[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 135 (Friday, July 13, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41457-41458]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-17117]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2012-0170]


Aging Management Associated With Wall Thinning Due to Erosion 
Mechanisms

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft interim staff guidance; request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) 
requests public comment on Draft License Renewal Interim Staff Guidance 
(LR-ISG), LR-ISG-2012-01, ``Wall Thinning Due to Erosion Mechanisms.'' 
The draft LR-ISG proposes to revise an NRC staff-recommended aging 
management program (AMP) in NUREG-1801, Revision 2, ``Generic Aging 
Lessons Learned (GALL) Report,'' and the NRC staff's aging management 
review procedure and acceptance criteria contained in NUREG-1800, 
Revision 2, ``Standard Review Plan for Review of License Renewal 
Applications for Nuclear Power Plants'' (SRP-LR) to address wall 
thinning due to various erosion mechanisms for piping and components 
within the scope of the Requirements for Renewal of Operating Licenses 
for Nuclear Power Plants. This LR-ISG provides changes to the 
recommendations in GALL Report, Revision 2, AMP XI.M17, ``Flow-
Accelerated Corrosion,'' based on the staff's review of several license 
renewal applications' flow-accelerated corrosion AMPs and stakeholder 
input.

DATES: Submit comments by August 27, 2012. 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: You may access information and comment submissions related 
to this document, which the NRC possesses and are publicly available, 
by searching on http://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2012-
0170. You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2012-0170. 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 additional direction on accessing information and submitting 
comments, see ``Accessing Information and Submitting Comments'' in the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. James Gavula, Division of License 
Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 630-829-9755; email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Accessing Information and Submitting Comments

A. Accessing Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2012-0170 when contacting the NRC 
about the availability of information regarding this document. You may 
access information related to this document, which the NRC possesses 
and are publicly available, by any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web Site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2012-0170.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may access publicly available documents online in the NRC 
Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the 
search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and then select ``Begin Web-
based ADAMS Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's 
Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-
4737, or by email to [email protected]. The draft

[[Page 41458]]

LR-ISG-2012-01 is available electronically under ADAMS Accession No. 
ML12114A211. The GALL Report and SRP-LR are available under ADAMS 
Accession Nos. ML103490041 and ML103490036, respectively.
     NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public 
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
     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.

B. Submitting Comments

    Please include Docket ID NRC-2012-0170 in the subject line of your 
comment submission, in order to ensure that the NRC is able to make 
your comment submission available to the public in this docket.
    The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact 
information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your 
comment submission. The NRC will post all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as enter the comment submissions into 
ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove 
identifying or contact information.
    If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons 
for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to 
include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be 
publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should 
state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to 
remove such information before making the comment submissions available 
to the public or entering the comment submissions into ADAMS.

II. 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-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 developed draft LR-ISG-2012-01 to: (a) Revise the 
definition of ``wall thinning'' to include erosion mechanisms; (b) 
revise the definition of ``flow-accelerated corrosion'' and ``erosion'' 
to align them with the definitions commonly used in industry; (c) allow 
applicants that have identified wall thinning due to erosion mechanisms 
to monitor wall thinning caused by erosion mechanisms to be included in 
the aging management program for flow-accelerated corrosion by (i) 
ensuring extent of condition reviews determine if other components are 
susceptible to similar degradation, and (ii) verifying that corrective 
actions have either eliminated the erosion mechanism precluding the 
need for ongoing aging management activities or included periodic wall 
thickness measurements in an aging management program; and (d) make 
miscellaneous and editorial changes.

III. Proposed Action

    By this action, the NRC is requesting public comments on draft LR-
ISG-2012-01. This LR-ISG proposes certain revisions to NRC guidance on 
implementation of the requirements in 10 CFR Part 54. 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 5th day of July 2012.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Melanie A. Galloway,
Acting Director, Division of License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2012-17117 Filed 7-12-12; 8:45 am]
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