[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 230 (Thursday, November 29, 2001)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 59546-59547]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-29584]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 50
Risk-Informed Treatment of Structures, Systems and Components
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 add 10 CFR 50.69, ``Risk-Informed Treatment of
Structures, Systems and Components.'' The proposal would permit power
reactor licensees and applicants to implement an alternative regulatory
framework with respect to certain treatment requirements currently
imposed beyond practices for commercial grade equipment to add
assurance of capability of structures, systems and components (SSCs) to
perform their intended functions. Under this framework, licensees,
using a risk-informed process for categorizing SSC according to their
safety and risk significance, could remove SSCs of low safety
significance from the scope of certain identified treatment
requirements. The availability of the draft wording is intended to
inform stakeholders of the current status of the NRC's activities to
adopt 10 CFR 50.69 and to provide stakeholders the opportunity to
comment on the draft changes. The NRC has also provided additional (``[
]'') information within the body of the draft rule language which is
bracketed (``[ ]'') to facilitate understanding of the NRC's intent on
certain aspects of the proposed rule.
DATES: Comments should be submitted on or before 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 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
[[Page 59547]]
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: Eileen M. McKenna, 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) 415-2189; Internet: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Since the Commission published a Policy
Statement on the Use of Probabilistic Risk Assessment in 1995, the
NRC's efforts to consider risk insights in the regulatory
infrastructure have evolved over the years. In SECY-98-300, dated
December 23, 1998, under Option 2, the NRC 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-99-256, dated
October 29, 1999, the staff provided a rulemaking plan and an Advance
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) for risk-informed changes using 10
CFR 50.69. In a Staff Requirements Memorandum dated January 31, 2000,
the Commission directed the staff to proceed with the rulemaking and to
publish the ANPR (65 FR 11488, March 3, 2000). In SECY-00-0194, dated
September 7, 2000, the NRC staff subsequently communicated to the
Commission its preliminary analysis of public comments on the ANPR and
discussed issues involving 10 CFR 50.69.
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 50.69 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 21st day of November 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. 01-29584 Filed 11-28-01; 8:45 am]
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