[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 189 (Friday, September 30, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57333-57334]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-19704]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Final Regulatory Guide: Issuance, Availability
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued a revision
to an existing guide in the agency's Regulatory Guide Series. This
series has been developed to describe and make available to the public
such information as methods that are acceptable to the NRC staff for
implementing specific parts of the NRC's regulations, techniques that
the staff uses in evaluating specific problems or postulated accidents,
and data that the staff needs in its review of applications for permits
and licenses.
Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide 1.188, entitled ``Standard Format
and Content for Applications To Renew Nuclear Power Plant Operating
Licenses,'' describes a method that the NRC staff finds acceptable for
complying with the agency's regulatory requirements in Title 10, Part
54, of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR part 54), ``Requirements
for Renewal of Operating Licenses for Nuclear Power Plants'' (commonly
known as the license renewal rule). Specifically, 10 CFR part 54
specifies the information that a nuclear power plant licensee must
include in its application to renew an operating license issued by the
NRC.
The NRC initially issued Regulatory Guide 1.188 in July 2001, after
soliciting and resolving public comments on three draft regulatory
guides (DG-1104 in August 2000, DG-1047 in August 1996, and DG-1009 in
December 1990). As such, Regulatory Guide 1.188 incorporated lessons
learned from the review of license renewal applications and Owners
Group topical report reviews. The guide also incorporated relevant
information from development of the ``Standard Review Plan for the
Review of License Renewal Applications for Nuclear Power Plants'' (SRP-
LR) (NUREG-1800),\1\ and the ``Generic Aging Lessons Learned (GALL)
Report'' (NUREG-1801),1 as well as a summary of public comments
received on those documents (NUREG-1832, ``Analysis of Public Comments
on the Revised License Renewal Guidance Documents.'') \2\
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\1\ Copies are available at current rates from the U.S.
Government Printing Office, P.O. Box 37082, Washington, DC 20402-
9328 (telephone (202) 512-1800); or from the National Technical
Information Service at 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161;
http://www.ntis.gov; or (703) 487-4650. Copies are available for
inspection or copying for a fee from the NRC's Public Document Room
at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD; the PDR's mailing address is
USNRC PDR, Washington, DC 20555; telephone (301) 415-4737 or (800)
397-4209; fax (301) 415-3548; or e-mail [email protected]. These documents
are also available electronically through the NRC's public Web site
at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/ /staff/.
\2\ Copies are available at current rates from the U.S.
Government Printing Office, P.O. Box 37082, Washington, DC 20402-
9328 (telephone (202) 512-1800); or from the National Technical
Information Service at 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161;
http://www.ntis.gov; or (703) 487-4650. Copies are available for
inspection or copying for a fee from the NRC's Public Document Room
at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD; the PDR's mailing address is
USNRC PDR, Washington, DC 20555; telephone (301) 415-4737 or (800)
397-4209; fax (301) 415-3548; or e-mail [email protected]. These documents
are also available electronically through the NRC's public Web site
at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/ /staff/.
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Since the NRC initially published Regulatory Guide 1.188 in July
2001, the staff proposed to update both the SRP-LR (NUREG-1800) and the
GALL Report (NUREG-1801). Consequently, the staff also decided to
revise Regulatory Guide 1.188 to reflect the proposed updates to the
guidance documents. Toward that end, the staff prepared Draft
Regulatory Guide DG-1140, which also included a modification through
which the NRC staff endorsed (with two exceptions) Revision 5 of NEI
95-10, ``Industry Guideline for Implementing the Requirements of 10 CFR
Part 54 `` The License Renewal Rule,'' which the Nuclear Energy
Institute (NEI) published in January 2005.\3\ Specifically, the staff
took exception to the use of a portion of Appendix F to Revision 5 of
NEI 95-10, from the unnumbered paragraph following paragraph 4.4
through the end of Section 4, ``Non-Safety SSCs Directly Connected to
Safety-Related SSCs.'' In addition, the NRC staff took exception to the
use of paragraph 5.2.3.1, ``Exposure Duration.''
