[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 139 (Wednesday, July 22, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46175-46176]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2026-14702]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2026-1849]
Draft NUREG: Training Review Criteria and Procedures
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft report; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for
public comment draft NUREG-1220, Revision 2, ``Training Review Criteria
and Procedures.'' This NUREG provides guidance to NRC staff for
reviewing training programs at nuclear power plants to verify that they
are developed and maintained using a Systems Approach to Training
(SAT). It describes the review criteria and evaluation methods used by
NRC staff for both initial training program reviews and ongoing
training program inspections, and it summarizes the five SAT elements
consistent with the framework outlined in ANSI/ANS-3.1-2014, as
endorsed by Regulatory Guide 1.8, ``Qualification and Training of
Personnel for Nuclear Power Plants.''
DATES: Submit comments by August 21, 2026. 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; 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-2026-1849. Address
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Bridget Curran;
telephone: 301-415-1003; email: [email protected]. For technical
questions, contact the individual(s) listed in the For Further
Information Contact section of this document.
Mail comments to: Office of Nuclear Material Safety and
Safeguards, Mail Stop: TWFN-5-A85, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Guidance and Publications Branch.
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: Maggie Chauhan, telephone: 301-415-
0365; email: [email protected] and Jeff Correll, telephone: 301-
415-2414; email: [email protected]. Both are staff of the Office
of Advanced Reactors 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-2026-1849 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-2026-1849.
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 ADAMS Public 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]. Draft NUREG-1220, Revision 2, ``Training
Review Criteria and Procedures'' is available in ADAMS under Accession
No. ML26195A017.
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-2026-1849 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. Discussion
Draft NUREG-1220, Revision 2, proposes updated structured guidance
for the NRC staff to review, approve, and inspect SAT programs for
nuclear power plant personnel across large light-water reactors (LWRs),
advanced reactors (including non-LWRs and stationary microreactors),
and small modular LWRs. The guidance applies to initial training
program submissions
[[Page 46176]]
under part 50 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR),
``Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities,''
(construction permits and operating licenses) and 10 CFR part 52,
``Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants,''
(combined licenses) and is also relevant to applicants for design
certifications or standard design approvals that submit topical
reports. It supplements NUREG-0800, ``Standard Review Plan for the
Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants: LWR
Edition,'' Chapter 13, ``Conduct of Operations,'' and supports
compliance with 10 CFR 50.120 and 10 CFR part 55, ``Operators'
Licenses,'' (including 10 CFR 55.31 and definitions in 10 CFR 55.4).
For existing LWR programs accredited by the Institute of Nuclear Power
Operations, inspections rely on NRC Inspection Procedure 41500,
``Training and Qualification Effectiveness'' and focus on performance
outcomes rather than imposing additional requirements; consistent with
prior Commission statements, the guidance does not seek to add
requirements or to mandate additional job and task analyses.
Draft NUREG-1220, Revision 2, clarifies the NRC staff's review and
inspection approach using both comprehensive programmatic reviews and
focused ``vertical slice'' reviews that trace a topic end-to-end
through the SAT phases--analysis, design, development, implementation,
and evaluation--to verify systematic linkage and program validity. It
underscores that SAT is performance-based and that each phase must
produce traceable, quality-assured products (e.g., actionable task
lists; condition-action-standard learning objectives; leveled,
defensible evaluation instruments; detailed lesson and simulator
guides; secure, independent exams; remediation protocols). Recognizing
the scalability and flexibility needed for advanced and microreactors,
the guidance anticipates organizational structures that differ from
conventional LWR programs. In such cases, applicants are expected to
describe how regulatory role functions are fulfilled and to justify
systematic training aligned to job and task analyses, including human
factors engineering and cognitive task analysis to capture supervisory
control and automation-related knowledge, skills, and abilities. The
evaluation phase is emphasized as continuous, drawing on formative,
summative, and confirmative methods--as well as operating experience,
corrective action program inputs, inspection results, design/procedure
changes, and regulatory/industry developments--to identify issues and
implement corrective actions commensurate with significance. Overall,
the draft aims to ensure clarity, relevance, and accuracy in training
programs, so they reliably produce qualified personnel and demonstrable
performance consistent with safety and regulatory requirements, while
providing predictable, transparent expectations for applicants and
licensees.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.
Dated: July 17, 2026.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Michael Wentzel,
Chief, Advanced Reactor Programs Branch, Division of Advanced Reactor
Programs, Office of Advanced Reactors.
[FR Doc. 2026-14702 Filed 7-21-26; 8:45 am]
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