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Event Response Portfolio

EXCEL is harnessing its world-class technical and regulatory expertise to create competitive advantages for our clients by helping them to confront their most difficult challenges and turn them into opportunities. The EXCEL team of leading experts, with extensive industry experience, offers an unparalleled level and breadth of skill and service to help our clients address whatever challenges may lie ahead, including cultural assessments and regulatory support.

EXCEL helps nuclear operators to prepare for and follow up on Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) periodic and reactive (9500X Series) inspection activities by providing mock inspections and other services. EXCEL provides support for event assessment and recovery, and provides assistance in improving performance problems that have moved client performance out of Column 1 of the ROP Action Matrix. EXCEL ensures a robust and professional response to traditional enforcements by providing guidance, preparation, and coaching for enforcement conferences, Alternative Dispute Resolution sessions, and Safety Culture issues. EXCEL brings personalized coaching for pre-Commission Meetings, Drop-in preparations for meetings with Senior NRC leaders in Headquarters and the egions, and the development of Regulatory Communication Plans.

Service Offerings Include:

Cultural Assessments
Inspection Assistance and Response
Event Assessment and Recovery / Corrective Action Assistance and Response
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Cultural Assessments

EXCEL recognizes the need for expertise, experience, and training for Nuclear Safety Culture Assessments. EXCEL applies the Nuclear Safety Culture traits of NRC NUREG-2165 and INPO 12-012; and, the principles of High Reliability Organizations. EXCEL emphasizes small group interviews that allow station personnel to freely describe their work and incidents. Then using systematic and transparent qualitative analysis, EXCEL identifies common themes and patterns to develop cultural insights. Most of all, EXCEL understands that cultural changes, if needed, cannot occur dramatically and so EXCEL will prioritize the identification of actionable items that can produce noticeable, positive changes.

EXCEL offers training and services for the basic elements of three Nuclear Safety Culture Service Options. These include:
  • Strengthening and improving the effectiveness of stations or corporate Nuclear Safety Culture Monitoring Panels and refresher training for station senior leadership teams in Nuclear Safety Culture
  • Facilitated Nuclear Safety Culture Analysis that provides clients with station personnel developed insights to focus on improving specific station cultural challenges, and
  • Full Nuclear Safety Culture Assessment that gathers information from surveys, interviews, document reviews, and other data that is qualitatively analyzed and provided to the station. EXCEL provides assistance to conduct Nuclear Safety Culture Assessments following the outline of industry accepted benchmarkable methodologies.

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Inspection Assistance and Response

EXCEL routinely provides this service utilizing former NRC inspectors and senior executives to advise and provide assistance to senior client management in strengthening NRC’s confidence in the client’s safety and security performance (often referred to as “regulatory standing”) and in improving the client’s relationship with the NRC regional office/ Resident Inspectors and selected program offices at the NRC headquarters. EXCEL has a broad bench of talent with extensive experience in many areas, which allows clients to select experts with varied skill sets to address the precise problem that exists.

Within this service area, EXCEL can offer assistance that:
  • Helps nuclear operators to prepare for and follow up on periodic and reactive (9500X Series) inspection activities by providing mock inspections and other services;
  • Provides support for interaction with the regulator in dispositioning Greater-than-Green inspection findings and assistance in improving performance problems that have moved performance out of Column 1 of the ROP Action Matrix; and
  • Ensures a robust and professional response to traditional enforcements by providing guidance, preparation, and coaching for enforcement conferences, Alternative Dispute Resolution sessions, and Safety Culture issues.
These services would normally include:
  • Advice on developing communication tools, including well- timed strategic drop-in visits with NRC senior leaders that share successes in the station’s recovery effort, and more frequent periodic briefings to the Resident Inspectors and Regional Branch Chiefs, Program Office Reviewers, Project Managers, and their supervisors that drill down further into the station’s recovery;
  • Advice and assistance to the station in its development of a recovery plan that includes a timeline (with milestones) for the station to achieve success in gaining back NRC confidence; and
  • Review of findings and input for responding to NRC written correspondence on the progress made in regaining NRC confidence. These services can be adapted as necessary to meet the unique needs of each client.

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Event Assessment and Recovery / Corrective Action Assistance and Response

EXCEL is harnessing its world-class technical and regulatory expertise to create competitive advantages for our clients by helping them to confront their most difficult challenges and turn them into opportunities. The EXCEL team of leading experts, with extensive industry experience, offers an unparalleled level and breadth of skill and service to help our clients address whatever challenges may lie ahead. These services include event assessment and recovery, and provides support for identifying the root cause of the event, developing corrective action plans, preparing and holding interactions with the regulator, and implementing the effectiveness of corrective actions.