[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 78 (Friday, April 22, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23758-23760]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-09421]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2016-0084]
Guidance for Closure of Activities Related to Recommendation 2.1,
Flooding Hazard Reevaluation
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft interim staff guidance; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is soliciting
public comment on its draft Japan Lessons-Learned Division Interim
Staff Guidance (JLD-ISG), JLD-ISG-2016-01, ``Guidance for Activities
Related to Near-Term Task Force Recommendation 2.1, Flooding Hazard
Reevaluation; Focused Evaluation and Integrated Assessment.'' This
draft JLD-ISG revision provides guidance and clarification to assist
operating power reactor respondents and holders of construction permits
under the NRC's regulations with the performance of the focused
evaluations and revised integrated assessments for external flooding.
DATES: Submit comments by May 23, 2016. Comments received after this
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission
is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before
this date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods
(unless
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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-2016-0084. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact
the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of
this document.
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration,
Mail Stop: OWFN-12-H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Eric Bowman, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001; telephone: 301-415-2963; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2016-0084 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-2016-0084.
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. For the convenience of the reader,
the ADAMS accession numbers for obtaining materials referenced in this
document are provided in a table in the section of this notice
entitled, Availability of Documents.
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-2016-0084 in your comment submission.
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. Background
Following the events at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant
on March 11, 2011, the NRC established a senior-level agency task force
referred to as the Near-Term Task Force (NTTF). The NTTF was tasked
with conducting a systematic and methodical review of the NRC
regulations and processes, and determining if the agency should make
additional improvements to these programs in light of the events at
Fukushima Dai-ichi. As a result of this review, the NTTF developed a
comprehensive set of recommendations, documented in SECY-11-0093,
``Recommendations for Enhancing Reactor Safety in the 21st Century, the
Near-Term Task Force Review of Insights from the Fukushima Dai-ichi
Accident,'' dated July 12, 2011. These recommendations were enhanced by
the NRC staff following interactions with stakeholders. Documentation
of the staff's efforts is contained in SECY-11-0124, dated September 9,
2011, and SECY-11-0137, dated October 3, 2011.
As directed by the Commission's SRM for SECY-11-0093, the NRC staff
reviewed the NTTF recommendations within the context of the NRC's
existing regulatory framework and considered the various regulatory
vehicles available to the NRC to implement the recommendations. In
SECY-11-0124 and SECY-11-0137, the staff established the prioritization
of the recommendations. After receiving the Commission's direction in
SRM-SECY-11-0124 and SRM-SECY-11-0137, the NRC staff issued a request
for information pursuant to section 50.54(f) of title 10 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Conditions of licenses,'' on March 12,
2012, requesting licensees to reevaluate the seismic and flooding
hazards at their sites using updated hazard information and current
regulatory guidance and methodologies. For plants where the reevaluated
hazard exceeds the plant's design basis, the licensee was to conduct an
integrated assessment. The information gathering is considered to be
Phase 1 and was requested to support Phase 2 decision-making and
determine whether available or planned measures provide sufficient
protection and mitigation capabilities or if further regulatory action
should be pursued in the areas of seismic and flooding design, and
emergency preparedness.
In COMSECY-14-0037, dated November 21, 2014, the NRC staff
requested that the Commission review and approve changes to revise the
Recommendation 2.1 flooding assessments and integrate the Phase 2
decision-making into the development and implementation of mitigating
strategies in accordance with Order EA-12-049 and the related
Mitigation of Beyond-Design-Basis Events rulemaking.
In SRM-COMSECY-14-0037, the Commission disapproved this
recommendation. Instead, the Commission instructed the staff to develop
a closure plan for the flooding reevaluation activities and to reassess
the existing guidance for performing a Phase 1 integrated assessment in
order to focus on those plants with the most potential for safety
benefits.
In COMSECY-15-0019, the staff provided revised guidance for
performing a Phase 1 integrated assessment and described a modified
process for identifying the list of plants that would be required to
perform an integrated assessment. The process proposed by the staff
included the development of a graded, risk-informed and performance-
based approach consistent with Commission direction to focus on those
plants with the greatest potential need for safety enhancements.
Specifically, the process included consideration and evaluation of
local intense precipitation by performing a focused evaluation of the
impact of the
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hazard and implementing any necessary programmatic, procedural, or
plant modifications to address the hazard, taking into account
available warning time. The process also considered flood protection
and available physical margin, where licensees will confirm the
capability of existing flood protection to address the hazard
exceedance by performing a focused evaluation. For licensees where the
reevaluated hazard cannot be addressed via existing or planned flood
protection, the process also includes the performance of an integrated
assessment, using revised guidance, in order to conduct more detailed
evaluations of plant response capability. This revised integrated
assessment will capture, among other information, quantitative
characteristics about the reliability of various aspects of plant
response (e.g., reliability of equipment and manual actions), and risk
insights with a focus on cliff-edge effects. The results will be used
by the NRC to determine whether additional regulatory action, such as a
plant-specific backfit, are warranted.
