[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 101 (Thursday, May 25, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33922-33924]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-11184]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2022-0082]
Draft Interim Staff Guidance: Advanced Reactor Content of
Application Project, ``Risk-informed Performance-Based Fire Protection
Program (for Operations)''
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft guidance; request for comment.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 (ISG) DANU-ISG-2022-
09, ``Risk-informed Performance-based Fire Protection Program (for
Operations).'' The purpose of this proposed ISG is to provide guidance
to assist the NRC staff in determining whether an application for a
non-light water reactor (non-LWR) design that uses the Licensing
Modernization Project (LMP) process meets the minimum requirements for
construction permits, operating licenses, combined licenses,
manufacturing licenses, standard design approval, or design
certifications.
DATES: Submit comments by July 10, 2023. 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 on or before
this date.
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 http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2022-0082. Address
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann;
telephone: 301-415-0624; 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: Michael Orenak, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-3229, email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2022-0082 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-2022-0082.
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]. For the convenience of the reader,
instructions about obtaining materials referenced in this document are
provided in the ``Availability of Documents'' section.
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
a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (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-2022-0082 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
[[Page 33923]]
submissions to remove such information before making the comment
submissions available to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.
II. Background
The NRC anticipates the submission of advanced power-reactor
applications within the next few years based on preapplication
engagement initiated by several prospective applicants. Because many of
these designs are non-LWRs, the NRC is developing technology-inclusive,
risk-informed, performance-based guidance to support the development
and review of these non-LWR applications. The proposed guidance will
facilitate the development and review of non-LWR applications for
construction permits or operating licenses under part 50 of title 10 of
the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Domestic Licensing of
Production and Utilization Facilities,'' or combined licenses,
manufacturing licenses, standard design approval, or design
certifications under 10 CFR part 52, ``Licenses, Certifications, and
Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.'' The NRC is developing a rule to
amend 10 CFR parts 50 and 52 (RIN 3150-Al66). The NRC staff notes this
proposed ISG may need to be updated to conform to changes to 10 CFR
parts 50 and 52, if any, adopted through that rulemaking. Further, as
of the date of this draft ISG, the NRC is developing an optional
performance-based, technology-inclusive regulatory framework for
licensing nuclear power plants designated as 10 CFR part 53,
``Licensing and Regulation of Advanced Nuclear Reactors,'' (RIN 3150-
AK31). The NRC intends to revise this proposed guidance as a part of
the ongoing rulemaking for 10 CFR part 53.
To standardize the development of content of a non-LWR application,
the staff focused on two activities: the Advanced Reactor Content of
Application Project (ARCAP) and the Technology-Inclusive Content of
Application Project (TICAP). The ARCAP is an NRC-led activity that is
intended to result in guidance for a complete non-LWR application for
review under 10 CFR part 50 or 10 CFR part 52, and which the staff
would update, as appropriate, pending the issuance of the 10 CFR part
50 and 10 CFR part 52 rulemaking as previously mentioned in this
notice, or if the Commission issues a final 10 CFR part 53 rule. As a
result, the ARCAP is broad and encompasses several industry-led and
NRC-led guidance document development activities aimed at facilitating
a consistent approach to the development of application documents.
The TICAP is an industry-led activity that is focused on providing
guidance on the appropriate scope and depth of information related to
the specific portions of the safety analysis report that describe the
fundamental safety functions of the design and document the safety
analysis of the facility using the LMP-based approach. The LMP-based
approach is described in Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.233, ``Guidance for a
Technology-Inclusive, Risk-Informed, and Performance-Based Methodology
to Inform the Licensing Basis and Content of Applications for Licenses,
Certifications, and Approvals for Non-Light-Water Reactors,'' (ADAMS
Accession No. ML20091L698).
The ARCAP draft ISG titled ``Review of Risk-Informed, Technology
Inclusive Advanced Reactor Applications--Roadmap'' (ARCAP Roadmap ISG)
provides a general overview of the information that should be included
in a non-LWR application. The ARCAP Roadmap ISG also provides a review
roadmap for the NRC staff with the principal purpose of ensuring
consistency, quality, and uniformity of NRC staff reviews. The ARCAP
Roadmap ISG includes references to eight other ARCAP draft ISGs and a
TICAP draft regulatory guide (DG) that are the subject of separate
Federal Register notices (FRNs) requesting comment on these guidance
documents. Information regarding the eight other ARCAP draft ISGs and
the TICAP DG can be found in the ``Availability of Documents'' section
of this FRN.
