Inside NIRMA - Spring March 2018 Issue

Regulatory Information
Management Business Unit
(RIMBU) News
By Chris Boudreaux, RIMBU Business Unit Director
he 2018 RIMBU Spring meeting
was held on March 6-7, 2018.
RIMBU Meetings are a great
opportunity for NIRMA
Members to participate in the efforts of
the team to discuss emerging topics for
our industry and develop technical
guidelines to establish best practices. In
addition, this is a great opportunity to
network with peers in the nuclear
industry, to exchange ideas around
technology and process, and perhaps
find some new ideas that would work
for your company. The main topics of
discussion at this year’s Spring Meeting
were: Decommissioning, Electronic
Signature, White Paper on Sustainable
Long Term Storage of Records, and
Migration to the Cloud.
Upcoming NIRMA ANSI Audit:
As an ANSI Approved Standards
Developer, NIRMA undergoes periodic
audits to verify its procedures and
standards-related activities are in
compliance with the ANSI Essential
Requirements that govern ANSI
Standards. A pre-audit conference call
was held with ANSI staff in January. In
February, NIRMA prepared and
submitted a documentation package
associated with the processing of the
2015 Reaffirmation of the ANSI/
NIRMA Standard for Configuration
Management. We expect to receive
initial results of the audit in late March
or early April. Updates on the status of
the audit will be provided in future
RIMBU reports.
Decommissioning White Paper:
With the recent decommissioning
projects and impending projects on the
near horizon, RIMBU decided that a
focus was needed to provide guidance
on improving the decommissioning
process related to information and
records management (IRM). This
means examining the effectiveness and
efficiency of managing information and
records throughout all phases of
decommissioning. In January 2017,
RIMBU assembled a working group
with the goal of creating a
“Decommissioning Playbook” for IRM.
This “Playbook” is to provide guidance
on delivering a consistent and repeatable
process during the planning and
implementation in executing the
decommissioning of a plant.
Thus far, RIMBU has drafted a
White Paper in order to understand the
scope and magnitude of this issue. This
White Paper includes the following:
An examination of record and
information types needed during
the various phases that constitute a
decommissioning project. This
involved reviewing regulatory and
standards decommissioning
documentation from the NRC and
the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA). Tables were
assembled that listed the identified
record and information types
against the phase in
decommissioning, that information
was needed.
Lessons learned could be gleaned
from decommissioning efforts from
the past or are currently
underway. Certain case studies
from ongoing and past
decommissioning projects were
reviewed. The primary messages
from these case studies are:
• Determining what records were
needed (“what’s in; what’s out”)
• Determining how the retention
schedule is applied
• What condition were the
records – physical, category,
accuracy, completeness, etc.
• The condition would then
dictate scope, risk, and
ultimately, cost
The primary lessons learned are:
• Too many records that must be
culled
• Lack of records
• Unchecked or inaccurate
records
• Wrong interpretation of records
What’s Next
RIMBU will ready the White Paper
for the review cycle with the BU/
membership and ultimately to the Board
for approval.
Status of Technical Guidelines:
• TG’s 5 and 16 sent to NIRMA
Board for Approval
Click here to visit the
NIRMA website.
12 Spring 2018 NIRMA.org Inside NIRMA