[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 92 (Friday, May 11, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27815-27816]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-11424]
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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: Interim staff guidance; issuance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing
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. The NRC published Revision
2 of the SRP-LR and GALL Report in December 2010, and they are
available in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management
System (ADAMS) under Accession Nos. ML103490041 and ML103490036,
respectively.
ADDRESSES: 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.
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 LR-ISG-2011-01 is available under ADAMS
Accession No. ML12034A047.
[[Page 27816]]
Federal Rulemaking Web Site: Public comments and
supporting materials related to this final rule can be found at http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID NRC-2011-0256. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher, telephone: 301-492-
3668; email: [email protected].
NRC's Interim Staff Guidance Web Site: LR-ISG documents
are also available online under the ``License Renewal'' heading at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/#int.
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, or
email: [email protected], or Ms. Evelyn Gettys, Division of License
Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-001; telephone: 301-415-4029, or
email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background Information
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-ISGs 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 revised the guidance in 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, the NRC staff issued a Federal Register notice
(76 FR 69292) to request public comments on draft LR-ISG-2011-01 (ADAMS
Accession No. ML112360626). In response, the NRC received comments from
the Nuclear Energy Institute by letter dated December 13, 2011 (ADAMS
Accession No. ML11350A112) and Exelon Generation Company, LLC by letter
dated December 14, 2011 (ADAMS Accession No. ML11353A424). The Nuclear
Energy Institute and Exelon provided similar comments suggesting the
expansion of the new guidance to additional components for aging
management of loss of material and cracking, but also suggesting the
withdrawal or revision of the new guidance for management of reduction
of heat transfer in heat exchangers.
The staff incorporated the comments regarding the expansion of the
new guidance to additional components for management of loss of
material and cracking, because the staff considered these changes as
providing important clarity to license renewal applicants. However, the
staff did not incorporate the comments regarding the withdrawal or
revision of the new guidance for heat exchangers. The comments
regarding the heat exchanger guidance were that the proposed one-time
inspection was either not necessary due to lack of operating experience
with fouling of heat exchangers in the chemical and volume control
system, or not an appropriate aging management method due to the
potential for inspection personnel to be exposed to significant
radiation. The staff considers the one-time inspection approach as
appropriate for components with limited operating experience of age-
related degradation. If age-related degradation were known, the GALL
Report One-Time Inspection program recommends a periodic inspection
approach. Also, the one-time inspection guidance does not preclude a
license renewal applicant from proposing and justifying other aging
management approaches that minimize dosage. For these reasons, the
staff chose not to eliminate the new guidance for heat exchangers.
The final LR-ISG-2011-01 is approved for NRC staff and stakeholder
use and will be incorporated into the NRC's next formal license renewal
guidance document revision.
Backfitting and Issue Finality
Issuance of this final LR-ISG does not constitute backfitting as
defined in 10 CFR 50.109 (the Backfit Rule) and is not otherwise
inconsistent with the issue finality provisions in Part 52, ``Licenses,
Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants,'' of 10 CFR. As
discussed in the ``Backfitting Discussion'' section of final LR-ISG-
2011-01, the LR-ISG is directed to holders of operating licenses or
combined licenses who are currently in the license renewal process. The
LR-ISG is not directed to holders of operating licenses or combined
licenses until they apply for license renewal. The LR-ISG is also not
directed to licensees who already hold renewed operating or combined
licenses.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 3rd day of May, 2012.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Melanie A. Galloway,
Acting Director, Division of License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2012-11424 Filed 5-10-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P