_____________________

INFORMATION REPORT

July 23, 2015 SECY-15-0096

FOR: The Commissioners 

FROM: Melanie A. Galloway /RA Bo Pham Acting for/ 

 Assistant for Operations 

 Office of the Executive Director for Operations 

SUBJECT: WEEKLY INFORMATION REPORT - WEEK ENDING 

 JULY 17, 2015 

CONTENTS Enclosure

Office of Administration A 

Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer B 

Office of Information Services C 

Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation D 

Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research E 

Office of the Secretary F 

 

 /RA/ 

 Melanie A. Galloway 

 Assistant for Operations, OEDO 

Contact: L. Rakovan, OEDO 

 301-415-2589
JULY 17, 2015 ENCLOSURE A 

Office of Administration (ADM) 

Items of Interest 

Week Ending July 17, 2015 

Safety Culture and Climate Survey

On July 14, 2015, as a result of a non-competitive solicitation, fixed-price task order NRC-HQ30-15-T-0001 was issued under General Services Administration Schedule GS10F0170P to 

Towers Watson Delaware, Incorporated in Arlington, VA. The objective of this task order is to 

assist the Office of the Inspector General in assessing the current organizational safety culture 

and climate of NRC’s workforce. The period of performance is from August 1, 2015, through 

February 1, 2016. The total ceiling price is $253,727. 

Power Reactor In-Core Monitoring: Petition for Rulemaking; Notice of Docketing; Part 50 

of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (NRC-2015-0124)

On July 16, 2015, the NRC published a notice of docketing in the Federal Register 

(80 FR 42067) for Petition for Rulemaking (PRM) 50-111 that was filed on March 13, 2015, by 

Mark Edward Leyse (the petitioner). The petitioner requests that the NRC amend its “Domestic 

Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities” regulations to require all nuclear power plant 

licensees to use in-core monitoring devices at different elevations and radial positions 

throughout the reactor core. The NRC is not requesting public comment on this PRM at this 

time. 
JULY 17, 2015 ENCLOSURE B 

Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) 

Items of Interest 

Week Ending July 17, 2015 

ARRIVALS

None

RETIREMENTS

None 

DEPARTURES

Cherry, Brandon Acquisition Business Specialist ADM

Tatum, Martha Administrative Assistant R-III
JULY 17, 2015 ENCLOSURE C 

Office of Information Services (OIS) 

Items of Interest 

Week Ending July 17, 2015

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act (PA) Requests and Appeals Received 

During the Period of July 10 – July 16, 2015: 

Copies of all records related in any way to the Alvin W. Vogtle nuclear 

power plant (including Vogtle 1, 2, 3, and 4) near Augusta, Georgia. FOIA/PA-2015-0380

Copies of the FOIA Log Reports for the month of June, 2015. FOIA/PA-2015-0381

All records relating to the Canadian Radium and Uranium Corporation, 

dated back to the 1940's. FOIA/PA-2015-0382

Copies of all records regarding any licenses held by the Canadian 

Radium and Uranium Corporation, including the termination of those 

licenses.

FOIA/PA-2015-0383

Request that TIA [Task Interface Agreement] 2014-04 is not publicly 

available and to ensure that we have the full understanding of the 

issues raised during the Component Design Basis Inspection.

FOIA/PA-2015-0384

All records from the NRC briefing of Duke Energy on October 27, 2014. FOIA/PA-2015-0385

Copy of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Procedures, Revision 

4 of Office Instruction COM-106 FOIA/PA-2015-0386

Any and all Site Environmental Reports required by the Atomic Energy 

Commission and its successors for Grumman’s Research Reactors. FOIA/PA-2015-0387

All information regarding MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit 

Authority) financial transactions from employees, offices, MARTA, other 

sources, to include all Inspector General documents, emails, memos, 

reports, interview results, audits, investigations, and transactions from 

November 2014 to present.

FOIA/PA-2015-0388

All information regarding named individual from and to the following 

individuals and offices: Russell Ficken, Len Wert, Victor McCree, the 

Executive Director for Operations, Region II current and former Human 

Resources Branch personnel, the Office of the Chief Human Capital 

Officer, and Cris Brown, from February 2012 to present.

FOIA/PA-2015-0389

Copies of transcripts of all meetings held with CampCo, Inc., License 

No. 0423910-01E, within the past 10 years. FOIA/PA-2015-0390

All documents related to the Secretary of Defense visits to Russia, the 

Ukraine, or Kazakhstan, the Nunn-Lugar/Cooperative Threat Reduction 

initiative and/or Project Sapphire, or weapons of mass destruction found 

in 1993. Official Records of the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of 

Defense.

REF-2015-0001

Final reports on the peer review findings and observations to BoilingWater Reactors (BWR) Standardized Plant Analysis Risk (SPAR) and 

Pressurized-Water Reactors (PWR) SPAR model would be completed 

in October 2009.

