Proposal to Establish an International Forum for Light Water Reactor (LWR) Aging Management

1. Proposal to Establish an International Forum for Light Water Reactor (LWR) Aging Management L.J. Bond Pacific Northwest National Laboratory October 12-13 2009

2. International Forum The proposed International Forum for LWR Aging Management would: establish a flat, flexible organizational structure to facilitate issue-oriented cooperation. building cooperation among existing, and developing, programs identify high priority issues facilitate joint projects among parties with mutual interests on specific issues. will not fund and/or initiating new directly funded research projects. parties involved in the forum will provide resources for the work.

3. Background Majority of U.S. plants are expected to seek 20 year license extensions 52 extensions have been granted to date (May 2009) 18 applications under NRC review 15 planned applications more announced. The U.S. nuclear industry is now beginning to focus on requesting a second period of extended operations (i.e. from 60 to 80 years) and even potentially further periods after 80 years. In almost all countries with NPPs, regulatory authorities and the nuclear industry are looking at some form of extended operating periods. To support life extension activities it is necessary to ensure system safety and reliability. Internationally, a variety of individual national and international activities have been initiated including Plant Life Management (PLiM) and Long Term Operation (LTO) through the IAEA, programs under the OECD-NEA and various national programs in managing materials degradation and related topics.

4. Background (cont) An International Forum would be a good way to achieve goal and help develop new approaches for ensuring continued safe operation in existing and future nuclear power plants. NRC has established a Proactive Management of Materials Degradation (PMMD) Program for managing in-service degradation of metallic components in aging NPPs. The NRC is seeking to facilitate an International Forum: a network of international experts who would exchange information on operating experience, best practices, and emerging knowledge. These experts would be willing to work jointly and leverage the separate efforts of existing national programs into a unified approach to enable the potential for the safe and economic life extension of NPPs.

5. The purpose of the International Forum is to gain mutual benefits not readily achievable by working independently. No one organization has all the needed capable or insights that can be made available by a network of organizations working together on the same task. Multiple organizations working cooperatively make it possible to pool intellectual talent, avoid redundant efforts, and work jointly under well-defined and mutually beneficial commitment to shared goals. The participants share responsibility, accountability, resources and rewards. Bringing together the knowledge, experience and skills of multiple organizations to address LWR Aging Management/PMMD issues means all participants will benefit more than if the same organizations worked independently.

6. Participation and mission international experts and organizations knowledgeable in the degradation of nuclear reactor materials, and related technologies (monitoring, life prediction PRA etc) Facilitate the exchange and pooling of experience, results and knowledge Promote cooperation in identifying and addressing technical issues.

7. What does a forum need and provide? A healthy International Forum requires participation to achieve its mission. Stage #1: Establish individual-to-individual relationships: create a shared vision of the International Forum. Establish the trust needed to work together across many boundaries. Stage #2: Use individual-to-organization relationships to gain organizational commitments to participation in the International Forum. Stage #3: Build organization-to-organization relationships within the International Forum to conduct joint projects, evaluate and share results and identify new efforts. Work jointly to define the organization and operation of the International Forum.

8. Building a forum: Some important milestones for building an effective International Forum are: Have early involvement and the availability of resources to effectively work together. Build a culture that encourages teamwork and cooperation; focus on building mutual trust and respect among participants. Define team member roles and responsibilities. Demonstrate effective teamwork. Define products and schedules based on early sharing of information and effective teamwork. Make use of virtual co-location of project staff, resources, and results. Apply participation/cooperation technology to ensure full sharing of work, results and conclusions.

9. Potential benefits from participation In the long run, some of the expected benefits of participation are sharing, saving, increasing and targeting: Sharing: ideas, knowledge, skills, expertise, data, technology, standards, facilities and infrastructure. Saving: time, effort, money and lives…doing more with less and doing it better! Increasing: use of successful practices, quality of outcomes, degree of consensus on issues, value of national programs, shared resources, cooperation, and innovation. Targeting: key technical areas such as 1) critical aspects of materials and their degradation mechanisms, including potential future degradation in operating plants; 2) improving the effectiveness of in-service inspection (ISI), condition-based maintenance (CBM), and on-line monitoring and prognostics (OLMP); 3) probabilistic risk assessments to support reactor aging management; and 4) development of new and improved mitigation and repair strategies and their potential effects on ISI, CBM, and OLMP.

10. Engagement An international steering group will be established to provide guidance on technical issues that would best be conducted through the International Forum and the processes for addressing them. A description of the roles and responsibilities of the steering group will be developed. Some initial topics this group will address are: Participation: What is the scope of participation in the International Forum? Meetings: How will participants meet to do their work? When? Where? How often? What communication methods will be used—formal meetings? Side-meetings at conferences? On-line meetings? Conference calls? E-mail communications? Negotiation: If parties disagree, what is the process for producing an agreement on a course of action?

