[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 181 (Tuesday, September 20, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-23202]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: September 20, 1994]


                                                   VOL. 59, NO. 181

                                        Tuesday, September 20, 1994

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 50

RIN 3150-AF06

 

Technical Specifications

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to amend 
its regulations pertaining to technical specifications for nuclear 
power reactors. The proposed rule would codify criteria for determining 
the content of technical specifications. These criteria were developed 
in recognition of the overly broad use of technical specifications to 
impose requirements, diverting both NRC and licensee attention from the 
more important requirements in these documents to the extent that it 
has resulted in an adverse but unquantifiable impact on safety. Each 
licensee covered by these regulations may voluntarily use the criteria 
as a basis to propose the relocation of existing technical 
specifications that do not meet any of the criteria from the facility 
license to licensee-controlled documents. The voluntary conversion of 
current technical specifications in this manner is expected to produce 
an improvement in the safety of nuclear power plants through a 
reduction in unnecessary plant transients and more efficient use of NRC 
and industry resources.

DATES: Comment period expires December 5, 1994. 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 
on or before this date.

ADDRESSES: Mail written comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Docketing and Service 
Branch.
    Deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, 
between 7:45 am and 4:15 pm on Federal workdays.
    Copies of comments received may be examined and copied for a fee at 
the NRC Public Document Room, 2120 L Street, NW. (Lower Level), 
Washington, DC.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher I. Grimes, Chief, 
Technical Specifications Branch, Division of Operating Reactor Support, 
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Telephone: (301) 504-1161.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 182a. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (Act), as amended 
(42 U.S.C. 2232), mandates the inclusion of technical specifications in 
licenses for the operation of production and utilization facilities. 
The Act requires that technical specifications include information 
concerning the amount, kind, and source of special nuclear material, 
the place of use, and the specific characteristics of the facility. 
That section also states that technical specifications shall contain 
information the Commission requires through regulation to enable it to 
find that the utilization of special nuclear material will be in accord 
with the common defense and security and will provide adequate 
protection of public health and safety. Finally, that section requires 
technical specifications to be made a part of any license issued.
    The Commission promulgated Sec. 50.36, ``Technical 
Specifications,'' which implements Section 182a. of the Atomic Energy 
Act on December 17, 1968 (33 FR 18610). This rule delineates 
requirements for determining the contents of technical specifications. 
Technical specifications set forth the specific characteristics of the 
facility and the conditions for its operation that are required to 
provide adequate protection of the health and safety of the public. 
Specifically, Sec. 50.36 requires the following:

    Each license authorizing operation of a production or 
utilization facility of a type described in Sec. 50.21 or Sec. 50.22 
will include technical specifications. The technical specifications 
will be derived from the analyses and evaluation included in the 
safety analysis report, and amendments thereto, submitted pursuant 
to Sec. 50.34. The Commission may include such additional technical 
specifications as the Commission finds appropriate.