FOIA/PA-2015-0391
JULY 17, 2015 ENCLOSURE D 

Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) 

 Items of Interest 

Week Ending July 17, 2015

National Operator Licensing Examiners Conference 

On July 7-8, 2015, staff participated in the National Operator Licensing Examiners Conference 

hosted by Region II. This year’s conference served as a forum to discuss challenges and 

experiences related to implementation of proposed changes to NRC’s Operator Licensing 

program. The proposed changes derived from a comprehensive lessons learned initiative 

following a 2014 decision from the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to award a Senior 

Reactor Operator license to an applicant from the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant. The next 

step in the change process will be the formal routing, concurrence, and public comment period 

for NUREG 1021, “Operator Licensing Examination Standards for Power Reactors.” 

Differing Professional Opinion Regarding the Definition of a Repetitive Degraded 

Cornerstone 

On June 11, 2015, the Director, NRR, issued a decision on a Differing Professional Opinion 

(DPO) submitted on December 7, 2014, concerning a change in the definition of a repetitive 

degraded cornerstone. The DPO raised concerns that the revision made to Inspection Manual 

Chapter (IMC) 0305 that changed the definition of a repetitive degraded cornerstone was an 

unnecessary relaxation in regulatory oversight and was contrary to Commission direction. On 

May 5, 2015, an Ad Hoc Panel (Panel) provided the results of its independent review of the 

DPO to the Director, NRR. The Panel concluded that the revision to IMC 0305 was a slight 

relaxation in regulatory oversight. The Panel did not believe that the change needed to be 

rescinded. The Panel also concluded that the change did not require prior notification or 

approval from the Commission before it was implemented. Finally, the Panel concluded that 

making multiple changes one at a time to the reactor oversight process (ROP) guiding 

documents could lead to unintended consequences. The Panel recommended assessing the 

potential unintended consequences of changing the definition of a repetitive degraded 

cornerstone, developing a technical bases document to capture the reasons for decisions that 

change the ROP, establishing basic thresholds for when a change would be viewed as 

“substantive,” as well as for the method and content of communications to the Commission in 

that case, and developing guidelines for a process to evaluate aggregate/cumulative effects of 

changes to the ROP. The Director, NRR, agreed with the Panel on the conclusions and 

recommendations. The DPO case file can be found in the NRC’s Agencywide Documents 

Access & Management System under Accession No. ML15194A444.
JULY 17, 2015 ENCLOSURE E 

Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) 

Items of Interest 

Week Ending July 17, 2015

Public Workshop on Standardized Plant Analysis Risk Model Program

On July 14-15, RES, in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory staff, held a two-day public 

workshop on the agency’s Standardized Plant Analysis Risk (SPAR) model program. Workshop 

discussions included: the objectives of the SPAR model program, data collection, and analysis; 

human reliability analysis; loss of offsite power modeling; and SPAR model maintenance and 

quality assurance. The workshop participants included representatives from utilities, industry 

contractors, international partners, and public interest groups. The SPAR models provide 

agency risk analysts with an independent risk assessment tool and support a variety of riskinformed agency programs including the reactor oversight process and the accident sequence 

precursor program. 
JULY 17, 2015 ENCLOSURE F 

Office of the Secretary (SECY) 

 Items of Interest 

Week Ending July 17, 2015 

Document Released to 

Public

Date of 

Document

Subject

Decision Documents

1. Staff Requirement 

Memorandum-SECY-15-

0074

07/14/2015 Discontinuation of Rulemaking Activity-Title 10 of the 

Code of Federal Regulations Part 26, Subpart I, 

Quality Control and Quality Verification Personnel in 

Fitness for Duty Program (RIN 3150-AF12).

2. Voting Record-SECY15-0074

07/14/2015 Discontinuation of Rulemaking Activity-Title 10 of the 

Code of Federal Regulations Part 26, Subpart I, 

Quality Control and Quality Verification Personnel in 

Fitness for Duty Program (RIN 3150-AF12).

Information Papers

1. SECY-15-0092 07/16/2015 Weekly Information Report —Week Ending

June 26, 2015.

2. SECY-15-0093 07/16/2015 Weekly Information Report —Week Ending

July 3, 2015.

Memoranda

1. SRM-M150709A 07/15/15 Briefing on Mitigation of Beyond Design Basis Events 

Rulemaking.

Commission Correspondence

1. Letter to the Honorable Bill Haslam, Governor of Tennessee, expresses congratulations to 

the State of Tennessee on its 50th year anniversary of becoming an Agreement State, dated 

July 7, 2015. 

2. Letter to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand responds to her letter regarding transformer fires at the 

Indian Point Energy Center, dated July 10, 2015. 

Federal Register Notices Issued

1. Petition for rulemaking, notice of docketing entitled, “Power Reactor In-Core Monitoring” 

(PRM-50-111; NRC-2015-0124). 

2. Notice of Hearing (Notice of Evidentiary Hearing and Opportunity to Provide Written Limited 

Appearance Statements) – Crow Butte Resources, Inc. (Docket No. 40-8943) 

3. Notice (Regarding weapons at Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Proceeding) – Crow 

Butte Resources, Inc. (Docket No. 40-8943)