POLICY ISSUE

(Notation Vote)

February 26, 2015 SECY-15-0029

FOR: The Commissioners

FROM: Mark A. Satorius

Executive Director for Operations

SUBJECT: REPORT TO CONGRESS ON ABNORMAL OCCURRENCES: 

FISCAL YEAR 2014

PURPOSE:

To obtain Commission approval to submit to Congress the “Report to Congress on Abnormal 

Occurrences: Fiscal Year 2014.”

BACKGROUND:

Section 208 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-438) defines an abnormal 

occurrence (AO) as an unscheduled incident or event that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission (NRC) determines to be significant from the standpoint of public health or safety. 

The Federal Reports Elimination and Sunset Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-66) requires the NRC 

to report AOs to Congress annually. Enclosure 1 to this paper is a draft of the “Report to 

Congress on Abnormal Occurrences: Fiscal Year 2014” (NUREG-0090, Volume 37).

DISCUSSION:

The enclosed draft AO report describes a total of thirteen events, with twelve events involving 

Agreement State licensees, and one event at an NRC-licensed facility. Of the twelve

Agreement State events, one involved radiation exposure to an embryo/fetus that occurred in a 

medical facility. The other eleven Agreement State events and the NRC event were medical 

events that occurred in medical facilities. Medical events are defined in Title 10 of the Code of 

Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 35, “Medical Use of Byproduct Material.” 

CONTACT: Katie Tapp, RES/DSA

301-251-7520

SECY NOTE

This SECY Paper will be is to be 

released to the public

_5_ working days after the 

dispatch of the letter(s).
The Commissioners - 2 -

All events meet the criteria for AO categorization, as defined in Appendix A, “Abnormal 

Occurrence Criteria and Guidelines for Other Events of Interest,” to the report. It should be 

noted that two of the thirteen proposed AO events reported this year occurred in previous fiscal 

years (FY) and the NRC completed its evaluation in FY 2014. In addition to the thirteen events 

in this report, the staff has identified three additional medical events that occurred in Agreement 

States in FY 2013–FY 2014, that are potential AOs and for which additional information is 

required. The additional information is not yet available due to ongoing pre-decisional 

enforcement actions that must be resolved, and the additional time needed for follow-up of 

certain events. The NRC staff is working with the Agreement States to obtain the necessary 

information and a future report will include the events, as appropriate.

Two of the twelve Agreement State events occurred in “unspecified” cities and were reported by 

“unspecified” licensees. One of these events occurred in New York and the other in Texas. 

The States of New York and Texas stated that the city and licensee names were withheld to 

comply with state patient privacy laws, but the States did not provide a formal interpretation of 

state laws to support these withholdings. For future abnormal occurrences reporting purposes, 

the staff will request formal interpretations from States that withhold such information and 

conduct thorough reviews of privacy law claims to determine whether withholding from 

Congress any information required by Section 208 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 is 

mandated by state law. If state laws do conflict with the requirements of Section 208, the staff 

will raise this issue to the Commission to determine whether preemption principles apply.

The staff notes that the number of identified medical AOs is small, given the high number of 

medical procedures performed annually. The staff does not believe there are currently any 

programmatic issues of concern involving medical licensees, and continues to monitor licensee 

performance and provide prompt response when warranted.

During the reporting period covered by the draft report, updated information was received for 

two events that were previously reported in FY 2012. Appendix B, “Updates of Previously 

Reported Abnormal Occurrences,” to the enclosed report provides the updated information for 

these events, which were a medical event at Lovelace Medical Clinic in Albuquerque, New 

Mexico, and a commercial nuclear power plant event at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Unit 1, in 

Athens, Alabama.

During FY 2014, the NRC did not identify any events that met the guidelines for inclusion in 

Appendix C, “Other Events of Interest,” either as an update to previously reported information, 

or as a new event that received significant public interest. Appendix D, “Glossary,” contains 

definitions of terms used throughout this report. Appendix E, “Conversion Table,” presents 

conversions commonly used when calculating doses.

