[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 107 (Monday, June 5, 2023)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 36514-36515]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-11895]


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 Proposed Rules
                                                 Federal Register
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of 
 the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these 
 notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in 
 the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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  Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 107 / Monday, June 5, 2023 / Proposed 
Rules  

[[Page 36514]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 72

[NRC-2023-0107]


Draft Regulatory Guide: Weather-Related Administrative Controls 
at Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft guide; request for comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment a draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-3057, ``Weather-
Related Administrative Controls at Independent Spent Fuel Storage 
Installations.'' This DG is a proposed new regulatory guide (RG) 3.77 
and provides licensees with methods that the NRC staff considers 
acceptable for specific or general licensees of an independent spent 
fuel storage installation and certificate of compliance holders to 
comply with protection against environmental conditions and natural 
phenomena.

DATES: Submit comments by July 5, 2023. 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.

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-2023-0107. 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 obtaining information and submitting 
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John-Chau Nguyen, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301-415-0262; email: [email protected], or Matt Learn, Office of Nuclear Material Safety 
and Safeguards, telephone: 630-829-9603; email: [email protected], 
or Harriet Karagiannis, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, 
telephone: 301-415-2493; email: [email protected]. All are 
staff of 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-2023-0107 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-2023-0107.
     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].
     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-2023-0107 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. 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.
    The DG, entitled ``Weather-Related Administrative Controls at 
Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations,'' (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML23089A012) is temporarily identified by its task number, DG-3057.
    This DG-3057 is a proposed new RG 3.77, and provides the NRC staff 
and the industry with guidance that would provide licensees the option, 
in certain limited circumstances, to use administrative controls to 
ensure that the structures, systems, and components important to safety 
are designed to withstand the effects of weather-related

[[Page 36515]]

wind and tornado natural phenomena without impairing their capability 
to perform their intended design functions during outdoor dry storage 
system handling activities. This DG is endorsing Nuclear Energy 
Institute 22-02, Revision 2, ``Guidelines for Weather-Related 
Administrative Controls for Short Duration Outdoor Dry Cask Storage 
Operations,'' with clarifications and exceptions.
    The staff is also issuing for public comment a draft regulatory 
analysis (ADAMS Accession No. ML23089A014). The staff develops a 
regulatory analysis to assess the value of issuing or revising a 
regulatory guide as well as alternative courses of action.
    As noted in the Federal Register on December 9, 2022 (87 FR 75671), 
this document is being published in the ``Proposed Rules'' section of 
the Federal Register to comply with publication requirements under 1 
CFR chapter I.

III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality

    Issuance of this draft regulatory guide would not constitute 
backfitting as defined in section 72.62 of title 10 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Backfitting,'' and as described in NRC 
Management Directive (MD) 8.4, ``Management of Backfitting, Forward 
Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information Requests'' (ADAMS Accession 
No. ML18093B087); 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. Further, as explained in DG-3057, 
applicants and licensees would not be required to comply with the 
positions set forth in DG-3057.

IV. Submitting Suggestions for Improvement of Regulatory Guides

    A member of the public may, at any time, submit suggestions to 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.

    Dated: May 31, 2023.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Meraj Rahimi,
Chief, Regulatory Guide and Programs Management Branch, Division of 
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2023-11895 Filed 6-2-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P