III. Request for Comment
The ARCAP draft ISG titled, ``Risk-informed Performance-based Fire
Protection Program (for Operations),'' that is the subject of this FRN
for which the staff is seeking comment, was developed because the
current application and review guidance related to the fire protection
program (for operations) is directly applicable only to light water
reactors and may not fully (or efficiently) identify the information to
be included in a technology-inclusive, risk-informed, and performance-
based application or provide a review approach for such an application.
The Fire Protection Program (for Operations) draft ISG also refers to
several NRC-issued, approved, or endorsed documents and the NRC is
requesting comment on this proposed ISG's use of those documents.
Additionally, the staff is issuing for public comment a draft
regulatory analysis. The staff developed a regulatory analysis to
assess the value of issuing or revising a regulatory guide as well as
alternative courses of action. The development of both application
guidance and staff review guidance is warranted. If finalized, this ISG
will serve as the non-LWR application and review guidance for the fire
protection program (for operations).
IV. Availability of Documents
The table in this notice provides the document description, ADAMS
accession number, and, if appropriate, the docket identification number
referencing the request for public comment on supporting documents
associated with the document that is the subject of this FRN.
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ADAMS accession Regulations.gov
Document description No. docket ID No.
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Draft Interim Staff Guidance ML22048B546 NRC-2022-0074
DANU-ISG-2022-01 ``Advanced
Reactor Content of
Application Project,
`Review of Risk-Informed,
Technology Inclusive
Advanced Reactor
Applications--Roadmap' ''.
Draft Interim Staff Guidance ML22048B541 NRC-2022-0075
DANU-ISG-2022-02,
``Advanced Reactor Content
of Application Project
Chapter 2, `Site
Information' ''.
Draft Interim Staff Guidance ML22048B543 NRC-2022-0076
DANU-ISG-2022-03,
``Advanced Reactor Content
of Application Project
Chapter 9, `Control of
Routine Plant Radioactive
Effluents, Plant
Contamination and Solid
Waste' ''.
Draft Interim Staff Guidance ML22048B544 NRC-2022-0077
DANU-ISG-2022-04,
``Advanced Reactor Content
of Application Project
Chapter 10, `Control of
Occupational Dose' ''.
Draft Interim Staff Guidance ML22048B542 NRC-2022-0078
DANU-ISG-2022-05,
``Advanced Reactor Content
of Application Project
Chapter 11, `Organization
and Human-System
Considerations' ''.
Draft Interim Staff Guidance ML22048B545 NRC-2022-0079
DANU-ISG-2022-06,
``Advanced Reactor Content
of Application Project
Chapter 12, `Post-
Construction Inspection,
Testing, and Analysis
Program' ''.
Draft Interim Staff Guidance ML22048B549 NRC-2022-0080
DANU-ISG-2022-07,
``Advanced Reactor Content
of Application Project,
`Risk-informed Inservice
Inspection/Inservice
Testing' ''.
[[Page 33924]]
Draft Interim Staff Guidance ML22048B548 NRC-2022-0081
DANU-ISG-2022-08,
``Advanced Reactor Content
of Application Project,
`Risk-Informed Technical
Specifications' ''.
Draft Interim Staff Guidance ML22048B547 NRC-2022-0082
DANU-ISG-2022-09,
``Advanced Reactor Content
of Application Project,
`Risk-informed Performance-
based Fire Protection
Program (for Operations)'
''.
DG-1404, ``Guidance for a ML22076A003 NRC-2022-0073
Technology-Inclusive
Content of Application
Methodology to Inform the
Licensing Basis and Content
of Applications for
Licenses, Certifications,
and Approvals for Non-Light-
Water Reactors''.
Regulatory Analysis for ML23093A099 NRC-2022-0074
ARCAP ISGs.
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V. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality
DANU-ISG-2022-09, if finalized, would not constitute backfitting as
defined in 10 CFR 50.109, ``Backfitting,'' and as described in
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. The
guidance would not apply to any current licensees or applicants or
existing or requested approvals under 10 CFR part 52, and therefore its
issuance cannot be a backfit or forward fit or affect issue finality.
Further, as explained in DANU-ISG-2022-09, applicants and licensees
would not be required to comply with the positions set forth in DANU-
ISG-2022-09.
Dated: May 22, 2023.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Steven T. Lynch,
Chief, Advanced Reactor Policy Branch, Division of Advanced Reactors
and Non-Power Production and Utilization Facilities, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2023-11184 Filed 5-24-23; 8:45 am]
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