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Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Draft guide; request for comment.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment a draft Regulatory Guide (DG), 1443, proposed Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.263, Revision 0, “Comprehensive Risk Metrics and Associated Risk Performance Objectives for Commercial Nuclear Plants.” This DG describes approaches that are acceptable to the staff of the NRC for developing comprehensive risk metrics (CRMs) and associated risk performance objectives (RPOs).
Submit comments by September 21, 2026. 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.
You may submit comments by any of the following methods; however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal rulemaking website.
For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting comments, see “Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments” in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
Martin Stutzke, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, telephone: 301-415-0743; email: Martin.Stutzke@nrc.gov and Stanley Gardocki, Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301-415-1067; email: Stanley.Gardocki@nrc.gov. Both are staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2026-3301 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:
The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal rulemaking website ( https://www.regulations.gov). Please include Docket ID NRC-2026-3301 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.
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 “Comprehensive Risk Metrics and Associated Risk Performance Objectives for Commercial Nuclear Plants,” is temporarily identified by its task number, DG-1443.
This DG provides the NRC staff's guidance on developing CRMs and RPOs to support a technology-inclusive, risk-informed, and performance-based approach to the design and operation of commercial nuclear plants under part 53 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), “Risk-Informed, Technology-Inclusive Regulatory Framework for Commercial Nuclear Plants.”
The staff is also issuing for public comment a draft regulatory analysis (ADAMS Accession No. ML26091A250). The staff developed a regulatory analysis to assess the value of issuing or revising a regulatory guide as well as alternative courses of action.
Issuance of DG-1443, if finalized, would not constitute backfitting as defined in 10 CFR 50.109, “Backfitting,” and as described in NRC Management Directive (MD) 8.4, “Management of Backfitting, Forward Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information Requests”; affect issue finality of any approval issued under 10 CFR part 52, “Licenses, Certificates, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants”; or constitute forward fitting as defined in MD 8.4, because, as explained in this DG, licensees would not be required to comply with the positions set forth in this DG. ( printed page 53902)
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.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs determined that this DG is not a significant regulatory action under E.O. 12866.
Authority:42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.
Dated: August 18, 2026.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Nicholee Valentine,
Chief, Guidance and Publication Branch, Division of Guidance, Rulemaking, Economic Analysis, and Technical Editing, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2026-17030 Filed 8-19-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
6 comments have been received at Regulations.gov.
Agencies review all submissions and may choose to redact, or withhold, certain submissions (or portions thereof). Submitted comments may not be available to be read until the agency has approved them.