

Nevada -- withdrew from participation, but its document collection has not been deleted from the 

LSN. In a February 20, 2008 order, the Pre-License Application Presiding Officer (PAPO) 
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Board accepted an agreement by DOE and the City of Las Vegas to have the City’s LSN 

certification stricken, albeit without prejudice to the City’s right to re-file a certification if it wishes 

to do so. The City’s collection nonetheless remains on the LSN absent any direction by the 

PAPO Board or a request by the City of Las Vegas to remove its documents. 

Potential additional parties that have expressed interest in establishing LSN document 

collections, but have not yet done so, include the State of California Department of Justice and 

the Timbisha Shoshone tribal government. 

The following table presents cumulative performance metrics for the LSN during the reporting 

period: 

Licensing Support Network System Performance Metrics for the Reporting Period 

 January February March April May June 

Number of Participants 17 17 17 17 17 17 

Number of Documents 3,630,344 3,636,839 3,640,974 3,648,664 3,654,491 3,657,709 

System Availability (Against 

Schedule) 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 

Number of Days with Outage 

More than Four Hours 0 0 0 0 0 0 

The following table presents the net document additions/deletions per month, by participant:

Licensing Support Network Documents Added/Deleted by Participant

Added 

January 

Added 

February 

Added 

March 

Added 

April 

Added 

May 

Added 

June 

Total Added 

1/1/08 

Through 

6/30/08 

City of Las Vegas 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

Churchill County 0 2 0 0 3 0 5 

Clark County 25 0 0 0 0 0 25 

Eureka County 6 0 0 0 0 0 6 

Lander County 5 2 0 0 0 0 7 

Lincoln County 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

Mineral County 0 19 0 0 0 0 19 

Nye County 732 51 2 0 31 4 820 

White Pine County 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

Esmeralda County 1 0 0 0 3 0 4 
The Commissioners - 4 -

Licensing Support Network Documents Added/Deleted by Participant

Added 

January 

Added 

February 

Added 

March 

Added 

April 

Added 

May 

Added 

June 

Total Added 

1/1/08 

Through 

6/30/08 

Inyo County, 

California 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 

State of Nevada 1,408 5 0 83 0 0 1,496 

Department of 

Energy I 4,038 6,383 4,038 7,877 5,368 3,191 30,895 

Department of 

Energy II 3,068 0 77 4 1 3 3,153 

Nuclear Energy 

Institute 120 0 7 0 21 0 148 

Nuclear 

Regulatory 

Commission 52 33 11 34 26 48 204 

California Energy 

Commission 2 1 0 0 0 44 47 

City of Caliente 23 0 0 0 0 0 23 

Total 9,481 6,496 4,135 7,998 5,453 3,290 36,853 

LSN training sessions conducted during the reporting period included: 

• January 24, 2008 – Nevada counties of Clark, Esmeralda, and White Pine, City of Las 

Vegas, and Nuclear Energy Institute 

• April 23, 2008 – Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analysis (CNWRA) Staff 

• April 24, 2008 – State of Nevada Staff and Counsel 

The LSN Administrator and ASLBP Chief Counsel Anthony Eitreim made a joint presentation to 

an NMSS-hosted workshop for the High Level Waste (HLW) Affected Units of Local 

Government at the Las Vegas Hearing Facility on April 17, 2008. The session was entitled 

“Interactions with NRC in HLW Adjudicatory Process: Technical & Procedural Issues.” 

The LSNA met with representatives of the Timbisha Shoshone tribal government on May 15, 

2008, as part of an outreach effort coordinated by NMSS. Information was provided about the 

technical aspects of establishing an LSN document collection and the technical assistance 

afforded by the LSN staff No follow-up request for assistance or training by the Timbisha 

Shoshones had been received as of the end of this reporting period. 

