[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 184 (Thursday, September 24, 2009)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 48667-48668]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-23043]
========================================================================
Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
========================================================================
Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 184 / Thursday, September 24, 2009 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 48667]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Parts 50 and 52
RIN 3150-AH29
[NRC-2004-0006]
Risk-Informed Changes to Loss-of-Coolant Accident Technical
Requirements
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Supplemental proposed rule: Extension of comment period.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: On August 10, 2009, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
published for public comment a supplemental proposed rule that would
amend the requirements that govern domestic licensing of production and
utilization facilities and licenses, certifications, and approvals for
nuclear power plants to allow current and certain future power reactor
licensees and applicants to choose to implement a risk-informed
alternative to the current requirements for analyzing the performance
of emergency core cooling systems (ECCS) during loss-of-coolant
accidents (LOCA). The proposed amendments would also establish
procedures and acceptance criteria for evaluating certain changes in
plant design and operation based upon the results of the new analyses
of ECCS performance.
The public comment period for this supplemental proposed rule is
scheduled to close on September 24, 2009. The NRC has received a
request to extend the comment period by 120 days. The NRC is granting
this request and is also extending the comment period for the
information collection aspects of this supplemental proposed rule by 60
days.
DATES: The comment period for the supplemental proposed rule, published
August 10, 2009, (74 FR 40006), is extended by 120 days and now expires
on January 22, 2010. The comment period for the information collection
aspects of this proposed rulemaking is extended by 60 days and now
expires on November 9, 2009. Comments received after these dates will
be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission is able
to ensure consideration only for comments received before these dates.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods.
Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted on
the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site
Regulations.gov. Because your comments will not be edited to remove any
identifying or contact information, the NRC cautions you against
including any information in your submission that you do not want to be
publicly disclosed. The NRC requests that any party soliciting or
aggregating comments received from other persons for submission to the
NRC inform those persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to
remove any identifying or contact information, and therefore, they
should not include any information in their comments that they do not
want publicly disclosed.
Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and
search for documents filed under Docket ID [NRC-2004-0006]. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher, telephone (301) 492-
3668; e-mail [email protected].
Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff.
E-mail comments to: [email protected]. If you do not
receive a reply e-mail confirming that we have received your comments,
contact us directly at (301) 415-1677.
Fax comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at
(301) 492-3446.
You can access publicly available documents related to this
document using the following methods:
NRC's Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine and have
copied for a fee publicly available documents at the NRC's PDR, Public
File Area O-1F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS):
Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC are
available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this page, the public can gain
entry into ADAMS, which provides text and image files of NRC's public
documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems
in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC's PDR
reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, or (301) 415-4737, or by e-mail to
[email protected].
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Public comments and supporting
materials related to this proposed rule can be found at http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID: NRC-2004-0006.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Richard Dudley, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001, telephone (301) 415-1116, e-mail [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In a letter dated August 18, 2009 (ADAMS
Accession No. ML092320126), the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI)
requested that the NRC extend the public comment period for the risk-
informed ECCS rule by an additional 120 days. In its letter, NEI
stated:
[I]mplementation of the rule as currently drafted would require
technical analyses in a wide variety of areas. It is therefore
necessary to solicit input from numerous sources in developing comments
on the draft supplemental proposed rule, and NEI is coordinating
industry comments with the NSSS owners groups, vendors, and licensees
to ensure that the comments submitted by industry are of high quality
and that they reflect a consensus industry perspective. However, the
comment period provided in the August 10th Federal Register Notice is
insufficient given the volume and breadth of material that requires a
thorough technical review. Extending the comment period would provide
the time necessary to fully assess the impact of the draft supplemental
proposed rule and arrive at a set of comments that are of highest value
to the NRC staff in considering this important rulemaking.
In view of the NRC's desire to receive high quality comments from
external stakeholders who would be directly affected by the
supplemental proposed rule and recognizing the quantity of information
to be analyzed and the
[[Page 48668]]
coordination efforts needed by and among those stakeholders, the
comment period for the proposed rulemaking will be extended for all
stakeholders for an additional 120 days. The comment period for the
information collection aspects of this proposed rulemaking will be
extended by 60 days. The NRC believes that these extensions will allow
sufficient time for all stakeholders to develop and provide meaningful
comments on the proposed rule.
The comment submittal deadline for the proposed rule is extended
from the original September 24, 2009, deadline to January 22, 2010, and
the information collection analysis comment deadline is extended from
the original September 9, 2009, deadline to November 9, 2009.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 18th day of September 2009.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Bruce S. Mallett,
Acting Executive Director for Operations.
[FR Doc. E9-23043 Filed 9-23-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P