    Technical specifications cannot be changed by licensees without 
prior NRC approval. However, since 1969, there has been a trend toward 
including in technical specifications not only those requirements 
derived from the analyses and evaluation included in the safety 
analysis report but also essentially all other Commission requirements 
governing the operation of nuclear power reactors. This extensive use 
of technical specifications was due in part to a lack of well-defined 
criteria (in either the body of the rule or in some other regulatory 
document) for what should be included in technical specifications. This 
use has contributed to the volume of technical specifications and to 
the several-fold increase in the number of license amendment 
applications to effect changes to the technical specifications since 
1969. It has diverted both NRC staff and licensee attention from the 
more important requirements in these documents to the extent that it 
has resulted in an adverse but unquantifiable impact on safety.
    On March 30, 1982 (47 FR 13369), the NRC published in the Federal 
Register a proposed amendment to part 50. The proposed rule would have 
revised Sec. 50.36, ``Technical Specifications,'' to establish a new 
system of specifications divided into two general categories. Only 
those specifications contained in the first general category as 
technical specifications would have become part of the operating 
license and would have required prior NRC approval for any changes. 
Those specifications contained in the second general category would 
have become supplemental specifications and would not have required 
prior NRC approval for most changes. The NRC review of the first 
general category of specifications would have been the same as that 
currently performed for technical specification changes, which are 
amendments to the operating license. For the second category, 
supplemental specifications, the licensee would have been allowed to 
make changes within specified conditions without prior NRC approval. 
The NRC would have reviewed these changes when they were made and would 
have done so in a manner similar to that currently used for reviewing 
design changes, tests, and experiments performed under the provisions 
of Sec. 50.59. Because of difficulties with defining the criteria for 
dividing the technical specifications into the two categories of the 
proposed rule and because of other higher priority licensing work, the 
proposed amendment was deferred.
    In the early 1980s, the nuclear industry and the NRC staff began 
studying whether the existing system of establishing technical 
specification requirements for nuclear power plants needed improvement. 
During this time frame, an NRC task group known as the Technical 
Specifications Improvement Project (TSIP) and a Subcommittee of the 
Atomic Industrial Forum's (AIF) Committee on Reactor Licensing and 
Safety performed two studies of this issue.\1\ The overall conclusion 
of these studies was that many improvements in the scope and content of 
technical specifications were needed and that a joint NRC and industry 
program should be initiated to implement these improvements. Both 
groups made specific recommendations which are summarized as follows:
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    \1\SECY-86-10, ``Recommendations for Improving Technical 
Specifications,'' dated January 13, 1986, contains both 
``Recommendations for Improving Technical Specifications,'' NRC 
Technical Specifications Improvement Project, September 30, 1985, 
and ``Technical Specifications Improvements,'' AIF Subcommittee on 
Technical Specifications Improvements, October 1, 1985.
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    (1) The NRC should adopt the criteria for defining the scope of 
technical specifications proposed in the AIF and TSIP reports. Those 
criteria should then be used by the NRC and each of the nuclear steam 
supply system vendor owners groups to completely rewrite and streamline 
the existing Standard Technical Specifications (STS). This process 
would result in the transfer of many requirements from control by 
technical specification requirements to control by other mechanisms 
[e.g., the final safety analysis report (FSAR), operating procedures, 
quality assurance (QA) plan] that would not require a license amendment 
or prior NRC approval when changes were needed. The new STS should 
include greater emphasis on human factors principles in order to make 
the text of the STS clearer and easier to understand. The new STS 
should also provide improvements to the bases section of technical 
specifications, which gives the purpose for each requirement in the 
specification.
    (2) A parallel program of short-term improvements in both the scope 
and substance of the existing technical specifications should be 
initiated in addition to developing new STS as stated in Recommendation 
(1).
    On February 6, 1987 (52 FR 3788), the NRC published in the Federal 
Register for public comment an Interim Policy Statement on Technical 
Specification Improvements for Nuclear Power Reactors containing 
proposed criteria in response to Recommendation (1). These criteria 
were generally derived from the criteria proposed in the AIF and TSIP 
reports and were modified slightly on the basis of discussions between 
the NRC staff and the industry. The public comment period for the 
interim policy statement expired on March 23, 1987.
    The criteria were developed with the intention that they would 
apply to limiting conditions for operation (LCOs). The NRC staff 
believed that the safety limits needed to remain as is in the technical 
specifications because of their more direct link to protection of the 
physical barriers that guard against the uncontrolled release of 
radioactivity. At the time the criteria were developed, the industry 
did not wish to address administrative controls and design features in 
the effort to improve the STS. Later, however, both the industry and 
the NRC staff realized that it would be beneficial to include upgraded 
administrative controls and design features in the improved STS, and 