In SRM-COMSECY-15-0019, the Commission approved the staff's plans
to modify the approach for integrated assessments to implement a graded
approach for determining the need for, and prioritization and scope of,
plant-specific integrated assessments. As discussed in COMSECY-15-0019,
the majority of sites with reevaluated flooding hazards exceeding the
design-basis flood are expected to screen out from the integrated
assessment process. The licensees will instead provide focused
evaluations to ensure appropriate actions are taken and that these
actions are effective and reasonable.
The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) submitted guidance NEI 16-05,
``External Flooding Assessment Guidelines,'' Revision 0, on April 12,
2016. The guidance is an industry-developed methodology that describes
the flooding impact assessment process, which is intended to meet the
requested information of an integrated assessment, as described in the
document titled, ``Request for Information Pursuant to Title 10 of the
Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 50.54(f) Regarding Recommendations
2.1, 2.3, and 9.3, of the Near-Term Task Force Review of Insights from
the Fukushima Dai-ichi Accident,'' and to incorporate the changes
described in COMSECY-15-0019.
Draft ISG JLD ISG 2016-01 is being issued to describe to
stakeholders methods acceptable to the staff for performance of the
focused evaluations and revised integrated assessments and describe
some exceptions and clarifications to NEI 16-05, Revision 0.
This guidance is not intended for use in design-basis applications
or in regulatory activities beyond the scope of performing the focused
evaluations and integrated assessment part of NTTF Recommendation 2.1
flooding activities. This ISG is being issued in draft form for public
comment to involve the public in development of the implementation
guidance. Compliance with the ISG is not required.
III. Availability of Documents
The documents identified in the following table are available to
interested persons through one or more of the following methods, as
indicated.
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Document title ADAMS accession No.
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Request for Information Pursuant to Title ML12053A340
10 of the Code of Federal Regulations
(10 CFR) 50.54(f) Regarding
Recommendations 2.1, 2.3, and 9.3, of
the Near-Term Task Force Review of
Insights from the Fukushima Dai-ichi
Accident, dated March 12, 2012.
SECY-11-0093, ``Recommendations for ML11186A950
Enhancing Reactor Safety in the 21st
Century, the Near-Term Task Force Review
of Insights from the Fukushima Dai-ichi
Accident,'' dated July 12, 2011.
Commission's staff requirements ML112310021
memorandum (SRM) for SECY-11-0093, dated
August 19, 2011.
SECY-11-0124, ``Recommended Actions to be ML11245A158
Taken Without Delay from the Near-Term
Task Force Report,'' dated September 9,
2011.
SRM-SECY-11-0124, dated October 18, 2011. ML112911571
SECY-11-0137, ``Prioritization of ML11272A111
Recommended Actions to be Taken in
Response to Fukushima Lessons Learned,''
dated October 3, 2011.
SRM-SECY-11-0137, dated December 15, 2011 ML113490055
COMSECY-14-0037, ``Integration of ML14238A616
Mitigating Strategies for Beyond-Design-
Basis External Events and the
Reevaluaton (sic) of Flooding Hazards,''
dated November 21, 2014.
SRM-COMSECY-14-0037, dated March 30, 2015 ML15089A236
COMSECY-15-0019, ``Closure Plan for the ML15153A104
Reevaluation of Flooding Hazards for
Operating Nuclear Power Plants,'' dated
June 30, 2015.
SRM-COMSECY-15-0019, dated July 28, 2015. ML15209A682
NEI 16-05, ``External Flooding Assessment ML16105A327
Guidelines,'' Rev. 0, dated April 12,
2016.
Draft JLD-ISG-2016-01 ``Guidance For ML16090A140
Activities Related To Near-Term Task
Force Recommendation 2.1, Flooding
Hazard Reevaluation; Focused Evaluation
and Integrated Assessment,'' Revision 0.
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The NRC may post materials related to this document, including
public comments, on the Federal rulemaking Web site at http://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2016-0084. 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-2016-0084); (2) click the ``Sign up for Email
Alerts'' link; and (3) enter your email address and select how
frequently you would like to receive emails (daily, weekly, or
monthly).
Proposed Action
By this action, the NRC is requesting public comments on draft ISG
JLD-ISG-2016-01. This draft JLD-ISG proposes guidance related to the
performance of a focused evaluation and integrated assessment as part
of NTTF 2.1 flooding activities. The NRC staff will make a final
determination regarding issuance of the JLD-ISG after it considers any
public comments received in response to this request.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 15th day of April, 2016.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Gregory Bowman,
Acting Director, Japan Lessons-Learned Division, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2016-09421 Filed 4-21-16; 8:45 am]
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