[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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