Nuclear Regulatory Commission November 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On October 27, 2015, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced its appointments to the NRC Performance Review Board (PRB) responsible for making recommendations on performance appraisal ratings and performance awards for the NRC Senior Executives and Senior Level System employees, and appointments to the NRC PRB Panel responsible for making recommendations to the appointing and awarding authorities for the NRC PRB members. This notice announces a change in the membership of the Senior Executive Service PRB for the NRC.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Philadelphia District, have completed the final environmental impact statement (EIS), NUREG-2168, ``Environmental Impact Statement for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at the PSEG Site: Final Report'' for the PSEG Site ESP application in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended. The USACE is cooperating agency with the NRC in the preparation of information in the final EIS for use in both agencies' decision-making processes. The site is located in Salem County, New Jersey.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a final plant-specific supplement, Supplement 55, to NUREG-1437, ``Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants'' (GEIS), regarding the renewal of Exelon Generating Company, LLC (Exelon) operating licenses NPF-72 and NPF-77 for Braidwood Station, Units 1 and 2 (Braidwood), respectively, for an additional 20 years of operation.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing this advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) to obtain input from stakeholders on the development of a draft regulatory basis. The draft regulatory basis would support potential changes to the NRC's regulations for the decommissioning of nuclear power reactors. The NRC's goals in amending these regulations would be to provide an efficient decommissioning process, reduce the need for exemptions from existing regulations, and support the principles of good regulation, including openness, clarity, and reliability. The NRC is soliciting public comments on the contemplated action and invites stakeholders and interested persons to participate. The NRC plans to hold a public meeting to promote full understanding of the questions contained in this ANPR and facilitate public comment.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its spent fuel storage regulations by revising the NAC International, Inc. (NAC), MAGNASTOR[supreg] Cask System listing within the ``List of approved spent fuel storage casks'' to include Revision 1 to Amendment Nos. 0 (the initial Certificate), 1, 2, and 3 to Certificate of Compliance (CoC) No. 1031. Revision 1 to Amendment Nos. 0-3 to CoC No. 1031 makes changes to the Technical Specifications (TSs), including correcting a typographical error in two actual boron loadings in TS 4.1.1(a), and revising the decay times in Tables B2-4 (for Amendment Nos. 0 and 1) and B2-5 (for Amendment Nos. 2 and 3) in Appendix B of the TSs for minimum additional decay time required for spent fuel assemblies that contain nonfuel hardware.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is correcting a notice that was published in the Federal Register (FR) on October 26, 2015, regarding the submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) of a request to renew an existing collection of information entitled, ``Physical Protection of Category 1 and Category 2 Quantities of Radioactive Material.'' This action is necessary to correct information about the number of respondents to this information collection.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has granted the request of Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (Entergy, the licensee), to withdraw its application dated September 4, 2014, for a proposed amendment to Renewed Facility Operating License No. DPR-28, for the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station (VY). The proposed amendment would have replaced VY's decommissioning trust fund (DTF) license conditions with the NRC's regulations governing decommissioning trust funds.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting public comment on draft Chapter 7, ``Instrumentation and Control Systems,'' which augments the following: (1) NUREG-1537, Part 1, ``Guidelines for Preparing and Reviewing Applications for the Licensing of Non-Power Reactors: Format and Content;'' and (2) NUREG-1537, Part 2, ``Guidelines for Preparing and Reviewing Applications for the Licensing of Non-Power Reactors: Standard Review Plan and Acceptance Criteria.'' This draft chapter of NUREG-1537 provides revised guidance for preparing and reviewing applications for instrumentation and control systems.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to amend its regulations that establish regulatory requirements for nuclear power reactor applicants and licensees to mitigate beyond- design-basis events. The NRC is proposing to make generically applicable requirements in Commission orders for mitigation of beyond- design-basis events and for reliable spent fuel pool instrumentation. This proposed rule would establish regulatory requirements for an integrated response capability, including supporting requirements for command and control, drills, training and change control. This proposed rule also would establish requirements for enhanced onsite emergency response capabilities. Finally, this proposed rule would address a number of petitions for rulemaking (PRMs) submitted to the NRC following the March 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi event. This rulemaking is applicable to power reactor licensees, power reactor license applicants, and decommissioning power reactor licensees. This rulemaking combines two NRC activities for which documents have been published in the Federal RegisterOnsite Emergency Response Capabilities (RIN 3150-AJ11; NRC-2012-0031) and Station Blackout Mitigation Strategies (RIN 3150-AJ08; NRC-2011-0299). The new identification numbers for this consolidated rulemaking are RIN 3150- AJ49 and NRC-2014-0240.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment a draft environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no significant impact (FONSI) related to a request to amend Facility Operating License Nos. NPF-10 and NPF-15 and Docket No. 72-41, issued to the Southern California Edison Company (SCE or ``the licensee''), for operation of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, Units 2 and 3 (hereinafter ``SONGS'' or ``the facility''), including the general- license Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI), located in San Diego County, California. The requested amendment would permit licensee security personnel to use certain firearms and ammunition feeding devices not previously permitted, notwithstanding State, local and certain Federal firearms laws or regulations that otherwise prohibit such actions.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has recently submitted a renewal of an existing collection of information to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. The information collection is entitled, ``Rules of General Applicability to Domestic Licensing of Byproduct Material.''

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received and is making available the second and final part of a two-part application for a construction permit, submitted by Northwest Medical Isotopes, LLC (NWMI or the applicant). The applicant proposes to build a medical radioisotope facility located in Columbia, Missouri.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is withdrawing an application for a combined license (COL) for the Callaway Plant, Unit 2 Nuclear Power Plant in Callaway County, Missouri. The COL application is being withdrawn at the request of the applicant, AmerenUE (Ameren).

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to amend its licensing, inspection, and annual fee regulations to establish a variable annual fee structure for light-water small modular reactors (SMR). Under the proposed variable annual fee structure, an SMR's annual fee would be calculated as a function of its licensed thermal power rating. This proposed fee methodology complies with the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, as amended (OBRA-90). The NRC will hold a public meeting to promote full understanding of the proposed rule and to facilitate public comments.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment its draft Interim Staff Guidance (ISG) DSS-ISG-2015-XX, ``Clarification of Licensee Actions in Receipt of Enforcement Discretion per Enforcement Guidance Memorandum (EGM) 15-002, `Enforcement Discretion for Tornado-generated Missile Protection Noncompliance.' '' This draft ISG will provide clarifying guidance for NRC staff understanding of expectations for consistent oversight associated with implementing enforcement discretion for tornado missile protection noncompliance per EGM 15-002. This guidance will allow consistent enforcement and regulation of licensees that implement corrective actions outlined in EGM 15-002.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is adopting new cyber security regulations that govern nuclear power reactor licensees. This final rule codifies certain reporting activities associated with cyber security events contained in security advisories issued by the NRC. This rule establishes new cyber security event notification requirements that contribute to the NRC's analysis of the reliability and effectiveness of licensees' cyber security programs and plays an important role in the continuing effort to provide high assurance that digital computer and communication systems and networks are adequately protected against cyber attacks, up to and including the design basis threat.