[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 236 (Thursday, December 8, 2016)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 88615]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-29390]



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  Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 236 / Thursday, December 8, 2016 / 
Rules and Regulations  

[[Page 88615]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 50

[NRC-2010-0229]
RIN 3150-AH29


Plant-Specific Applicability of Transition Break Size Specified 
in 10 CFR 50.46a

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft regulatory guide; discontinuation and withdrawal.

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

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is announcing the 
discontinuation of further regulatory action on Draft Regulatory Guide 
(DG) DG-1216, ``Plant-Specific Applicability of Transition Break Size 
Specified in 10 CFR 50.46a,'' and its withdrawal. Draft Regulatory 
Guide DG-1216 was a proposed new regulatory guide written to provide 
implementing guidance for a proposed rule ``Risk-Informed Changes to 
Loss-of-Coolant Accident Technical Requirements,'' (Emergency core 
cooling system (ECCS) rulemaking)) that provided a voluntary, alternate 
approach for evaluating the performance of an ECCS. The NRC is 
discontinuing further regulatory action on the DG and not publishing 
the DG in final form because the NRC has discontinued the underlying 
rulemaking.

DATES: The effective date for discontinuance and withdrawal of the DG 
is December 8, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2010-0229 when contacting the 
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You 
may obtain publicly-available information related to this document 
using any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2010-0229. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact 
the individuals 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.
     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: Robert L. Tregoning, telephone: 301-
415-2324; email: [email protected]; or Harriet Karagiannis, 
telephone: 301-415-2493; email: [email protected]. Both are 
staff of the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NRC is announcing the discontinuation of 
further NRC action on DG-1216, ``Plant-Specific Applicability of 
Transition Break Size Specified in 10 CFR 50.46a,'' and its withdrawal. 
This draft guide describes a method that the NRC considered acceptable 
for demonstrating that the generic transition break size specified in 
the proposed 10 CFR 50.46a ECCS rule was applicable to a specific 
plant. The NRC provided an opportunity for public comment on DG-1216 in 
the Federal Register on June 28, 2010 (75 FR 36698). The DG package 
(ADAMS Accession No. ML100430352) consists of DG-1216 (ADAMS Accession 
No. ML100430356), a Federal Register notice (FRN) (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML100430445), and a regulatory analysis (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML101530472).
    Draft Regulatory Guide DG-1216 was a proposed new regulatory guide 
written to provide implementing guidance for a proposed ECCS rulemaking 
which would have provided a voluntary, risk-informed alternative to the 
existing, deterministic requirements for evaluating ECCS performance. 
The proposed ECCS rule was published in the Federal Register on 
November 7, 2005 (70 FR 67597), with a supplemental proposed rule 
published on August 10, 2009 (74 FR 40006). In SECY-16-0009, 
``Recommendations Resulting from the Integrated Prioritization and Re-
Baselining of Agency Activities,'' dated January 31, 2016 (ADAMS 
Accession No. ML16028A189), the staff recommended that the ECCS 
rulemaking be discontinued. In the Staff Requirements Memorandum for 
SECY-16-0009, dated April 13, 2016 (ADAMS Accession No. ML16104A158), 
the Commission approved discontinuation of the ECCS rulemaking. The NRC 
published an FRN on October 6, 2016 (81 FR 69446), which provided a 
discussion of the discontinuation decision.
    Because the NRC discontinued the ECCS rulemaking, further NRC 
action to develop and adopt DG-1216 as a final guidance document is not 
needed. Therefore, this notice announces the NRC's decision to 
discontinue further action on DG-1216 and documents the final NRC 
action on DG-1216.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 2nd day of December, 2016.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Thomas H. Boyce,
Chief, Regulatory Guide and Generic Issues Branch, Division of 
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2016-29390 Filed 12-7-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P