NESCC Seeks Members for Three Task Groups on Nuclear Standardization and Safety

Members of the Nuclear Energy Standards Coordination Collaborative (NESCC) are invited to participate in three task groups that will address a standards database, concrete requirements for nuclear power plants, and NESCC meeting planning.

The NESCC is a joint initiative of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) formed to identify and respond to the current needs of the nuclear industry. The activity provides a cross-stakeholder forum to facilitate and coordinate the timely identification, development, and revision of standards for the design, operation, development, licensing, and deployment of nuclear power plants. Standards for other nuclear technologies, including advanced reactor concepts, will also be addressed.

At the group's last meeting, three task groups were established to begin the work of the NESCC. A call for participation is now open to NESCC members for all three groups:

NRC Standards Database Task Group
This standards database effort will develop a modern searchable relational database that will catalog the current suite of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulatory documents for citations of consensus standards, and possibly those currently under development by standards developing organizations (SDOs).

At the December 15 NESCC meeting participants agreed that the Task Group would focus on standards for the construction of new power plants. The Task Group has been asked to develop an alternate scope for confirmation at the next meeting of the NESCC, taking the following points into consideration:

• Who the users of the database are anticipated to be
• Who will be responsible for the building and maintenance of the database
• Format of the database as a catalog or a tool that allows full access to standards
• How SDOs will be encouraged to participate
• What the benefits of participation will be for SDOs

Concrete Task Group
This group will establish coordination and consistency of safety- and non-safety-related concrete requirements in nuclear power plants; identify new design requirements for safety-related concrete components and develop a plan to incorporate these new requirements into codes and standards; and identify and review all NRC regulatory documents related to concrete for nuclear power plants.

Ad Hoc Group on NESCC Meeting Planning
This group will plan the next NESCC meeting, including developing the meeting agenda, reviewing task group proposals, and suggesting topics for new task groups.

Note that membership in this group is not permanent, and a new call for membership will be issued to help plan each NESCC meeting. The intent is to allow a wide representation of NESCC members to have an active role in the planning of agendas and task groups, assuring that meetings appeal to the widest cross section of the nuclear energy standards community.

NESCC members interested in participating in any of the three task groups should email their full contact information to Sally Seitz ([email protected]), ANSI program manager, who will then pass this information along to the appropriate task group convener.

The next NESCC meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 26, 2010, at NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, MD.

Questions on the task groups or upcoming NESCC meeting can be directed to Sally Seitz ([email protected]).