POLICY ISSUE

NOTATION VOTE 

August 4, 2011 SECY-11-0105

 

FOR: The Commissioners 

FROM: R. W. Borchardt 

Executive Director for Operations 

SUBJECT: PROPOSED MINOR REVISION TO MANAGEMENT DIRECTIVE 5.12, 

“INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR EVENT SCALE PARTICIPATION” 

PURPOSE: 

To request Commission approval of the staff’s proposed revision to one of the criteria in 

Management Directive (MD) 5.12, “International Nuclear Event Scale Participation,” dated 

March 13, 2002, regarding the transmittal of certain events to the International Atomic Energy 

Agency (IAEA). 

SUMMARY: 

Since 1992, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has participated in the International 

Nuclear Event Scale (INES)1

 reporting system that the IAEA and the Nuclear Energy Agency 

(NEA) have established as a means for promptly communicating to the public and media, the 

safety significance of events that may occur at nuclear or radiological facilities. In 2002, the NRC 

expanded its participation in INES to submit reports for those events rated at Level 2 or higher on 

INES, unless specifically asked by the IAEA or another INES member nation [see SECY-01-0071, 

“Expanded NRC Participation in the Use of the International Nuclear Event Scale,” dated April 25, 

2001 (ML003735913)]. 

Based on the staff’s experience with INES, and as part of the routine five-year review process for 

MDs, the staff proposes to change one of the reporting criteria in MD 5.12 to be consistent with 

the criteria in the INES User’s Manual. The staff continues to support the previous Commission 

CONTACT: Cynthia G. Jones, NSIR 

 301-415-0298 

 

1 Currently called the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. 

The Commissioners 2 

direction to screen all events reported to the NRC using INES and to transmit events rated at 

Level 2 or higher, but recommends that the NRC revise MD 5.12 to also include the transmission 

of events “attracting international public interest,” as recommended by the INES User’s Manual. 

Given the NRC’s practice of openness and transparency, and its ability to more effectively 

communicate the safety significance of events to the public using INES, the staff believes that 

revising MD 5.12 as described above will bring greater conformity with NRC current practices for 

public outreach and will be consistent with the IAEA guidance in this area. 

BACKGROUND: 

International experts convened by the IAEA and NEA developed INES in 1990 as a tool for 

promptly communicating the safety significance of reported nuclear and radiological incidents and 

accidents. INES can be applied to any event associated with nuclear facilities, as well as with 

the transport, storage, and use of radioactive materials and radiation sources. Use of INES over 

the past 20 years has served to promote a common understanding of the significance of reported 

events among governments, the nuclear community, the media, and the public. 

INES consists of a 7-level event classification system. Events of greater safety significance 

(Levels 4-7) are termed "accidents" and events of lesser safety significance (Levels 1-3) are 

called "incidents." Events without safety significance are below scale and are classified at 

Level 0. To date, 70 countries, including all countries with power reactor facilities, use INES. 

The NRC’s INES Web page, at http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/emerg-preparedness/

emerg-classification/event-scale.html, contains a description of INES, including an explanation of 

the various classification levels and a copy of the INES User’s Manual (2008 edition). 

In 2001, the Commission approved the staff’s proposal in SECY-01-0071 to expand the use of 

INES and develop an associated MD to provide guidance for the use of INES [see 

SRM-SECY-01-0071, ML011510164). In 2002, the staff developed MD 5.12, which states (in 

part) the following: 

Reports will be submitted only for those events rated at Level 2 or higher on the INES, 

unless specifically requested by the IAEA or another INES member nation. 

Because of the limited use of INES at the time, the staff did not record or transmit to the IAEA 

events that did not meet this criterion. However, over the years, operating experience branches 

within the various program offices continued to review and evaluate licensee event reports 

submitted to the NRC, even for those events below the INES Level 2 threshold. Consistent with 

MD 5.12, the staff did not transmit to the IAEA events classified below Level 2. 

In 2004, the IAEA issued Additional Guidance for rating radiation and transport events within 

INES. This Additional Guidance was issued for pilot use in 2004 and was approved in 2006 for 

incorporation into a revised INES User’s Manual, which IAEA published in December 2008. The 

subject guidance expands the INES approach to include materials, transportation, and fuel cycle 

events. NRC experience has shown that when applying the Additional Guidance, the majority of 

events that the U.S. now transmits to the IAEA are non-reactor events. The NRC staff generally 

drafts the INES report and submits the report to the IAEA within 2 business days of the NRC’s 

receipt of event notification. 

