[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 7 (Wednesday, January 11, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1749-1750]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-342]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2011-0288]


Preliminary Amendment Request Review Process

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft interim staff guidance; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) 
is issuing for use of, and to solicit public comment on, draft Interim 
Staff Guidance (ISG) COL-ISG-025 ``Interim Staff Guidance on Changes 
During Construction Under 10 CFR Part 52.'' This ISG provides guidance 
to the NRC staff on the Preliminary Amendment Request (PAR) review 
process available to the initial combined license (COL) holders for use 
as an elective precursor to the license amendment process.

DATES: Submit comments by March 26, 2012. 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: Please include Docket ID NRC-2011-0288 in the subject line 
of 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 any 
one of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web Site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-
2011-0288. 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: Ms. Amy E. Cubbage, Chief, Policy 
Branch, Division of Advance Reactors and Rulemaking, Office of New 
Reactors, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001; telephone: (301) 415-6332, 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, 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

[[Page 1750]]

[email protected]. The COL-ISG-025 ``Interim Staff Guidance on 
Changes During Construction Under 10 CFR Part 52'' is available 
electronically under ADAMS Accession Number ML111530026.
     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-2011-0288.

Background

    The NRC staff is issuing this notice for use of, and to solicit 
public comments on, draft COL-ISG-025. This ISG provides guidance to 
the staff on the PAR review process available to the initial Title 10 
of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) part 52 COL holders for use 
as an elective precursor to the license amendment process. The PAR 
process will facilitate the installation and testing of plant changes 
during construction. The NRC staff intends to use and evaluate the PAR 
change process during the construction of the initial nuclear power 
plants licensed under 10 CFR part 52 and finalize this ISG for 
inclusion in the next major revision of Regulatory Guide 1.187, 
``Guidance for Implementation of 10 CFR 50.59, Changes, Tests, and 
Experiments,'' November 2000 (ADAMS Accession No. ML003759710).
    Licensees may voluntarily follow the PAR process described in this 
draft ISG. Because the PAR process in this ISG is only in draft form, 
it does not represent a staff position under 10 CFR 50.109 or raise any 
issue finality concerns under 10 CFR part 52. For this reason, if the 
NRC staff makes any changes to this draft ISG when it finalizes the 
ISG, these changes would not constitute ``new'' or ``different'' staff 
positions within the meaning of the definition of ``backfitting'' in 10 
CFR 50.109(a)(1) nor an action inconsistent with any of the issue 
finality provisions in 10 CFR part 52.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 13th day of December 2011.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Amy E. Cubbage,
Chief, Policy Branch, Division of Advanced Reactors and Rulemaking, 
Office of New Reactors.
[FR Doc. 2012-342 Filed 1-10-12; 8:45 am]
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