[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 15 (Friday, January 23, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3661-3662]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-01155]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2011-0011]


Design and Inspection Criteria for Water-Control Structures 
Associated With Nuclear Power Plants

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft Regulatory Guide, request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is re-issuing for 
a second round of public comment, draft regulatory guide (DG)-1245, 
``Design and Inspection Criteria for Water-Control Structures 
Associated With Nuclear Power Plants.'' This DG is proposed revision 2 
of regulatory guide (RG) 1.127, ``Inspection of Water-Control 
Structures Associated With Nuclear Power Plants'' dated March 1978. 
This DG describes methods the NRC staff considers acceptable for 
designing and developing appropriate inservice inspection and 
surveillance programs for dams, slopes, canals, and other water-control 
structures associated with nuclear power plants.

DATES: Submit comments by March 24, 2015. Comments received after this 
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is 
able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before 
this date. Although a time limit is given, comments and suggestions in 
connection with items for inclusion in guides currently being developed 
or improvements in all published guides are encouraged at any time.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods 
(unless this document describes a different method for submitting 
comments on a specified subject):
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2011-0011. 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.
     Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration, 
Mail Stop: 3WFN 06A-A44M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001.
    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: Robert Pettis, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation, telephone: 301-415-3214, email: 
[email protected] or Mark Orr, Office of Nuclear Regulatory 
Research, telephone: 301-251-7495, email: [email protected]. Both are 
staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2011-0011 when contacting the NRC 
about the availability of information regarding this document. You may 
obtain publically-available information related to this document, by 
any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2011-0011. 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.
     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 available in 
ADAMS) is provided the first time that a document is referenced. The DG 
is electronically available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML13255A435.
     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-2011-0011 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 that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your 
comment submission. The NRC posts all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as entering the comment submissions into 
ADAMS. 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 submissions into ADAMS.

II. Additional Information

    The NRC is issuing for public comment a DG in the NRC's 
``Regulatory Guide'' series. This series was developed to describe and 
make available to the public information such as methods that are 
acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the 
NRC's regulations, techniques that the staff uses in evaluating 
specific problems or postulated accidents, and data that the staff 
needs in its review of applications for permits and licenses.
    The DG, entitled, ``Design and Inspection Criteria for Water 
Control Structures Associated With Nuclear Power Plants'' is 
temporarily identified by its task number, DG-1245. This DG-1245 is 
proposed revision 2 of RG 1.127, dated March 1978. This guide is a re-
issue of DG-1245, ``Inspection of Water Control Structures Associated 
With Nuclear Power Plants'' which was originally issued for public 
comment in

[[Page 3662]]

January 2011. The NRC staff has re-written DG-1245 to more clearly 
identify the dams and other water control structures subject to this 
guidance document and is issuing it for a second round of public review 
and comment.
    Since the release of Revision 1 of RG 1.127 in March 1978, the 
Federal guidelines for safety and inspection of dams and other water 
control structures have undergone significant revision. This DG is 
being updated to provide licensees and applicants with the most current 
guidance and to help ensure that applicants and licensees are able to 
demonstrate compliance with the applicable regulations.
    This DG describes a method the staff of the NRC considers 
acceptable for designing and developing appropriate inservice 
inspection (ISI) and surveillance programs for dams, slopes, canals, 
and other water-control structures associated with emergency cooling 
water systems or flood protection of nuclear power plants.
    This DG applies only to water control structures (e.g., dams, 
slopes, canals, reservoirs, and associated conveyance facilities) which 
are part of the nuclear power plant and whose failure could either 
cause site flooding, the failure of the plant's emergency cooling 
systems, or otherwise endanger the plant.

III. Backfitting and Issue Finality

    This DG, if finalized, does not constitute backfitting as defined 
in Sec.  50.109 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 
(the Backfit Rule), and is not otherwise inconsistent with the issue 
finality provisions in 10 CFR part 52, ``Licenses, Certifications and 
Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.'' This DG provides guidance on one 
possible means for meeting NRC's regulatory requirements for developing 
appropriate ISI and surveillance programs for dams, slopes, canals, and 
other water-control structures associated with emergency cooling and 
flood protection water systems as required by General Design Criterion 
(GDC) 45, ``Inspection of Cooling Water System,'' of Appendix A, 
``General Design Criteria for Nuclear Power Plants,'' to 10 CFR part 
50, ``Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities'' (10 
CFR part 50).
    Existing licensees and applicants of final design certification 
rules will not be required to comply with the new positions set forth 
in this DG, unless the licensee or design certification rule applicant 
seeks a voluntary change to its licensing basis with respect to ISI or 
surveillance programs for water control structures, and where the NRC 
determines that the safety review must include consideration of the ISI 
or surveillance program. Further information on the staff's use of the 
DG, if finalized, is contained in the DG under Section D. 
Implementation.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 16th day of January, 2015.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Harriet Karagiannis,
Acting Branch Chief, Regulatory Guidance and Generic Issues Branch, 
Division of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2015-01155 Filed 1-22-15; 8:45 am]
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