[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 72 (Monday, April 17, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18163-18165]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-07623]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2017-0091]
Regulatory Analysis Guidelines
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft NUREG; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for
public comment a draft NUREG, NUREG/BR-0058, Revision 5, ``Regulatory
Analysis Guidelines of the U.S. NRC.'' This proposed revision to NUREG/
BR-0058 would update and restructure the NRC's cost-benefit guidance
documents by incorporating information contained in NUREG/BR-0184,
``Regulatory Analysis Technical Handbook,'' into this document and
would expand the discussion of cost-benefit analyses in NRC's
regulatory analyses, backfitting analyses, and National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) analyses. Additionally, the update incorporates
improvements in methods for assessing factors that are difficult to
quantify, incorporates relevant cost estimating best practices, and
includes improvements in uncertainty analyses for use in cost-benefit
analyses.
DATES: Submit comments by June 16, 2017. 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:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2017-0091. 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: Pamela Noto, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation, telephone: 301-415-6795, email: [email protected], 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-2017-0091 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-2017-0091.
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]. For
the convenience of the reader, instructions about obtaining materials
referenced in this document are provided in the ``Availability of
Documents'' 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-2017-0091 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 will post all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as enter 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 into ADAMS.
II. Discussion
The proposed revision to NUREG/BR-0058 is the first of two phases
to update the NRC's cost-benefit guidance documents, primarily NUREG/
BR-0058, Revision 4, ``Regulatory Analysis Guidelines of the U.S.
NRC,'' and NUREG/BR-0184, ``Regulatory Analysis Technical Handbook.''
This update identifies potential changes to current methods and tools
related to performing cost-benefit analyses in support of regulatory
analyses, backfitting analyses, and environmental analyses.
In response to questions posed after the accident at the Fukushima
Dai-ichi plant in Japan, the NRC staff recommended enhancing the
currency and consistency of the existing regulatory framework through
updates to cost-benefit analysis guidance documents, including aligning
cost-benefit guidance across the agency in both reactor and materials
program areas in SECY-12-0110, ``Consideration of Economic Consequences
in the NRC's
[[Page 18164]]
Regulatory Framework.'' In the staff requirements memorandum (SRM) for
SECY-12-0110, the Commission approved this recommendation and directed
the NRC staff to identify potential changes to current methodologies
and tools to perform cost-benefit analyses in support of regulatory,
backfit, and environmental analyses. Further, the Commission directed
the NRC staff to provide a regulatory gap analysis prior to developing
new cost-benefit guidance.
In response to Commission direction, the NRC staff prepared SECY-
14-0002, ``Plan for Updating NRC's Cost-Benefit Guidance;'' SECY-14-
0087, ``Qualitative Consideration of Factors in the Development of
Regulatory Analyses and Backfit Analyses;'' and SECY-14-0143,
``Regulatory Gap Analysis of the NRC's Cost-Benefit Guidance and
Practices.'' Further details regarding these documents are provided
below.
In response to the SRM for SECY-12-0110, the NRC staff wrote SECY-
14-0002. The NRC staff identified potential changes to current
methodologies and tools related to performing cost-benefit analyses in
support of regulatory, backfit, and environmental analyses. In this
SECY paper, the NRC staff recommended a two-phased approach to revise
the content and structure of the cost-benefit guidance documents. Phase
1 begins to align regulatory guidance across the agency in both reactor
and materials program areas by restructuring and pursuing some policy
revisions. This SECY paper describes Phase 1 as a restructuring of the
three main NRC cost-benefit guidance documents, where NUREG/BR-0184 and
NUREG-1409, ``Backfitting Guidelines,'' are incorporated into NUREG/BR-
0058. Because of the June 9, 2016, ``Tasking Related to Implementation
of Agency Backfitting and Issue Finality Guidance,'' NUREG-1409 will be
kept as a stand-alone document. Cost-benefit information related to
backfitting will be incorporated into the proposed revision to NUREG/
BR-0058. Phase 1 will now consist of revising and consolidating two
NUREG documents into a single NUREG; updating data, methods, and
references; and addressing audit findings and case-study
recommendations. Subsequently, Phase 2 will identify and discuss
potential policy issues for Commission consideration that could affect
the NRC's cost-benefit guidance and incorporate updates to guidance on
backfitting. Phase 1 of the proposed revision to NUREG/BR-0058 includes
outlines for future appendices.
The NRC staff wrote SECY-14-0087 in response to the SRM-SECY-12-
0157, ``Consideration of Additional Requirements for Containment
Venting Systems for Boiling Water Reactors with Mark I and Mark II
Containments,'' which directed the NRC staff to seek guidance regarding
the use of qualitative factors. The SECY-14-0087 proposed updating the
cost-benefit guidance to include a set of methods that could be used
for qualitative consideration of factors within a cost-benefit analysis
for regulatory and backfit analyses. In the SRM for SECY-14-0087, the
Commission approved the plans for updating guidance regarding
qualitative factors, including the treatment of uncertainties, and
directed the update to focus on capturing best practices for the
consideration of qualitative factors. The Commission also directed the
NRC staff to develop a toolkit for the analyst to clarify how to
consider and document the use of qualitative factors. Appendix A,
``Qualitative Factors Assessment Tools,'' of the proposed revision to
NUREG/BR-0058 provides this toolkit for considering qualitative
factors.
