[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 36 (Tuesday, February 24, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9755-9756]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-03764]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2015-0035]


Natural Phenomena Hazards in Fuel Cycle Facilities

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft interim staff guidance; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is soliciting 
public comment on its draft Interim Staff Guidance (ISG) for Natural 
Phenomena Hazards (NPH) in Fuel Cycle Facilities. Fuel cycle facility 
licensees are required to conduct and maintain an Integrated Safety 
Analysis (ISA). This analysis must examine potential accident sequences 
caused by process deviations or other events internal to the facility 
and credible external events, including natural phenomena. During 
inspections of selected fuel cycle facilities to confirm that the 
facilities were in compliance with regulatory requirements to address 
natural phenomena hazards, the NRC staff identified several unresolved 
items (URIs). The ISG provides criteria and methods that the staff can 
use to review the treatment of NPH at fuel cycle facilities as 
evaluated in the facility ISA.

DATES: Submit comments by April 10, 2015. Comments received after this 
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission 
is able to ensure consideration only for comments received before this 
date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods 
(unless this document describes a different method for submitting 
comments on a specific subject):
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0035. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact 
the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of 
this document.
     Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration, 
Mail Stop: OWFN-12H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, 
DC 20555-0001.
    For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting 
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jonathan Marcano, Office of Nuclear 
Materials Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-287-9063, email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2015-0035 when contacting the NRC 
about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain 
publicly-available information related to this action by any of the 
following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0035.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the 
ADAMS Public Documents collection at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and 
then select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, 
please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 
1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to [email protected]. The 
draft ISG for Natural Phenomena Hazards in Fuel Cycle Facilities is 
available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML15026A136.
     NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public 
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.

B. Submitting Comments

    Please include Docket ID NRC-2015-0035 in the subject line of your 
comment submission, in order to ensure that the NRC is able to make 
your comment submission available to the public in this docket.
    The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact 
information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your 
comment submission. The NRC posts all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as entering the comment submissions into 
ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove 
identifying or contact information.
    If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons 
for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to 
include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be 
publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should 
state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to 
remove such information before making the comment submissions available 
to the public or entering the comment submissions into ADAMS.

[[Page 9756]]

II. Background

    As a result of the lessons learned from the accident at the 
Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission staff performed a systematic evaluation and inspection of 
selected fuel cycle facilities to (1) confirm that licensees are in 
compliance with regulatory requirements and facility-specific license 
conditions; and (2) to evaluate their readiness to address NPH events 
and other licensing basis events related to NPH. From December 2011 
through May 2012, the staff conducted these inspections in accordance 
with NRC Temporary Instruction (TI) 2600/015, ``Evaluation of Licensee 
Strategies for the Prevention and/or Mitigation of Emergencies at Fuel 
Facilities.''
    As a result of the TI inspection activities, the staff identified 
URI's related to Part 70 requirements and the current licensing basis 
of these facilities. The URIs document the need to further evaluate 
whether licensees are in compliance with regulatory requirements 
regarding accident sequences resulting from NPH. The staff is issuing 
this ISG to provide additional guidance for addressing accident 
sequences that may result from NPH. This ISG will be incorporated into 
future revisions of Appendix D of Chapter 3 of NUREG 1520, ``Standard 
Review Plan for the Review of a License Application for a Fuel Cycle 
Facility'' (ADAMS Accession No. ML020930033).

     Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 13th day of February, 2015.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Craig Erlanger,
Deputy Director, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety, Safeguards, and 
Environmental Review, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2015-03764 Filed 2-23-15; 8:45 am]
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