[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 230 (Thursday, November 29, 2001)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 59546-59547]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-29584]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 50


Risk-Informed Treatment of Structures, Systems and Components

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 add 10 CFR 50.69, ``Risk-Informed Treatment of 
Structures, Systems and Components.'' The proposal would permit power 
reactor licensees and applicants to implement an alternative regulatory 
framework with respect to certain treatment requirements currently 
imposed beyond practices for commercial grade equipment to add 
assurance of capability of structures, systems and components (SSCs) to 
perform their intended functions. Under this framework, licensees, 
using a risk-informed process for categorizing SSC according to their 
safety and risk significance, could remove SSCs of low safety 
significance from the scope of certain identified treatment 
requirements. The availability of the draft wording is intended to 
inform stakeholders of the current status of the NRC's activities to 
adopt 10 CFR 50.69 and to provide stakeholders the opportunity to 
comment on the draft changes. The NRC has also provided additional (``[ 
]'') information within the body of the draft rule language which is 
bracketed (``[ ]'') to facilitate understanding of the NRC's intent on 
certain aspects of the proposed rule.

DATES: Comments should be submitted on or before 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 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

[[Page 59547]]

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: Eileen M. McKenna, 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) 415-2189; Internet: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Since the Commission published a Policy 
Statement on the Use of Probabilistic Risk Assessment in 1995, the 
NRC's efforts to consider risk insights in the regulatory 
infrastructure have evolved over the years. In SECY-98-300, dated 
December 23, 1998, under Option 2, the NRC 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-99-256, dated 
October 29, 1999, the staff provided a rulemaking plan and an Advance 
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) for risk-informed changes using 10 
CFR 50.69. In a Staff Requirements Memorandum dated January 31, 2000, 
the Commission directed the staff to proceed with the rulemaking and to 
publish the ANPR (65 FR 11488, March 3, 2000). In SECY-00-0194, dated 
September 7, 2000, the NRC staff subsequently communicated to the 
Commission its preliminary analysis of public comments on the ANPR and 
discussed issues involving 10 CFR 50.69.
    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 50.69 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 21st day of November 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. 01-29584 Filed 11-28-01; 8:45 am]
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