Form 366 FINAL clearance REVISED

FINAL SUPPORTING STATEMENT
FOR
NRC FORMS 366, 366A, and 366B, "LICENSEE EVENT REPORT"
10 CFR Part 50.73
(3150-0104)
Extension

Description of the Information Collection
Part of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) function is to license and regulate the
operation of commercial nuclear power plants to ensure protection of public health and safety
and the environment in accordance with the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (the Act) as amended.
The holder of an operating license under this part or a combined license under part 52 of this
chapter (after the Commission has made the finding under § 52.103(g) of this chapter) for a
nuclear power plant (licensee) shall submit a Licensee Event Report (LER) for any event of the
type described in 10 CFR 50.73, “Licensee event report system” within 60 days after the
discovery of the event using NRC Forms 366, 366A, and 366B, "Licensee Event Report" for the
NRC to determine what actions, if any, are warranted to ensure protection of public health and
safety and the environment. Additionally, this information is needed for the NRC to carry out its
responsibility to inform Congress of those events constituting "abnormal occurrences.”
A.

JUSTIFICATION
1.

Need for and Practical Utility of the Collection of Information
10 CFR 50.73 requires licensees to use NRC Form 366, “Licensee Event Report”
to report specified events and problems that are believed to be significant and
useful to the NRC in its effort to identify and resolve threats to public safety. Form
366A, “Licensee Event Report, Continuation” provides a continuation page for
licensees to provide a narrative of the event. Form 366B, “Licensee Event
Report, Failure Continuation” is a continuation page used to document the
specific component failures involved in the event. The forms are designed to
provide the information necessary for engineering studies of operational
anomalies and trends and patterns analysis of operational occurrences. The
same information can be used for other analytic procedures that will aid in
identifying accident precursors.
73.71(d) requires each licensee subject to Sec. 50.73 to submit safeguards event
reports about the loss of any shipment of SNM or spent fuel within 60 days of the
event on NRC Form 366.
Section 73.77(d) requires licensees making an initial telephonic notification of
cyber security events to the NRC according to the provisions of 10 CFR
73.77(a)(1), (a)(2)(i), and (a)(2)(iii) to also submit a written security follow-up
report to the NRC within 60 days of the telephonic notification using NRC Form
366, Licensee Event Report. Under section 73.77(d)(12), licensees also must
maintain a copy of the written security follow-up report of an event submitted

under section 73.77 as a record for a period of three years from the date of the
report or until the Commission terminates the license for which the records were
developed, whichever comes first.
On October 25, 2000, the NRC published a final rule in the Federal Register
which modified the event reporting requirements in 10 CFR 50.73 (65 FR 63769).
The final rule better aligned event reporting requirements with the types of
information the NRC needs to carry out its safety mission, including revising
reporting requirements based on importance to risk and extending the required
reporting times consistent with the time that information is needed for prompt
NRC action. NRC Forms 366, 366A, and 366B reflect requirements contained in
10 CFR 50.73.
2.

Agency Use of Information
The information reported on NRC Forms 366, 366A, and 366B is used by the
NRC in determining whether action is needed to resolve a potential threat to
public health and safety or the environment. This includes confirming licensing
bases, studying potentially generic safety problems, assessing trends and
patterns of operating experience, monitoring performance, identifying precursors
of more significant events, and providing operating experience feedback to the
industry. In addition the NRC uses the information obtained to inform Congress
of those events constituting “abnormal occurrences.”
The reported events are assessed both individually and collectively to determine
their safety significance and their generic implications and to identify any safety
concerns with the potential to seriously impact the public health and/or safety.
The evaluation of these events provides valuable insights on improving reactor
safety.
The information required includes detailed event descriptions, plant conditions at
the onset of the events, root cause(s) of the occurrences, an assessment of
safety consequences and implications, data on operator actions and personnel
errors, and the corrective actions taken by the licensee to prevent recurrences.
The assessment and feedback of operating experience is a vital and integral
prerequisite to improving reactor safety. Within the NRC, a formal and
systematic program has been established for the collection, assessment, and
feedback of operating experience gained from the Licensee Event Reports
(LERs). This program has proven effective and resulted in an improved
understanding of reactor performance, identification of important safety issues,
and initiation of appropriate actions such as the issuance of generic letters,
bulletins and information notices.
In addition, formal and informal methods have been developed to efficiently
compare and self-assess the NRC’s evaluation of operating experience with the
industry's Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) by exchanging
information on events in accordance with a Memorandum of Agreement between
the two organizations. Furthermore, the NRC cooperates with various other
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nations, the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) Incident Reporting System (IRS) by exchanging information about
operating events. The worldwide sharing of nuclear operating experience
provides value, particularly in the interest of incorporation of lessons learned,
event reduction and accident prevention.
Elimination of data collection would seriously degrade the NRC’s ability to assess
operating experience, feedback the lessons learned in a timely manner, including
corrective actions to prevent recurrences and monitor industry performance.
Additionally, LER’s are available to the public and provide more detailed
information concerning relatively significant events, thereby increasing public
confidence in the regulatory process.
3.

Reduction of Burden Through Information Technology
There are no legal obstacles to reducing the burden associated with this
information collection. The NRC encourages respondents to use information
technology when it would be beneficial to them. It is estimated that 99% of the
potential responses are filed electronically.

4.

Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use Similar Information
No sources of similar information are available. There is no duplication of
requirements.

5.

Effort to Reduce Small Business Burden
The information collection affects only licensees of nuclear power plants. These
licensees do not fall within the scope of the definition of “small entities” as given
in the Regulatory Flexibility Act or the Small Business Size Standards in
regulations issued by the Small Business Administration at 13 CFR Part 121.

6.

