Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Standard review plan-draft section revision; request for comment.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is revising the following section in Chapter 17, “Quality Assurance” and soliciting public comment on NUREG–0800, “Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants: LWR Edition,” Section 17.6, “Maintenance Rule.”
Comments must be filed no later than September 9, 2013. 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.
You may submit comment by any of the following methods (unless this document describes a different method for submitting comments on a specific subject):
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For additional direction on accessing information and submitting comments, see “Accessing Information and Submitting Comments” in the
Jonathan DeGange, Office of New Reactors, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Please refer to Docket ID NRC–2013–0179 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You may access publicly-available information related to this action by the following methods:
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Please include Docket ID NRC–2013–0179 in the subject line of your comment submission, in order to ensure that the NRC is able to make your comment submission available to the public in this docket.
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 posts all comment submissions at
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 submissions into ADAMS.
The Office of New Reactors and Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation are revising this section from the current Revision 1. Changes in this revision include revised scoping and the new generic FSAR template guidance in the review procedures section, and revised references. Details of specific changes are included at the end of the proposed section.
The changes to this Standard Review Plan (SRP) Chapter reflect current staff review methods and practices based on lessons learned from NRC reviews of design certification and combined license applications completed since the last revision of this chapter. Changes include removal of reference to Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.182 which was superseded by RG 1.160 and adding reference to industry guidance Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) 07–02A (ADAMS Accession No. ML103410542).
The NRC staff is issuing this notice to solicit public comments on the proposed SRP Section in Chapter 17. After the NRC staff considers any public comments, it will publish a final SRP Section in Chapter 17.
This draft SRP, if finalized, would provide guidance to the NRC staff for reviewing applications for a construction permit and an operating license under Part 50 of Title10 of the
Issuance of this SRP draft section revision, if finalized, would not constitute backfitting as defined in 10 CFR 50.109 (the Backfit Rule) or otherwise be inconsistent with the issue finality provisions in 10 CFR Part 52. The NRC's position is based upon the following considerations.
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The SRP provides internal guidance to the NRC staff on how to review an application for NRC regulatory approval in the form of licensing. Changes in internal staff guidance are not matters for which either nuclear power plant applicants or licensees are protected under either the Backfit Rule or the issue finality provisions of 10 CFR Part 52.
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The NRC staff does not intend to impose or apply the positions described in the draft SRP to existing licenses and regulatory approvals. Hence, the issuance of a final SRP—even if considered guidance within the purview of the issue finality provisions in 10 CFR Part 52—would not need to be evaluated as if it were a backfit or as being inconsistent with issue finality provisions. If, in the future, the NRC staff seeks to impose a position in the SRP on holders of already issued licenses in a manner that does not provide issue finality as described in the applicable issue finality provision, then the NRC staff must make the showing as set forth in the Backfit Rule or address the criteria for avoiding issue finality as described in the applicable issue finality provision.
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Applicants and potential applicants are not, with certain exceptions, protected by either the Backfit Rule or any issue finality provisions under 10 CFR Part 52. Neither the Backfit Rule nor the issue finality provisions under 10 CFR Part 52—with certain exclusions—were intended to apply to every NRC action that substantially changes the expectations of current and future applicants. The exceptions to the general principle are applicable whenever an applicant references a 10 CFR Part 52 license (e.g., an early site permit) and/or NRC regulatory approval (e.g., a design certification rule) with specified issue finality provisions. The NRC staff does not, at this time, intend to impose the positions represented in the draft SRP in a manner that is inconsistent with any issue finality provisions. If, in the future, the NRC staff seeks to impose a position in the SRP section in a manner that does not provide issue finality as described in the applicable issue finality provision, then the NRC staff must address the criteria
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