[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 161 (Friday, August 21, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54409-54410]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2026-17092]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2026-3268]
Draft Interim Staff Guidance: Evaluations of Risk Assessments for
Risk-Informed Decision-Making for Regulatory Applications
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ACTION: Draft guidance; request for comment.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), OAR/DARP-ISG-
2026-XX, ``Evaluations of Risk Assessments for Risk-Informed Decision-
Making for Regulatory Applications.'' If finalized, this ISG will
provide guidance to the staff for reviewing systematic risk assessment
methods, including probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs) and other
systematic risk evaluations (SREs). This ISG will supplement existing
guidance to facilitate the staff's understanding of the uses of risk
information in regulatory applications and application of principles of
risk-informed decision-making.
DATES: Submit comments by September 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 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-2026-3268. 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: Jack Minzer Bryant, Office of Advanced
Reactors, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001; telephone: 301-415-0610; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2026-3268 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-2026-3268.
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]. The draft ISG, ``Evaluations of Risk
Assessments for Risk-Informed Decision-Making for Regulatory
Applications'' is available in
[[Page 54410]]
ADAMS under Accession No. ML26162A452.
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 2026-3268 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
The NRC is anticipating a high volume of license applications for
new and advanced reactors. Many new applications are expected to
leverage risk assessments to establish the safety of facility designs
that can be operated without undue risk to the health and safety of the
public. This ISG will supplement existing guidance to support staff in
assessing how risk information is used in applications, determining the
acceptability of risk assessments, and integrating risk insights into
licensing decisions.
The NRC has historically recognized the value of risk assessment in
regulatory decision making, as reflected in the Commission's Final
Policy Statement on Use of Probabilistic Risk Assessment Methods in
Nuclear Regulatory Activities (60 FR 42622). Many of the concepts and
terms related to using PRAs, risk insights, and risk-informed processes
in regulatory activities are described in the Commission Staff
Requirements Memorandum, SRM-SECY-98-144, ``Staff Requirements--SECY-
98-144--White Paper on Risk-Informed and Performance-Based
Regulation.'' Implementing the use of PRA methods has been supported by
the issuance of regulatory guidance, including Regulatory Guide (RG)
1.174, which describes an approach for using PRA in risk-informed
decisions on plant-specific changes to the licensing basis, and RGs
1.200 and 1.247 (for trial use), which provided guidance on
acceptability of PRAs for light-water reactors (LWRs) and non-LWRs,
respectively.
This ISG provides staff guidance on evaluating risk assessment
methods, including PRAs and SREs. This ISG provides guidance on
evaluating the characteristics and attributes of a risk assessment
using a flexible approach that can accommodate a range of risk-informed
applications. This ISG builds upon, and aligns with, the risk-informed
decision-making principles of RG 1.174 to consider a risk assessment
along with other factors to determine its acceptability in the context
of its uses to support an application. This ISG leverages the high-
level approach discussed in RGs 1.200 and 1.247 (for trial use) and
considers acceptability of a risk assessment in terms of establishing
the analysis scope, providing an adequate level of detail,
demonstrating use of acceptable methods, and ensuring representation of
the facility. While these considerations were identified in the context
of development of a PRA guided by a consensus standard, the same
considerations can be broadly applied to other risk assessment methods.
This ISG is applicable to the review of applications for permits
and licenses that submit risk-informed, performance-based applications
for construction permits (CPs) or operating licenses (OLs) under part
50 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR); for
combined operating licenses (COLs), standard design approvals (SDAs),
design certifications (DCs) or manufacturing licenses (MLs) under 10
CFR part 52; or CP, OL, COL, custom COL, SDA, DC, or ML under 10 CFR
part 53.
III. Executive Order (E.O.) 12866
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs determined that
draft ISG, ``Acceptability of Risk Assessments for Risk-Informed
Decision-Making for Regulatory Applications,'' is not a significant
regulatory action under E.O. 12866.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.
Dated: August 19, 2026.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Mehdi Reisi Fard,
Director, Division of Advanced Reactor Engineering, Office of Advanced
Reactors.
[FR Doc. 2026-17092 Filed 8-20-26; 8:45 am]
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