[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 194 (Tuesday, October 7, 2014)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 60383-60384]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-23949]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
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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. 79, No. 194 / Tuesday, October 7, 2014 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 60383]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 50
[Docket No. PRM-50-108; NRC-2014-0171]
Fuel-Cladding Issues in Postulated Spent Fuel Pool Accidents
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; notice of docketing.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received a
petition for rulemaking (PRM) from Mr. Mark Edward Leyse (the
petitioner), dated June 19, 2014. The petition was docketed by the NRC
on July 14, 2014, and has been assigned Docket No. PRM-50-108. The
petitioner requests that the NRC make new regulations concerning the
use of spent fuel pool (SFP) accident evaluation models. The NRC is not
requesting public comment on PRM-50-108 at this time.
DATES: October 7, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2014-0171 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information for this petition. You may
obtain publicly-available information related to this petition by any
of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2014-0171. 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 obtain publicly available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection 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 petition, PRM-50-108, is available
in ADAMS under Accession Number ML14195A388.
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: Daniel Doyle, Project Manager, Office
of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-3748, email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. The Petitioner
Mr. Mark Edward Leyse (the petitioner) submitted this petition for
rulemaking (PRM) as an individual. In Section II of the petition,
``Statement of Petitioner's Interest,'' the petitioner explains that he
disagrees with the conclusions of recent MELCOR simulations of boiling
water reactor (BWR) Mark I spent fuel pool (SFP) accident scenarios. On
December 23, 2013, Mr. Leyse submitted a PRM (ADAMS Accession No.
ML14008A427) with similar requests. On March 21, 2014, the NRC
requested additional information to further clarify the petitioner's
request (ADAMS Accession No. ML14023A743). On June 19, 2014 (ADAMS
Accession No. ML14195A388), the petitioner responded to the request and
resubmitted the petition with additional information. After evaluating
the resubmitted petition, the NRC has determined that the petition
meets the threshold sufficiency requirements for a petition for
rulemaking under Sec. 2.802 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (10 CFR), ``Petition for rulemaking,'' and the petition has
been docketed as PRM-50-108. The NRC is not requesting public comment
on PRM-50-108 at this time.
II. The Petition
The petition requests that the NRC develop new regulations
requiring that (1) spent fuel pool (SFP) accident evaluation models use
data from multi-rod bundle (assembly) severe accident experiments for
calculating the rates of energy release, hydrogen generation, and fuel
cladding oxidation from the zirconium-steam reaction; (2) SFP accident
evaluation models use data from multi-rod bundle (assembly) severe
accident experiments conducted with pre-oxidized fuel cladding for
calculating the rates of energy release (from both fuel cladding
oxidation and fuel cladding nitriding), fuel cladding oxidation, and
fuel cladding nitriding from the zirconium-air reaction; (3) SFP
accident evaluation models be required to conservatively model
nitrogen-induced breakaway oxidation behavior; and (4) licensees be
required to use conservative SFP accident evaluation models to perform
annual SFP safety evaluations of: Postulated complete loss-of-coolant
accident (LOCA) scenarios, postulated partial LOCA scenarios, and
postulated boil-off accident scenarios.
The petition references recent NRC post-Fukushima MELCOR
simulations of BWR Mark I SFP accident/fire scenarios. The petition
states that the conclusions from the NRC's MELCOR simulations are non-
conservative and misleading because their conclusions underestimate the
probabilities of large radiological releases from SFP accidents.
The petition states that in actual SFP fires, there would be
quicker fuel-cladding temperature escalations, releasing more heat, and
quicker axial and radial propagation of zirconium fires than MELCOR
indicates. The petition states that the NRC's philosophy of defense-in-
depth requires the application of conservative models, and, therefore,
it is necessary to improve the performance of MELCOR and any other
computer safety models that are intended to accurately simulate SFP
accident/fire scenarios.
The petition claims that the new regulations would help improve
public and plant-worker safety. The petitioner asserts that the first
three proposed regulations, regarding zirconium fuel cladding oxidation
and nitriding, as well as nitrogen-induced breakaway oxidation
behavior, are intended to
[[Page 60384]]
improve the performance of computer safety models that simulate
postulated SFP accident/fire scenarios. The petition states that the
fourth proposed regulation would require that licensees use
conservative SFP accident evaluation models to perform annual SFP
safety evaluations of postulated complete LOCA scenarios, postulated
partial LOCA scenarios, and postulated boil-off accident scenarios. The
petition states that the purpose of these evaluations would be to keep
the NRC informed of the potential consequences of postulated SFP
accident/fire scenarios as fuel assembles were added, removed, or
reconfigured in licensees' SFPs.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 30th day of September, 2014.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2014-23949 Filed 10-6-14; 8:45 am]
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