[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 220 (Wednesday, November 14, 2001)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 57001-57002]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-28398]
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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. 66, No. 220 / Wednesday, November 14, 2001 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 57001]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 50
Standards for Combustible Gas Control System in Light-Water-
Cooled Power Reactors
AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Availability of draft rule wording.
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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is making available
the draft wording of a possible amendment of its regulations. The
proposal would amend 10 CFR 50.44, ``Standards for combustible gas
control system in light-water-cooled power reactors,'' and associated
regulations based on experience gained from a fundamental reevaluation
of the need for the regulation, the application of risk insights, and
the incorporation of performance-based concepts, to the degree
practicable. The proposed changes effectively ``rebaselines'' the
existing regulation for current licensees and consolidates combustible
gas control regulations for future applicants and licensees. The
changes should reduce the regulatory burden for all applicants and
licensees and improve the effectiveness of 10 CFR 50.44. Additional
conforming changes to 10 CFR 50.34, 50.46, and 10 CFR part 52 are also
identified. The availability of the draft wording is intended to inform
stakeholders of the current status of the NRC staff's activities to
amend 10 CFR 50.44 and to provide stakeholders the opportunity to
comment on the draft changes. The NRC staff has also provided
additional information within the body of the draft rule language which
is bracketed (``[ ]'') to facilitate understanding of the staff's
intent and the development of guidance for the proposed rule. As a
result of the draft wording changes, certain technical specifications
in the standard technical specifications can be deleted or modified.
The NRC staff is also making the draft technical specification changes
associated with the draft wording of 10 CFR 50.44 available for
stakeholders comments. The draft changes to NUREGs 1430, 1431, 1432,
1433, and 1434 are attached.
DATES: Comments should be submitted by December 31, 2001. Any comments
received after this date may not be considered during drafting of the
proposed rule. Because of scheduling considerations in preparing a
proposed rule, the NRC staff requests that stakeholders provide their
comments at their earliest convenience before the end of the comment
period, if practicable.
ADDRESSES: Submit written comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention:
Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff, Mail Stop O-16C1 or deliver
written comments to One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal
workdays.
You may also provide comments via the NRC's interactive rulemaking
Web site through the NRC's home page at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov. This
site provides the capability to upload comments as files (any format),
if your web browser supports that function. For information about the
interactive rulemaking Web site, contact Ms. Carol Gallagher at (301)
415-5905 or by e-mail to [email protected]. Copies of any comments received
and certain documents related to this rulemaking may be examined at the
NRC Public Document Room, located at One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. The NRC maintains an
Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which
provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. These
documents may be accessed through the NRC's Public Electronic Reading
Room on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html. If you
do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the
documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR)
Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by email to
[email protected].
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Anthony W. Markley, Risk-Informed
Initiatives, Environmental, Decommissioning, and Rulemaking Branch,
Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001; Telephone: (301) 415-3165; Internet: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Since the Commission published a Policy
Statement on the Use of Probabilistic Risk Assessment in 1995, the NRC
staff's efforts to consider risk insights in the regulatory
infrastructure have evolved over the years. In SECY-98-0300, dated
December 23, 1998, under Option 3, the staff proposed to add provisions
to Part 50 for risk-informed alternative regulations, revise existing
requirements to reflect risk-informed considerations, and to remove
unnecessary or ineffective regulations. In SECY-00-0198, dated
September 14, 2000, the staff provided specific recommendations for
risk-informed changes to 10 CFR 50.44. In a Staff Requirements
Memorandum dated January 19, 2001, the Commission directed the staff to
proceed with risk-informed revisions to 10 CFR 50.44. In SECY-01-0162,
dated August 23, 2001, the NRC staff subsequently communicated to the
Commission its recommended approach and discussed issues involving 10
CFR 50.44.
During the development of the Option 3 effort, Mr. Bob Christie of
Performance Technology, Inc. submitted letters dated October 7 and
November 9, 1999 that requested changes to the regulations in 10 CFR
50.44. These letters have been characterized as a petition for
rulemaking and assigned the Docket No. PRM-50-68. The petition was
published for comment in the Federal Register on January 12, 2000 (65
FR 1829). The issues associated with 10 CFR 50.44 which were raised by
the petitioner were discussed in SECY-00-0198 and will be addressed in
the proposed rulemaking.
The NRC also received a petition for rulemaking filed by the
Nuclear Energy Institute. The petition was docketed on April 12, 2000,
and has been assigned Docket No. PRM-50-71. The petition was published
for comment in the Federal Register on May 30, 2000 (65 FR 34599). The
petitioner requests that the NRC amend its regulations to allow nuclear
power plant licensees to use zirconium-based cladding materials other
than zircaloy or ZIRLO, provided the cladding materials meet the
requirements for fuel cladding
[[Page 57002]]
performance and have received approval by the NRC staff. The petitioner
believes the proposed amendment would improve the efficiency of the
regulatory process by eliminating the need for individual licensees to
obtain exemptions to use advanced cladding materials which have already
been approved by the NRC. The issues associated with 10 CFR 50.44 which
were raised by the petitioner will also be addressed in the proposed
rulemaking.
The NRC has now developed draft wording for the changes to its
regulations and has made them available on the NRC's rulemaking Web
site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov. This draft rule language is
preliminary and may be incomplete in one or more respects. This draft
rule language was released to inform stakeholders of the current status
of the 10 CFR 50.44 update rulemaking and to provide stakeholders with
an opportunity to comment on the draft revisions. Comments received
prior to publishing the proposed rule will be considered in the
development of the proposed rule. Comments may be provided through the
rulemaking Web site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov or by mail as
indicated under the ADDRESSES heading. The NRC may post updates
periodically on the rulemaking Web site that may be of interest to
stakeholders.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 29th day of October 2001.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Cynthia A. Carpenter,
Chief, Risk-Informed Initiatives, Environmental, Decommissioning, and
Rulemaking Branch, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office
of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 01-28398 Filed 11-13-01; 8:45 am]
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