[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 23 (Thursday, February 5, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6181-6182]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-2456]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2009-0043]
Proposed Standard Review Plan Section 9.5.1.2 on Risk-Informed,
Performance-Based Fire Protection Program
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
ACTION: Solicitation of public comment.
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SUMMARY: The NRC is requesting public comment on NUREG-0800, ``Standard
Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power
Plants,'' Section 9.5.1.2 on staff guidance on Risk-Informed (RI),
Performance-Based (PB) Fire Protection Program (FPP) for Operating
Nuclear Power Plants (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS) Accession No. ML090050052). This guidance is being issued as an
alternate to the existing guidance currently provided under Standard
Review Plan (SRP) section 9.5.1. This is stand alone guidance and is
provided for the benefit of licensees of existing plants who choose to
adopt RI/PB FPP that meets the requirements of National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA) Standard 805.
The NRC staff issues notices to facilitate timely implementation of
the current staff guidance and to facilitate activities associated with
the review of amendment applications for transitioning to RI/PB FPPs.
The NRC staff will also incorporate the approved SRP section 9.5.1.2
into the next revisions of RG 1.205 and any related guidance documents.
This proposed guidance is applicable only to currently operating
nuclear reactor licensees. Because of the introduction of the now
proposed SRP section 9.5.1.2, the current SRP section 9.5.1 will be
renumbered to read 9.5.1.1. This SRP is not endorsing NFPA 805, since
that standard is already a part of the 10 CFR 50.48(c) rule. In
addition, this SRP does not directly endorse the guidance document
issued by the industry (NEI 04-02, ``Guidance for Implementing a Risk-
Informed, Performance-Based Fire Protection Program under 10 CFR
50.48(c),'' Rev. 2) for plants transitioning to an NFPA 805 FPP. RG
1.205 provides the staff's positions with respect to NEI 04-02.
DATES: Comments must be filed no later than 60 days from the date of
publication of this notice in the Federal Register. Comments received
after this date will be considered, if it is practical to do so, but
the Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments
received on or before this date.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted to: Chief, Rulemaking, Directives,
and Editing Branch, Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, Office of Administration,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
The NRC maintains ADAMS, which provides text and image files of
NRC's public documents. These documents may be accessed through the
NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have access to
ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in
ADAMS should contact the NRC Public Document Room reference staff at 1-
800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at [email protected].
[[Page 6182]]
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Alex R. Klein, Chief, Fire
Protection Branch, Division of Risk Assessment, Office of the Nuclear
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001; telephone 301-415-2822 or e-mail at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This SRP, NUREG-0800, has been prepared to
establish criteria that the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation staff
use to evaluate license amendment requests if the application meets the
NRC's regulations. The SRP is not a substitute for the NRC's
regulations, and compliance with it is not required. However,
applicants are required to identify differences in design features,
analytical techniques, and procedural measures proposed for a facility
and corresponding SRP acceptance criteria, and evaluate how the
proposed alternatives to the acceptance criteria provide an acceptable
method of complying with the NRC's regulations.
Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 50.48, ``Fire
protection'' (10 CFR 50.48) provides the NRC requirements for fire
protection for nuclear power plants (NPPs). Under 10 CFR 50.48(c), a
licensee of an existing plant may choose to adopt a RI/PB FPP that
meets the requirements of NFPA 805, ``Performance-Based Standard for
Fire Protection for Light Water Reactor Electric Generating Plants,''
2001 edition, as incorporated therein, as an alternative to meeting the
requirements of 10 CFR 50.48(b) for plants licensed to operate before
January 1, 1979, or the approved FPP for existing plants licensed to
operate after January 1, 1979. The agency posts its issued staff
guidance in the agency external Web page (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr0800/ch9/ sr0800/ch9/).
The NRC staff is issuing this notice to solicit public comments on
the proposed SRP Section 9.5.1.2 and is being issued for the first
time. After the NRC staff considers any public comments, it will make a
determination regarding the proposed SRP Section 9.5.1.2.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 29th day of January 2009.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
William D. Reckley,
Chief, Rulemaking and Guidance Development Branch, Division of New
Reactor Licensing, Office of New Reactors.
[FR Doc. E9-2456 Filed 2-4-09; 8:45 am]
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