[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 159 (Friday, August 15, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47983-47984]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-18920]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION


Draft Regulatory Guide: Denial of Extension of Comment Period

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of denial of request to extend the comment period of 
Draft Regulatory Guide (DG)-1200, ``An Approach for Determining the 
Technical Adequacy of Probabilistic Risk Assessment Results for Risk-
Informed Activities.''

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mary Drouin, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: (301) 415-6675 or e-
mail to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Introduction

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued for public 
comment DG-1200, which was published in the Federal Register, 73 FR 
35170, on June 20, 2008. DG-1200 is proposed Revision 2 of Regulatory 
Guide 1.200 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.

II. Further Information

    The NRC staff requested receipt of comments on DG-1200 by August 
25, 2008, (including any implementation schedule) and its associated 
regulatory analysis or value/impact statement. Comments received after 
August 25, 2008, would be considered if practical to do so, but the NRC 
is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before 
this date. Although a time limit is given, comments and suggestions in 
connection with items for inclusion in guides currently being developed 
or improvements in all published guides are encouraged at any time.

III. Request to Extend the Comment Period

Basis for the Request

    The NRC received the following extension request:
    ``This draft regulatory guide revision delineates the NRC's 
expectations for technical adequacy of PRA [probabilistic risk 
assessment] information used in support of risk applications and 
represents a significant expansion over the current Revision by 
including detailed technical information on fire and external events 
PRAs. NEI [Nuclear Energy Institute] is coordinating industry comments 
with the NSSS [nuclear steam supply system] owners group, vendors and 
licensees to ensure that the comments submitted by industry are of high 
quality and that

[[Page 47984]]

they reflect a consensus industry perspective. However, the comment 
period provided in the June 20 Federal Register Notice is insufficient 
given the volume of material and need for a thorough technical review. 
Extending the comment period would provide the time necessary to fully 
assess the impact of these proposed changes and arrive at a set of 
comments that are of value to the NRC staff.''

Response to Request

    The request for an extension to the comment period is denied.
    The information contained in DG-1200 regarding internal fire and 
external events has been available to the public prior to the issuance 
of DG-1200 in June of 2008 for public comment. Therefore, DG-1200 does 
not ``represent a significant expansion over the current Revision 
[Revision 1] by including detailed technical information on fire and 
external events PRAs.''
    DG-1200 provides high level discussions on what constitutes a 
technically acceptable Level 1 and Level 2 PRA for internal and 
external events, which has been in the previous revisions of the guide. 
Specifically, the information for external events in DG-1200 has not 
changed since the previous revision. The information for internal fires 
in DG-1200 was revised from the previous revision; however, the 
information is high level and was revised to be consistent with the 
standard (i.e., there was not anything added to the DG-1200 that was 
new or differing from the standard).
    With regard to the internal fire standard (Part 3 of the ASME/ANS 
RA-S-2008 standard), as documented in DG-1200, the staff has no 
objections to the majority of the standard's requirements. The staff 
has continually noted its position during development of the standard 
and in a formal letter to ASME in November 2007 (ADAMS (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html), under Accession No. 073030364), and 
in an April 2008 interoffice letter from M. Cunningham to C. Lui (ADAMS 
under Accession No. 080880202) which are publicly available.
    The staff issued DG-1138 in September 2004 which provided the staff 
position on Revision 0 of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) external 
events standard. Revision 1 of the ANS standard (which is Part 4 of the 
ASME/ANS RA-S-2008 PRA standard) addressed the majority of the staff 
objections. The staff position in DG-1200, for the objections not 
addressed in Part 4 of the ASME/ANS RA-S-2008 standard, is unchanged 
from DG-1138.
    Requests for technical information about DG-1200 may be directed to 
the NRC contact, Mary Drouin at (301) 415-6675 or e-mail to 
[email protected].
    Electronic copies of DG-1200 are available through the NRC's public 
Web site under Draft Regulatory Guides in the ``Regulatory Guides'' 
collection of the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/. Electronic copies are also available in 
ADAMS (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html), under Accession No. 
ML081200566.
    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].
    Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and Commission approval is 
not required to reproduce them.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 11th day of August 2008.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Stephen C. O'Connor,
Acting Chief, Regulatory Guide Development Branch, Division of 
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. E8-18920 Filed 8-14-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P