[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 142 (Thursday, July 24, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43767-43769]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-18843]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Workshop on Issues Related to the Level of Programmatic
Information Needed in a Combined License Application; Submitted in
Accordance With 10 CFR Part 52
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of August 25, 2003, public workshop.
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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is holding a workshop
on August 25, 2003, on issues related to the level of programmatic
information that would be needed in order to issue a combined license
(COL) in accordance with the requirements of Title 10 of the Code of
Federal Regulations Part 52, Subpart C without inspections, tests,
analyses, and acceptance criteria (ITAAC) for any particular program.
The NRC staff has developed a draft proposal titled, ``Use of Fire
Protection as an Example Program to Discuss Programmatic Inspections,
Tests, Analyses, and Acceptance Criteria,'' to address this issue. The
NRC staff has scheduled the public workshop to discuss the issue and to
solicit stakeholder comments on the staff's draft proposal. This
workshop will be transcribed. To allow for timely registration on the
day of the meeting, it is recommended that guests preregister for the
workshop. To preregister for the workshop, contact Mr. Joseph Sebrosky
(information provided below) and provide the following information:
name, organization, phone number, and country of citizenship.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Joseph M. Sebrosky, New, Research
and Test Reactors Program, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001.
Mr. Sebrosky may be reached by phone at 301-415-1132 or by e-mail
at
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[email protected]. Questions on the public meeting process should be
directed to Mr. Chip Cameron; e-mail: [email protected], telephone: 301-415-
1642; Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
DATES: The workshop will be held on August 25, 2003, from 1 p.m. to
4:30 p.m. Comments on the NRC staff's draft proposal should be
submitted by September 15, 2003. Comments received after the due date
will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission is
able to assure consideration only for comments received on or before
this date.
ADDRESSES: The workshop will be held at the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission offices in the Two White Flint North Auditorium, 11545
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.
The NRC staff's draft proposal to use fire protection as an example
program to discuss programmatic ITAAC is available for public
inspection in the Agencywide Document Access and Management System
(ADAMS) in the NRC Public Document Room located at One White Flint
North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Public File Area O1 F21, Rockville,
Maryland. The information is also available electronically from the
Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of ADAMS (ADAMS
ML031820084). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).
For more information, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR)
Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 202-634-3273 or by e-mail to
[email protected]. In addition, the draft proposal and additional associated
documentation can be found on NRC's Web site under the combined license
discussion on the following Web page: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/licensing-process.html.
Written comments on the draft proposal should be sent to: Chief,
Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services,
Office of Administration, Mail Stop T6-D59, Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Comments may be hand-delivered
to the NRC at 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, between 7:45
a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays. Comments may be submitted
electronically by the Internet to the NRC at [email protected]. All
comments received by the Commission, including those made by Federal,
State, and local agencies, Indian tribes, or other interested persons,
will be made available electronically at the Commission's PDR in
Rockville, Maryland or from the PARS component of NRC's document system
(ADAMS).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 1989, the NRC established new
alternatives for nuclear plant licensing under Title 10 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 52, which describes, among other
things, a process for issuing a combined construction and operating
license, or combined license (COL). A COL authorizes construction and,
with conditions, operation of a nuclear power plant. A COL application
must describe the conditions (the ITAAC) that are necessary to ensure
that the plant has been properly constructed and will operate safely.
After issuing a COL, the NRC verifies that the licensee has completed
the required ITAAC before the plant can operate. The NRC publishes
notices of the successful completion of the ITAAC. Then, at least 180
days before the scheduled date for initial loading of nuclear fuel into
the reactor, the NRC publishes a notice of intended operation. The
notice will provide that any person whose interest may be affected by
operation of the plant may request the Commission to hold a hearing on
whether the facility complies, or on completion will comply with the
acceptance criteria in the COL. A request for a hearing must
demonstrate that the licensee has not met or will not meet the
acceptance criteria in the COL.
The principle issue to be discussed at the workshop is the staff's
draft proposal that categorizes operational programs such as emergency
planning and training into those that will likely require ITAAC, those
that may or may not require ITAAC (depending on the level of
information available at the COL stage), and those that will be
unlikely to require ITAAC. The staff would also like to discuss its
proposal relative to the level of information needed for operational
programs such as fire protection in order to issue a COL without ITAAC
for any particular program.