The NRC initially issued the AO criteria in a policy statement that the Commission published in 

the Federal Register on February 24, 1977 (42 FR 10950) followed by several revisions in 

subsequent years. The most recent revision to the AO criteria was published in the 

Federal Register on October 12, 2006 (71 FR 60198), and became effective on that date. That 

revision established the criteria that the NRC uses to define AOs for the purpose of the 

enclosed report, as set forth in Appendix A.
The Commissioners - 3 -

RECOMMENDATION:

The NRC staff recommends that the Commission approve the enclosed draft FY 2014

AO report to Congress, as well as the proposed letters forwarding the report to Congress. After 

receiving Commission approval to proceed with the report, the staff will submit the enclosed

letter for the Chairman’s signature to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the

President of the United States Senate, and the NRC’s oversight committees. The NRC’s Office 

of Congressional Affairs will then arrange for appropriate distribution to Congress. The staff 

also will issue a Federal Register notice announcing publication of the enclosed report.

RESOURCES:

No additional budgetary resources are requested for this effort.

COORDINATION:

The Office of the General Counsel has reviewed the draft AO report and has no legal objection. 

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer has reviewed this paper for resource implications and 

has no objection.

/RA by Michael Weber for/

Mark A. Satorius

 Executive Director

 for Operations

Enclosure: 

NUREG-0090, Volume 37, “Report 

 to Congress on Abnormal Occurrences: 

 Fiscal Year 2014”
The Commissioners - 3 -

RECOMMENDATION:

The NRC staff recommends that the Commission approve the enclosed draft FY 2014

AO report to Congress, as well as the proposed letters forwarding the report to Congress. After 

receiving Commission approval to proceed with the report, the staff will submit the enclosed

letter for the Chairman’s signature to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the 

President of the United States Senate, and the NRC’s oversight committees. The NRC’s Office 

of Congressional Affairs will then arrange for appropriate distribution to Congress. The staff 

also will issue a Federal Register notice announcing publication of the enclosed report.

RESOURCES:

No additional budgetary resources are requested for this effort.

COORDINATION:

The Office of the General Counsel has reviewed the draft AO report and has no legal objection. 

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer has reviewed this paper for resource implications and 

has no objection.

/RA by Michael Weber for/

Mark A. Satorius

 Executive Director

 for Operations

Enclosure: 

NUREG-0090, Volume 37, “Report 

 to Congress on Abnormal Occurrences: 

 Fiscal Year 2014”

ADAMS Accession No: ML14325A149 WITS 198700108

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

OFFICE QTE RES/DSA/RPB BC:RES/DSA/RPB D: RES/DSA

NAME J. Dougherty

(Via email)

K. Tapp R. Tadesse M. Case

DATE 11/06/2014 11/21/2014 12/5/2014 12/5/2014

OFFICE NMSS NRR NSIR OE

NAME C. Haney

(via email K. Jones)

W. Dean

(via email)

J. Wiggins

(via email L. Trocine)

P. Holahan

(via email N. Hasan)

DATE 1/9/2015 1/13/2015 1/14/2015 1/23/2015

OFFICE NRO CFO OPA ADM

NAME G. Tracy

(via email M. Cheok)

M. Wylie

(via email T. Champion)

E. Brenner

(via email D. Decker)

C. Carpenter

(via email D. Warner)

DATE 1/19/2015 12/30/2014 1/15/2015 1/29/2015

OFFICE OCA R-I R-II R-III

NAME E. Dacus

(via email)

D. Lew

(via email J. Nick)

V. McCree

(via email K O’Donohue)

C. Pederson

(via email D. Roberts)

DATE 1/15/2015 1/18/2015 1/19/2015 1/8/2015

OFFICE R-IV OGC D: RES EDO

NAME M. Dapas

(via email B. Maier)

M. Doane

(via email E. Houseman)

B. Sheron M. Satorius /RA 

MWeber for

DATE 1/19/2015 2/3/2015 02/12/2015 02/26/2015