The Commissioners 3 

DISCUSSION: 

INES provides a valuable tool for communicating the safety significance of events to the public 

and media. As mentioned in SECY 11-0067, “Annual Paper on NRC Staff Participation in IAEA 

and Nuclear Energy Agency Activities” (ML11123A235), the recent events at Fukushima illustrate 

the value of this tool for communicating the safety significance of events. The European, South 

American, African, Asian, and Australian regulators and media all use the INES rating scale to 

communicate the significance of events. 

Since 2001, the NRC has transmitted only a limited number of reactor, fuel cycle, and materials 

events (rated at Level 2 or higher) to the IAEA per year (see Table 1). 

Table 1. U.S. INES Experience 2001–2010 

Year Power reactor 

Events 

Research 

Reactor 

Events 

Fuel Cycle 

Events 

Materials 

Events TOTAL 

2001 1 — — — 1 

2002 2 — — 4 6 

2003 0 — — 4 4 

2004 0 0 0 6 6 

2005 2 0 0 9 11 

2006 1 1 1 9 12 

2007 0 0 0 3 3 

2008 0 0 0 4 4 

2009 0 0 0 4 4 

2010 1 0 0 3 4 

During the past seven years, only two events reported to the NRC have attracted international 

public interest and, in accordance with the INES User’s Manual, could have been transmitted to 

the IAEA. The first event occurred on June 9, 2008, in which the National Institute of Standards 

and Technology (NIST) notified the NRC that a vial containing various isotopes of plutonium had 

broken and contaminated one of NIST’s research laboratories in Boulder, Colorado. While there 

was some contamination of the laboratory and two researchers, the safety significance of the 

event was low, and would have been rated at a Level 1 (anomaly) on INES. The second event 

was the Three Mile Island (TMI) low-level contamination event on November 22, 2009, in which 

the licensee reported that inadvertent contamination in the containment building occurred while 

employees were performing cleaning operations in a steam generator with a vacuum cleaner that 

lacked a high-efficiency particulate air filter. The INES National Officer and the NRC’s Office of 

Nuclear Reactor Regulation received 11 requests from other countries’ regulatory authorities 

within a few days requesting additional information (including an INES rating) for the TMI event. 

The NRC staff responded directly to the requesting countries, providing them with the INES rating 

(Level 0), but it did not transmit the rating to the IAEA, consistent with the guidance in MD 5.12. 

Because of the significant U.S. media attention and public interest of the TMI event, the NRC later 

included it in the 2010 Abnormal Occurrence Report to Congress (AO Report) under “Other 

Events of Interest” (SECY-11-0027, ML103130154). However, the actual exposure to 

individuals involved in these events was well below the NRC regulatory limits and was not safety 

significant.

The Commissioners 4 

In addition, as documented in the NRC foreign travel reports from the U.S. INES National Officer 

in 2009 and 2010 (ML100210278 and ML101880544, respectively), the use of INES as an 

international communication tool continues to gain momentum. In the recent IAEA ministerial 

conference on Fukushima, Director General Amano recently asked the INES Advisory Committee 

to consider ways of making INES more effective as a communication tool. More recently, IAEA’s 

INES Advisory Committee has “strongly encouraged” all member countries, (including the U.S.) to 

communicate information about events internationally according to the following criteria in the 

INES User’s Manual: 

- Events rated at Level 2 and above; or 

- Event attracting international public interest. 

Given the NRC’s emphasis on openness and transparency, and considering INES’s 

demonstrated ability to effectively communicate the safety significance of events to the public, the 

staff proposes to revise MD 5.12 to include the agreed-upon international criteria described 

above, and to submit those events “attracting international public interest” with an INES rating to 

the IAEA. The staff believes that events attracting international public interest will continue to be 

few (less than one event per year). The staff recommends that any event reported to the IAEA 

as an event attracting international public interest be considered in the NRC review process when 

evaluating events for the “Other Events of Interest” appendix to the NRC’s AO Report. The staff 

will continue to share INES notifications with the Office of Congressional Affairs for dissemination 

to Congress, as appropriate. 

In summary, the staff believes that it is appropriate to revisit the current policy for submission of 

events to INES. The staff has analyzed the various aspects of participation in the INES program 

and identified the following two options: (1) maintain the status quo in accordance with MD 5.12 

or (2) revise MD 5.12 to include reporting (those few events) that attract international public 

interest. 

Option 1: Status Quo

Under this option, the staff would transmit only events rated at Level 2 or higher to the IAEA, 

unless specifically asked by the IAEA or another INES member nation. Events that do not meet 

this criterion would not be recorded or transmitted to IAEA on the INES event rating form. This 

approach is consistent with the Commission’s earlier international information exchange policy 

direction contained in SECY-01-0071. 

