Nuclear Regulatory Commission – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) invites public comment on the renewal of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for an existing collection of information. The information collection is entitled, ``Criteria and Procedures for Emergency Access to Non-Federal and Regional Low-Level Waste Disposal Facilities.''

On November 13, 2020, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued for public comment a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for United Nuclear Corporation's (UNC) license amendment request. The UNC is requesting authorization to amend its license (SUA-1475) to excavate approximately 1 million cubic yards (CY) of mine waste from the Northeast Church Rock Mine Site and dispose of it at the existing mill site in McKinley County, New Mexico. The comment period was originally scheduled to close on December 28, 2020. The NRC has decided to extend the public comment period to allow more time for members of the public to develop and submit their comments. The NRC plans to hold a public meeting in the future to promote full understanding of the contemplated action and facilitate public comment.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an order to Transport Logistics International (TLI) suspending its authority to export certain source material to the United Kingdom (U.K.). This suspension is required due to the U.K.'s exit from the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). Exports of EURATOM- obligated and Canadian-obligated source material to the U.K. are currently not authorized.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering an amendment to its regulations that would alter financial assurance mechanisms approved by the NRC for the decommissioning of nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities. Specifically, this action would amend provisions for parent company and self company guarantees that require bond ratings issued by credit rating agencies. This action would implement the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, which directed agencies to amend their regulations to remove any reference to or reliance on credit ratings. Applicants and licensees who are required to provide decommissioning financial assurance may be affected. The NRC is soliciting public comment on potential approaches for amending the regulations and invites stakeholders and interested persons to participate. The NRC plans to hold a public meeting during the comment period to facilitate stakeholder participation.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment draft NUREG-2242, ``Replacement Energy Cost Estimates for Nuclear Power Plants: 2020-2030.'' This guidance updates previous estimates of replacement energy costs for potential shutdowns of U.S. nuclear electricity-generating units.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has recently submitted a request for renewal of an existing collection of information to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. The information collection is entitled, ``Material Control and Accounting of Special Nuclear Material.''

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reviewed an application by Portland General Electric Company (PGE) for amendment of Materials License No. SNM-2509 which authorizes PGE to receive, possess, store, and transfer spent nuclear fuel and associated radioactive materials. The amendment sought to revise the description in the safety analysis report of the licensee's evaluation of explosion accident events.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is denying a petition for rulemaking dated February 6, 2002, submitted by Anthony R. Pietrangelo on behalf of the Nuclear Energy Institute, due to the discontinuation of the associated rulemaking.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an exemption and associated license amendment related to a request from Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC (WEC) from NRC regulations with respect to a request for alternate disposal and exemption for specified low-activity radioactive waste from the Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF) in Hopkins, South Carolina for waste containing byproduct material and special nuclear material (SNM) under License Number SNM- 1107. Additionally, the NRC is taking the related action of approving exemptions to US Ecology, Inc. (USEI) from the applicable licensing requirements to allow USEI to receive and possess the material from CFFF without an NRC license. The USEI disposal facility, located near Grand View, Idaho, is a Subtitle C Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste disposal facility permitted by the State of Idaho to receive low-level radioactive waste and is not licensed by the NRC. Approval of the alternate disposal request from WEC, the exemptions and license amendment requested by WEC and associated exemptions for USEI would allow WEC to transfer the specific waste from CFFF for disposal at USEI.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is re-issuing for public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-1288 (Revision 1), ``Plant-Specific, Risk-Informed Decisionmaking for Inservice Inspection of Piping.'' This proposed guide is Revision 2 of regulatory guide (RG) 1.178, ``An Approach for Plant-Specific, Risk-Informed Decisionmaking for Inservice Inspection of Piping.'' It incorporates information to be consistent with the terminology and defense-in-depth philosophy provided in RG 1.174, ``An Approach for Using Probabilistic Risk Assessment in Risk-Informed Decisions on Plant-Specific Changes to the Licensing Basis,'' as well as to endorse the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code Case N-716-1, ``Alternative Classification and Examination Requirements, Section XI, Division 1.''