 3. Security Profile of the LSN

No system downtime was experienced during the reporting period because of hacker attacks 

directed against the LSN. 
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II. Issues 

Technology Refresh, Budget and Procurement Issues Affecting LSN Availability 

The current hardware in the LSN production platform was purchased in 2004 and 2005. As 

noted in the previous semiannual report, budgeting for a comprehensive technology refresh 

effort for the LSN has been deferred from its original intended start date in FY 2008. 

Technology refresh budgets originally included for FY 2008 initially were deferred until FY 2009; 

however, the technology refresh budget request for FY 2009 was stricken in response to 

reductions in HLW funding in the agency’s FY 2009 President’s Budget. Subsequently, the 

funding for a technology refresh included in the FY 2010 budget plan has also been slashed. 

The continued unavailability of technology refresh funding places the ability of the LSN to 

operate without significant interruption at high risk starting in FY 2010. 

To address the lack of refresh funding, the LSN management team has put in place a contract 

for extended warranty coverage for the LSN server configuration and has begun testing the 

most current version of the AutonomyTM search software, which is available at no cost under 

current licensing agreements, with an eye toward possible implementation before the end of CY 

2008. 

While the warranty coverage affords some measure of protection for the government’s capital 

equipment investment, it provides for replacement in-kind only, and the prospect of finding 

replacement components for computers of the 2004-05 generation in the 2010 timeframe is 

uncertain at best. It should also be noted that this extended warranty coverage was not planned 

for in budget space, and has required considerable reallocation of existing LSN funding 

earmarked for other system activities. 

Similarly, simply upgrading to the newest version of the search software will not address a 

number of fundamental LSN design features that current users have found to be cumbersome in 

light of the large size of the collection. These items would have been addressed in the context 

of a comprehensive refresh effort. 

This poses a direct risk to the NRC schedule for conducting the hearings given that, as is the 

case with any of the major HLW metasystem technology components, which include E-Filing, 

the EHD, and the DDMS, anytime there is a loss of availability there is the real possibility that 

time will have to be added to the schedule for the proceeding, potentially on a day per day 

basis. See 10 C.F.R. § 2.1017 (EHD unavailability for more than four access hours of any day 

means day not counted in computing time for any HLW adjudicatory proceeding act). 

III. Future LSN-Related Activities 

The LSN contractor team will continue testing a new release of the LSN search and retrieval 

software, AutonomyTM version 7.0, in the test and development laboratory at AT&T Government 

Services offices in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. Upon successful completion of this assessment, a 

plan will be put in place to insert the new software engine in the operational environment without 

the loss of system availability. The software substitution is expected to occur during the last half 

of CY 2008. 
The Commissioners - 6 -

LSN staff will begin developing a statement of work for an operations and maintenance contract 

to replace the current support contract that expires in mid-2009. 

COORDINATION: 

The Office of the General Counsel has no legal objection. 

 /RA/ 

 

 _________________________________ 

 Daniel J. Graser 

 Licensing Support Network Administrator 

 Atomic Safety and Licensing 

 Board Panel 

Distribution: 

Commissioners 

OGC 

ASLBP 

CFO 

EDO 

SECY 

OPA 

OCA 

 

 
The Commissioners - 7 - 

LSN staff will begin developing a statement of work for an operations and maintenance contract 

to replace the current support contract that expires in mid-2009. 

COORDINATION: 

The Office of the General Counsel has no legal objection. 

 

 /RA/ 

 ________________________________ 

 Daniel J. Graser 

 Licensing Support Network Administrator 

 Atomic Safety and Licensing 

 Board Panel 

Distribution: 

Commissioners 

OGC 

ASLBP 

CFO 

EDO 

SECY 

OPA 

OCA 

ADAMS: ML 082050061 

ASLBP ASLBP/Editor ASLBP/OD OGC SECY 

D. Graser: dg* P. Bollwerk: gpb* E. Hawkens: erh* K. Cyr: bj* A.Vietti-Cook 

07/10/08 07/15/08 07/15/08 07/21/08 07/ /08 

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

* SEE PREVIOUS CONCURRENCE