[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 137 (Wednesday, July 17, 2024)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 58080-58081]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-15553]


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Proposed Rules
                                                Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________

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. 89, No. 137 / Wednesday, July 17, 2024 / 
Proposed Rules

[[Page 58080]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 72

[NRC-2024-0121]


Draft Regulatory Guide: Acceptable ASME Section XI Inservice 
Inspection Code Cases

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft guide; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment a draft Regulatory Guide (DG), DG-3058. This DG is a 
proposed new Regulatory Guide (RG) 3.78 and provides applicants and 
licensees with methods that the NRC staff considers acceptable for 
specific or general independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) 
licensees and certificate of compliance (CoC) holders to comply with 
NRC regulations for inservice inspection of confinement boundary 
components and aging management activities associated with the renewals 
of ISFSIs, general licensees, and CoC holders for spent fuel storage 
systems.

DATES: Submit comments by August 16, 2024. 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-2024-0121. 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: Darrell Dunn, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301-415-7079; email: 
[email protected], or Harriet Karagiannis, Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research, telephone: 301-415-2493; email: 
[email protected]. Both 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-2024-0121 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-2024-0121.
     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].
     NRC's PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies 
of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. 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-2024-0121 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 ``Acceptable ASME Section XI Inservice Inspection 
Code Cases for 10 CFR part 72,'' is temporarily identified by its task 
number, DG-3058 (ADAMS Accession No. ML24093A010).
    This DG-3058 is a proposed Revision 0 to a new RG 3.78 and provides 
the NRC staff and the industry with guidance using codes and standards 
for inservice inspection of confinement boundary components and aging 
management activities associated with the renewals of ISFSIs, general 
licensees, and CoC holders for spent fuel storage systems. This DG is 
endorsing the American Society of

[[Page 58081]]

Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code Case N-860, ``Inspection Requirements 
and Evaluation Standards for Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and 
Transportation Containment Systems Section XI, Division 1; Section XI, 
Division 2,'' dated July 6, 2020.
    The staff is also issuing for public comment a draft regulatory 
analysis (ADAMS Accession No. ML24093A012). 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 
chapter I of title 1 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality

    Issuance of this DG would not constitute backfitting as defined in 
10 CFR 72.62, ``Backfitting,'' and as described in NRC Management 
Directive 8.4, ``Management of Backfitting, Forward Fitting, Issue 
Finality, and Information Requests'' (ADAMS Accession No. ML18093B087). 
That is, licensees would not be required to comply with the positions 
set forth in this proposed regulatory guide.

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: July 10, 2024.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Meraj Rahimi,
Chief, Regulatory Guide and Programs Management Branch, Division of 
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2024-15553 Filed 7-16-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P