Consequences to Federal Program or Policy Activities if the Collection is Not
Conducted or is Conducted Less Frequently
Not collecting the information, or collecting it less frequently, would degrade the
NRC’s ability to determine in a timely manner what actions, if any, may be
needed to resolve potential threats to public health and safety or the environment
and inform Congress of those events constituting “abnormal occurrences.”

7.

Circumstances Which Justify Variation from OMB Guidelines
Not applicable

8.

Consultations Outside the NRC.
Opportunity for public comment on the information collection requirements for
this clearance package was published in the Federal Register on July 27, 2016,
(81 FR 49280). Additionally, we contacted via email reactor owner/operator
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licensees from Exelon Generation; Arizona Public Service Company; Florida Power
& Light Company and Entergy Nuclear Operations Inc. No comments were
received.
9.

Payment or Gift to Respondents
Not Applicable

10.

Confidentiality of Information
Confidential and proprietary information is protected in accordance with NRC
regulations at 10 CFR 9.17(a) and 10 CFR 2.390(b). However, no information
normally considered confidential or proprietary is requested.

11.

Justification for Sensitive Questions
No sensitive information is requested.

12.

Estimated Burden and Burden Hour Cost
Approximately 442 NRC Forms 366, 366A and 366B are expected to be
submitted annually during the next three years, based on data from recent LER
submittals and trends, as well as NRC staff knowledge about the number of
licensees and potential future submissions. This estimate includes 92 forms that
NRC staff anticipate will be submitted in response to reporting requirements for
cyber security events. 1
The total annual estimated burden for submissions is 28,000 hours calculated as
follows:
Total Reporting Burden = 442 submissions x 64 hours = 28,288hours
Total Recordkeeping = 442 submissions x 16 hours = 7,072 hours
Total Burden = 28,288 + 7,072 = 35,360hours
Responses = 542 (442 reporting responses + 100 recordkeepers)
Total annual cost to industry = 35,360 hours x $268/hour = $ 9,476,480

13.

Estimate of other Additional costs
The NRC has determined that the quantity of records to be maintained is roughly
proportional to the recordkeeping burden. Based on the number of pages
maintained for a typical clearance the records storage cost has been determined
to be .0004 times the recordkeeping burden cost. Therefore, the storage cost for
this clearance is determined to be $758 (7,072 hours x $268/hour x .0004).

14.

Estimated Annualized Cost to the Federal Government

1

Cyber security event notification reporting requirements are associated with the Cyber Security Event Notifications
final rule and were approved by OMB on July 25, 2016.

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Information submitted by licensees in Form 366 is used by multiple offices within
the NRC. The NRC spends on average about $900K per year in contract costs
for coding LERs, inputting event data into a LER database, and maintaining the
LER database and search capabilities. The contractor also provides input into
NRC programs, including:
•
•
•

Accident Sequence Precursor Program
Industry Trends Program
Operating Experience Program

The NRC also expends about 200 hours per year in managing the LER database
and analysis contract.
The Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) reviews LERs for specific issues
pertaining to reactor operating experience related to safety and generic
concerns. It is estimated that the resources expended in the operating
experience review of LERs are about one hour per LER. Therefore with one
hours of effort per LER and 350 LERs per year (1 hours per LER X 350 LERs), it
is estimated that 350 hours of effort is needed per year for NRR.
The Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) reviews LERs for the Accident
Sequencer Precursor (ASP) Program. The RES ASP program staff reviews
approximately 50 of the most significant LERs per year for about one hour per
LER (50 LERs X 1 hour). It is estimated that 50 hours of RES effort is needed
per year for the ASP program.
Finally, the NRC Regional Offices are responsible for implementing NRC’s
inspection program. It is estimated that LER reviews called out by Inspection
Procedure (IP) IP 71153, “Event Follow-up” will take a maximum of 8 hours per
LER. Therefore, with 8 hours of effort per LER, and 350 LERs submitted per
year (8 hours per LER X 350 LERs), it is estimated that the Regional Offices will
expend approximately 2,800 hours of effort on LER disposition per year.
The total NRC effort is therefore estimated to be 3,400 hours (2,800 regional
inspection hours + 350 NRR hours + 200 NRC database contract hours + 50
RES ASP program staff hours).
The total estimated annual cost for the government is $1,811,200 ($268 x 3,400
hours + $900K for LER database and analysis contract).
15.

Reasons for Change in Burden or Cost
The NRC reviewed the number of LERs submitted over the past two clearance
cycles. Based on this information as well as NRC staff knowledge about the
number of licensees and potential future submissions, staff estimates the annual
average will remain constant for the licensees reporting using NRC Forms 366,
366A and 366B in the future; therefore there is no significant change in burden
from the 442 annual forms previously estimated. Note that the current burden
estimate is for 442.1 form submissions annually. In order to simplify estimates,
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the current submission rounds this estimate to 442 forms annually, resulting in a
decrease of 8 hours in estimated burden. This estimate includes submission of
cyber security event notifications on the NRC Form 366.
The number of responses increased due to inclusion of all recordkeeping
responses in the total. Previously, only 65 of the recordkeeping responses were
included in the total. The current submission accounts for all 100 recordkeepers,
resulting in an increase of 35 recordkeeping responses.
There was a slight decrease in the fee rate from $274/hr to $268/hr for this
clearance cycle.
16.

Publication for Statistical Use
Not applicable.

17.

Reason for Not Displaying the Expiration Date
The expiration date is displayed.

18.

Exceptions to the Certification Statement
If a means used to impose an information collection does not display a currently
valid OMB control number, the NRC may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is
not required to respond to, the information collection. Exceptions to this
statement are not being applied.

B.

Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods
The collection of information does not employ statistical methods.

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