[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 141 (Tuesday, July 23, 2013)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 44035-44036]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-17660]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Parts 50 and 52
[NRC-2011-0299]
RIN 3150-AJ08
Station Blackout Mitigation Strategies
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Regulatory basis for rulemaking.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a
regulatory basis document to support the potential amendment of its
regulations concerning nuclear power plant licensees' and applicants'
station blackout mitigation strategies. The issuance of this regulatory
basis document is one of the actions stemming from the NRC's lessons-
learned efforts associated with the March 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi
Nuclear Power Plant accident in Japan.
DATES: At this time, the NRC is not soliciting formal public comments
on the materials identified in this document. There will be an
opportunity for formal public comment on the proposed rule when it is
published in the Federal Register.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2011-0299 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information for this document. You may
access information related to this document, which the NRC possesses
and is publicly available, by any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to www.regulations.gov and
search for Docket ID NRC-2011-0299. Address questions about NRC dockets
to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-287-3422; email:
[email protected]. For technical questions, contact the
individual 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 regulatory basis
document, ``Station Blackout Mitigation Strategies,'' is available in
ADAMS under Accession No. ML13171A061.
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: Timothy A. Reed, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-1462; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
As the NRC continues its ongoing proposed rulemaking effort to
amend portions of Parts 50 and 52 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (10 CFR) to incorporate requirements involving station
blackout mitigation strategies (SBOMS), the NRC is making documents
publicly available on the Federal rulemaking Web site,
www.regulations.gov, under Docket ID NRC-2011-0299. This regulatory
action is one of the near-term actions based on the lessons-learned
from the March 11, 2011, Fukushima Dai-ichi accident in Japan. By
making these documents publicly available, the NRC seeks to inform
stakeholders of the current status of the NRC's rulemaking development
activities. Stakeholders should also note that there two related
petitions for rulemaking (PRM), both submitted by the Natural Resources
Defense Council that are being addressed within this rulemaking. Those
are PRM-50-100 (notice of consideration published in the Proposed Rules
section of this issue of the Federal Register (NRC-2011-0189)) and PRM-
50-101 (77 FR 16483; March 21, 2012; NRC-2011-0189) that endorse
actions recommended by the Near Term Task Force (NTTF) in
Recommendations 4 and 7, respectively.
II. Publicly Available Documents
The NRC has posted on www.regulations.gov a regulatory basis to
support a rulemaking to incorporate requirements involving station
blackout mitigation strategies into the Code of Federal Regulations.
The regulatory basis documents the reasons why rulemaking now appears
to be the appropriate course of action to remedy an apparent regulatory
shortcoming. The regulatory basis reflects the NRC's consideration of
stakeholder feedback on the draft regulatory basis published in the
Federal Register for public comment on April 10, 2013 (78 FR 21275).
Section 5 of the regulatory basis provides additional discussion
regarding the stakeholder feedback that informed development of the
SBOMS regulatory basis. Please note that the NRC may identify
additional information through further rulemaking activities that may
affect the NRC staff determination documented in the regulatory basis.
Such information, if any, and its effects on the rulemaking effort will
be documented in a notice published in the Federal Register in
connection with this rulemaking.
Also note that the draft regulatory basis contained an appendix
(i.e., Appendix A) that provided draft rule concepts which, during the
rulemaking process, may evolve into regulatory requirements, guidance,
or other regulatory information. Appendix A was not revised to reflect
stakeholder feedback on the draft regulatory basis, and is not being
republished with this regulatory basis. Instead stakeholder comments on
the draft rule concepts deserve further deliberation and consideration,
and are being considered as the NRC develops a proposed rule. The draft
rule concepts, as a whole, do not represent a final NRC staff position
and have not been approved by the Commission. Therefore, the proposed
rule language that will subsequently be developed may change
substantially from the draft rule concepts in the regulatory basis.
The NRC is not requesting formal public comments on the SBOMS
regulatory basis. As they are developed, the NRC may post additional
materials, including preliminary proposed rule language, to the Federal
rulemaking Web site at www.regulations.gov, under Docket ID NRC-2011-
0299. The Federal rulemaking Web site allows you to receive alerts when
changes or additions occur in a docket folder. To subscribe: (1)
Navigate to the docket folder (NRC-2011-0299); (2) click the ``Email
Alert'' link; and (3) enter your email address and select how
frequently you would
[[Page 44036]]
like to receive emails (daily, weekly, or monthly).
III. Plain Writing
The Plain Writing Act of 2010, (Pub. L. 111-274) requires Federal
agencies to write documents in a clear, concise, well-organized manner
that also follows other best practices appropriate to the subject or
field and the intended audience. Although regulations are exempt from
these requirements under the Act, the NRC is applying the same
principles to its rulemaking documents. Therefore, the NRC has written
this document, including the preliminary proposed rule language, to be
consistent with the Plain Writing Act.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 16th day of July 2013.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Lawrence E. Kokajko,
Director, Division of Policy and Rulemaking, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2013-17660 Filed 7-22-13; 8:45 am]
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