[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 115 (Friday, June 14, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27809-27810]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-12556]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2019-0111]
Pre-Earthquake Planning, Shutdown, and Restart of a Nuclear Power
Plant Following an Earthquake
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft regulatory guide; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for
public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-1337, ``Pre-Earthquake
Planning, Shutdown and Restart of a Nuclear Power Plant Following an
Earthquake.'' This proposed guide is a merger of two closely related
guides, namely, regulatory guide (RG) 1.166, ``Pre-Earthquake Planning
and Immediate Nuclear Power Operator Postearthquake Actions'' and RG
1.167 ``Restart of a Nuclear Power Plant Shutdown by a Seismic Event.''
Upon completion of the merger of the two guides, RG 1.167 will be
withdrawn. DG-1337 incorporates lessons learned following shutdown and
restart of nuclear power plants due to earthquake ground motion and
post-earthquake evaluations since issuance of the two RGs in 1997.
DATES: Submit comments by August 13, 2019. Comments received after this
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is
able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before
this date. Although a time limit is given, comments and suggestions in
connection with items for inclusion in guides currently being developed
or improvements in all published guides are encouraged at any time.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods
(unless this document describes a different method for submitting
comments on a specific subject):
Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0111. Address
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Jennifer Borges;
telephone: 301-287-9127; email: [email protected]. For technical
questions, contact the individuals listed in the FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.
Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop:
TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.
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: Vladmir Graizer, telephone: 301-415-
0675, email: [email protected], Thomas Weaver, telephone: 301-
415-2823, email: [email protected], or Edward O'Donnell, telephone:
301-415-3317, email: Edward.O'[email protected]. All are staff members of
the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, 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-2019-0111 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information regarding 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-2019-0111.
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
DG-1337 is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML18268A185.
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-2019-0111 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 enters 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. Additional Information
The NRC is issuing for public comment a DG in the NRC's
``Regulatory Guide'' series. This series was developed to describe and
make available to the public information regarding methods that are
acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the
NRC's regulations, techniques that the staff uses in evaluating
specific issues or postulated events, and data that the staff needs in
its review of applications for permits and licenses.
The DG, titled, ``Pre-Earthquake Planning, Shutdown and Restart of
a Nuclear Power Plant Following a Seismic Event,'' is a proposed
revision of two related guides temporarily identified by its task
number, DG-1337. The proposed guide merges RG 1.166, ``Pre-Earthquake
Planning and Immediate Nuclear Power Operator Postearthquake Actions''
and RG 1.167 ``Restart of a Nuclear Power Plant Shutdown by a Seismic
Event.''
The guide proposes guidance acceptable to the NRC staff regarding
pre-earthquake planning actions, actions to determine the need to
shutdown a nuclear power plant and the short-term and long-term
processes, inspections and tests that are acceptable to demonstrate
that a nuclear power plant is safe for restarting after a shutdown due
to an earthquake. The merged guide incorporates lessons learned
following shutdown and restart of nuclear power plants due to
earthquake ground motion and post-earthquake evaluations since issuance
of the two RGs in 1997. The proposed guide also endorses American
National Standards Institute/American Nuclear Society (ANSI/ANS)-2.23-
2016, ``Nuclear Power Plant Response to an Earthquake,'' and ANSI/ANS-
2.10-2017, ``Criteria for Retrieval, Processing,
[[Page 27810]]
Handling, and Storage of Records from Nuclear Facility Seismic
Instrumentation.''
III. Backfitting and Issue Finality
As discussed in the ``Implementation'' section of DG-1337, the NRC
has no current intention to impose this draft regulatory guide on
holders of current operating licenses or combined licenses.
Accordingly, the issuance of this draft regulatory guide, if finalized,
would not constitute ``backfitting'' as defined in Title 10 of the Code
of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 50.109(a)(1) of the Backfit Rule or be
otherwise inconsistent with the applicable issue finality provisions in
10 CFR part 52.
This draft regulatory guide may be applied to applications for
operating licenses and combined licenses docketed by the NRC as of the
date of issuance of the final regulatory guide, as well as future
applications for operating licenses and combined licenses submitted
after the issuance of the regulatory guide. Such action would not
constitute backfitting as defined in 10 CFR 50.109(a)(1) or be
otherwise inconsistent with the applicable issue finality provision in
10 CFR part 52, inasmuch as such applicants or potential applicants are
not within the scope of entities protected by the Backfit Rule or the
relevant issue finality provisions in 10 CFR part 52.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of June, 2019.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Thomas H. Boyce,
Chief, Regulatory Guidance and Generic Issues Branch, Division of
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2019-12556 Filed 6-13-19; 8:45 am]
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