The USA Board of Directors (BOD) met November 5th in conjunction with the INPO CEO Conference and approved moving forward on several 2020 activities. 2020 Projects and Focus Areas were discussed but the list was not finalized so we will provide an update in December when the final list is approved.  The following activities/areas were approved by the USA BOD for 2020:

Dues:  The USA BOD authorized the USA 2020 budget with no dues increase for 2020.  Additional income from Nuclear Safety Culture Assessments will offset any dues increase.

Personnel:  As is discussed in more detail in this episode of Inside USA, Brad Vickery has been named Director – Procurement Systems.  In this role Brad will be responsible for identifying and driving cost-savings strategies and opportunities across the USA fleet.

Spend & Rebate Forecasting:  The USA BOD authorized USA personnel to develop an automated process to forecast spend on USA agreements containing rebates, to allow real-time tracking of spend and rebates throughout the year.  Brad Vickery will be leading this initiative and the USA Site Reps will be the owners of the process at the stations.  This activity is intended to drive more use of USA agreements and allow adjustments during the year, instead of just seeing results at the end of the year when it’s too late to correct.

2020 Projects:

• Training (previously approved) See more detail in this episode of Inside USA. John Tripoli will rotate from Plant Status Control to Training full-time in 2020.
  • Seven ATVs from December 2019 to December 2020.
  • First quarter – DC Cook Ops ATV readiness support and Prairie Island Mock Board support
    • Also participating on Dresden M&T ATV
  • Second quarter – Susquehanna and Monticello Ops ATV readiness support (probably without ASER so first with new SAT checklist)
    • DC Cook may be remote board, if not will setup mock boards this quarter
  • Third quarter – Comanche Peak Ops and South Texas M&T ATV readiness support
    • South Texas was contacted by INPO and will do all 12 programs
    • Comanche Peak expects to have in person board
  • Fourth quarter – Columbia M&T ATV readiness support and Comanche Peak Mock Board support
    • Columbia also contacted by INPO and will do all 12 programs
• Advanced Remote Monitoring (previously approved) will continue as a project through 2022.
• Cyber-Security (pending BOD final approval)
  • The NRC is performing “Full Implementation” Cyber Security Inspections at the plants through 2020. They will inspect 3 USA Plants in 2020. Cook in April, Columbia in July, and Comanche Peak in February.
  • 18 Utilities are scheduled for inspections in 2020. (6 utilities will have MS-8 Inspections after our final inspection in July)
  • Continue to provide USA MS-8 Peer Assessment Support to any site requesting this.
  • The sites that have already had NRC Inspections are focusing their assessments on issues identified by the regulator. We want to be sure these are resolved before the regulator returns for PI&R Inspections.
  • Determine what assessment procedure changes are necessary to meet the NRC post Milestone 8 Inspection requirements. (The NRC is determining what the new inspection process will be)
  • Team Benchmarking of each other.
  • Weekly Conference Calls.
  • Sharing of documents/procedures.

• Artificial Intelligence CAP Screening (pending BOD final approval) has been recommended for approval in 2020.
  • Develop a centrally managed USA CAP database and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning algorithms. The system will:
    • Use algorithms to screen CAPs to generate recommendations for severity, Condition Adverse to Quality determination, proposed actions, evaluations, owner (by position), and trend codes
    • Analyze data to detect trends in performance
    • Identify and report most significant issues and detected trends

• Fuel Purchasing/Coordination (pending BOD final approval)
  • Develop long-term strategy for participating members on all aspects of the uranium fuel purchasing and processing
    • Evaluate opportunities with USA fleet and industry to collaborate on purchases of enriched fuel
    • Develop strategies for conversion and enrichment needs of participating members
    • Coordinate legal aspects of USA and industry purchase under current “safe haven” for USA activities
    • Other areas as requested by the USA BOD