[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 220 (Wednesday, November 14, 2001)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 57001-57002]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-28398]


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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. 66, No. 220 / Wednesday, November 14, 2001 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 57001]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 50


Standards for Combustible Gas Control System in Light-Water-
Cooled Power Reactors

AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Availability of draft rule wording.

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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is making available 
the draft wording of a possible amendment of its regulations. The 
proposal would amend 10 CFR 50.44, ``Standards for combustible gas 
control system in light-water-cooled power reactors,'' and associated 
regulations based on experience gained from a fundamental reevaluation 
of the need for the regulation, the application of risk insights, and 
the incorporation of performance-based concepts, to the degree 
practicable. The proposed changes effectively ``rebaselines'' the 
existing regulation for current licensees and consolidates combustible 
gas control regulations for future applicants and licensees. The 
changes should reduce the regulatory burden for all applicants and 
licensees and improve the effectiveness of 10 CFR 50.44. Additional 
conforming changes to 10 CFR 50.34, 50.46, and 10 CFR part 52 are also 
identified. The availability of the draft wording is intended to inform 
stakeholders of the current status of the NRC staff's activities to 
amend 10 CFR 50.44 and to provide stakeholders the opportunity to 
comment on the draft changes. The NRC staff has also provided 
additional information within the body of the draft rule language which 
is bracketed (``[ ]'') to facilitate understanding of the staff's 
intent and the development of guidance for the proposed rule. As a 
result of the draft wording changes, certain technical specifications 
in the standard technical specifications can be deleted or modified. 
The NRC staff is also making the draft technical specification changes 
associated with the draft wording of 10 CFR 50.44 available for 
stakeholders comments. The draft changes to NUREGs 1430, 1431, 1432, 
1433, and 1434 are attached.

DATES: Comments should be submitted by December 31, 2001. Any comments 
received after this date may not be considered during drafting of the 
proposed rule. Because of scheduling considerations in preparing a 
proposed rule, the NRC staff requests that stakeholders provide their 
comments at their earliest convenience before the end of the comment 
period, if practicable.

ADDRESSES: Submit written comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: 
Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff, Mail Stop O-16C1 or deliver 
written comments to One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, 
Rockville, Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal 
workdays.
    You may also provide comments via the NRC's interactive rulemaking 
Web site through the NRC's home page at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov. This 
site provides the capability to upload comments as files (any format), 
if your web browser supports that function. For information about the 
interactive rulemaking Web site, contact Ms. Carol Gallagher at (301) 
415-5905 or by e-mail to [email protected]. Copies of any comments received 
and certain documents related to this rulemaking may be examined at the 
NRC Public Document Room, located at One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. The NRC maintains an 
Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which 
provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. These 
documents may be accessed through the NRC's Public Electronic Reading 
Room on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html. If you 
do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the 
documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) 
Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by email to 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Anthony W. Markley, Risk-Informed 
Initiatives, Environmental, Decommissioning, and Rulemaking Branch, 
Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001; Telephone: (301) 415-3165; Internet: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Since the Commission published a Policy 
Statement on the Use of Probabilistic Risk Assessment in 1995, the NRC 
staff's efforts to consider risk insights in the regulatory 
infrastructure have evolved over the years. In SECY-98-0300, dated 
December 23, 1998, under Option 3, the staff proposed to add provisions 
to Part 50 for risk-informed alternative regulations, revise existing 
requirements to reflect risk-informed considerations, and to remove 
unnecessary or ineffective regulations. In SECY-00-0198, dated 
September 14, 2000, the staff provided specific recommendations for 
risk-informed changes to 10 CFR 50.44. In a Staff Requirements 
Memorandum dated January 19, 2001, the Commission directed the staff to 
proceed with risk-informed revisions to 10 CFR 50.44. In SECY-01-0162, 
dated August 23, 2001, the NRC staff subsequently communicated to the 
Commission its recommended approach and discussed issues involving 10 
CFR 50.44.
    During the development of the Option 3 effort, Mr. Bob Christie of 
Performance Technology, Inc. submitted letters dated October 7 and 
November 9, 1999 that requested changes to the regulations in 10 CFR 
50.44. These letters have been characterized as a petition for 
rulemaking and assigned the Docket No. PRM-50-68. The petition was 
published for comment in the Federal Register on January 12, 2000 (65 
FR 1829). The issues associated with 10 CFR 50.44 which were raised by 
the petitioner were discussed in SECY-00-0198 and will be addressed in 
the proposed rulemaking.
    The NRC also received a petition for rulemaking filed by the 
Nuclear Energy Institute. The petition was docketed on April 12, 2000, 
and has been assigned Docket No. PRM-50-71. The petition was published 
for comment in the Federal Register on May 30, 2000 (65 FR 34599). The 
petitioner requests that the NRC amend its regulations to allow nuclear 
power plant licensees to use zirconium-based cladding materials other 
than zircaloy or ZIRLO, provided the cladding materials meet the 
requirements for fuel cladding

[[Page 57002]]

performance and have received approval by the NRC staff. The petitioner 
believes the proposed amendment would improve the efficiency of the 
regulatory process by eliminating the need for individual licensees to 
obtain exemptions to use advanced cladding materials which have already 
been approved by the NRC. The issues associated with 10 CFR 50.44 which 
were raised by the petitioner will also be addressed in the proposed 
rulemaking.
    The NRC has now developed draft wording for the changes to its 
regulations and has made them available on the NRC's rulemaking Web 
site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov. This draft rule language is 
preliminary and may be incomplete in one or more respects. This draft 
rule language was released to inform stakeholders of the current status 
of the 10 CFR 50.44 update rulemaking and to provide stakeholders with 
an opportunity to comment on the draft revisions. Comments received 
prior to publishing the proposed rule will be considered in the 
development of the proposed rule. Comments may be provided through the 
rulemaking Web site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov or by mail as 
indicated under the ADDRESSES heading. The NRC may post updates 
periodically on the rulemaking Web site that may be of interest to 
stakeholders.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 29th day of October 2001.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Cynthia A. Carpenter,
Chief, Risk-Informed Initiatives, Environmental, Decommissioning, and 
Rulemaking Branch, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office 
of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 01-28398 Filed 11-13-01; 8:45 am]
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