[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 59 (Friday, March 27, 2015)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 16308-16309]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-07092]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
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This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 59 / Friday, March 27, 2015 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 16308]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 50
[Docket No. PRM-50-110; NRC-2015-0028]
Applicability of Risk-Informed Categorization Regulation to
Combined Licenses
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; notice of docketing.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received a
petition for rulemaking from Michael D. Tschiltz, on behalf of the
Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI or the petitioner), dated January 15,
2015, requesting that the NRC clarify the applicability of an NRC
regulation to combined licenses (COLs). The NRC regulation allows
structures, systems, and components (SSCs) of nuclear power reactors to
be re-categorized based upon risk-informed considerations. Such re-
categorization would result in changes in which NRC requirements would
apply to those SSCs. The petition was docketed by the NRC on February
6, 2015, and has been assigned Docket No. PRM-50-110. The NRC is not
requesting public comment on PRM-50-110 at this time.
DATES: The PRM is available on March 27, 2015.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2015-0028 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information for this petition. You may
obtain publicly-available information related to this petition by any
of the following methods:
Federal rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0028. 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.
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
ADAMS accession number for each document referenced in this document
(if that document is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time
that a document is referenced.
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.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Yanely Malave-Velez, Office of New
Reactors, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington DC, 20555-
0001; telephone: 301-415-1519; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. The Petitioner
The petition states that ``NEI is the organization responsible for
establishing unified nuclear industry policy on matters affecting the
nuclear energy industry, including the regulatory aspects of generic
operational and technical issues'' (ADAMS Accession No. ML15037A481).
The petition further states that ``NEI's members include all entities
licensed to operate commercial nuclear power plants in the United
States, nuclear plant designers, major architect/engineering firms,
fuel fabrication facilities, nuclear material licensees, and other
organizations and individuals involved in the nuclear energy industry.
NEI asserts that it is responsible for coordinating the combined
efforts of licensed facilities on matters involving generic NRC
regulatory policy issues and generic operational and technical
regulatory issues.''
II. The Petition
Michael D. Tschiltz, Director, Risk Assessment, NEI, submitted the
petition for rulemaking dated January 15, 2015, requesting that the NRC
amend its regulations in Sec. 50.69 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (10 CFR), ``Risk-Informed Categorization and Treatment of
Structures, Systems, and Components for Nuclear Power Reactors,'' to
clarify the scope of applicability to include holders of COLs. The NRC
has determined that the petition meets the threshold sufficiency
requirements for a petition for rulemaking under Sec. 2.802,
``Petition for rulemaking,'' and the petition has been docketed as PRM-
50-110.
III. Discussion of the Petition
The entities that may use Sec. 50.69, as set forth in paragraph
(b)(1), are holders of a license to operate a light-water reactor (LWR)
under 10 CFR part 50; holders of a renewed LWR license under 10 CFR
part 54; applicants for a construction permit or operating license
under 10 CFR part 50; and applicants for a design approval, a combined
license, or manufacturing license under 10 CFR part 52. The regulation
does not apply to holders of COLs.
The petitioner is requesting that Sec. 50.69 be amended to clarify
the scope of its applicability to include holders of COLs.
IV. Background Information
Section 50.69 provides an alternative set of requirements for the
treatment of SSCs. Under this framework, licensees (or applicants),
using a risk-informed process to categorize SSCs according to their
safety significance, can remove SSCs of low safety significance from
the scope of certain identified special treatment requirements. For
SSCs of safety significance, existing requirements are retained, and
Sec. 50.69 would add requirements that ensure SSC performance remains
consistent with that relied upon in the categorization process for
beyond design basis conditions. These requirements can be voluntarily
adopted by LWR licensees and applicants. Section 50.69 was most
recently amended by the NRC in a rulemaking titled, ``Risk-Informed
Categorization and Treatment of Structures, Systems and Components for
Nuclear power Reactors,'' published in the Federal Register as a
proposed rule on May 16, 2003 (68 FR 26511), and later as a final rule
on November 22, 2004 (69 FR 68008). The final rule became effective on
December 22, 2004.
The applicability and scope of the NRC's regulations in Sec. 50.69
currently
[[Page 16309]]
applies to a holder of a license to operate a LWR under 10 CFR part 50;
a holder of a renewed LWR license under 10 CFR part 54; an applicant
for a construction permit or operating license under 10 CFR part 50; or
an applicant for a design approval, a COL, or manufacturing license
under 10 CFR part 52. A holder of a COL issued under 10 CFR part 52 is
not included in the group of entities that may take advantage of the
provisions of Sec. 50.69.
The specific reasons for excluding COL holders from the group of
entities that may take advantage of the provisions of Sec. 50.69 were
not discussed in the Federal Register notice for either the proposed or
final ``Risk-Informed Categorization and Treatment of Structures,
Systems and Components for Nuclear Power Reactors'' rule. However, as
discussed at a public meeting on October 17, 2012 (ADAMS Accession No.
ML12341A153), the NRC staff provided the following reasons:
1. After issuance of the COL, the staff was concerned primarily
that implementation of the provisions of Sec. 50.69 in the midst of
construction and Inspections, Tests, Analysis, and Acceptance Criteria
(ITAAC) closure would lead to proposed changes in the NRC's approved
requirements on some SSCs prior to the Commission making a finding
regarding the COL ITAAC acceptance criteria in accordance with Sec.
52.103(g). Such a situation could create an unexpected budget shortfall
related to a higher resource burden for the NRC due to an increased
number of license amendments submitted for review concurrent with
supporting construction and ITAAC completion and complicate the NRC's
ability to reach a finding under Sec. 52.103(g).
2. Since the proposed rule allowed for the provisions of Sec.
50.69 to be adopted as part of the COL application, COL applicants
could take advantage of these provisions as part of the COL review.
This approach would be consistent with the NRC's Principles of Good
Regulation regarding efficiency, since the staff believed that
implementation of the provisions of Sec. 50.69 following the
Commission's making a finding per Sec. 52.103(g) would require
substantial additional resources to conduct the review of license
amendments necessary to implement the provisions of Sec. 50.69.
The NRC did not receive any comments from the nuclear industry nor
the general public on the absence of COL holders from the applicability
provisions of the proposed rule. The final rule, as issued, retained
this feature of the proposed rule.
The NRC is examining the issues raised in PRM-50-110 to determine
whether they should be considered in rulemaking. The NRC is not
requesting public comment at this time.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 20th day of March, 2015.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Kenneth R. Hart,
Acting, Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2015-07092 Filed 3-26-15; 8:45 am]
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