[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 12 (Thursday, January 17, 2013)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 3853-3854]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-00478]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Parts 71 and 72
[NRC-2013-0004]
Retrievability, Cladding Integrity and Safe Handling of Spent
Fuel at an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation and During
Transportation
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Request for comments for potential rulemaking.
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SUMMARY: The regulations for packaging and transport of spent nuclear
fuel are separate from requirements for storage of spent nuclear fuel.
Because these regulatory schemes are separate, there is no requirement
that loaded storage casks also meet transportation requirements.
Integration of storage and transport regulations could enable a more
predictable transition from storage to transport by potentially
minimizing future handling of spent fuel and uncertainty as to whether
loaded storage casks may be transported from the storage location. As
part of its evaluation of integration and compatibility between storage
and transportation regulations, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) staff is reviewing its policies, regulations, guidance, and
technical needs in several key areas, such as: retrievability, cladding
integrity, and safe handling of spent fuel; criticality safety features
and requirements for spent fuel transportation; and aging management
and qualification of dual-purpose canisters and components after long-
term storage. The NRC staff is reviewing the potential policy issues
and requirements related to retrievability, cladding integrity, and
safe handling of spent fuel as the lead issue for evaluating
compatibility of storage and transportation regulations. As part of its
evaluation of integration and compatibility between NRC's storage
regulations and transportation regulations, the NRC is issuing this
request for comment (available in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access
and Management System (ADAMS) under Accession No. ML12293A434) as the
staff begins its review of NRC policies, guidance, and technical needs
related to retrievability, cladding integrity, and safe handling of
spent fuel.
DATES: Submit comments by March 18, 2013. Comments received after the
comment period deadline will be considered if it is practical to do so,
but the NRC is only able to ensure consideration of comments received
on or before the end of the public comment period.
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
[[Page 3854]]
under Docket ID NRC-2013-0004. You may submit comments by any of the
following methods (unless this document describes a different method
for submitting comments on a specific subject):
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2013-0004. 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: Bernard White, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-492-3303, or email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Accessing Information and Submitting Comments
A. Accessing Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2013-0004 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-2013-0004.
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 request for comment document is available
in ADAMS under Accession No. ML12293A434.
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.
B. Submitting Comments
Please include Docket ID NRC-2013-0004 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
After more than 20 years of regulatory experience with dry cask
storage and in the anticipation of longer storage durations and with
more nuclear power plants storing high burnup fuel (fuel with peak rod
average burnup greater than 45,000 MWd/MTU is considered high burnup
fuel), the NRC is reviewing its policies and regulatory framework for
dry cask storage and spent fuel transportation in several key areas. As
discussed in COMSECY-10-0007, ``Project Plan for the Regulatory Program
Review to Support Extended Storage and Transportation of Spent Nuclear
Fuel'' (ADAMS Accession No. ML101390216), the NRC is currently
evaluating its spent fuel storage and transportation regulatory
structure. The goal of this review is to identify areas for enhancing
the regulatory framework (e.g. regulations, guidance, procedures and
processes) to incorporate past regulatory knowledge and experience, and
to ensure long-term stability and effectiveness of NRC's future dry
cask storage and transportation program. NRC expects to consider a
number of issues for which NRC will request public input early in the
decisionmaking process. Current regulatory areas that NRC has
identified for evaluation and potential enhancement include: (1)
Compatibility and integration of storage and transportation
requirements; (2) streamlining the process for spent fuel storage cask
design certification; (3) administration of storage certificates of
compliance and amendments to certificates of compliance; (4)
applicability, compatibility, and consistency of the storage regulatory
framework; and (5) regulating stand-alone ISFSIs. The NRC staff held
two public meetings on July 27, 2011 and August 16, 2012, (see http://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/public-involvement.html for more
information on these two meetings) to solicit initial stakeholder
feedback on these topics. This is the first of a series of requests for
stakeholder input related to these topics that NRC expects to issue
during its review of its storage and transportation regulatory
framework.
III. NRC Consideration of Public Comments
The NRC does not intend to provide detailed comment responses to
information provided by stakeholders in response to this request. The
NRC staff will consider timely comments on this request in its
evaluation of policy issues on retrievability, cladding integrity and
safe handling of spent fuel. In its efforts to enhance the efficiency
and effectiveness of the regulatory framework for spent fuel storage
and transportation, NRC may ultimately revise regulations or guidance.
Stakeholders will have the opportunity to participate in any future
rulemaking or guidance developments.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 31st day of December, 2012.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Mark Lombard,
Director, Division of Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation, Office of
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2013-00478 Filed 1-16-13; 8:45 am]
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