[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.
[[Page 60634]]
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