[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 206 (Thursday, October 24, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57057-57058]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-23186]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2019-0208]
Supplemental Guidance Regarding the Chromium-Coated Zirconium
Alloy Fuel Cladding Accident Tolerant Fuel Concept
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft interim staff guidance; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is soliciting
public comment on its draft interim staff guidance which is intended to
facilitate the staff's understanding of the in-reactor phenomena
important to safety for the chromium-coated zirconium alloy fuel
cladding concepts, as well as to provide guidance for NRC staff
reviewing vendor applications. Chromium-coated zirconium alloy fuel
cladding concepts are being pursued by several U.S. fuel vendors as
part of the U.S. Department of Energy's accident tolerant fuel program.
DATES: Submit comments by November 25, 2019. 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 https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0208. Address
questions about NRC dockets IDs in www.regulations.gov to Jennifer
Borges; telephone: 301-287-9127; email: [email protected]. For
technical questions, contact the individual 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: Tekia Govan, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001; telephone: 301-415-6197; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2019-0208 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 https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0208.
[[Page 57058]]
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, 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 Interim Staff Guidance
Supplemental Guidance Regarding the Chromium-coated Zirconium Alloy
Fuel Cladding Accident Tolerant Fuel Concept is available in ADAMS
under Accession No. ML19276G621.
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-2019-0208 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 https://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. Background
This interim staff guidance (ISG) is intended to provide guidance
for NRC staff reviewing applications involving fuel products with
chromium-coated zirconium alloy cladding. For coated claddings of this
type, a phenomena identification and ranking table (PIRT) was generated
for the NRC by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; the guidance
provided in this ISG extensively references the PIRT report,
``Degradation and Failure Phenomena of Accident Tolerant Fuel Concepts:
Chromium Coated Zirconium Alloy Cladding,'' issued June 2019. The
suggested cladding properties specified acceptable fuel design limits
and new failure mechanisms sections from the PIRT are replicated in
Appendices B and C. These appendices supersede Sections 5.1 and 5.2 of
the PIRT report.
This ISG is not intended as stand-alone review guidance, but
instead supplements NUREG-0800, ``Standard Review Plan,'' Section 4.2,
``Fuel System Design,'' and discusses the potential impact of coated
claddings on reviews performed under Standard Review Plan (SRP),
Section 4.3, ``Nuclear Design,'' Section 4.4, ``Thermal and Hydraulic
Design,'' and Chapter 15, ``Transient and Accident Analysis.'' In
addition to the guidance provided in this ISG, reviewers of coated
cladding applications should familiarize themselves with the PIRT
report and with the relevant sections of the SRP.
The PIRT report and this ISG focus primarily on metallic chromium
coatings applied to a zirconium alloy base metal, with some additional
discussion that is applicable to chromium-based ceramic coatings.
Reviewers of submittals on ceramic chromium-coated zirconium alloy
claddings should carefully read the PIRT to determine the applicability
to the review.
This ISG does not apply to reviews of fuel products other than
metallic or ceramic chromium-based coatings on a zirconium alloy
substrate.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 18th day of October, 2019.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Tekia V. Govan,
Project Manager, ROP Support and Generic Communication Branch, Division
of Inspection and Regional Support, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2019-23186 Filed 10-23-19; 8:45 am]
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