Section 208 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, as amended (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 that the NRC report AOs to Congress annually.
This guidance manual provides the NRC staff methodology for calculating parameters for limiting conditions of operation required in the radiological effluent Technical Specifications for light-water-cooled nuclear power plants. it provides guidance in using the model specifications reported in NUREG-0472 (Revision 1)*, and NUREG-0473 (Revision 1)*, applicable to operating PWR and BWR licensees, and users of the Standard Technical Specifications packages available for various vendor designs.
The Standard Review Plan (SRP) is prepared for the guidance of staff reviewers in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation in performing safety reviews of applications to construct or operate nuclear power plants. The principal purpose of the SRP is to assure the quality and uniformity of staff reviews, and to present a well-defined base from which to evaluate proposed changes in the scope and requirements of reviews.
On March 22, 1975, a fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant caused a shutdown of Units 1 and 2. The facility subsequent to the shutdown was found to have incurred substantial damage to power, control, and instrumentation wiring. All three units are presently in the shutdown condition with the fuel removed from the vessels for Units 1 and 2; the Unit 3 reactor is still under construction with operation for that unit scheduled for early 1976.
On March 22, 1975, a fire was experienced at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant near Decatur, Alabama. The Special Review Group was established by the Executive Director for Operations of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) soon after the fire to identify the lessons learned from this event and to make recommendations for the future in the light of these lessons. Unless further developments indicate a need to reconvene the Review Group, its task is considered complete with the publication of this report.
Management of civilian radioactive waste has posed difficult issues for Congress since the beginning of the nuclear power industry in the 1950s. Federal policy is based on the premise that nuclear waste can be disposed of safely, but proposed storage and disposal facilities have frequently been challenged on safety, health, and environmental grounds.
Passed in 1982, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) was an effort to establish an explicit statutory basis for the Department of Energy (DOE) to dispose of the nation’s most highly radioactive nuclear waste. The NWPA requires DOE to remove spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants, in exchange for a fee, and transport it to a permanent geologic repository or an interim storage facility before permanent disposal. Defense-related high-level<br>waste is to go into the same repository.
Presented to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future Subcommittee on Disposal
