Non-Power Production or Utilization Facility License Renewal

<RULE> NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION <CFR>10 CFR Parts 2, 20, 26, 50, 51, 55, 73, 140, 170, and 171</CFR> <DEPDOC>[NRC-2011-0087]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 3150-AI96</RIN> <SUBJECT>Non-Power Production or Utilization Facility License Renewal</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Nuclear Regulatory Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule and guidance; issuance. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations that govern the license renewal process for certain production or utilization facilities. In this final rule, the NRC collectively refers to these facilities as non-power production or utilization facilities (NPUFs). This final rule revises the definitions of “non-power reactor,” “research reactor,” and “testing facility.” This final rule also eliminates license terms for licenses for facilities used for medical therapy or research and development, other than testing facilities; these licenses are issued under the authority of Sections 104a or 104c of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (AEA). This final rule defines the license renewal process for licenses issued to testing facilities under the authority of Section 104c of the AEA or commercial or industrial NPUFs (including testing facilities) under the authority of Section 103 of the AEA. This final rule requires all NPUF licensees to submit to the NRC final safety analysis report (FSAR) updates at intervals not to exceed 5 years. In addition, this final rule provides an accident dose criterion of 1 Roentgen equivalent man (rem) (0.01 sievert [Sv]) total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) for NPUFs other than testing facilities. The NRC is also issuing final implementation guidance for this final rule. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective on January 29, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2011-0087 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain publicly available information related to this action by any of the following methods: • <E T="03">Federal Rulemaking website:</E> Go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and search for Docket ID NRC-2011-0087. 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">NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS):</E> You may obtain publicly available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at <E T="03">https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.</E> To begin the search, select “Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.” For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at 301-415-4737, or by email to <E T="03">pdr.resource@nrc.gov.</E> For the convenience of the reader, instructions about obtaining materials referenced in this document are provided in the “Availability of Documents” section. • <E T="03">NRC's PDR:</E> The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. To make an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to <E T="03">PDR.Resource@nrc.gov</E> or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. <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> and Duane Hardesty, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, telephone: 301-415-3724, email: <E T="03">Duane.Hardesty@nrc.gov.</E> Both are staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 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> In April 2008, the Commission issued staff requirements memorandum (SRM) M080317B, “Briefing on State of NRC Technical Programs,” which directed the staff to “examine the license renewal process for non-power reactors and identify and implement efficiencies to streamline this process while ensuring that adequate protection of public health and safety are maintained.” The need for improvement in the reliability and efficiency of the license renewal process was primarily driven by four issues: (1) historic NRC priorities and emergent issues; (2) limited licensee resources; (3) inconsistent existing license infrastructure; and (4) regulatory requirements and the broad scope of the renewal process. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Major Provisions</HD> The major provisions of this final rule include changes that: • Revise the definitions for <E T="03">Non-power reactor, Testing facility,</E> and <E T="03">Research reactor;</E> • Eliminate license terms for medical therapy or research and development facilities, other than testing facilities, licensed under paragraphs (a) or (c) of § 50.21 of title 10 of the <E T="03">Code of Federal Regulations</E> (10 CFR); • Define the license renewal process for all commercial or industrial NPUFs (including testing facilities) licensed under § 50.22 and testing facilities licensed under § 50.21(c); • Require all NPUF licensees to submit an updated FSAR and subsequent FSAR updates to the NRC at intervals not to exceed 5 years; • Amend the current timely renewal provision under § 2.109, allowing NPUFs subject to license renewal to continue operating under an existing license past its expiration date if the licensee submits a license renewal application at least 2 years (rather than 30 days) before the current license expiration date; • Provide an accident dose criterion of 1 rem (0.01 Sv) TEDE for NPUFs other than testing facilities; • Extend the applicability of § 50.59 to NPUF licensees regardless of their decommissioning status; • Clarify an NPUF applicant's requirements for meeting the existing provisions of § 51.45 for submitting an environmental report; and • Eliminate the requirement for NPUF licensees to submit financial qualification information with license renewal applications under § 50.33(f)(2). Concurrent with this final rule, the NRC is issuing Regulatory Guide (RG) 2.7, Revision 0, “Preparation of Updated Final Safety Analysis Reports for Non-Power Production or Utilization Facilities.” <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Costs and Benefits</HD> The NRC prepared a regulatory analysis to determine the expected quantitative costs and benefits of this final rule and the final implementing guidance, as well as qualitative factors to be considered in the NRC's rulemaking decision. Based on the analysis, the NRC concluded that this final rule will result in net savings to licensees and the NRC. The analysis examined the benefits and costs of the final rule requirements and the final implementing guidance compared to the baseline for the current license renewal process ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the no-action alternative). Compared to the no-action baseline, the NRC estimates that total net benefits to NPUFs ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> cost savings minus costs) will be $5.5 million ($3.9 million using a 3-percent discount rate or $2.6 million using a 7-percent discount rate) over a 20-year period. The average NPUF will receive net benefits ranging from approximately $78,000 to $166,000 over a 20-year period. The NRC will receive total net benefits of $12 million ($8.6 million using a 3-percent discount rate or $5.9 million using a 7-percent discount rate) over a 20-year period. The regulatory analysis also considered, in a qualitative fashion, additional benefits of this final rule and the final implementing guidance associated with regulatory efficiency, protection of public health and safety, promotion of the common defense and security, and protection of the environment. The regulatory analysis concluded that this final rule and the final implementing guidance are justified because of the cost savings received by both licensees and the NRC while public health and safety are maintained. A detailed discussion of the methodology and complete results is presented in the “Regulatory Analysis” section of this document. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Discussion</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Opportunity for Public Participation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Public Comment Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Section-by-Section Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Regulatory Flexibility Certification</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VII. Regulatory Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VIII. Backfitting</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IX. Cumulative Effects of Regulation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">X. Plain Writing</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XI. Voluntary Consensus Standards</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XII. Environmental Assessment and Final Finding of No Significant Environmental Impact</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XIII. Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XIV. Congressional Review Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XV. Criminal Penalties</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XVI. Availability of Guidance</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XVII. Availability of Documents</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> The NRC licenses NPUFs under the authority granted in Sections 103 and 104 of the AEA. Section 103 of the AEA applies to commercial and industrial facilities, and Sections 104a and 104c of the AEA apply to facilities used for medical therapy or research and development activities, respectively. The section of the AEA that provides licensing authority for the NRC corresponds directly to the class of license issued t ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 144k characters. 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