In SECY-02-0067, ``Inspections, Tests, Analyses, and Acceptance
Criteria for Operational Programs (Programmatic ITAAC),'' the staff
requested Commission approval for its position that COLs for a nuclear
power plant submitted in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR
Part 52 Subpart C contain ITAAC for operational programs required by
regulations such as training and emergency planning (ADAMS Accession
Number ML020700641). The Commission disapproved the staff's position in
a September 11, 2002, staff requirements memorandum (SRM) (ADAMS
Accession Number ML022540755). The Commission approved a much more
limited use of programmatic ITAAC than that proposed by the staff. The
Commission directed the staff to resolve the maximum number of
programmatic issues prior to issuing a COL. The Commission also
directed the staff to develop appropriate guidelines to support the
submission of necessary and sufficient information on programs in COL
applications and clarify when programs beyond emergency planning, if
any, call for or are likely to call for ITAAC in the COL application.
In a public meeting on May 22, 2003, the NRC staff discussed a
response to the SRM including a discussion of the following option. A
draft standard review plan Section 14.3 Appendix E, ``Programmatic
ITAAC'' would be developed for guidance. The staff stated that it was
considering categorizing the 14 programs that it listed in SECY-02-0067
in the following manner as part of this guidance:
Category A: Programmatic ITAAC are required. A program that falls
into this category is emergency planning.
Category B: Programmatic ITAAC are not necessary because hardware-
related ITAAC address the results to which the program is directed.
Examples of programs that may fall into this category are equipment
qualification, quality assurance, and containment leak rate testing.
Category C: An ITAAC for a program or elements of the program is
not necessary because the program and its implementation can be fully
described \1\ in the application and found to be acceptable at the COL
stage.\2\
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\1\ A principal issue for these categories is what constitutes a
``fully described'' program.
\2\ The following programs may fall into Category C or D
depending on the information provided at the time of the COL: fire
protection, radiation protection, security, fitness for duty,
training, access authorization, reportability, licensed operator
training.
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Category D: An ITAAC for a program or elements of the program is
necessary because the program and its implementation cannot be fully
described1 in the application. That is, the COL applicant
cannot provide the necessary and sufficient programmatic information
for approval of the COL without ITAAC.2
Category E: An ITAAC for a program is not necessary because ITAAC
will be dispositioned prior to fuel load and the program is not
required to be implemented until after fuel load. Examples of programs
that may fall into this category include the inservice inspection and
inservice testing
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programs, and the maintenance rule program.
Subsequent to the May 22, 2003, meeting the NRC staff developed a
proposal to use the fire protection program as an example program to
illustrate the level of detail needed to determine if programmatic
ITAAC are necessary. The fire protection program was chosen because it
could fall into Category C or D above depending on the information
provided at the time of a COL application.
During the workshop the following topics will be discussed:
[sbull] Is the categorization of the 14 programs listed in SECY-02-
0067 appropriate?
--Are there programs that are missing from the list?
--Should any of the programs be placed in different categories?
[sbull] The NRC staff would like to discuss the programs that fall
into Categories C and D. The NRC staff's proposal uses the fire
protection program for the AP600 standard nuclear reactor design and
the Callaway Plant as a starting point to develop guidelines for the
level of programmatic information that would be needed in order to
issue a COL without ITAAC for that program. Is the level of detail
contained in the staff's proposal appropriate?
A specific agenda for the workshop will be developed and made
available prior to the meeting. To assure a diversity of viewpoints,
the NRC is inviting stakeholders from the nuclear power industry,
representatives from citizens groups, and State agencies, to sit in a
roundtable discussion. Although the focus of the meeting will be on the
roundtable discussion, there will be opportunities for members of the
audience to offer comments and ask questions. Questions related to the
staff's draft proposal should be directed to Joseph Sebrosky. Questions
related to the public meeting process should be directed to Mr. Chip
Cameron. Mr. Sebrosky's and Mr. Cameron's contact information is
provided above.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 18th day of July, 2003.
For The Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
James E. Lyons,
Program Director, New, Research and Test Reactors Program, Division of
Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 03-18843 Filed 7-23-03; 8:45 am]
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