In 2014, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted
a performance audit in which the NRC's cost-estimating procedures were
reviewed. The GAO audit report, GAO-15-98, ``NRC Needs to Improve its
Cost Estimates by Incorporating More Best Practices,'' recommended that
the NRC align its cost estimating procedures with relevant cost
estimating best practices identified in the ``GAO Cost Estimating and
Assessment Guide'' (GAO-09-3SP). The NRC staff has addressed the GAO
recommendations in Appendix B, ``Cost Estimating and Best Practices,''
of the proposed revision to NUREG/BR-0058.
This proposed revision to NUREG/BR-0058 would make three main
changes. First, the revision to NUREG/BR-0058 consolidates cost-benefit
guidance that is used across the agency. The NRC staff has expanded the
draft document to provide additional guidance for performing the NRC's
materials licensee regulatory analyses, backfit analyses, and NEPA
analyses.
Second, this revision provides methods for assessing factors that
are difficult to quantify, incorporates cost-estimating best practices,
and expands on methods to quantify uncertainties. This revision
provides guidance intended to enhance clarity, transparency, and
consistency of analyses for the decisionmaker.
Finally, this revision uses appendices to provide detailed
technical material that is subject to change. These appendices will be
issued and controlled separately to facilitate the maintenance of this
information. Appendices that will be issued initially include Appendix
A, ``Qualitative Factors Assessment Tools''; Appendix B, ``Cost
Estimating and Best Practices''; Appendix C, ``The Treatment of
Uncertainty''; Appendix D, ``Guidance on Regulatory Analyses Related to
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code Changes''; and
Appendix E, ``Special Circumstances.''
The NRC staff held a Category 3 public meeting on July 16, 2015, to
discuss the proposed structure and changes to the NRC cost-benefit
guidance in Phase 1. The NRC presentation can be found in ADAMS under
Accession No. ML15189A463, and the meeting summary can be found in
ADAMS under Accession No. ML15217A420. The NRC staff also held a
Category 3 public workshop on March 3, 2016, to discuss NRC activities
to improve its cost-benefit guidance including the newly developed
qualitative factors assessment tools, cost estimating and best
practices, and the treatment of uncertainty. The NRC presentation can
be found in ADAMS under Accession No. ML16061A139, and the meeting
summary can be found in ADAMS under Accession No. ML16084A167.
Additionally, the NRC staff held an Advisory Committee on Reactor
Safeguards (ACRS) Regulatory Policies and Practices Subcommittee
meeting on February 7, 2017, and an ACRS Full Committee meeting on
March 9, 2017.
III. Availability of Documents
The NRC may post additional materials related to this activity to
the Federal rulemaking Web site at www.regulations.gov under Docket ID
NRC-2017-0091. These documents will inform the public of the current
status of this activity and/or provide additional material for use at
future public meetings.
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-2017-0091); (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).
The documents identified in the following table are available to
interested persons as indicated.
[[Page 18165]]
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Document ADAMS accession No./web link
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NUREG/BR-0058, Revision 5, ``Regulatory ML17101A355.
Analysis Guidelines of the U.S. NRC''.
NUREG/BR-0058, Revision 4, ``Regulatory ML042820192.
Analysis Guidelines of the U.S. NRC''.
NUREG/BR-0184, ``Regulatory Analysis Technical ML050190193.
Evaluation Handbook''.
SECY-14-0002, ``Plan for Updating NRC's Cost- ML13274A519.
Benefit Guidance,'' January 2, 2014.
SECY-14-0087, ``Qualitative Consideration of ML14127A458 (Package).
Factors in the Development of Regulatory
Analyses and Backfit Analyses,'' September
11, 2014.
SECY-14-0143, ``Regulatory Gap Analysis of the ML14280A426 (Package).
NRC's Cost-Benefit Guidance and Practices,''
December 16, 2014.
SECY-12-0110, ``Consideration of Economic ML12173A478 (Package).
Consequences within the U.S. NRC's Regulatory
Framework,'' August 14, 2012.
SRM for SECY-12-0110, ``Consideration of ML13079A055.
Economic Consequences within the U.S. NRC's
Regulatory Framework,'' March 20, 2013.
SRM for SECY-14-0087, ''Qualitative ML15063A568.
Consideration of Factors in the Development
of Regulatory Analyses and Backfit
Analyses,'' March 4, 2015.
NUREG-1409, ``Backftting Guidelines''......... ML032230247.
``Tasking Related to Implementation of Agency ML16133A575.
Backfitting and Issue Finality Guidance,''
June 9, 2016.
AO-15-98, ``NRC Needs to Improve its Cost http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/667501.pdf.
Estimates by Incorporating More Best
Practices''.
GAO-09-3SP, ``GAO Cost Estimating and http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d093sp.pdf.
Assessment Guide''.
SRM for SECY-12-0157, ``Consideration of ML13078A017.
Additional Requirements for Containment
Venting Systems for Boiling Water Reactors
with Mark I and Mark II Containments,'' March
12, 2013.
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Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 11th day of April 2017.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Anita L. Lund,
Director, Division of Policy and Rulemaking, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2017-07623 Filed 4-14-17; 8:45 am]
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