these were handled separately from the application of the criteria to 
the LCOs.
    The NRC has developed a program for short-term improvements as 
described in Recommendation (2). These are known as ``line-item'' 
improvements and are generic improvements developed and promulgated by 
the NRC staff for voluntary adoption by licensees.
    Subsequently, improved vendor-specific STS were developed and 
issued by the NRC in September 1992. The improved STS were published as 
the following NRC reports:
     NUREG-1430, ``Standard Technical Specifications, Babcock 
and Wilcox Plants''
     NUREG-1431, ``Standard Technical Specifications, 
Westinghouse Plants''
     NUREG-1432, ``Standard Technical Specifications, 
Combustion Engineering Plants''
     NUREG-1433, ``Standard Technical Specifications, General 
Electric Plants, BWR/4''
     NUREG-1434, ``Standard Technical Specifications, General 
Electric Plants, BWR/6''
    Copies of NUREGs may be purchased from the Superintendent of 
Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, by calling (202) 275-2060 
or by writing to the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government 
Printing Office, P.O. Box 37082, Washington, DC 20013-7082. Copies are 
also available from the National Technical Information Service, 5825 
Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161.
    These improved STS were the result of extensive technical meetings 
and discussions among the NRC staff, industry owners groups, vendors, 
and the Nuclear Management and Resources Council (NUMARC).
    Finally, on July 22, 1993 (58 FR 39132), the Commission published a 
Final Policy Statement on Technical Specifications Improvements for 
Nuclear Power Reactors, which incorporated experience and lessons 
learned since publication of the interim policy statement. The interim 
policy statement identified three criteria to be used to define which 
of the current technical specification requirements should be retained 
or included in technical specifications and which LCOs could be 
relocated to licensee-controlled documents, as follows:
    Criterion 1: Installed instrumentation that is used to detect, and 
indicate in the control room, a significant abnormal degradation of the 
reactor coolant pressure boundary.
    Criterion 2: A process variable, design feature, or operating 
restriction that is an initial condition of a design basis accident or 
transient analysis that either assumes the failure of or presents a 
challenge to the integrity of a fission product barrier.
    Criterion 3: A structure, system, or component that is part of the 
primary success path and which functions or actuates to mitigate a 
design basis accident or transient that either assumes the failure of 
or presents a challenge to the integrity of a fission product barrier.
    The interim policy statement also stated that, in addition to 
structures, systems, and components captured by the three criteria, it 
was the Commission's policy that licensees retain in the technical 
specifications LCOs for a specified list of systems that operating 
experience and probabalistic safety assessment had generally shown to 
be important to public health and safety. In the final policy 
statement, the Commission retained this thought as a fourth criterion 
to capture those requirements that operating experience or 
probabilistic safety assessment show to be significant to public health 
and safety. The final policy statement also addressed comments received 
on the interim policy statement and described the Commission's intent 
with regard to use of the criteria and their codification through 
rulemaking.
    The Commission believes that amending Sec. 50.36 to include the 
four criteria contained in the final policy statement could codify a 
viable, potentially safety-enhancing and cost-saving method for 
technical specification improvement. The Commission encourages 
licensees to use the improved STS as the basis for plant-specific 
technical specifications. As stated in the final policy statement, the 
Commission will place the highest priority on requests based on the 
criteria for individual license amendments that are used to evaluate 
all of the LCOs for an individual plant to determine which LCOs should 
be included in the technical specifications. Related surveillance 
requirements and actions would be retained for each LCO that remains in 
the technical specifications. Each LCO, action, and surveillance 
requirement should have supporting bases.
    In addition, the Commission will also entertain requests to adopt 
portions of the improved STS, even if the licensee does not adopt all 
STS improvements. These portions will include all related requirements 
and will normally be developed as line-item improvements by the NRC 
staff. The Commission encourages all licensees who submit technical 
specification related submittals based on these criteria to emphasize 
human factors principles.
    LCOs that do not meet any of the criteria, and their associated 
actions and surveillance requirements, may be proposed for relocation 
from the technical specifications to licensee-controlled documents, 
such as the FSAR. The criteria may be applied to either standard or 
custom technical specifications. The Commission will also consider the 
criteria in evaluating future generic requirements for inclusion in 
technical specifications.
    During individual technical specification conversions, a backfit 
analysis will be performed in cases of nonvoluntary addition of new 
requirements from the improved STS to individual plant technical 
specifications, unless the staff-suggested additional changes are 
needed to make the changes requested by the licensee acceptable from 
the standpoint of adequate protection or compliance with NRC 
regulations, in which case the request may be denied without the 
additional items.
    The Commission requests comments on the criteria being proposed for 
inclusion in Sec. 50.36 and, particularly, on Criterion 4 and what 
guidelines the Commission should use in defining ``significant to 
public health and safety.''

