[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 240 (Monday, December 14, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 80824-80825]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-27382]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2020-0256]


Plant-Specific, Risk-Informed Decisionmaking for Inservice 
Inspections of Piping

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft regulatory guide; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is re-issuing for 
public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-1288 (Revision 1), 
``Plant-Specific, Risk-Informed Decisionmaking for Inservice Inspection 
of Piping.'' This proposed guide is Revision 2 of regulatory guide (RG) 
1.178, ``An Approach for Plant-Specific, Risk-Informed Decisionmaking 
for Inservice Inspection of Piping.'' It incorporates information to be 
consistent with the terminology and defense-in-depth philosophy 
provided in RG 1.174, ``An Approach for Using Probabilistic Risk 
Assessment in Risk-Informed Decisions on Plant-Specific Changes to the 
Licensing Basis,'' as well as to endorse the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code Case N-716-1, ``Alternative 
Classification and Examination Requirements, Section XI, Division 1.''

DATES: Submit comments by January 13, 2021. 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; 
however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the 
Federal Rulemaking website:
     Federal Rulemaking website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2020-0256. 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 accessing information and submitting 
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Zeechung Wang, telephone: 301-415-
1686, email: [email protected], or Harriet Karagiannis, telephone: 
301-415-2493, email: [email protected]. Both are staff 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-2020-0256 when contacting the NRC 
about

[[Page 80825]]

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 https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2020-0256.
     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].
     Attention: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies 
of public documents is currently closed. You may submit your request to 
the PDR via email at [email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 
between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (EST), Monday through Friday, except 
Federal holidays.

B. Submitting Comments

    The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the 
Federal Rulemaking website: https://www.regulations.gov. Please include 
Docket ID NRC-2020-0256 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 https://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 
methods that are acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific 
parts of the agency's regulations, to explain techniques that the staff 
uses in evaluating specific issues or postulated events, and to 
describe information that the staff needs in its review of applications 
for permits and licenses.
    This DG, identified by its task number, DG-1288, titled, ``Plant-
Specific, Risk-Informed Decisionmaking for Inservice Inspections of 
Piping,'' (ADAMS Accession No. ML20210M047) is a proposed Revision 2 of 
RG 1.178 This revision of RG 1.178 (Revision 2) describes an approach 
that is acceptable to the staff of the NRC for developing risk-informed 
inservice inspections of piping (RI-ISI) programs and supplements the 
guidance provided in RG 1.174, ``An Approach for Using Probabilistic 
Risk Assessment in Risk-Informed Decisions on Plant-Specific Changes to 
the Licensing Basis.'' It updates the defense-in-depth philosophy to be 
consistent with the philosophy described in RG 1.174. RG 1.174 was 
revised in 2018 to expand the meaning of, and the process for, 
assessing defense-in-depth considerations. Specifically, this revision 
of RG 1.178 references the defense-in-depth guidance in RG 1.174 in 
several staff regulatory positions.
    Additionally, the NRC staff revised this guide to (1) update 
Section C.2.2, ``Evaluation of Risk Impact,'' of this RG to be 
consistent with Section C.2.3 in RG 1.174, which provides specific 
considerations with respect to determining the acceptability of the 
probabilistic risk assessment used in risk-informed decisionmaking, and 
(2) add the reference to ASME Code Case N-716-1, ``Alternative 
Classification and Examination Requirements, Section XI, Division 1,'' 
dated January 27, 2013, which describes an RI-ISI process as approved 
in RG 1.147.
    A previous version of DG-1288 (ADAMS Accession No. ML12017A076) was 
issued for public comment on June 29, 2012 (77 FR 38856) under Docket 
ID NRC-2012-0110. The staff did not fully consider the public comments 
received at that time due to the extent of the changes for RG 1.174. 
However, the staff has reviewed and addressed some comments on this DG. 
Commenters on the previous version are encouraged to review and comment 
on this version.
    The staff is also issuing for public comment a draft regulatory 
analysis (ADAMS Accession No. ML20210M044). The staff develops a 
regulatory analysis to assess the value of issuing or revising a 
regulatory guide as well as alternative courses of action.

III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality

    DG-1288, if finalized, would revise RG 1.178, Revision 2, which 
describes methods acceptable to the NRC staff for complying with the 
NRC's regulations for developing RI-ISI programs and supplements the 
guidance provided in RG 1.174.
    Issuance of DG-1288, if finalized, would not constitute backfitting 
as defined in section 50.109 of the Code of Federal Regulation (10 
CFR), ``Backfitting,'' and as described in NRC Management Directive 
(MD) 8.4, ``Management of Backfitting, Forward Fitting, Issue Finality, 
and Information Requests''; constitute forward fitting as that term is 
defined and described in MD 8.4; or affect the issue finality of any 
approval issued under 10 CFR part 52. As explained in DG-1288, 
applicants and licensees would not be required to comply with the 
positions set forth in DG-1288.

    Dated: December 8, 2020.
    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Meraj Rahimi,
Chief, Regulatory Guidance and Generic Issues Branch, Division of 
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2020-27382 Filed 12-11-20; 8:45 am]
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