[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 231 (Thursday, December 1, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74831-74832]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-30903]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2011-0256]


Aging Management of Stainless Steel Structures and Components in 
Treated Borated Water

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft interim staff guidance; extension of comment period.

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SUMMARY: On November 8, 2011 (76 FR 69292) the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) published in the Federal Register a request for public 
comment on Draft License Renewal Interim Staff Guidance (LR-ISG), LR-
ISG-2011-01, ``Aging Management of Stainless Steel Structures and 
Components in Treated Borated Water.'' This LR-ISG revises the guidance 
in the Standard Review Plan for Review of License Renewal Applications 
for Nuclear Power Plants (SRP-LR) and Generic Aging Lessons Learned 
(GALL) Report for the aging management of stainless steel structures 
and components exposed to treated borated water. In response to a 
request from the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the NRC is extending 
the public comment period until December 17, 2011.

DATES: The comment period has been extended and expires on December 17, 
2011. Comments received after this date will be considered, if it is 
practical to do so, but the NRC staff is able to ensure consideration 
only for comments received on or before this date.

ADDRESSES: Please include Docket ID NRC-2011-0256 in the subject line 
of

[[Page 74832]]

your comments. For additional instructions on submitting comments and 
instructions on accessing documents related to this action, see 
``Submitting Comments and Accessing Information'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION section of this document. You may submit comments by one of 
the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-
2011-0256. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher, 
telephone: (301) 492-3668; email: [email protected].
     Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, 
Announcements, and Directives Branch (RADB), Office of Administration, 
Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, 
DC 20555-0001.
     Fax comments to: RADB at (301) 492-3446.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. John Wise, Division of License 
Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: (301) 415-8489; 
email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Submitting Comments and Accessing Information

    Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted 
on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site, 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.
    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, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, 
Rockville, Maryland 20852.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC 
are available online in the NRC Library 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 the 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, (301) 415-4737, or by email to 
[email protected]. The draft LR-ISG-2011-01 is available 
electronically under ADAMS Accession Number ML112360626. The GALL 
Report and SRP-LR are available under ADAMS Accession Nos. ML103490041 
and ML103490036, respectively.
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Public comments and 
supporting materials related to this notice can be found at http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID NRC-2011-0256.
     NRC's Interim Staff Guidance Web site: The LR-ISG 
documents are also available online under the ``License Renewal'' 
heading at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/#int.

Background

    The NRC issues LR-ISGs to communicate insights and lessons learned 
and to address emergent issues not covered in license renewal guidance 
documents, such as the GALL Report and SRP-LR. In this way, the NRC 
staff and stakeholders may use the guidance in an LR-ISG document 
before it is incorporated into a formal license renewal guidance 
document revision. The NRC staff issues LR-ISG in accordance with the 
LR-ISG Process, Revision 2 (ADAMS Accession No. ML100920158), for which 
a notice of availability was published in the Federal Register on June 
22, 2010 (75 FR 35510).
    The NRC staff has determined that existing guidance in the SRP-LR 
and GALL Report may not adequately address aging management of 
stainless steel structures and components exposed to treated borated 
water. Specifically, for pressurized water reactors, the guidance 
inappropriately credits boron as a corrosion inhibitor in place of 
other aging management activities. As a result, aging effects such as 
loss of material, cracking, and reduction of heat transfer may not be 
adequately managed. The staff has proposed to revise the SRP-LR and 
GALL Report to align the guidance for treated borated water with that 
for treated (non-borated) water. The revisions include adding the One-
Time Inspection Program to verify the effectiveness of the Water 
Chemistry Program to manage loss of material and cracking of stainless 
steel structures and components exposed to treated borated water and 
adding reduction of heat transfer due to fouling as an aging effect 
requiring management for stainless steel heat exchanger tubes exposed 
to treated borated water.
    On November 8, 2011 (ADAMS Accession No. ML11325A119), the NRC 
requested public comments on draft LR-ISG-2011-01. By letter dated 
November 14, 2011, NEI requested a 15-day extension to the comment 
period. The NRC staff is granting NEI's request for an extension. The 
NRC staff believes that granting this extension will allow stakeholders 
a chance to better prepare their responses to LR-ISG-2011-01.

Proposed Action

    By this action, the NRC is requesting public comments on draft LR-
ISG-2011-01. This LR-ISG proposes certain revisions to NRC guidance in 
the SRP-LR and GALL Report. The NRC staff will make a final 
determination regarding issuance of the LR-ISG after it considers any 
public comments received in response to this request.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 22nd day of November, 2011.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Melanie A. Galloway,
Acting Director, Division of License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2011-30903 Filed 11-30-11; 8:45 am]
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