Finding of No Significant Environmental Impact: Availability

    The Commission has determined under the National Environmental 
Policy Act of 1969, as amended, and the Commission regulations in 
Subpart A of Part 51, that this rule, if adopted, would not be a major 
Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human 
environment and would not degrade the environment in any way. 
Therefore, the Commission concludes that there will be no significant 
impact on the environment from this proposed rule. This discussion 
constitutes the environmental assessment and finding of no significant 
impact for this proposed rule; a separate assessment has not been 
prepared.

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement

    This proposed rule does not contain a new or amended information 
collection requirement subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 
(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). Existing requirements were approved by the 
Office of Management and Budget, approval number 3150-0011.

Regulatory Analysis

    The Commission has determined that a regulatory analysis is not 
required for this proposed rule. The Commission believes the intent of 
the regulatory analysis has been met through the extensive 
consideration given to the development of the Final Policy Statement on 
Technical Specifications Improvements for Nuclear Power Reactors and 
the improved STS, both of which involved an opportunity for public 
comment. The criteria being added to Sec. 50.36 are identical to those 
contained in the final policy statement and have been used by the NRC 
and the nuclear power industry to define the content of technical 
specifications since September 1992. The criteria will continue to be 
used even if this proposed rule is not adopted. The proposed rule does 
not impose any requirements but, rather, allows nuclear power reactor 
licensees to voluntarily use the criteria to relocate existing 
technical specifications that do not meet any of the criteria to 
licensee-controlled documents. The NRC staff also uses these criteria 
to determine whether technical specifications are appropriate to 
provide continued regulatory control over new requirements or positions 
that have been justified consistent with the backfit rule.
    The Commission considered the need for and consequences of this 
proposed action when it made the decision to not only publish the 
criteria in the final policy statement but also to codify the criteria 
through rulemaking. Appropriate alternative approaches to this action 
have been identified and analyzed over the life of the Technical 
Specifications Improvement Program, beginning with an earlier attempt 
to define the content of technical specifications through rulemaking. 
As described in the background discussion, the Commission published a 
proposed amendment to Sec. 50.36 (47 FR 13369) on March 30, 1982. 
However, because of difficulties with defining criteria for technical 
specifications and because of other higher priority licensing work, the 
rule change was deferred. In February 1987, the Commission published an 
interim policy statement on Technical Specification Improvements and in 
July 1993, published the final policy statement. During review of the 
final policy statement, the Commission concluded that the four criteria 
should be codified in a rule. Thus, alternative approaches to 
regulatory objectives have been identified and analyzed, and the 
Commission has decided that there is no clearly preferable alternative 
to codifying the four criteria in a rule. With regard to evaluation of 
values and impacts of alternatives, the Commission believes there is no 
difference in the values or impacts of implementing the criteria 
through use of the final policy statement or through a rule, except 
that the criteria are more readily available to future users in a rule 
than in a policy statement.

Regulatory Flexibility Certification

    In accordance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 [5 U.S.C. 
605(b)], the Commission certifies that, if promulgated, this rule will 
not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small 
entities. This proposed rule affects only the licensing and operation 
of nuclear power plants. The companies that own these plants do not 
fall within the scope of the definition of ``small entities'' as given 
in the Regulatory Flexibility Act or the Small Business Size Standards 
in regulations issued by the Small Business Administration at 13 CFR 
part 121.

Backfit Analysis

    The NRC has determined that the backfit rule, Sec. 50.109, does not 
apply to this proposed rule and, therefore, a backfit analysis is not 
required because these amendments do not involve any provisions that 
would impose backfits as defined in Sec. 50.109(a)(1).

List of Subjects in 10 CFR Part 50

    Antitrust, Classified information, Criminal penalties, Fire 
protection, Intergovernmental relations, Nuclear power plants and 
reactors, Radiation protection, Reactor siting criteria, Reporting and 
recordkeeping requirements.

    For the reasons given in the preamble and under the authority of 
the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, the Energy Reorganization 
Act of 1974, as amended, and 5 U.S.C. 553, the NRC is proposing to 
adopt the following amendment to Part 50.

