[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 227 (Friday, November 25, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72725-72727]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-30397]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2011-0191]
Draft License Renewal Interim Staff Guidance LR-ISG-2011-05:
Ongoing Review of Operating Experience
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Revision of draft interim staff guidance; request for public
comment.
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SUMMARY: On August 24, 2011, in the Federal Register (76 FR 52995), the
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requested public comments on
Draft License Renewal Interim Staff Guidance (LR-ISG), LR-ISG-2011-05,
``Ongoing Review of Operating Experience.'' This LR-ISG provides
guidance and clarification concerning ongoing review of plant-specific
and industry-wide operating experience as an attribute of aging
management programs used at nuclear power plants. As noticed on
September 20, 2011 (76 FR 58311), the public comment period was
extended and, as of October 23, 2011, is now closed. However, since
issuing the draft LR-ISG for public comment, the NRC has identified the
need to incorporate additional guidance. As such, the NRC is re-issuing
draft LR-ISG-2011-05 to request public comments on the changes.
[[Page 72726]]
DATES: The comment period on the revised draft LR-ISG-2011-05 expires
on December 15, 2011. Comments received after this date will be
considered, if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is able to ensure
consideration only for comments received on or before this date.
ADDRESSES: Please include Docket ID NRC-2011-0191 in the subject line
of your comments. For additional instructions on submitting comments
and instructions on accessing documents related to this action, see
``Submitting Comments and Accessing Information'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section of this document. You may submit comments by any
one of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-
2011-0191. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher,
telephone: (301) 492-3668; email: [email protected].
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules,
Announcements, and Directives Branch (RADB), Office of Administration,
Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
Fax comments to: RADB at (301) 492-3446.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Matthew Homiack, Division of
License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: (301) 415-
1683; or email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Submitting Comments and Accessing Information
Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted
on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site, http://www.regulations.gov. Because your comments will not be edited to remove
any identifying or contact information, the NRC cautions you against
including any information in your submission that you do not want to be
publicly disclosed.
The NRC requests that any party soliciting or aggregating comments
received from other persons for submission to the NRC inform those
persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to remove any
identifying or contact information, and therefore, they should not
include any information in their comments that they do not want
publicly disclosed.
You can access publicly available documents related to this notice
using the following methods:
NRC's Public Document Room: The public may examine and
have copied, for a fee, publicly available documents at the NRC's
Public Document Room, O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville
Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC
are available online in the NRC Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this page, the public can gain entry into ADAMS,
which provides text and image files of the NRC's public documents. If
you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing
the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC's PDR reference staff
at 1-(800) 397-4209, (301) 415-4737, or by email to
[email protected]. The revised draft LR-ISG-2011-05 is available
electronically under ADAMS Accession No. ML11293A022. In this document,
bars in the margin denote changes to the draft LR-ISG since it was
initially issued for public comment.
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Public comments and
supporting materials related to this notice can be found at http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID NRC-2011-0191.
NRC's Interim Staff Guidance Web site: LR-ISG documents
are available online under the ``License Renewal'' heading at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/#int.
Background
The NRC issues LR-ISG to communicate insights and lessons learned
and to address emergent issues not covered in license renewal guidance
documents, such as NUREG-1801, Revision 2, ``Generic Aging Lessons
Learned (GALL) Report'' (ADAMS Accession No. ML103490041), and NUREG-
1800, Revision 2, ``Standard Review Plan for Review of License Renewal
Applications for Nuclear Power Plants'' (SRP-LR) (ADAMS Accession No.
ML103490036). In this way, the NRC staff and stakeholders may use the
guidance in an LR-ISG document until it is incorporated into a formal
license renewal guidance document revision. The NRC staff issues LR-ISG
in accordance with the LR-ISG Process, Revision 2 (ADAMS Accession No.
ML100920158), for which a notice of availability was published in the
Federal Register on June 22, 2010 (75 FR 35510).
The NRC staff developed draft LR-ISG-2011-05 to clarify guidance on
how the ongoing review of operating experience should be used to ensure
the effectiveness of the license renewal aging management programs used
at nuclear power plants to meet the requirements of Title 10 of the
Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) part 54, ``Requirements for
Renewal of Operating Licenses for Nuclear Power Plants.'' The draft LR-
ISG proposes to revise the NRC staff's recommended aging management
programs in the GALL Report and the NRC staff's aging management review
procedures and acceptance criteria in the SRP-LR.
On August 24, 2011, the NRC requested public comments on draft LR-
ISG-2011-05. By letter dated August 29, 2011 (ADAMS Accession No.
ML11242A114), the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) requested a 30-day
extension to the comment period and a public meeting to discuss draft
comments and questions concerning implementation of the LR-ISG. The NRC
staff granted the NEI's requests, as noticed on September 20, 2011 (76
FR 58311). The public meeting was held on October 12, 2011, and the
comment period was extended until October 23, 2011.
Since first issuing draft LR-ISG-2011-05 for comment, the NRC has
identified the need to include additional guidance on areas where
license renewal applicants should ensure their programmatic activities
for operating experience reviews are appropriate for considering
operating experience related to aging management. The NRC identified
the need for this additional guidance through its ongoing reviews of
license renewal applications and through recent insights gained on how
nuclear power plant licensees carry out their operating experience
review activities. The additional guidance covers areas where
enhancements may need to be made for license renewal, such as the
specific kind of information that should be considered as operating
experience; the training of plant personnel who screen, assign,
evaluate, and submit operating experience information; information to
consider in operating experience evaluations; criteria for identifying
and categorizing operating experience as related to aging; and
guidelines for reporting operating experience on age-related
degradation to the industry. The NRC staff outlined these changes at
the October 12, 2011, public meeting, and is now requesting public
comments on them. The revised draft LR-ISG-2011-05 includes change bars
in the margin to help comment providers identify those areas that have
[[Page 72727]]
changed. By this action, the NRC is requesting comments on these
changes.
The NRC will make a final determination regarding issuance of the
LR-ISG after considering comments received in response to this request,
in addition to those comments received in response to the original
request.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 16th day of November, 2011.
Melanie A. Galloway,
Acting Director, Division of License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2011-30397 Filed 11-23-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P