mPower\TM\ Design-Specific Review Standard

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Design-Specific Review Standard (DSRS) for the mPower^TM Design; re-opening of comment period.

SUMMARY:

On May 14, 2013, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a request for public comment on the DSRS for the mPower^TM design (mPower^TM DSRS). The purpose of the mPower^TM DSRS is to more fully integrate the use of risk insights into the review of a design certification (DC), an early site permit (ESP) or a combined license (COL) that incorporates the mPower^TM design. The public comment period was originally scheduled to close on August 16, 2013. Generation mPower submitted a letter on August 8, 2013 (ADAMS Accession No. ML13224A163), requesting an extension of the public comment period until September 16, 2012, on specific sections of the mPower^TM DSRS. The NRC has decided to re-open the public comment period on those specific sections of the mPower^TM DSRS to allow more time for members of the public to assemble their comments on those sections.

DATES:

The comment period has been re-opened and now closes on September 16, 2013. 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 of the following methods (unless this document describes a different method for submitting comments on a specific subject):

• Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2013-0089. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-287-3244; email: Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact the individual(s) listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.
• Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements, and Directives Branch (RADB), Office of Administration, Mail Stop: 3WFN 06-44M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

For additional direction on accessing information and submitting comments, see “Accessing Information and Submitting Comments” in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Yanely Malave, Office of New Reactors, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-1519 or email: Yanely.Malave@nrc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Accessing Information and Submitting Comments

A. Accessing Information

Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2013-0089 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You may access publicly-available information related to this action by the following methods:

• Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2013-0089.
• NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): You may access publicly-available documents online in the NRC Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select “ADAMS Public Documents” and then 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, 301-415-4737, or by email to pdr.resource@nrc.gov. The ADAMS accession number for each document referenced in this notice (if that document is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that a document is referenced and also in the table included in this notice. The DSRS sections are available in ADAMS under the corresponding accession number as describe in Section II, “Further Information,” of this notice.
• NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.

B. Submitting Comments

Please include Docket ID NRC-2013-0089 in the subject line of your comment submission, in order to ensure that the NRC is able to make your comment submission available to the public in this docket.

The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your comment submission. The NRC posts all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as entering the comment submissions into ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove identifying or contact information.

If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove such information before making the comment submissions available to the public or entering the comment submissions into ADAMS.

II. Further Information

A. Background

In 2010, the Commission provided direction to the staff on the preparation for, and review of, small modular reactor (SMR) applications, with a near-term focus on integral pressurized water reactor (iPWR) designs. The Commission directed the staff to more fully integrate the use of risk insights into pre-application activities and the review of applications and, consistent with regulatory requirements and Commission policy statements, to align the review focus and resources to risk-significant structures, systems, and components and other aspects of the design that contribute most to safety in order to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the review process. The Commission directed the staff to develop a design-specific, risk-informed review plan for each SMR design to address pre-application and application review activities. An important part of this review plan is the DSRS. This DSRS for the mPower^TM design is the result of the implementation of the Commission's direction.

B. DSRS for the mPower^TM Design

As part of the mPower^TM DSRS, the NRC's Office of New Reactors has issued the mPower^TM Design-Specific Review Standard Scope and Safety Review Matrix (ADAMS Accession No. ML13088A252) to reflect the integration of risk insights into the review of applications submitted for the mPower^TM DC and ESPs or COLs that incorporate the mPower^TM design under part 52 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The mPower^TM DSRS reflects current staff review methods and practices based on the integration of risk insights and, where appropriate, lessons learned from NRC reviews of DC and COL applications completed since the last revision of the Standard Review Plan.

C. Re-Opening of Comment Period

On May 14, 2013 (78 FR 28258), the NRC published a request for public comment on the mPower^TM DSRS. The public comment period was originally scheduled to close on August 16, 2013. Generation mPower submitted a letter on August 8, 2013 (ADAMS Accession No. ML13224A163), requesting an extension of the public comment period until September 16, 2013, on specific sections of the mPower^TM DSRS. The NRC has decided to re-open the public comment period on those specific sections of the mPower^TM DSRS to allow more time for members of the public to assemble their comments on those sections. The NRC did not receive a request to extend the comment period on the additional sections in the May 14, 2013, request for public comment; and believes the original 90-day public comment period afforded for those sections is sufficient.

Specifically, we request comment on the sufficiency of the proposed technical content of the individual mPower^TM DSRS sections, identified in the following table, that were revised or developed to incorporate design-specific review guidance based on features of the mPower^TM reactor design.