Technical specification improvement

The purpose of this paper is to examine the work being done at Combustion Engineering (C-E) and in the nuclear industry to improve technical specifications. The year 1985 is one that has seen increased attention paid to improving technical specifications, both at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and within the nuclear industry. Continuing attention is required to ensure that the momentum that has developed is not lost. The observation is that removal of the cycle-dependent variables is of the most immediate benefit. This can be accomplished with minimum effort and should reduce the number of license amendments by about one third of their present level. The major effort in the NRC's Technical Specification Improvement Project (TSIP) and the Atomic Industrial Forum (AIF) Subcommittee of Technical Specifications is to implement the so-called George rule to split the technical specifications. This will require a large effort and should result in reducing the size of the technical specifications by about one half. However, the items to be relocated are not necessarily those creating a large number of license changes. It is anticipated that implementation of the George rule will have about the same effect on the licensing process as removal of the cycle-dependent variables