Facility Grades and SSC Grades cont'd

DOESTD107393

provides. The importance and priorities of SSCs cannot be established accurately until the design

requirements associated with them are identified and categorized. Activities (e.g., design, procurement,

construction, installation, operations, maintenance, surveillance and testing, and physical changes)

related to the SSCs should be assigned the same grade as the SSCs involved. Examples of SSC

grading systems are presented below; other SSC grading systems may also be acceptable.

In the recommended SSC grading system, the categories and priorities of design requirements are

(1) safety design requirements, (2) environmental design requirements, (3) mission design

requirements, and (4) others. Safety design requirements involve protecting on-site and off-site

personnel and facility workers from both nuclear and non-nuclear hazards. Environmental design

requirements involve protecting the environment from irreversible consequences by satisfying

environmental regulations and environmental permits. Mission design requirements involve avoiding

large cost impacts and substantial interruptions of the programmatic mission of the facility. Other

design requirements can include a collection of design categories such as maintainability

requirements, operational efficiency and cost requirements, reliability requirements, and security and

safeguards for special nuclear materials. This system makes clear that the protection of personnel is

of primary importance.

Most SSCs will have several design requirements. The highest category of design requirements that

is applicable to an SSC establishes the SSC grade. For example, an SSC with both safety design

requirements and environmental design requirements would be graded and treated as a safety SSC.

Similarly, an SSC with some mission design requirements but no safety or environmental design

requirements would be graded and treated as a mission SSC.

In an alternative SSC grading system, the categories and priorities of design requirements could be

(1) nuclear safety design requirements; (2) environmental, safety and health (ES&H) design

requirements; (3) mission design requirements; and (4) others. In this system, the nuclear safety

hazards to personnel--off-site personnel, on-site personnel, or facility workers--are presumed to be

the most important type of hazard. The ES&H design requirements would mitigate non-nuclear

safety hazards.

In applying the graded approach, a matrix can be used to relate various activities within a CM function

to the SSC grade. The cells within the matrix indicate the degree of implementation appropriate for

each item. An example of this type of matrix is provided below, where the CM activities (the A, B, C,

etc. in order of decreasing value per cost) and the SSC grades (1, 2, 3, and 4 in order of decreasing

importance) are illustrative only.

CM ACTIVITIES

SSC GRADE

Necessary

Recommended

Necessary

Recommended

Optional

Necessary

Recommended

Optional

Necessary

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