[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 2 (Monday, January 5, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 265-266]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-30834]



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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2014-0277]


Guidance for ITAAC Closure

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft regulatory guide; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-1316, ``Guidance for 
ITAAC Closure Under 10 CFR part 52'' (ML14258B182). This guidance is 
proposed revision 2 of regulatory guide (RG) 1.215 (ML112580018). It 
has been revised to incorporate additional information related to 
inspections, tests, analysis, and acceptance criteria (ITAAC) 
maintenance, lessons learned from simulated ITAAC implementation, 
changes to the information and formatting guidance for uncompleted 
ITAAC notifications, and other enhancements. The revised guidance 
approves for use updated industry guidelines which contain additional 
information and examples of ITAAC closure notifications discussed 
during numerous public meetings between the NRC and industry since 
Revision 1 of RG 1.215 was issued. The guide describes a method that 
the staff of the NRC considers acceptable for use in satisfying the 
requirements for documenting the completion of ITAAC.

DATES: Submit comments by March 6, 2015. 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. Although a time limit is given, comments and suggestions in 
connection with items for inclusion in guides currently being developed 
or improvements in all published guides are encouraged at any time.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods 
(unless this document describes a different method for submitting 
comments on a specific subject):
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2014-0277. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-287-
3422; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact 
the individuals listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section 
of this document.
     Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, 
Announcements, and Directives Branch (RADB), Office of Administration, 
Mail Stop: 3WFN 06A-A44M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001.
    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: James Gaslevic, Office of New 
Reactors, telephone: 301-415-2276, email: [email protected], or 
Stephen Burton, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, telephone: 301-
415-7000, email: [email protected]; U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2014-0277 when contacting the NRC 
about the availability of information regarding this document. You may 
obtain publicly-available information related to this action by the 
following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2014-0277.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the 
ADAMS Public Documents collection at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and 
then select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, 
please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 
1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to [email protected]. The 
ADAMS accession number for each document referenced in this document 
(if that document is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time 
that a document is referenced.
     NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public 
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.

B. Submitting Comments

    Please include Docket ID NRC-2014-0277 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 http://www.regulations.gov as well as entering 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 submissions into ADAMS.

II. Additional Information

    The NRC is issuing for public comment a draft guide in the NRC's 
``Regulatory Guide'' series. This series was developed to describe and 
make available to the public such information as methods that are 
acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the 
NRC's regulations, techniques that the staff uses in evaluating 
specific problems or postulated accidents, and data that the staff 
needs in its review of applications for permits and licenses.
    The draft regulatory guide, entitled, ``Guidance for ITAAC Closure 
Under 10 CFR part 52,'' is temporarily identified by its task number, 
DG-1316. DG-1316 is proposed revision 2 of Regulatory Guide 1.215. The 
guide describes a method that the staff of the NRC considers acceptable 
for use in satisfying the requirements for documenting the completion 
of ITAAC for the implementation of Section 52.99 of Title 10 of the 
Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) ``Inspection during 
construction.''
    Revision 2 of RG 1.215 approves for use Nuclear Energy Institute 
(NEI) 08-01, ``Industry Guideline for the ITAAC Closure Process under 
10 CFR part 52,'' Revision 5--Corrected (ML14182A160). NEI 08-01, 
Revision 5--Corrected, was updated to provide additional requirements 
related to ITAAC maintenance, lessons learned from simulated ITAAC 
implementation, changes to the information and formatting guidance for 
uncompleted ITAAC notifications, and other enhancements. The revised 
industry guidelines also contain additional information and examples of 
ITAAC closure notifications which were

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discussed during numerous public meetings between the NRC and industry.

III. Backfitting and Issue Finality

    This draft regulatory guide would approve for use updated industry 
guidance for ITAAC closure, including the different kinds of ITAAC 
notifications required by 10 CFR 52.99. Issuance of this regulatory 
guide in final form would not be inconsistent with the issue finality 
provisions in 10 CFR part 52. As discussed in the ``Implementation'' 
section of this regulatory guide, the NRC has no current intention to 
impose this draft regulatory guide on current holders of combined 
licenses. In addition, the matters in this draft regulatory guide do 
not appear to be within the matters subject to issue finality 
protection under 10 CFR 52.83 or 10 CFR 52.98.
    Therefore, any imposition of this draft regulatory guide on current 
holders of combined licenses, or current and future applicants for 
combined licenses, would not be inconsistent with any issue finality 
protection under 10 CFR 52.83 or 10 CFR 52.98.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 29th day of December, 2014.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Harriet Karagiannis,
Acting Chief, Regulatory Guide and Generic Issues Branch, Division of 
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2014-30834 Filed 1-2-15; 8:45 am]
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