[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 57 (Thursday, March 24, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16770-16772]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-06222]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2022-0052]


Acceptability of Probabilistic Risk Assessment Results for 
Advanced Non-Light Water Reactor Risk-Informed Activities

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Regulatory guide for trial use; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment and for trial use, a new regulatory guide (RG) 1.247, 
``Acceptability of Probabilistic Risk Assessment Results for Non-Light 
Water Reactor Risk-Informed Activities.'' This new guidance describes 
one acceptable approach for determining whether the acceptability of 
the probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) used to support a PRA 
application is sufficient to provide confidence in the results for non-
light water reactors (NLWRs) and risk-informed activities. As a trial 
RG, this issuance does not provide final staff positions and the 
guidance within may be revised based on experience obtained by the NRC 
with its use after its publication.

DATES: Submit comments by May 23, 2022. Comments received during this 
public comment period will be considered and responded to. The public 
comment period will be followed by a 2-year trial use period. At any 
time during the trial use period, a member of the public may submit 
suggestions to

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the NRC for improvement of existing RGs or for the development of new 
RGs. Suggestions can be submitted on the NRC's public website at 
https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/reg-guides/contactus.html. Suggestions will be considered in future updates and 
enhancements to the ``Regulatory Guide'' series. This trial use period 
may be extended, as necessary, based on the experience obtained. After 
the trial use period, the NRC staff will develop and issue a draft RG 
that will include the stakeholder feedback and experience gained from 
use of the trial RG. The draft RG issuance will also provide an 
additional formal public comment opportunity, with feedback considered 
prior to final RG publication.

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-2022-0052. Address 
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; 
telephone: 301-415-0624; 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: Anders Gilbertson, telephone: 301-415-
1541, email: [email protected], Michelle Gonzalez telephone: 
301-415-5661, email: [email protected], or Harriet Karagiannis, 
telephone: 301-415-2493, email: [email protected]. These 
individuals are staff in the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research at 
the 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-2022-0052 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 https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2022-0052.
     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, at 301-415-4737, 
or by email to [email protected]. The ADAMS accession number for 
each document referenced (if it is available in ADAMS) is provided the 
first time that it is mentioned in this document.
     NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public 
documents, by appointment, at the NRC's PDR, Room P1 B35, One White 
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. To make 
an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to 
[email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 
8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (ET), 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-2022-0052 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 this new trial RG in the NRC's ``Regulatory 
Guide'' series and requesting public comment. 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 RG titled, ``Acceptability of Probabilistic Risk Assessment 
Results for Non-Light Water Reactor Risk-Informed Activities,'' is 
designated as a trial use RG 1.247 and is available in ADAMS under 
Accession No. ML21235A008. It describes one acceptable approach for 
determining whether the acceptability of the PRA used to support an 
application is sufficient to provide confidence in the results, such 
that the PRA can be used in regulatory decision-making for NLWRs for 
implementing the requirements in Part 50 and 52 of title 10 of the Code 
of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), or future applicable regulations. In 
addition, this RG is intended to be consistent with the NRC's PRA 
Policy Statement and reflects and endorses, with staff exceptions and 
clarifications, national consensus PRA standards provided by standards 
development organizations and guidance provided by nuclear industry 
organizations.
    It is issued as a trial RG since the staff has determined that 
additional implementation experience would better inform draft and 
final staff positions. Such revisions would involve the development of 
a draft RG that would include lessons learned and public comments from 
use of this trial RG. The draft RG would also be available for public 
comment prior to issuance of a final RG. Therefore, the staff positions 
included in this trial RG could be different that the ones that would 
be included in the draft and final RG.
    The staff is also issuing a regulatory analysis (ADAMS Accession 
No. ML21235A010). The staff develops a regulatory analysis to assess 
the value of issuing this new regulatory guide as well as alternative 
courses of action.

III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality

    This trial RG does not establish a staff position for purposes of 
10 CFR 50.109, ``Backfitting'' or constitute forward fitting as that 
term is defined and described in NRC Management Directive

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(MD) 8.4, ``Management of Backfitting, Forward Fitting, Issue Finality, 
and Information Requests'' (ADAMS Accession No. ML18093B087). Any 
changes to this trial RG, such as withdrawal or addition of or 
modification to staff positions based on experience gained during the 
trial use period, prior to issuing a final RG will not be considered to 
be backfitting as defined in 10 CFR 50.109. This will ensure that the 
lessons learned from the regulatory trial use of the pilot applications 
of this RG are adequately addressed and that this guidance is 
sufficient to enhance regulatory stability in the review and approval 
of risk-informed applications for non-light water reactors.

    Dated: March 18, 2022.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Meraj Rahimi,
Chief, Regulatory Guide and Programs Management Branch, Division of 
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2022-06222 Filed 3-23-22; 8:45 am]
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