[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 55 (Wednesday, March 21, 2012)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 16483-16484]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-6843]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
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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.
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Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 55 / Wednesday, March 21, 2012 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 16483]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 50
[Docket Nos. PRM-50-101; NRC-2011-0189]
Petition for Rulemaking Submitted by the Natural Resources
Defense Council, Inc.
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; consideration in the rulemaking
process.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission)
will consider the issues raised in the petition for rulemaking (PRM),
PRM-50-101, submitted by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
(NRDC or the petitioner), in the rulemaking process. The petitioner
requests that the NRC amend its regulations to require each operating
and new reactor licensee to establish station blackout (SBO) mitigation
strategies and resources. The NRC determined that the issues raised in
the PRM are appropriate for consideration and will consider them in the
planned ``Station Blackout'' rulemaking.
DATES: The docket for the petition for rulemaking, PRM-50-101, is
closed on March 21, 2012.
ADDRESSES: Further NRC action on the issues raised by this petition
will be accessible on the Federal rulemaking Web site, http://www.regulations.gov, by searching on Docket ID NRC-2011-0299, which is
the rulemaking docket for the planned SBO rulemaking.
You can access publicly available documents related to the petition
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 [email protected].
Federal Rulemaking Web Site: Supporting materials related
to this petition can be found at http://www.regulations.gov by
searching on the Docket IDs for PRM-50-101 and the planned SBO
rulemaking, NRC-2011-0189 and NRC-2011-0299, respectively. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher, telephone: 301-492-
3668; email: [email protected].
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tim Reed, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555;
telephone: 301-415-1462; email: [email protected]; or Scott Sloan,
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555; telephone: 301-415-1619; email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
The Petition
On September 20, 2011, the NRC published a notice of receipt (76 FR
58165) of six PRMs filed by the NRDC, including PRM-50-101. The
petitioner solely and specifically cited the ``Recommendations for
Enhancing Reactor Safety in the 21st Century: The Near-Term Task Force
Review of Insights from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Accident'' (Fukushima
Task Force Report, ADAMS Accession No. ML111861807), dated July 12,
2011, as the rationale for the PRMs. For PRM-50-101, the petitioner
cites Section 4.2.1, pages 32-39, of the Fukushima Task Force Report,
regarding the enhancement of the ability of nuclear power plants to
deal with the effect of prolonged SBO conditions at single and
multiunit sites without damage to the nuclear fuel in the reactor or
spent fuel pool and without the loss of reactor coolant system or
primary containment integrity. At the time of receipt of the PRMs, the
Commission was still in the process of reviewing the Fukushima Task
Force Report, and the NRC did not institute a public comment period for
the PRMs.
In PRM-50-101, the petitioner requests the NRC to institute a
rulemaking proceeding applicable to nuclear facilities licensed under
Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) parts 50, 52, and
other applicable regulations to revise 10 CFR 50.63 to require each
operating and new reactor licensee to (1) establish a minimum coping
time of 8 hours for a loss of all alternating current (AC) power, (2)
establish the equipment, procedures, and training necessary to
implement an ``extended loss of all AC'' coping time of 72 hours for
core and spent fuel cooling and for reactor coolant system and primary
containment integrity as needed, and (3) preplan and prestage offsite
resources to support uninterrupted core and spent fuel pool cooling and
reactor cooling and reactor coolant system and containment integrity as
needed, including the ability to deliver the equipment to the site in
the time period allowed for extending coping, under conditions
involving significant degradation of offsite transportation
infrastructure associated with significant natural disasters.
Reasons for Consideration
The Commission has established a process for addressing a number of
the recommendations in the Fukushima Task Force Report, and the NRC
determined that the issues raised in PRM-50-101 are appropriate for
consideration and will consider them in the planned SBO rulemaking
based on Section 4.2.1 of the Fukushima Task Force Report
(Recommendation 4.1). The public will have the opportunity to provide
comments on the issues raised by the petitioner in PRM-50-101 as part
of the SBO rulemaking. The NRC will consider the issues raised by the
remaining NRDC PRMs through the process the Commission establishes for
addressing the remaining recommendations in the Fukushima Task Force
Report. This PRM docket is closed.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 12th day of March 2012.
[[Page 16484]]
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
R.W. Borchardt,
Executive Director for Operations.
[FR Doc. 2012-6843 Filed 3-20-12; 8:45 am]
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