PART 50--DOMESTIC LICENSING OF PRODUCTION AND UTILIZATION 
FACILITIES

    1. The authority citation for part 50 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: Secs. 102, 103, 104, 105, 161, 182, 183, 186, 189, 68 
Stat. 936, 937, 938, 948, 953, 954, 955, 956, as amended, sec. 234, 
83 Stat. 1244, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2132, 2133, 2134, 2135, 2201, 
2232, 2233, 2236, 2239, 2282); secs. 201, as amended, 202, 206, 88 
Stat. 1242, as amended, 1244, 1246 (42 U.S.C. 5841, 5842, 5846).
    Section 50.7 also issued under Pub. L. 95-601, sec. 10, 92 Stat. 
2951 (42 U.S.C. 5851). Section 50.10 also issued under secs. 101, 
185, 68 Stat. 955, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2131, 2235); sec. 102, Pub. 
L. 91-190, 83 Stat. 853 (42 U.S.C. 4332). Sections 50.13, 50.54(dd), 
and 50.103 also issued under sec. 108, 68 Stat. 939, as amended (42 
U.S.C. 2138). Sections 50.23. 50.35, 50.55, and 50.56 also issued 
under sec. 185, 68 Stat. 955 (42 U.S.C. 2235). Sections 50.33a, 
50.55a and Appendix Q also issued under sec. 102, Pub. L. 91-190, 83 
Stat. 853 (42 U.S.C. 4332). Sections 50.34 and 50.54 also issued 
under sec. 204, 88 Stat. 1245 (42 U.S.C. 5844). Sections 50.58-
50.91, and 50.92 also issued under Pub. L. 97-415, 96 Stat. 2073 (42 
U.S.C. 2239). Section 50.78 also issued under sec. 122, 68 Stat. 939 
(42 U.S.C. 2152). Sections 50.80-50.81 also issued under sec. 184, 
68 Stat. 954, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2234). Appendix F also issued 
under sec. 187, 68 Stat. 955 (42 U.S.C. 2237).

    2. In Sec. 50.36, paragraphs (c) (2) and (3) are revised to read as 
follows:


Sec. 50.36  Technical specifications.

* * * * *
    (c) * * *
    (2) Limiting conditions for operation.
    (i) Limiting conditions for operation are the lowest functional 
capability or performance levels of equipment required for safe 
operation of the facility. When a limiting condition for operation of a 
nuclear reactor is not met, the licensee shall shut down the reactor or 
follow any remedial action permitted by the technical specifications 
until the condition can be met. When a limiting condition for operation 
of any process step in the system of a fuel reprocessing plant is not 
met, the licensee shall shut down that part of the operation or follow 
any remedial action permitted by the technical specifications until the 
condition can be met. In the case of a nuclear reactor not licensed 
under Sec. 50.21(b) or Sec. 50.22 of this part or fuel reprocessing 
plant, the licensee shall notify the Commission, review the matter, and 
record the results of the review, including the cause of the condition 
and the basis for corrective action taken to preclude recurrence. The 
licensee shall retain the record of the results of each review until 
the Commission terminates the license for the nuclear reactor or the 
fuel reprocessing plant. In the case of nuclear power reactors licensed 
under Sec. 50.21(b) or Sec. 50.22, the licensee shall notify the 
Commission if required by Sec. 50.72 and shall submit a Licensee Event 
Report to the Commission as required by Sec. 50.73. In this case, 
licensees shall retain records associated with preparation of a 
Licensee Event Report for a period of three years following issuance of 
the report. For events which do not require a Licensee Event Report, 
the licensee shall retain each record as required by the technical 
specifications.
    (ii) A technical specification limiting condition for operation of 
a nuclear reactor must be established for each item meeting one or more 
of the following criteria:
    (A) Criterion 1. Installed instrumentation that is used to detect, 
and indicate in the control room, a significant abnormal degradation of 
the reactor coolant pressure boundary.
    (B) Criterion 2. A process variable, design feature, or operating 
restriction that is an initial condition of a design basis accident or 
transient analysis that either assumes the failure of or presents a 
challenge to the integrity of a fission product barrier.
    (C) Criterion 3. A structure, system, or component that is part of 
the primary success path and which functions or actuates to mitigate a 
design basis accident or transient that either assumes the failure of 
or presents a challenge to the integrity of a fission product barrier.
    (D) Criterion 4. A structure, system, or component which operating 
experience or probabilistic safety assessment has shown to be 
significant to public health and safety.
    (iii) A licensee is not required to modify technical specifications 
that are included in any license issued before [THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF 
THE FINAL RULE] to satisfy the criteria in paragraph (c)(2)(ii) of this 
section. However, for technical specification amendments a licensee 
proposes after [THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE FINAL RULE], the criteria in 
paragraph (c)(2)(ii) of this section provide an acceptable scope for 
limiting conditions for operation.
    (3) Surveillance requirements. Surveillance requirements are 
requirements relating to test, calibration, or inspection to assure 
that the necessary quality of systems and components is maintained, 
that facility operation will be within safety limits, and that the 
limiting conditions for operation will be met.
* * * * *
    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 14th day of September, 1994.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
John C. Hoyle,
Acting Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 94-23202 Filed 9-19-94; 8:45 am]
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