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\3\ Copies are available for inspection or copying for a fee
from the NRC's Public Document Room at 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, MD; the PDR's mailing address is USNRC PDR, Washington,
DC 20555; telephone (301) 415-4737 or (800) 397-4209; fax (301) 415-
3548; e-mail [email protected]. Revision 5 of NEI 95-10 is also available
through the NRC's license renewal Web page at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/guidance.html#nuclear, and
through the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS) at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html, under Accession
No. ML050280113. Note, however, that the NRC has temporarily limited
public access to ADAMS so that the agency can complete security
reviews of publicly available documents and remove potentially
sensitive information. Please check the NRC's Web site for updates
concerning the resumption of public access to ADAMS.
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The NRC staff then published a Federal Register notice (70 FR 5494)
on February 2, 2005, to solicit stakeholder comments on Draft
Regulatory Guide DG-1140 and/or Revision 5 of NEI 95-10, and
specifically on any inconsistency or incompatibility between the
guidance in these documents and the NRC guidance set forth in NUREG-
1800 and NUREG-1801. Toward that end, the NRC also held a public
workshop on March 2, 2005, to give participants an opportunity to ask
questions, obtain further information, offer comments and opinions, and
otherwise facilitate the formulation and preparation of written
[[Page 57334]]
comments for NRC staff consideration of the revised license renewal
guidance documents.
The public comment period closed on March 31, 2005, without the
submission of any stakeholder comments. However, in response to the
exceptions stated in DG-1140, NEI issued Revision 6 of NEI-95-10 in
June 2005 \4\ to accept the NRC staff's position with respect to those
issues, thereby rendering the staff's two exceptions unnecessary.
Having reviewed this latest revision of NEI 95-10, the NRC staff finds
Revision 6 acceptable for use in implementing the license renewal rule,
without exceptions, as discussed in Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide
1.188. Applicants may meet the intent of the license renewal rule using
methods other than those provided in Revision 6 of NEI 95-10; however,
the NRC staff will determine the acceptability of such methods on a
case-by-case basis.
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\4\ Copies are available for inspection or copying for a fee
from the NRC's Public Document Room at 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, MD; the PDR's mailing address is USNRC PDR, Washington,
DC 20555; telephone (301) 415-4737 or (800) 397-4209; fax (301) 415-
3548; e-mail [email protected]. Revision 6 of NEI 95-10 is also available
through the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS) at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html, under Accession
No. ML051860406. Note, however, that the NRC has temporarily limited
public access to ADAMS so that the agency can complete security
reviews of publicly available documents and remove potentially
sensitive information. Please check the NRC's Web site for updates
concerning the resumption of public access to ADAMS.
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The NRC staff encourages and welcomes comments and suggestions in
connection with improvements to published regulatory guides, as well as
items for inclusion in regulatory guides that are currently being
developed. You may submit comments by any of the following methods.
Mail comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001.
Hand-deliver comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 11555 Rockville
Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on
Federal workdays.
Fax comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at (301) 415-5144.
Requests for technical information about Revision 1 of Regulatory
Guide 1.188 may be directed to Linh N. Tran at (301) 415-4103 or by e-
mail to [email protected].
Regulatory guides are available for inspection or downloading
through the NRC's public Web site in the Regulatory Guides document
collection of the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/. Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide 1.188 is
also available electronically through the NRC's Agencywide Documents
Access and Management System (ADAMS) at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html, under Accession No. ML051920430. Note, however, that the
NRC has temporarily limited public access to ADAMS so that the agency
can complete security reviews of publicly available documents and
remove potentially sensitive information. Please check the NRC's Web
site for updates concerning the resumption of public access to ADAMS.
In addition, regulatory guides are available for inspection at the
NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), which is located at 11555 Rockville
Pike, Rockville, Maryland; the PDR's mailing address is USNRC PDR,
Washington, DC 20555-0001. The PDR can also be reached by telephone at
(301) 415-4737 or (800) 397-4205, by fax at (301) 415-3548, and by e-
mail to [email protected]. Requests for single copies of draft or final
guides (which may be reproduced) or for placement on an automatic
distribution list for single copies of future draft guides in specific
divisions should be made in writing to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Reproduction and
Distribution Services Section; by e-mail to [email protected]; or by
fax to (301) 415-2289. Telephone requests cannot be accommodated.
Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and Commission approval is
not required to reproduce them. (5 U.S.C. 552(a))
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 26th day of September, 2005.
For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Carl J. Paperiello,
Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 05-19704 Filed 9-29-05; 8:45 am]
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