[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 33 (Tuesday, February 19, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7407-7408]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-3898]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION


Call for Identification of Proposed Anticipatory Research 
Projects

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research is seeking recommendations for anticipatory 
research from all stakeholders that will help the agency prepare for 
the challenges and regulatory issues it may face in the future. A Call 
for Identification of Proposed Anticipatory Research Projects is 
presented below. Please provide comments to Dr. James W. Johnson, 
Special Assistant to the Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory 
Research, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, or by e-mail to [email protected] by June 1, 2002.

[[Page 7408]]

Call for Identification of Proposed Anticipatory Research Projects

    NRC research is performed in order to meet a known or anticipated 
regulatory need. There are two subcategories of research that require 
separate consideration: confirmatory research and anticipatory 
research. Confirmatory research assists the agency in responding to 
license applications that are now before the agency or that are 
anticipated to come before the agency in the future-usually in the near 
future. This type of research supports the NRC's regulatory activities 
and is usually conducted at the request of the offices that are 
directly responsible for regulatory oversight--the Offices of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation and Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards.
    The NRC also conducts research programs that are more forward 
looking, research related to evolving technologies or issues that may 
become important regulatory concerns in the future. Some of this work 
may also be confirmatory in nature, providing independent assessment of 
information developed by the nuclear industry, but much of it is what 
we refer to as ``anticipatory'' research. These types of programs may 
not have been requested by our regulatory offices. Rather, this work 
arises from the examination of industry trends and an effort to try to 
foresee where the NRC may need information to respond to future 
regulatory issues. If we wait until these potential issues become 
actual regulatory concerns, it may be too late to develop the technical 
information to respond to them in a timely fashion. Examples of 
anticipatory research that have been highly valuable to the agency 
include probabilistic risk analysis methods and applications, severe 
accident source term research, and the evaluation of the effects of 
aging on plant components.
    The Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research is seeking 
recommendations or proposals for anticipatory research both within NRC 
and from external stakeholders that will help NRC prepare for current 
challenges and regulatory issues anticipated in the future. The 
submittal should describe the proposed research and focus on the 
potential use of the research results in current or future regulatory 
activities.
    The NRC is facing many profound challenges. They were discussed in 
a presentation by Chairman Meserve at the 2001 Working conference of 
the American Nuclear Society in August (available on the web at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/speeches/2001/s01-020.html) and are summarized below:
     Establish the infrastructure for future licensing and new 
construction, possibly involving new designs.

 The technical basis needed to support the NRC's regulatory 
activities in dealing with new reactor technologies and new policy 
issues must be developed. (This could include fuel performance, 
behavior of materials at high temperature, and graphite technology, for 
example)
 Evaluation of new technological approaches to instrumentation 
and control and to the human-machine interface

     Reform the regulatory structure, moving to a risk-informed 
and performance-based paradigm.

 Continue to reform the reactor oversight process
 Develop the bases for additional regulatory improvement
 Develop a risk-informed regulatory approach, with associated 
acceptance criteria, for new reactor concepts being considered by the 
industry

     Re-licensing of existing plants.

 Consideration of aging issues to determine if further research 
is needed
 Considerations arising from the Sept. 11 tragedy

     Disposition of spent nuclear fuel.

 Spent fuel pool
 Independent storage on-site
 Long-term storage

     Maintaining NRC's core competence.

 Staff training and education

    At the Nuclear Safety Research Conference, Chairman Meserve spoke 
on enhancing the NRC's capacity to meet new regulatory challenges and 
focused on the need to maintain the research infrastructure--the need 
for technical personnel, experimental facilities, and analytical tools 
to help provide the technical foundation for regulation. The speech is 
available on the web at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/speeches/2001/s01-026.html.
    We also solicit your comments on the factors that should be 
considered when anticipatory research topics are prioritized, both 
among themselves, and in competition with confirmatory research 
responding to a stated need of one or the other program offices.
    To permit these new topics to be considered in developing future 
plans, your recommendations should be submitted to Dr. James W. 
Johnson, Special Assistant to the Director, Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research, MS T-10-F-12, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001, no later than June 1, 2002. Comments also 
may be submitted by e-mail to [email protected].

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be sent to: Dr. James W. Johnson, 
Special Assistant to the Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory 
Research, MS T-10 F-12, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, 
DC 20555-0001. Comments may be hand delivered to 11545 Rockville Pike, 
Rockville, Maryland, 20852.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. James W. Johnson, Special 
Assistant to the Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, MS T-
10 F-12, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, 
telephone (301) 415-6802.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 7th day of February, 2002.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Ashok C. Thadani,
Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 02-3898 Filed 2-15-02; 8:45 am]
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