[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 245 (Thursday, December 20, 2001)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 65661-65662]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-31217]


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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. 245 / Thursday, December 20, 2001 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 65661]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 50


Fire Protection

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 to its regulations. The NRC 
has initiated this rulemaking to amend Title 10 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations (10 CFR) part 50.48, ``Fire protection,'' to endorse the 
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 805, 
``Performance-Based Standard for Fire Protection for Light Water 
Reactor Electric Generating Plants 2001 Edition,'' with exceptions, as 
a voluntary alternative fire protection requirement for holders of 
operating nuclear power plant licenses. In support of this rulemaking 
effort, the NRC is seeking public comment on the draft rule language.

DATES: Comments should be submitted within 45 days from the date of 
this notice. 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 e-mail to 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Leon E. Whitney, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington DC 
20555-0001, telephone (301) 415-3081, e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NRC's existing fire protection 
requirements are derived from General Design Criterion 3, ``Fire 
protection,'' of Appendix A to 10 CFR part 50, 10 CFR 50.48, ``Fire 
protection,'' and for plants operating before January 1, 1979, certain 
provisions of Appendix R to 10 CFR part 50, ``Fire Protection Program 
for Nuclear Power Facilities Operating Prior to January 1, 1979.'' 
Exemptions approved by the staff may apply for individual licensees.
    The current (10 CFR 50.48) fire protection requirements were 
developed before the staff or industry had the benefit of probabilistic 
risk assessments (PRAs) for fires and before there was a significant 
body of operating experience. These deterministic fire protection 
requirements have been described by industry representatives and some 
members of the public as ``prescriptive'' and an ``unnecessary 
regulatory burden.'' In the late 1990s, the Commission provided the NRC 
staff with guidelines to identify and assess performance-based 
approaches to regulation (see SECY-00-0191, and a Commission White 
Paper, ``Risk-Informed and Performance-Based Regulation,'' issued as a 
Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM) to SECY-98-144). This guidance was 
in addition to the risk-related guidance in the NRC's Probabilistic 
Risk Assessment Policy Statement and Regulatory Guide 1.174, ``An 
Approach for Using PRA in Risk-Informed Decisions on Plant-Specific 
Changes to the Licensing Basis.''
    On January 13, 2001, the National Fire Protection Association 
Standards Council issued NFPA 805, 2001 Edition, as a performance-based 
American National Standard for light water nuclear power plants. As 
stated in Section 1.1 of the standard, ``This standard specifies the 
minimum fire protection requirements for existing light water nuclear 
power plants during all phases of plant operation, including shutdown, 
degraded conditions, and decommissioning.'' The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission staff cooperatively participated in the development of NFPA 
805. In the opinion of the NRC staff, with certain exceptions noted in 
Sections (c)(2) of the proposed rule revision, NFPA 805 could serve as 
a risk-informed, performance-based, voluntary alternative to the fire 
protection requirements of 10 CFR 50.48(b) and (f). Therefore, the 
staff requested (in SECY-00-009) and received Commission approval for 
proceeding with a rulemaking to permit reactor licensees to adopt NFPA 
805, as excepted, as a voluntary alternative fire protection licensing 
basis for the requirements of 10 CFR 50.48(b) and (f). However, 
licensees which choose not to change their fire protection licensing 
basis would continue to be subject to the requirements of 10 CFR 
50.48(b) and (f) as before.

ALTERNATIVE CONSENSUS STANDARDS: This draft rule revision is consistent 
with the requirements of the National Technology Advancement and 
Transfer Act of 1995, as the rule revision would endorse an industry 
consensus standard, NFPA 805, with exceptions. The NRC is seeking 
public comment on the proposed rule revision language. The NRC is also 
seeking public comment regarding whether there are consensus standards 
other than NFPA 805 that could be considered as

[[Page 65662]]

voluntary alternatives to current fire protection regulations.
    This draft rule language is preliminary and may be incomplete in 
one or more respects. This draft rule language has been released to 
inform stakeholders of the current status of the contemplated 10 CFR 
50.48 rule change and to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to 
comment on a draft version. Comments received prior to publishing the 
proposed rule revision will be considered in the development of the 
proposed rule revision. As appropriate, the Statements of Consideration 
for the proposed rule will briefly discuss substantive changes made to 
the rule language as a result of comments received. 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 12th day of December 2001.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
John N. Hannon,
Chief, Plant Systems Branch, Division of Systems Safety and Analysis, 
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 01-31217 Filed 12-19-01; 8:45 am]
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