[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 40 (Wednesday, February 28, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7568-7569]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-4484]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Availability of Draft Branch Technical Position on the Use of
Expert Elicitation in the High-Level Waste Program
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of Availability.
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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is announcing the
availability of the ``Draft Branch Technical Position (BTP) on the Use
of Expert Elicitation in the High-Level Waste (HLW) Program.''
DATES: The comment period expires May 14, 1996.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, D.C., 20555-0001. ATTENTION: Docketing and
Services Branch. Hand deliver comments to 11545 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland 20852-2738, between 7:45 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., on
Federal workdays.
A copy of the draft BTP is available for public inspection and/or
copying at the NRC Public Document Room, 2120 L Street (Lower Level),
NW., Washington, DC 20555-0001. Copies of the draft BTP may also be
obtained by contacting Karen S. Vandervort, Mail Stop T-7F3, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Telephone: (301) 415-7252.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael P. Lee, Performance Assessment
and High-Level Waste Integration Branch, Division of Waste Management,
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, 11545 Rockville Pike, MD 20852-2738. Telephone: (301) 415-
6677.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is
conducting a program of site characterization to gather enough
information, about the Yucca Mountain (Nevada) site, to be able to
evaluate the waste isolation capabilities of a potential geologic
repository. Should the site be found suitable, DOE will apply to the
NRC for permission to construct and then operate a proposed geologic
repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and other high-level
radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain. As with other licensing decisions,
[[Page 7569]]
NRC's decision to grant or deny a license for a proposed repository
will be based on a combination of fact and judgment, as set forth by
DOE in any potential license application. The subjective judgments of
individual experts and, in some cases, groups of experts, will be used
by DOE to interpret data obtained during site characterization and to
address the many technical issues and inherent uncertainties associated
with predicting the performance of a geologic repository system for
thousands of years. NRC has traditionally accepted, for review, expert
judgment to evaluate and interpret the factual bases of license
applications. Judgment has been used to complement and supplement other
sources of scientific and technical information, such as data
collection, analyses, and experimentation.
The NRC staff has developed specific technical positions that: (1)
Provide general guidelines on those circumstances that may warrant the
use of a formal process for obtaining the judgments of more than one
expert (i.e., expert elicitation); and (2) describe acceptable
procedures for conducting expert elicitation when formally elicited
judgments are used to support a demonstration of compliance with NRC's
geologic disposal regulation, currently set forth in 10 CFR Part 60.
Current NRC policy is to encourage the use of probabilistic risk
assessment (PRA) state-of-the-art technology and methods as a
complement to the deterministic approach in nuclear regulatory
activities (60 FR 42622). Although routinely used in deterministic
analyses that do not involve PRA (or performance assessments, in the
case of waste management systems), expert judgment can, and frequently
does, provide information essential to the conduct of probabilistic
assessments. Consistent with the Commission's policy, the NRC staff has
developed this BTP to identify acceptable procedures for the use and
formal elicitation of such judgments in the area of HLW.
Although there are several examples of the use of expert
elicitation in a nuclear regulatory context, no formal Agency guidance
on this subject exists. Thus, in developing this BTP, the Division of
Waste Management staff has drawn upon the prior experience of other NRC
program offices with the use of expert judgment and has relied on
various Agency resource documents to help formulate its position
statements. Consequently, the reader will find that this BTP is largely
consistent with these other resource documents in substance.
Subsequent to the finalization of this BTP, the staff may elect to
develop guidance on the use of expert judgment in other areas of
nuclear industry regulation.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 20th day of February 1996.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
John H. Austin, Chief,
Performance Assessment and High-Level Waste Integration Branch,
Division of Waste Management, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and
Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 96-4484 Filed 2-27-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