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-3055, ``Implementation of Aging Management Requirements for Spent Fuel Storage Renewals.'' This DG is a proposed new regulatory guide that would describes an approach that is acceptable to the staff of the NRC to meet the regulatory requirements for spent fuel storage renewals. It addresses requirements for the renewal of specific licenses for independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSI) and certificates of compliance (CoC) for spent fuel storage cask designs pursuant to NRC requirements.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) invites public comment on the renewal of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for an existing collection of information. The information collection is entitled, ``Reactor Site Criteria.''

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a draft document entitled ``Implementation of Quality Assurance Criteria and 10 CFR 50.59 for Nuclear Power Plant Components Produced Using Advanced Manufacturing Technologies'' for public comments in the Federal Register on November 30, 2020. The document addresses the application of quality assurance (QA) criteria and NRC's requirements in its regulations regarding, ``Changes, tests and experiments,'' to the implementation of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMT)-fabricated components in U.S. nuclear power plants. This notice withdraws the November 30, 2020, notice in its entirety and reissues the notice to include additional explanatory information, extend the comment period to 60 days, and correct the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) accession number for the draft document.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a draft report for comment, NUREG-1757, Volume 2, Revision 2, ``Consolidated Decommissioning Guidance, Characterization, Survey, and Determination of Radiological Criteria.'' NUREG-1757 has been revised to address lessons learned and experience gained from review of license termination plans, decommissioning plans, and final status surveys for licensees undergoing license termination since the last revision to the document in September 2006. This NUREG is intended for use by applicants, licensees, and the NRC staff.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a Confirmatory Order to Arizona Public Service Company (APS) on November 17, 2020. The purpose of the Confirmatory Order was to document commitments made as part of a settlement agreement between the NRC and APS to address the licensee's failure to: Perform a written evaluation for a change to the NAC MAGNASTOR spent fuel dry cask storage system and obtain a license amendment for a change in methodology for performing tip-over calculations, and (2) adequately analyze the consequences of a hypothetical MAGNASTOR CC5 spent fuel cask tip-over accident on the independent spent fuel storage installation pad located at APS' Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station.

The Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) was established by the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) of 1954, as amended. Its purpose is to provide advice to the Commission with regard to the hazards of proposed or existing reactor facilities, to review each application for a construction permit or operating license for certain facilities specified in the AEA, and such other duties as the Commission may request.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment a draft NUREG, NUREG-1021, Revision 12, ``Operator Licensing Examination Standards for Power Reactors.'' NUREG-1021 establishes the policies, procedures, and guidance for the development, administration, and grading of written examinations and operating tests used for examining licensees and applicants for reactor operator and senior reactor operator licenses at power reactor facilities. It also provides procedures and guidance for maintaining operators' licenses and for the NRC to conduct requalification examinations when necessary. The draft NUREG streamlines the examination standards by organizing them in topic-based sections for ease of use, clarifies existing instructions, and introduces new instructions.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no significant impact (FONSI) in support of the NRC's consideration of a request from Waste Control Specialists LLC (WCS) to continue to store transuranic waste that originated from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) without an NRC license under the terms of a 2014 order. The 2014 order exempted WCS from the NRC's regulations concerning special nuclear material (SNM). The current action is in response to a request by WCS dated August 24, 2020, to extend the possession time to temporarily store certain waste at specific locations at the WCS Site until December 23, 2022.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) received and is considering approval of three amendment requests. The amendment requests are for Waterford Steam Electric Station, Unit 3; Hope Creek Generating Station; and Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2. For each amendment request, the NRC proposes to determine that they involve no significant hazards consideration (NSHC). Because each amendment request contains sensitive unclassified non-safeguards information (SUNSI), an order imposes procedures to obtain access to SUNSI for contention preparation.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing Revision 1 to Regulatory Guide (RG) 5.76, ``Physical Protection Programs at Nuclear Power Reactors (SGI),'' as a final RG. The NRC has revised RG 5.76 to provide licensees guidance on the implementation of the ``Reasonable Assurance of Protection Time'' concept. This RG (Revision 1) clarifies issues that have been identified through interactions with stakeholders and inspection activities since the original publication of the guide.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is publishing this notice regarding the issuance of a Final Environmental Assessment (EA) and a Finding of No Significant Impacts (FONSI) for its review and approval of the initial and updated decommissioning funding plans submitted by independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) licensees for the ISFSIs listed in the ``Discussion'' section of this document.