[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 26 (Thursday, February 8, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6010-6011]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-2088]


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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.
    Like its predecessor, Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide 1.196, 
``Control Room Habitability at Light-Water Nuclear Power Reactors,'' 
provides guidance and criteria that the staff of the U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission (NRC) considers acceptable for implementing the 
agency's regulations in Appendix A, ``General Design Criteria for 
Nuclear Power Plants,'' to Title 10, Part 50, of the Code of Federal 
Regulations (10 CFR part 50), ``Domestic Licensing of Production and 
Utilization Facilities,'' as they relate to control room habitability 
(CRH). Specifically, this guide outlines a process that licensees may 
apply to control rooms that are modified, are newly designed, or must 
have their conformance to the regulations reconfirmed.
    In Appendix A to 10 CFR Part 50, General Design Criteria (GDC) 1, 
3, 4, 5, and 19 apply to CRH, as follows:
     GDC 1, ``Quality Standards and Records,'' requires that 
structures, systems, and components (SSCs) important to safety be 
designed, fabricated, erected, and tested to quality standards 
commensurate with the importance of the safety functions performed.
     GDC 3, ``Fire Protection,'' requires that SSCs important 
to safety be designed and located to minimize the effects of fires and 
explosions.
     GDC 4, ``Environmental and Dynamic Effects Design Bases,'' 
requires SSCs important to safety to be designed to accommodate the 
effects of, and to be compatible with, the environmental conditions 
associated with normal operation, maintenance, testing, and postulated 
accidents, including loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs).
     GDC 5, ``Sharing of Structures, Systems, and Components,'' 
requires that SSCs important to safety not be shared among nuclear 
power units unless it can be shown that such sharing will not 
significantly impair their ability to perform their safety functions, 
including, in the event of an accident in one unit, the orderly 
shutdown and cooldown of the remaining units.
     GDC 19, ``Control Room,'' requires that a control room be 
provided from which actions can be taken to operate the nuclear reactor 
safely under normal conditions and to maintain the reactor in a safe 
condition under accident conditions, including a LOCA. Adequate 
radiation protection is to be provided to permit access and occupancy 
of the control room under accident conditions without personnel 
receiving radiation exposures in excess of specified values.
    Since the NRC initially issued Regulatory Guide 1.196 in May 2003, 
the staff determined that the information presented in Appendix B to 
that guide did not accurately represent a viable technical 
specification for CRH at light-water nuclear power reactors. In 
particular, it referred to failure of a particular surveillance as a 
plant state, rather than having the results of the surveillance factor 
into the operability determination. In addition, it did not provide for 
a definite time to restore functionality to the control room envelope, 
whereas all improved standard technical specifications (iSTS) contain 
such provisions. Moreover, Appendix B was included as a ``strawman,'' 
to be deleted when details had been more carefully worked out with 
industry participation, and those technical specifications placed in 
the iSTS with all other acceptable technical specifications.
    As of the publication date of this Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide 
1.196, no utility has been granted the technical specification changes 
represented by

[[Page 6011]]

Appendix B to the original version of this guide. Consequently, the NRC 
staff elected to remove Appendix B (and all related references) from 
this revision. Removal of Appendix B from this revised guide does not 
require any stakeholder to take any action and does not reduce safety 
in any way. Moreover, public meetings with the owners' group Technical 
Specification Task Force have provided ample opportunity for public 
comment regarding this revision. Therefore, the staff views the removal 
of Appendix B as a neutral action, for which further public comments 
are unnecessary. For that reason, the staff chose not to issue this 
revision as a draft guide for public comment before publishing this 
Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide 1.196. Nonetheless, 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: Rulemaking, Directives and Editing Branch, Office 
of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001.
    Hand-deliver comments to: Rulemaking, Directives and Editing 
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: Rulemaking, Directives and Editing Branch, Office 
of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at (301) 415-
5144.
    Requests for technical information about Revision 1 of Regulatory 
Guide 1.196 may be directed to Harold Walker, at (301) 415-2827 or 
[email protected].
    Regulatory guides are available for inspection or downloading 
through the NRC's public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/reg-guides/. In addition, Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide 
1.196 is available for inspection or downloading through ADAMS at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html, under Accession 
ML063560144.
    Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide 1.196 and other related publicly 
available documents can also be viewed electronically on computers in 
the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), which is located at 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The PDR's reproduction contractor 
will make copies of documents for a fee. 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].
    Please note that the NRC does not intend to distribute printed 
copies of Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide 1.196, unless specifically 
requested on an individual basis with adequate justification. Such 
requests for single copies of draft or final guides (which may be 
reproduced) 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 23rd day of January, 2007.

    For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Brian W. Sheron,
Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. E7-2088 Filed 2-7-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P