Nuclear Regulatory Commission October 27, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The NRC is soliciting public comment on its Proposed Interim Staff Guidance (ISG) ESP/DC/COL-ISG-015 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML091671355). The purpose of this ISG is to modify and provide early site permit (ESP), design certification (DC) and combined license (COL) applicants additional clarity and guidance for the application of Section C.III.4 of Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.206. In addition, the ISG provides additional clarity to the guidance in NUREG-0800, Standard Review Plan Chapter 1.0, for NRC review of DC and COL applications. While reviewing DC and COL applications, the NRC staff determined that the guidance in Section C.III.4 of RG 1.206 on COL information items that cannot be resolved before the issuance of a license needed some additional clarification and guidance. In addition, it was determined that referring to this category of COL information items as ``COL Holder'' items is inappropriate. Specific guidance for determining which of the commitment types (i.e., inspection, test, analysis, and acceptance criteria, license condition, and final safety analysis report commitment) was the most appropriate for these COL information items was considered necessary, along with examples for clarification, for common understanding by applicants preparing their COL applications and NRC staff reviewing these COL applications. The NRC staff issues ISGs to facilitate timely implementation of current staff guidance and to facilitate activities associated with review of applications by the Office of New Reactors. The NRC staff also intends to incorporate the approved ESP/DC/COL-ISG-015 into the next revision of RG 1.206 and related guidance documents.