Option 2: Revise MD 5.12 to Rate Events that Could Attract International Public Interest

This option provides for NRC reporting of events that receive international public interest, even if 

less than Level 2 on INES. Based on past operational experience, this approach would likely 

result in less than one additional event submission per year. The staff notes that some reactor, 

fuel cycle, and high-profile materials events continue to receive increased media attention even 

though they are not necessarily safety significant events and typically would be rated at Level 0 on 

INES. Communication of the safety significance of these types of events fosters a common 

understanding of events among the nuclear community, the public, and the media. 

The Commissioners 5 

The staff notes that full participation in INES, reflected in the criteria in the INES User’s Manual, 

supports the NRC’s approach to Open Government2

 and results in information dissemination in a 

manner that enables the public to participate effectively and make informed decisions about 

agency activities. It is also compatible with the NRC’s transparency and communication goals 

because it provides a consistent means for describing the relative significance of events to both 

the agency’s national and international counterparts. This option would be responsive to the 

IAEA’s recent Integrated Regulatory Review Service recommendations for greater consistency 

with international safety standards and good practices, and would bring the NRC into alignment 

with the INES practices used by the other 69 IAEA member states. Only a small incremental 

increase in staff resources would be required for submittal of what is expected to be only a few 

reports meeting the INES criteria, and NRC participation in INES would continue to have minimal 

impact on NRC licensees, certificate holders, and Agreement States. 

RECOMMENDATION: 

The staff recommends that the Commission approve Option 2. The staff will continue to review 

event reports sent to the IAEA as part of its AO Report review process. 

RESOURCES: 

The screening of events for INES classification and preparation of INES reports proposed in 

Option 2 can be accommodated within existing resources already allotted for event review and 

follow-up by the respective program offices. 

COORDINATION: 

The Office of the General Counsel has reviewed this paper and has no legal objection. The 

Office of International Programs and the Office of Public Affairs have reviewed this paper and 

have concurred with the staff=s recommendations. 

 /RA by Martin J. Virgilio for/ 

R. W. Borchardt 

Executive Director 

 for Operations 

 

2 See http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/open/transparency.html 

The Commissioners 5 

The staff notes that full participation in INES, reflected in the criteria in the INES User’s Manual, 

supports the NRC’s approach to Open Government2 and results in information dissemination in a 

manner that enables the public to participate effectively and make informed decisions about 

agency activities. It is also compatible with the NRC’s transparency and communication goals 

because it provides a consistent means for describing the relative significance of events to both 

the agency’s national and international counterparts. This option would be responsive to the 

IAEA’s recent Integrated Regulatory Review Service recommendations for greater consistency 

with international safety standards and good practices, and would bring the NRC into alignment 

with the INES practices used by the other 69 IAEA member states. Only a small incremental 

increase in staff resources would be required for submittal of what is expected to be only a few 

reports meeting the INES criteria, and NRC participation in INES would continue to have minimal 

impact on NRC licensees, certificate holders, and Agreement States. 

RECOMMENDATION: 

The staff recommends that the Commission approve Option 2. The staff will continue to review 

event reports sent to the IAEA as part of its AO Report review process. 

RESOURCES: 

The screening of events for INES classification and preparation of INES reports proposed in 

Option 2 can be accommodated within existing resources already allotted for event review and 

follow-up by the respective program offices. 

COORDINATION: 

The Office of the General Counsel has reviewed this paper and has no legal objection. The 

Office of International Programs and the Office of Public Affairs have reviewed this paper and 

have concurred with the staff=s recommendations. 

 /RA by Martin J. Virgilio for/ 

R. W. Borchardt 

Executive Director 

 for Operations 

ADAMS Accession No.: ML111881153 WITS 201100181/EDATS: OEDO-2011-0454 

OFFICE NSIR/OD D/NSIR D/NRR D/NRO D/NMSS D/FSME 

NAME C. Jones J. Wiggins 

(M. Dapas for) 

E. Leeds 

(BBoger for via email)

M. Johnson 

(JTappert for via 

email) 

C. Haney via email by 

L. Culp

C. Carpenter 

(TReis for via 

email) 

DATE 7/ 07/2011 7/28/2011 7 /19 /2011 7 /22 /2011 7 /19/ 2011 7 / 22 /2011 

OFFICE D/OCA D/OPA D/OIP D/OGC QTE EDO 

NAME R. Schmidt via email 

by D. Decker

E. Brenner via email 

by H. Harrington

M. Doane via email J. 

Schwartzman

M. Young (NLO) via 

email by J. Bielecki

J. Dougherty via email R.W. Borchardt 

(MVirgilio) 

DATE 7 /18 /2011 7 /22 /2011 7 / 14 /2011 7/22 /2011 08/3/2011 8/04 /2011 

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY 

2 See http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/open/transparency.html