[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]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P