11. The International Forum will adapt the format and procedures that enables it to best carry out its functions which include: Review and coordinate current research activities under existing national programs. Enhance and enable cooperative and coordinated research activities to be undertaken, and—where possible—avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts. Operate as an international cooperative research group. It will review data, identify research needs, and conduct cooperative research projects when needed. Promote sharing of data to enable effective implementation of programs to proactively manage materials degradation in NPPs. Identify regulatory issues that need attention. Create a technical research agenda for aging management.

12. This engagement workshop will seek to: Investigate options Identify procedures and opportunity for teaming Develop a path forward …… this meeting is a first step towards establishing the International Forum in LWR Aging Management

13. Backup

14. Conduct of projects U.S. NRC will facilitate negotiation with the other participants to develop the terms of reference (TOR) for projects that will be conducted, with coordination, through the International Forum. The TOR gives a clear path for progress by stating what needs to be achieved, by whom, and when. It describes the purpose and structure of the effort. More specifically, the participants establish the formal structure of cooperation, identify the scope of work to be performed, list participants involved, and present an initial schedule of activities, including meetings, milestones, deliverables and how costs will be covered. The following topics will be discussed by participants: Project: What is required? What kind of work is to be done? What particular aim is the cooperative enterprise going to achieve? How will the scope be defined and developed? Can the project be justified by the added value gained? What are the success factors, risks, and restraints? What are the detailed research plans for achieving the aim? Resources: Who provides the necessary resources? Cost sharing? Stakeholders: Who are the participants on this project? What is the stake of each stakeholder? What are the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder? Contracts: What sort of written agreements or contracts will participants sign? Procedures: How should the work be done? What group of participants can achieve the aim? How are participants going to work as a committee to guide and perform the work? Follow standard committee procedures? If so, how will the committee make governance decisions? Coordination: How will results be coordinated across organizational boundaries? Results: Who owns the results? How is the work to be reported? How are findings and recommendations to be communicated? What is the protocol for sharing and protecting information?

15. Possible Schedule of activities The objective of the activities of the International Forum for LWR Aging Management is to facilitate cooperation including the exchange of data and samples. The strategy is to use existing meetings and/or planned meeting to leverage the International Forum activities. The International Forum will use activities to provide peer-review/identify best practices in the emerging aging management processes to: Ensure safe and secure plant life extension; Identify regulatory gaps; Establish the technical bases for life extension – particularly provide an assessment of the state of the art and Identify open questions and issues that require research or other actions. Establish a data base (and library of materials) for naturally and laboratory aged materials, particularly focused on beyond 40+ years.

16. Timeline? 2009 Objective: To introduce concept of International Forum for LWR Aging Management Activities: 1) Hold Engagement Workshop in Korea on October 12-13 and 2) Plan for second Engagement Workshop in European Union. 2010 Objective: To initiate efforts to coordinate international aging management activities including PMMD and LTO activities. Activities: 1) Hold Engagement Workshop in European Union (April 2010), 2) Form Steering Group (July 2010), and 3) Have official “kick-off” of International Forum (September 2010). Participate in USNRC Regulatory Information Conference (RIC) on March 9-11, 2010 at NRC- HQ. Consolidate/combine and summarize information on national activities in a capabilities/activities matrix – use this to initiate some coordination of activities. 2011 Objective: To initiate focus group activities (to address key questions, share insights etc) Activities: 1) Identify process for focus groups to use [Use same process as used for Program for the Inspection of Nickel Alloy Components (PINC)], 2) Determine specific focus groups that are needed and participants for each one, 3) Develop guidance for focus groups on aging management, 4) Hold some focus group sessions in conjunction with other meetings and 5) Engage in organization of 2012 IAEA meeting on Plant Life Management (PLIM). 2012 Objective: To fully implement focus group activities and obtain results and recommendations from them. Activities: 1) Coordinate international aging management activities, 2) Facilitate sharing of samples and materials aging data etc., 3) Plan and conduct focus group meetings, 4) Present papers on aging management (including LTO/PMMD) topics by participants in IAEA 3rd PLiM meeting. 2013 Objective: To support development of methods for predicting safe life of nuclear power plants. Activities: 1) Organize PLIM-like conference for 2014; report on methods for prediction of safe life, technical basis for life extension, regulatory basis for licensing, and State-of-the Art for aging management. 2014 Objective: To support integration of international aging management efforts including LTO/PMMD. Activities: 1) Identify path forward for R&D in materials to facilitate safe life extension, 2) Hold Aging Management conference and present paper on the status and success of the International Forum. 2015 Objective: To support integration of international aging management efforts, including LTO/PMMD. Activities: 1) have participants address technical issues in R&D for materials to facilitate safe life extension, 2) Hold conference and publish proceedings (possibly NUREG or other documents that provide reference for state of the art and remaining open questions)