[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 149 (Thursday, August 2, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46127-46128]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-18862]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2012-0055]
Interim Staff Guidance on Changes to the Generic Aging Lessons
Learned (GALL) Report Revision 2 AMP XI.M41, ``Buried and Underground
Piping and Tanks''
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Interim staff guidance; issuance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing the
final License Renewal Interim Staff Guidance (LR-ISG), LR-ISG-2011-03,
``Changes to GALL Report Revision 2 Aging Management Program (AMP)
XI.M41, `Buried and Underground Piping and Tanks'.'' This LR-ISG
provides changes to the recommendations in GALL Report Revision 2 AMP
XI.M41 based on the staff's review of several license renewal
applications' buried and underground piping and tanks AMPs and
stakeholder input. The LR-ISG revises NRC staff recommended AMPs 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). 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: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2012-0055 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, using any of the following
methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2012-0055. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-492-
3668; email: [email protected].
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 ADAMS accession number
for each document referenced in this document (if that document is
available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that a document is
referenced. The LR-ISG-2011-03 is available under ADAMS Accession No.
ML12138A296.
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: 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: Mr. William Holston, Division of
License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-
8573, or email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background Information
The NRC issues LR-ISG to communicate insights and lessons learned
and to address emergent issues not covered in license renewal guidance
documents. In this way, the NRC staff and stakeholders may use the
guidance in an LR-ISG document until 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 developed LR-ISG-2011-03 to (a) Include inspection
recommendations for plants that will not utilize a cathodic protection
system in the period of extended operation, (b) remove the
recommendation to volumetrically inspect underground piping to detect
internal corrosion since other AMPs such as XI.M 38 manage the aging of
internal surfaces of buried and underground piping and tanks, (c) base
further increased inspection sample sizes on an analysis of extent of
cause and extent of condition when adverse conditions are detected in
the initial and subsequent doubled sample size rather than continuing
to double the sample size, (d) add a recommendation that where damage
to the coating is significant and the damage was caused
[[Page 46128]]
by non-conforming backfill, an extent of condition evaluation should be
conducted to ensure that the as-left condition of backfill in the
vicinity of observed damage will not lead to further degradation, (e)
add specific acceptance criteria for cathodic protection surveys, (f)
add the specific preventive and mitigative actions utilized by the AMP
in the Final Safety Analysis Report Supplement description of the
program as contained in the SRP-LR, (g) make miscellaneous and
editorial changes, and (h) correct an internal conflict between AMP
XI.M41 and AMP XI.M36, ``External Surfaces Monitoring of Mechanical
Components.''
On March 9, 2012, (77 FR 14446) the NRC requested public comments
on draft LR-ISG-2011-03 (ADAMS Accession No. ML11244A058). By letter
dated March 27, 2012, (ADAMS Accession No. ML12089A021), the Nuclear
Energy Institute (NEI) requested a 14-day extension to the comment
period. The NRC staff granted the NEI's requested as noticed on April
11, 2012 (77 FR 21813) and given that the comment period had closed on
April 9, 2012, the comment period was reopened until April 20, 2012.
The NRC received external comments from Mr. Jon Cavello on April 1,
2012 (ADAMS Accession No. ML12094A367), Mears Group on April 9, 2012
(ADAMS Accession No. ML12103A207), Det Norske Veritas (USA) Inc. on
April 13, 2012 (ADAMS Accession No. ML12108A049), and NEI on April 20,
2012 (ADAMS Accession No. ML12114A214). No other external comments were
submitted. The NRC considered these comments in developing the final
LR-ISG. Detailed responses to the comments can be found in Appendix G
of the final LR-ISG.
The final LR-ISG-2011-03 is approved for NRC staff and stakeholder
use and will be incorporated into 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-
2011-03, 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 26th day of July, 2012.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Melanie A. Galloway,
Deputy Director, Division of License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2012-18862 Filed 8-1-12; 8:45 am]
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