[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 141 (Tuesday, July 23, 2013)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 44034-44035]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-17658]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 141 / Tuesday, July 23, 2013 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 44034]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 50
[Docket Nos. PRM-50-100; NRC-2011-0189]
Petition for Rulemaking Submitted by the Natural Resources
Defense Council, Inc.
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; consideration in the rulemaking
process.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will consider the
issues raised in the petition for rulemaking (PRM), PRM-50-100,
submitted by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. (NRDC or the
petitioner), in the rulemaking process. The petitioner requests that
the NRC amend its regulations to require each operating and new reactor
licensee to improve spent nuclear fuel safety. The NRC determined that
the issues raised in the PRM are appropriate for consideration and will
consider them in the ongoing ``Station Blackout Mitigation Strategies''
rulemaking.
DATES: The docket for the petition for rulemaking, PRM-50-100, is
closed on July 23, 2013.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2011-0189 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information for this PRM. You can access
publicly available documents related to the petition, 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 on the petition Docket ID NRC-2011-0189
or the Docket ID for the Station Blackout Mitigation Strategies
rulemaking, NRC-2011-0299. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol
Gallagher; by telephone: 301-287-3422; or by email:
[email protected]. For technical questions, contact the
individuals 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 by telephone at 1-800-397-
4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to [email protected]. The ADAMS
accession number for each document referenced in this notice (if that
document is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that a
document is referenced. The incoming petition is in ADAMS under
Accession No. ML11216A240.
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.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tim Reed, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555;
telephone: 301-415-1462; email: [email protected]; or Scott Sloan,
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555; telephone: 301-415-1619; by email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. The Petition
On September 20, 2011, the NRC published a notice of receipt in the
Federal Register (76 FR 58165) of six PRMs filed by the NRDC, including
PRM-50-100. The petitioner solely and specifically cited the
``Recommendations for Enhancing Reactor Safety in the 21st Century: The
Near-Term Task Force Review of Insights from the Fukushima Dai-ichi
Accident,'' (Fukushima Task Force Report, ADAMS Accession No.
ML111861807) dated July 12, 2011, as the rationale for the PRMs. For
PRM-50-100, the petitioner cited Section 4.2.4, pages 43-46, of the
Fukushima Task Force Report, which discusses the enhancement of spent
fuel pool makeup capability and instrumentation for the spent fuel
pool. At the time of receipt of the PRMs, the Commission was still in
the process of reviewing the Fukushima Task Force Report, and the NRC
did not institute a public comment period for the PRMs.
In PRM-50-100, the petitioner requests the NRC to institute a
rulemaking proceeding applicable to nuclear facilities licensed under
Parts 50 and 52 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations and
other applicable regulations to require licensees to (1) provide
sufficient safety-related instrumentation, able to withstand design-
basis natural phenomena, to monitor key spent fuel pool parameters
(i.e., water level, temperature, and area radiation levels) from the
control room; (2) provide safety-related alternating current (AC)
electrical power for the spent fuel pool makeup system; (3) revise
their technical specifications to address requirements to have one
train of onsite emergency electrical power operable for spent fuel pool
makeup and spent fuel pool instrumentation when there is irradiated
fuel in the spent fuel pool, regardless of the operational mode of the
reactor; and (4) have an installed seismically qualified means to spray
water into the spent fuel pools, including an easily accessible
connection to supply the water (e.g., using a portable pump or pumper
truck) at grade outside the building.
II. Reasons for Consideration
The Commission has established a process for addressing a number of
the recommendations in the Fukushima Task Force Report. In the Staff
Requirements Memorandum for COMSECY-13-0002, ``Consolidation of Japan
Lessons Learned Near-Term Task Force Recommendations 4 and 7 Regulatory
Activities,'' dated March 4, 2013 (ADAMS Accession No. ML13063A548),
the Commission directed the NRC staff to consider Fukushima Task Force
Report Recommendation 7 actions along with the Station Blackout
Mitigation Strategies rulemaking. The NRC determined that the issues
raised in PRM-50-100 are similar to the actions of Recommendation 7.5
of the Fukushima Task Force Report. Therefore, the NRC will consider
the issues raised in PRM-50-100 in the ongoing Station Blackout
Mitigation
[[Page 44035]]
Strategies rulemaking. The public will have the opportunity to provide
comments on PRM-50-100 as part of that rulemaking. The NRC will
consider the issues raised by the remaining NRDC PRMs through the
process the Commission establishes for addressing the remaining
recommendations in the Fukushima Task Force Report. This PRM docket is
closed.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 2nd day of July 2013.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
M.R. Johnson,
Deputy Executive Director for Reactor and Preparedness Programs.
[FR Doc. 2013-17658 Filed 7-22-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P