[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 244 (Thursday, December 21, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60633-60634]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-27516]



[[Page 60633]]

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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2017-0236]


Preparing To License Accident Tolerant Fuel

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft project plan; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment a draft project plan, ``Draft Project Plan to Prepare 
the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to License and Regulate Accident 
Tolerant Fuel.'' The NRC has established a steering committee of senior 
managers to oversee and set direction for a staff working group to 
prepare the agency for the anticipated licensing and use of accident 
tolerant fuel (ATF) in U.S. commercial power reactors. This draft 
project plan lays out the tasks that must be completed by the agency 
ahead of licensing submittals in order to conduct meaningful and timely 
reviews of ATF designs. The plan is expected to be a living document 
that may evolve as ATF concepts are more clearly defined and schedules 
for lead test assemblies (LTAs) and batch loading are refined.

DATES: Submit comments by February 5, 2018. 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 
before this date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking website: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2017-0236. 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: May Ma, Office of Administration, Mail 
Stop: OWFN-2-A13, 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: Andrew Proffitt, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington DC 
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-1418, email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2017-0236 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 website: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2017-0236.
     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 
``Draft Project Plan to Prepare the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
to License and Regulate Accident Tolerant Fuel,'' is available in ADAMS 
under Package Accession No. ML17325B771.
     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-2017-0236 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. Discussion

    The Offices of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, New Reactors, Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, and Nuclear Regulatory Research are 
preparing for anticipated licensing and use of ATF in the United States 
commercial power reactors.
    Several fuel vendors, in coordination with Department of Energy 
(DOE), have announced plans to develop and seek approval for various 
fuel designs with enhanced accident tolerance (i.e., fuels with longer 
coping times during loss of cooling conditions). The designs being 
considered in the development of this plan include Cr coated claddings, 
Cr-doped UO2 pellets, FeCrAl cladding, SiC cladding, U3Si2 pellets, and 
metallic fuels. For these ATF designs, the time frames for initial 
irradiation of LTA programs and topical report/license amendment 
request review were used as a basis for the timelines discussed in this 
plan.
    The NRC has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with DOE to 
collaborate on the nuclear safety research of enhanced ATFs that will 
reduce duplication of efforts and make the appropriate data available 
for regulatory decision processes. In preparing the agency to conduct 
meaningful and timely reviews of these advanced fuel designs, the NRC 
is conducting advanced planning, reviewing the existing regulatory 
infrastructure, and identifying needs for additional analysis 
capabilities and the development of unique critical skillsets within 
the staff.
    This project plan outlines the preliminary strategy for preparing 
the NRC to license ATF designs. It also identifies the lead 
organization for each planned activity. The project plan does not cover 
existing licensing activities, as they follow existing processes for 
which schedules and regulatory approaches are well-established. Current 
preparation for ATF licensing is focused on light water reactor (LWR) 
fuel for the operating fleet. There may be synergies between the 
revolutionary LWR ATF fuel development and fuel safety qualification of 
some types of non-LWR fuels for advanced reactor designs. As 
appropriate, the NRC will leverage any synergies to optimize licensing 
efficiency and effectiveness.
    The NRC is issuing the plan for public comment to solicit feedback 
and insight from stakeholders to ensure that the plan will 
appropriately prepare the NRC to license and regulate the ATF designs 
the industry is currently pursuing on a schedule consistent with 
industry timelines.


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    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 18th day of December 2017.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Mirela Gavrilas,
Director, Division of Safety Systems, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2017-27516 Filed 12-20-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P