October 30, 2013 

MEMORANDUM TO: Patrick L. Hiland, Director 

 Division of Engineering

 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

FROM: Robert O. Hardies, Senior Level Advisor /RA/ 

 Division of Engineering

 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

SUBJECT: SUMMARY OF CATEGORY 2 PUBLIC MEETING BETWEEN THE 

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AND INDUSTRY 

REPRESENTATIVES TO DISCUSS THE PROGRESS ON THE 

INDUSTRY’S BURIED PIPING AND UNDERGROUND PIPING AND 

TANKS INITIATIVE 

On October 9, 2013, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff held a Category 2 

public meeting with representatives from the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the Electric Power 

Research Institute, the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), the American Society of 

Mechanical Engineers, NACE International (formerly known as the National Association of 

Corrosion Engineers) and other industry representatives at NRC Headquarters in Rockville, MD. 

This public meeting was one in an ongoing series of interactions between NRC staff, industry 

representatives and other stakeholders to understand the scope and schedule for industry 

activities related to degradation of buried and underground piping and tanks. Minutes of 

previous meetings are available at Agencywide Document Access and Management System 

(ADAMS) Accession Numbers ML093070162, ML100810295, ML103230366, ML11137A171, 

ML113210661, ML12116A043, ML13050A590 and ML13133A206. A list of meeting attendees 

is enclosed. The meeting notice and agenda is available at ADAMS Accession Number 

ML13241A502. 

At the beginning of the meeting, NRC staff reviewed the status of the NRC’s Buried Piping 

Action Plan (ADAMS Accession Number ML13107A984). The staff described the action plan 

activities, schedule for action, and reiterated NRC objectives with respect to buried piping. The 

staff described the temporary instruction (TI-182) for NRC to perform inspections of licensee 

activities related to the Buried Piping and Underground Piping and Tanks Integrity Initiatives. 

Phase I inspections are complete. Phase II inspections are approximately one-third complete. 

Results from the Phase II inspections that have been completed seem to indicate uniform 

implementation of the initiatives. 

Enclosure: 

Attendance list 

CONTACT: Robert O. Hardies, NRR/DE 

 (301) 415-5802 
- 2 - 

NEI provided an update of Underground Piping and Tanks Initiative activities including initiative 

changes, treatment of outliers and overall implementation status. The NEI presentation 

indicated that all plants have met the Initiative milestones to date and are on track to meet future 

milestones. There was a discussion about the role of the initiative at plants that permanently 

shut down. The industry indicated that those plants would continue to be subject to the initiative 

until the decommissioning plan is implemented. Industry is still defining the timing of the 

transition. INPO described its assessment role and summarized industry performance and 

findings with respect to the initiatives. INPO also discussed approaches for future 

enhancements to the graphical summaries of industry experience. 

The Electric Power Research Institute discussed progress and plans related to development 

and deployment of nondestructive examination equipment, processes and procedures. 

Highlights included descriptions of buried pipe inspection technology, tank inspection 

technology, guided wave for direct inspections, future research plans and currently available 

publications. EPRI also reviewed the Buried Piping Integrity Group activities, including 

reviewing participation, highlights of recent meetings and progress in populating the buried 

piping inspection results database. Progress in EPRI’s Cathodic Protection User Group was 

described. 

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) discussed the status of Section XI 

buried piping activities, including plans and progress in the “Task Group Buried Component 

Inspection and Testing.” This task group is developing potential changes to the ASME Boiler 

and Pressure Vessel Code to address inspection, testing, mitigation, repair, replacement and 

design of buried and underground piping. 

NACE International described ongoing activities in NACE Task Group 404, “Nuclear Buried 

Piping,” to develop buried piping inspection, assessment and corrosion prevention standards 

optimized for nuclear power plant applications. 

All presentations made at the meeting are available in ADAMS Accession number 

ML13291A415 (part of the package). 

The following action items were recorded at previous meetings, with the current status noted: 

1) Industry will discuss and address whether the initiative continues to be applicable to a 

plant that decides to cease permanent operations (completed). 

2) The NRC will revise TI-182 to reference revision 2 of NEI-09-14 (completed). 

3) NRC and EPRI to establish a date to discuss guided wave practices (completed). 

4) NRC and EPRI staff will exchange information on saturated eddy current examination 

(ongoing). 

During this meeting the following new action items were recorded: 

1) NEI, INPO and NRC will discuss changing the graphical depiction of industry events 

such as leaks and significant degradation with the objective of more effectively 

demonstrating trends in the performance of piping and tanks that are safety related or 

contain radiologic or environmentally hazardous materials. 
- 3 - 

2) NRC and NEI to discuss examples of regulatory methods used in some previous 

applications for qualification or demonstration of NDE techniques. 

The next meeting is scheduled for March 5, 2014, at NRC headquarters. 

Enclosure: 

Attendance list 

CONTACT: Robert O. Hardies, NRR/DE 

 (301) 415-5802 
ENCLOSURE 

2) NRC and NEI to discuss examples of regulatory methods used in some previous 

applications for qualification or demonstration of NDE techniques. 

The next meeting is scheduled for March 5, 2014, at NRC headquarters. 

Enclosure: 

Attendance list 

CONTACT: Robert O. Hardies, NRR/DE 

 (301) 415-5802 

DISTRIBUTION: 

DCI R/F DE R/F DAlley SGarry RConatser 

WHolston AShaikh HGray KHoffman TLupold 

IAnchondo ASengupta KBrock 

dsmith@epri.com 

curtiss.blackwelder@duke-energy.com 

searsjt@inpo.org 

jhr@nei.org 

Gabriel.OGUNDELE@kinectrics.com 

dwittas@apsc.com

Michael.sears@exeloncorp.com 

dlamond@aesengineering.com

mar@nei.org 

skenefick@epri.com 

djones7@entergy.com 

rroyer@structint.com

ADAMS PACKAGE ACCESSION NO.: ML13301A792 

OFFICE NRR/DE 

NAME RHardies 

DATE 10/30/2013 

 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY 
ENCLOSURE 

List of Attendees 

Name Email Affiliation 

David Alley David.Alley@nrc.gov NRC 

Tim Lupold Timothy.Lupold@nrc.gov NRC 

Mark Richter mar@nei.org NEI 

James Isom James.Isom@nrc.gov NRC 

Richard Conatser Richard.Conatser@nrc.gov NRC 

Bob Hardies Robert.Hardies@nrc.gov NRC 

Curtis Blackwelder Curtiss.Blackwelder@Duke-energy.com Duke 

Michael Sears Michael.Sears@exeloncorp.com Exelon 

Doug Jones Djones7@entergy.com Entergy 

Daniel Wittas dwittas@apsc.com APS 

Keith Hoffman Keith.hoffman@nrc.gov NRC 

Roger Royer rroyer@structint.com Structural Integrity 

Joseph Sears searsjt@inpo.org INPO 

Steve Vitto Steven.vitto@nrc.gov NRC 

Steve Kenefick skenefic@epri.com EPRI 

David Smith dsmith@epri.com EPRI 

Jim Riley jhr@nei.org NEI 

Dan Lamond dlamond@aesengineering.com AES 

Mike O’Keefe Mike.Okeefe@certrec.com Certrec Corp. 

Jim Melchionna James.Melchionna@pseg.com PSEG 

Matt Golliet GollieM@westinghouse.com Westinghouse