Risk-Informed, Technology-Inclusive Regulatory Framework for Advanced Reactors

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION <CFR>10 CFR Parts 1, 2, 10, 11, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 30, 40, 50, 51, 53, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 95, 140, 150, 170, and 171</CFR> <DEPDOC>[NRC-2019-0062]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 3150-AK31</RIN> <SUBJECT>Risk-Informed, Technology-Inclusive Regulatory Framework for Advanced Reactors</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Nuclear Regulatory Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to revise the NRC's regulations by adding a risk-informed, performance-based, and technology-inclusive regulatory framework for commercial nuclear plants in response to the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA). The NRC plans to hold a public meeting to promote full understanding of the proposed rule and facilitate public comments. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Submit comments by December 30, 2024. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is able to ensure consideration only for comments received before this date. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments by any of the following methods however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal rulemaking website: • <E T="03">Federal Rulemaking website:</E> Go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0062. Address questions about NRC dockets to Helen Chang; telephone: 301-415-3228; email: <E T="03">Helen.Chang@nrc.gov.</E> For technical questions contact the individuals listed in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section of this document. • <E T="03">Email comments to: Rulemaking.Comments@nrc.gov.</E> If you do not receive an automatic email reply confirming receipt, then contact us at 301-415-1677. • <E T="03">Fax comments to:</E> Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at 301-415-1101. • <E T="03">Mail comments to:</E> Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. • <E T="03">Hand deliver comments to:</E> 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. eastern time, Federal workdays; telephone: 301-415-1677. You can read a plain language description of this proposed rule at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NRC-2019-0062.</E> For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting comments, see “Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments” in the <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section of this document. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Robert Beall, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301-415-3874; email: <E T="03">Robert.Beall@nrc.gov;</E> or Anders Gilbertson, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, telephone: 301-415-1541; email: <E T="03">Anders.Gilbertson@nrc.gov.</E> Both are staff of the U.S. NRC, Washington, DC 20555-0001. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Executive Summary</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Need for the Regulatory Action</HD> On January 14, 2019, the President signed the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA) into law (Pub. L. 115-439). NEIMA section 103(a)(4) directs the NRC to “complete a rulemaking to establish a technology-inclusive, regulatory framework for optional use by commercial advanced nuclear reactor applicants for new reactor license applications.” NEIMA defines a “technology-inclusive regulatory framework” as one that is “developed using methods of evaluation that are flexible and practicable for application to a variety of reactor technologies, including, where appropriate, the use of risk-informed and performance-based techniques.” NEIMA, as further amended by the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act of 2024 (ADVANCE Act), defines the term “advanced nuclear reactor” as “a nuclear fission reactor or fusion machine, including a prototype plant (as defined in sections 50.2 and 52.1 of title 10, <E T="03">Code of Federal Regulations</E> (as in effect on the date of enactment of [NEIMA])), with significant improvements compared to commercial nuclear reactors under construction as of the date of enactment of [NEIMA].” The NRC initially considered establishing the scope of proposed part 53, “Risk-Informed, Technology-Inclusive Regulatory Framework for Commercial Nuclear Plants,” of title 10 of the <E T="03">Code of Federal Regulations</E> (10 CFR) as being for “advanced nuclear plants” consisting of one or more “advanced nuclear reactors” as defined in NEIMA. Based on public discussions on the use of the term, the NRC determined that the NEIMA definition, although broad, did not define “significant improvements” with enough specificity to implement in NRC regulations. Additionally, a number of stakeholders suggested that the descriptor, “advanced,” implied enhanced safety, while the NEIMA definition includes “significant improvements” in areas other than safety enhancements. In response to this feedback, and to be technology inclusive, the NRC determined that the broader term “commercial nuclear plant” would be preferable. The current application and licensing requirements in 10 CFR part 50, “Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities,” and 10 CFR part 52, “Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants,” were primarily developed to address license requests concerning water-cooled reactors, and to address operational requirements for those types of reactors. This proposed rule responds to NEIMA by creating an alternative regulatory framework for licensing future commercial nuclear plants. The new alternative requirements and implementing guidance would adopt technology-inclusive approaches and use risk-informed and performance-based techniques to ensure an equivalent level of safety to that of operating commercial nuclear plants while providing flexibility for licensing and regulating a variety of technologies and designs for commercial nuclear reactors. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Major Provisions</HD> Major provisions of this proposed rule, supported by accompanying guidance, include the following: • A new alternative technology-inclusive, risk-informed, performance-based framework that includes requirements for licensing and regulating nuclear plants during the various stages of their life cycles. • A new alternative technology-inclusive, risk-informed, and performance-based framework in 10 CFR part 26, “Fitness for Duty Programs,” developed from existing requirements in subpart K, “FFD Programs for Construction,” of part 26. • A new alternative technology-inclusive and performance-based security framework in 10 CFR part 73, “Physical Protection of Plants and Materials,” that includes requirements for protection of licensed activities at commercial nuclear plants. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Costs and Benefits</HD> The NRC prepared a draft regulatory analysis to determine the expected quantitative costs and benefits of this proposed rule and associated guidance as well as qualitative factors to be considered in the NRC's rulemaking decision. The conclusion from the analysis is that this proposed rule and associated guidance would result in net averted costs to the industry and the NRC ranging from $53.6 million using a 7-percent discount rate to $68.2 million using a 3-percent discount rate, using an assumption of one applicant under 10 CFR part 53. As the number of applicants increases, so do the estimated averted costs. The draft regulatory analysis also considers qualitative factors, such as greater regulatory stability, predictability, and clarity to the licensing process. These benefits would result from incorporating advances in probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) and other risk-informed analyses and codifying regulatory enhancements that currently exist in regulatory guides (RGs). Another qualitative factor is promoting a performance-based regulatory framework that specifies requirements to be met and provides flexibility to an applicant or licensee regarding the information or approach needed to satisfy those requirements. For more information, please see the draft regulatory analysis (available in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML21165A112). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Obtaining Information</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Submitting Comments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. NRC Advanced Reactor Readiness</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Stakeholder Views on Part 53 Preliminary Proposed Rule Language</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Discussion</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Objective and Applicability</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Need for Changes to the Existing Regulatory Framework</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. 10 CFR Part 53: Framework</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Part 53: Framework</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Subpart A—General Provisions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Discussion of Definitions in Proposed Part 53</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Other General Provisions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Subpart B—Technology-Inclusive Safety Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Subpart C—Design and Analysis Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Subpart D—Siting Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Subpart E—Construction and Manufacturing Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Subpart F—Requirements for Operation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Subpart G—Decommissioning Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Subpart H—Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">Subpart I—Maintaining and Re ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 1570k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━