[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 86 (Thursday, May 4, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26392-26393]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-6747]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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 NRCs 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 1.201, ``Guidelines for Categorizing
Structures, Systems, and Components in Nuclear Power Plants According
to Their Safety Significance,'' which is being issued for trial use,
describes a method that the NRC staff considers acceptable for use in
complying with the Commission's requirements in Title 10, section
50.69, of the Code of Federal Regulations (Sec. 50.69), with respect
to the categorization of structures, systems, and components (SSCs)
that are considered in risk-informing special treatment requirements.
This categorization method uses the process that the Nuclear Energy
Institute (NEI) described in Revision 0 of its guidance document NEI
00-04, ``10 CFR 50.69 SSC Categorization Guideline,'' dated July
2005.\1\ Specifically, this process determines the safety significance
of SSCs and categorizes them into one of four risk-informed safety
class (RISC) categories.
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\1\ NEI 00-04, ``10 CFR 50.69 SSC Categorization Guideline,'' is
available through the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and
Management System (ADAMS), http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/ web-
based.html, under Accession ML052910035.
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The NRC has promulgated regulations to permit power reactor
licensees and license applicants to implement an alternative regulatory
framework with respect to ``special treatment,'' where special
treatment refers to those requirements that provide increased assurance
beyond normal industrial practices that SSCs perform their design-basis
functions. Under this framework, licensees using a risk-informed
process for categorizing SSCs according to their safety significance
can remove SSCs of low safety significance from the scope of certain
identified special treatment requirements.
The genesis of this framework stems from Option 2 of SECY-98-300,
``Options for Risk-Informed Revisions to 10 CFR Part 50, `Domestic
Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities','' dated December
23, 1998.\2\ In that Commission paper, the NRC staff recommended
developing risk-informed approaches to the application of special
treatment requirements to reduce
[[Page 26393]]
unnecessary regulatory burden related to SSCs of low safety
significance by removing such SSCs from the scope of special treatment
requirements. The Commission subsequently approved the NRC staff's
rulemaking plan and issuance of an Advanced Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking (ANPR) as outlined in SECY-99-256, ``Rulemaking Plan for
Risk-Informing Special Treatment Requirements,'' dated October 29,
1999.
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\2\ Commission papers cited in this notice are available through
the NRC's public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/secys/, and the related Federal Register
notices are available through the Federal Register Web site
sponsored by the Government Printing Office (GPO) at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html.
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The Commission published the ANPR in the Federal Register (65 FR
11488) on March 3, 2000, and subsequently published a proposed rule for
public comment (68 FR 26511) on May 16, 2003. Then, on November 22,
2004, the Commission adopted a new section, referred to as Sec. 50.69,
within Title 10, part 50, of the Code of Federal Regulations, on risk-
informed categorization and treatment of SSCs for nuclear power plants
(69 FR 68008).
The NRC issued a draft of this guide, Draft Regulatory Guide DG-
1121, for public review and comment as part of the Sec. 50.69
rulemaking package in May 2003. The staff subsequently received and
addressed public comments in developing the previous revision of this
guide, which the agency published in January 2006, and has since
incorporated additional stakeholder comments in preparing the current
revision. However, since this is a new regulatory approach to
categorizing SSCs, and to ensure that the final guidance adequately
addresses lessons learned from the initial applications, the NRC
decided to issue this guide for trial use. Therefore, this trial
regulatory guide does not establish any final staff positions for
purposes of the Backfit Rule, 10 CFR 50.109, and may continue to be
revised in response to experience with its use. As such, any changes to
this trial guide prior to staff adoption in final form will not be
considered to be backfits as defined in 10 CFR 50.109(a)(1). This will
ensure that the final regulatory guide adequately addresses lessons
learned from regulatory review of pilot and follow-on applications, and
that the guidance is sufficient to enhance regulatory stability in the
review, approval, and implementation of probabilistic risk assessments
(PRAs) and their results in the risk-informed categorization process
required by Sec. 50.69.
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 1.201 may be directed to Donald G. Harrison at (301) 415-3587 or
via 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. Electronic copies of Revision 1 of
Regulatory Guide 1.201 are also available in the NRC's Agencywide
Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html, under Accession ML061090627.
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.
Authority: 5 U.S.C. 552(a).
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 1st day of May, 2006.
For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Brian W. Sheron,
Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. E6-6747 Filed 5-3-06; 8:45 am]
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