[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]


 ========================================================================
 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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