[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 227 (Friday, November 27, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Page 62355]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-28376]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2009-0515]


Office of New Reactors; Proposed Standard Review Plan Appendix 
18-A on Guidance for Crediting Manual Operator Actions in Diversity and 
Defense-in-Depth (D3) Analyses

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

ACTION: Solicitation of public comment.

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SUMMARY: The NRC staff is soliciting public comment on NUREG-0800, 
``Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for 
Nuclear Power Plants,'' (SRP) Appendix 18-A on Guidance for Crediting 
Manual Operator Actions in Diversity and Defense-in-Depth (D3) Analyses 
(Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession 
No. ML092950353). This Appendix defines a methodology for evaluating 
manual operator action as a diverse means of coping with Anticipated 
Operational Occurrences and Postulated Accidents that are concurrent 
with a software Common Cause Failure of the Digital Instrumentation and 
Control (I&C) Protection System. This Appendix supersedes, and 
incorporates with limited modifications, the guidance in Section 3 of 
Digital I&C Interim Staff Guidance (ISG), Digital I&C-ISG-05, Revision 
1, Highly Integrated Control Rooms--Human Factors Issues.
    The NRC staff issues SRPs to facilitate timely implementation of 
current staff guidance and to facilitate activities associated with the 
review of applications for design certification (DC) and combined 
licenses (COLs) by the Office of New Reactors (NRO). The NRC staff will 
also incorporate the revised SRP section and Appendix 18-A into the 
next revisions of Regulatory Guide 1.206 and any related guidance 
documents.

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: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods. 
Please include Docket ID: NRC-2009-0515 in the subject line of your 
comments. Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be 
posted on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site at 
http://www.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 Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and 
search for documents filed under Docket ID: NRC-2009-0515. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher at 301-492-3668; e-mail 
at [email protected].
    Mail comments to: Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rulemaking and 
Directives Branch (RDB), Division of Administrative Services, Office of 
Administration, Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax to RDB at 301-492-
3446.
    The NRC ADAMS 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 by telephone at 1-800-397-
4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Michael A. Junge, Chief, Operator 
Licensing and Human Performance Branch, Division of Construction 
Inspection and Operational Programs, Office of New Reactors, U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC, 20555-0001; telephone at 
301-415-7745 or e-mail at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This SRP, NUREG-0800, has been prepared to 
establish criteria that the NRO staff use to evaluate if DC and COL 
applications meet 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.
    The agency posts its issued staff guidance in the agency external 
Web page (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr0800).
    The NRC staff is issuing this notice to solicit public comments on 
proposed Appendix 18-A, which is being issued for the first time. After 
the NRC staff considers any public comments, it will make a 
determination regarding proposed Appendix 18-A.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 20th day of November 2009.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
William F. Burton,
Chief, Rulemaking and Guidance Development Branch, Division of New 
Reactor Licensing, Office of New Reactors.
[FR Doc. E9-28376 Filed 11-25-09; 8:45 am]
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