Office of New Reactors; Proposed Interim Staff Guidance; Review of Evaluation To Address Gas Accumulation Issues in Safety Related Systems

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

ACTION:

Solicitation of public comment.

SUMMARY:

The NRC staff is soliciting public comment on its proposed Interim Staff Guidance (ISG) DC/COL-ISG-019 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML092360375). The purpose of this ISG is to clarify the NRC staff guidance to address issues of gas accumulation in safety related systems. This ISG revises and updates the guidance provided to the staff in Standard Review Plan (SRP) Sections 5.4.7, “Residual Heat Removal System,” 6.3 “Emergency Core Cooling System,” and 6.5.2 “Containment Spray System” of NUREG-0800, “Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants,” March 2007. The NRC staff issues DC/COL-ISGs to facilitate timely implementation of current staff guidance and to facilitate activities associated with review of applications for design certifications and combined licenses by the Office of New Reactors. The NRC staff intends to incorporate the final approved DC/COL-ISG-019 into the next revision of the SRP and related guidance documents.

DATES:

Comments must be filed no later than 30 days from the date of publication of this notice in the Federal Register. Comments received after this date will be considered, if it is practical to do so, but the Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before this date.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments by any one of the following methods. Please include Docket ID NRC-2009-0494 in the subject line of your comments. Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site Regulations.gov. Because your comments will not be edited to remove any identifying or contact information, the NRC cautions you against including any information in your submission that you do not want to be publicly disclosed.

The NRC requests that any party soliciting or aggregating comments received from other persons for submission to the NRC inform those persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to remove any identifying or contact information, and therefore, they should not include any information in their comments that they do not want publicly disclosed.

Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-2009-0494. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher 301-492-3668; e-mail Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov.

Mail comments to: Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rulemaking and Directives Branch (RDB), Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax to RDB at (301) 492-3446.

The NRC ADAMS provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. These documents may be accessed through the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html . Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC Public Document Room reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at PDR.Resource@nrc.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mr. Joseph E. Donoghue, Chief, Reactor Systems, Nuclear Performance and Code Review Branch, Division of Safety Systems & Risk Assessment, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone 301-415-1193 or e-mail at joseph.donoghue@nrc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The agency posts its issued staff guidance in the agency external Web page ( http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/isg/ ).

The NRC staff is issuing this notice to solicit public comments on the proposed DC/COL-ISG-019. After the NRC staff considers any public comments, it will make a determination regarding the proposed DC/COL-ISG-019.