Nuclear Regulatory Commission July 25, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued Bulletin (BL) 2005-02 to all holders of operating licenses for nuclear power reactors, except those who have permanently ceased operation and have certified that fuel has been removed from the reactor vessel. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing this bulletin to: 1. Notify addressees about NRC staff's need for information associated with emergency preparedness (EP) for security-based events at a nuclear power plant; 2. Request addressees provide information to the NRC within 30 days of this bulletin regarding actions taken or planned to be taken in the areas discussed below: a. Security-based emergency classification levels and emergency action levels (EALs), emergency response organization augmentation for security-based events, and a security-based EP drill and exercise program, b. Accelerated NRC notifications and onsite protective measures; 3. If actions regarding the topics covered in this bulletin have not been taken, the addressees are requested to provide a schedule detailing expected completion dates for all pending activities; and 4. Require addressees to provide a written response to the NRC in accordance with 10 CFR 50.54(f). This Federal Register notice is available through the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML051990027.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to issue a generic letter (GL) to: (1) Request that addressees evaluate their facilities to confirm compliance with the existing applicable regulatory requirements in light of the information provided in this generic letter and, if appropriate, take additional actions. Specifically, although Hemyc and MT fire barriers in nuclear power plants (NPPs) may be relied on to protect electrical and instrumentation cables and equipment that provide safe shutdown capability during a fire, recent NRC testing has revealed that both materials failed to provide the protective function intended for compliance with existing regulations, for the configurations tested using the acceptance criteria in Generic Letter (GL) 86-10, Supplement 1, ``Fire Endurance Test Acceptance Criteria for Fire Barrier Systems Used To Separate Redundant Safe Shutdown Trains Within the Same Fire Area.'' (2) Require that addressees submit a written response to the NRC in accordance with NRC regulations in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 50.54(f) (10 CFR 50.54(f)). This Federal Register notice is available through the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML051540292.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations revising the NAC International, Inc., NAC-UMS Universal Storage System listing within the ``List of approved spent fuel storage casks'' to include Amendment No. 4 to Certificate of Compliance (CoC) Number 1015. Amendment No. 4 to the NAC-UMS CoC will modify the cask design by replacing the specific term ``zircaloy'' with the more generic term ``zirconium alloy''; revising the definitions of ``operable'' and ``site specific fuel''; revising vacuum drying pressure and time limits; revising short-term temperature limits and completion times for the heat removal system; clarifying the surface dose rate surveillance; adding a dissolved boron concentration option; deleting a redundant boron concentration administrative control; adding an alternate site-specific design basis earthquake analysis; and incorporating editorial and administrative changes.