[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 7 (Monday, January 12, 2015)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 1476-1477]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-00199]


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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. 80, No. 7 / Monday, January 12, 2015 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 1476]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 50

[Docket No. PRM-50-109; NRC-2014-0257]


Improved Identification Techniques Against Alkali-Silica Reaction 
Concrete Degradation at Nuclear Power Plants

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; notice of docketing, and request for 
comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received a 
petition for rulemaking (PRM) from Sandra Gavutis on behalf of C-10 
Research and Education Foundation (C-10 or the petitioner), dated 
September 25, 2014, requesting that the NRC amend its regulations to 
provide improved identification techniques against Alkali-Silica 
Reaction (ASR) concrete degradation at nuclear power plants. The 
petition was docketed by the NRC on October 8, 2014, and has been 
assigned Docket No. PRM-50-109. The NRC is requesting public comments 
on this petition for rulemaking.

DATES: Submit comments by March 30, 2015. Comments received after this 
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is 
able to assure consideration only for comments received on or before 
this date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods 
(unless this document describes a different method for submitting 
comments on a specific subject):
     Federal rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2014-0257. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-287-
3422; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact 
the individual(s) listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section 
of this document.
     Email comments to: [email protected]. If you do 
not receive an automatic email reply confirming receipt, then contact 
us at 301-415-1677.
     Fax comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission at 301-415-1101.
     Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and 
Adjudications Staff.
     Hand deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland 20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. (Eastern Time) Federal 
workdays; telephone: 301-415-1677. For additional direction on 
accessing information and submitting comments, see ``Obtaining 
Information and Submitting Comments'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION 
section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jessica Kratchman, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-5112, email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2014-0257 when contacting the NRC 
about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain 
publicly-available information related to this action by any of the 
following methods:
     Federal rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2014-0257.
     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 (if it is available 
in ADAMS) is provided the first time that it is mentioned in the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
     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.

B. Submitting Comments

    Please include Docket ID NRC-2014-0257 in the subject line of your 
comment submission, in order to ensure that the NRC is able to make 
your comment submission available to the public in this docket.
    The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact 
information in comment submissions that you do not want to be publicly 
disclosed in your comment submission. The NRC will post all comment 
submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as enter the comment 
submissions into ADAMS, and the NRC does not routinely edit comment 
submissions to remove identifying or contact information.
    If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons 
for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to 
include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be 
publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should 
state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to 
remove such information before making the comment submissions available 
to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.

II. The Petitioner

    The petition states that C-10 is a non-profit organization that 
``evolved from'' Citizens within the Ten-Mile Radius, which C-10 claims 
is a 5,000 member organization founded in 1986 to challenge evacuation 
plans for the [NextEra] Seabrook Station reactor. The petition 
represents that C-10 was established in 1991 to address the health and 
safety issues related to the [NextEra] Seabrook Station nuclear power 
plant. The petition further states that ``C-10 has been engaging the 
NRC about concrete degradation at Seabrook since December 22, 2011,'' 
and that the Union of Concerned Scientists assisted C-10 in preparing 
this petition.

III. The Petition

    Sandra Gavutis, Executive Director, submitted a PRM on behalf of C-
10, dated September 25, 2014 (ADAMS Accession No. ML14281A124), 
requesting that the NRC amend its

[[Page 1477]]

regulations to improve identification techniques against ASR concrete 
degradation at nuclear power plants. The NRC has determined that the 
petition meets the threshold sufficiency requirements for a PRM under 
Sec.  2.802 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, ``Petition 
for rulemaking,'' and the petition has been docketed as PRM-50-109. The 
NRC is requesting public comments on this PRM.

IV. Discussion of the Petition

    At an NRC public meeting at Seabrook Station on June 24, 2014, the 
petitioner asked the NRC if the agency was investigating the U.S. 
nuclear fleet for ASR concrete degradation. The NRC staff responded 
that ASR concrete degradation could be adequately indicated through 
visual examination. However, an NRC position paper, ``In Situ 
Monitoring of ASR-affected Concrete,'' November 2012 (ADAMS Accession 
No. ML13108A047), states, ``ASR can exist in concrete without 
indications of pattern cracking,'' and that for ``. . . structures 
exposed to ASR, internal damage occurs through the depth of the section 
but visible cracking is suppressed by heavy reinforcement. . . .'' When 
NextEra determined 131 locations with ``assumed'' ASR visual signs 
within multiple power-block structures at Seabrook Station during 2012, 
further engineering evaluations were not required by the NRC.
    The petitioner requests that the NRC amend its regulations to 
improve identification techniques against ASR concrete degradation at 
U.S. nuclear power plants. The petitioner suggests that the reliance on 
a visual inspection does not ``adequately identify Alkali-Silica 
Reaction (ASR), does not confirm ASR, or provide the current state of 
ASR damage (if present) without petrographic analysis under current 
existing code.'' The petitioner asserts that codes and standards exist 
that are capable of detecting ASR and determining the key material 
properties needed to evaluate the degree and severity of ASR damage. 
American Concrete Institute (ACI) Standard 349.3R, ``Evaluation of 
Existing Nuclear Safety-Related Concrete Structures,'' for instance, 
has been endorsed by the NRC (ADAMS Accession No. ML112241029) as an 
acceptable method of protecting against excessive ASR concrete 
degradation, but is not a regulatory requirement. The petitioner 
requests that the NRC amend its regulations to require that all 
licensees comply with industry codes and standards that have ``already 
been endorsed by the agency,'' and identified two standards for which 
the NRC's regulations should require compliance: (1) ACI Standard 
349.3R; and (2) American Society for Testing & Materials (ASTM) C856-
11, ``Standard Practice for Petrographic Examination of Hardened 
Concrete.''

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 5th day of January, 2015.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2015-00199 Filed 1-9-15; 8:45 am]
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