[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 106 (Monday, June 3, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33120-33121]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-13088]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION


[NRC-2012-0070]


Final Interim Staff Guidance LR-ISG-2011-04; Updated Aging 
Management Criteria for Reactor Vessel Internal Components for 
Pressurized Water Reactors

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-2011-04, 
``Updated Aging Management Criteria for Reactor Vessel Internal 
Components for Pressurized Water Reactors.'' This final LR-ISG revises 
the guidance in NUREG-1800, Revision 2, ``Standard Review Plan for 
Review of License Renewal Applications for Nuclear Power Plants'' (SRP-
LR) and NUREG-1801, Revision 2, ``Generic Aging Lessons Learned 
Report'' (GALL Report), for the aging management of Pressurized Water 
Reactors (PWR) reactor vessel internals components exposed to reactor 
coolant environments.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2012-0070 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 is publicly available, using any of the following 
methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2012-0070. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-492-
3668; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact 
the individual(s) listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section 
of this document.
     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 LR-ISG-2011-04 is 
available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML12270A436.
     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 License Renewal Interim Staff Guidance Web site: LR-
ISG documents are available online, for a limited time, at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/isg/license-renewal.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. On Yee, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001; telephone: 301-415-1905; 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 developed LR-ISG-2011-04 to update its guidance in 
SRP-LR and GALL Report based on the conclusions of the NRC's revised 
safety evaluation on Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Technical 
Report No. 1022863, Materials Reliability Program: Pressurized Water 
Reactor Internals Inspection and Evaluation Guidelines (MRP-227-A), 
dated December 2011 (ADAMS Accession No. ML12017A193 [Transmittal 
letter from the EPRI-MRP] and ADAMS Accession Nos. ML12017A194, 
ML12017A196, ML12017A197, ML12017A191, ML12017A192, ML12017A195 and 
ML12017A199 [Final Report]). The NRC's revised safety evaluation of 
EPRI Technical Report No. 1022863 may be accessed in ADAMS under 
Accession No. ML11308A770. The LR-ISG-2011-04 revises the 
recommendations in the GALL Report and the NRC staff's acceptance 
criteria and review procedures in the SRP-LR to ensure consistency with 
MRP-227-A and provides a framework to ensure that PWR license renewal 
applicants will adequately address age-related degradation and aging 
management of reactor vessel internal components during the term of the 
renewed license.
    On March 20, 2012, (77 FR 16270), the NRC requested public comments 
on draft LR-ISG-2011-04. Subsequently, as published on April 19, 2012, 
(77 FR 23513), the NRC issued an editorial correction to the original 
notice to specifically identify the ADAMS Accession No. for additional 
documents associated with draft LR-ISG-2011-04.
    The NRC received comments from the Nuclear Energy Institute by 
letter dated May 21, 2012 (ADAMS Accession No. ML12144A147), and from 
the Electric Power Research Institute and the Pressurized Water Reactor 
Owners Group Materials Subcommittee by letter dated May, 21, 2012 
(ADAMS Accession No. ML12146A267). No other comments were submitted. 
The NRC considered these comments in developing the final LR-ISG. 
Detailed responses to the comments can be found in Appendix C of the 
final LR-ISG.
    The final LR-ISG-2011-04 is approved for NRC staff and stakeholder

[[Page 33121]]

use and will be incorporated into NRC's next 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. The 
basis for this determination is set forth in the ``Backfitting and 
Issue Finality'' section of the final LR-ISG.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this Tuesday, May 28, 2013.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
John Lubinski,
Director, Division of License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2013-13088 Filed 5-31-13; 8:45 am]
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