80824 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 240 / Monday, December 14, 2020 / Notices 

to update the NSF Proposal and Award 

Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) 

to incorporate a number of policyrelated changes and clarifications of 

language. The draft NSF PAPPG is now 

available for your review and 

consideration on the NSF website at 

http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/. To 

facilitate review, revised text has been 

highlighted in yellow throughout the 

document to identify significant 

changes. A brief comment explanation 

of the change also is provided. 

Proposed Project: The National 

Science Foundation Act of 1950 (Public 

Law 81–507) sets forth NSF’s mission 

and purpose: 

‘‘To promote the progress of science; 

to advance the national health, 

prosperity, and welfare; to secure the 

national defense. . . .’’ 

The Act authorized and directed NSF 

to initiate and support: 

• Basic scientific research and 

research fundamental to the engineering 

process; 

• Programs to strengthen scientific 

and engineering research potential; 

• Science and engineering education 

programs at all levels and in all the 

various fields of science and 

engineering; 

• Programs that provide a source of 

information for policy formulation; and 

• Other activities to promote these 

ends. 

NSF’s core purpose resonates clearly 

in everything it does: promoting 

achievement and progress in science 

and engineering and enhancing the 

potential for research and education to 

contribute to the Nation. While NSF’s 

vision of the future and the mechanisms 

it uses to carry out its charges have 

evolved significantly over the last six 

decades, its ultimate mission remains 

the same. 

Use of the Information: The regular 

submission of proposals to the 

Foundation is part of the collection of 

information and is used to help NSF 

fulfill this responsibility by initiating 

and supporting merit-selected research 

and education projects in all the 

scientific and engineering disciplines. 

NSF receives more than 50,000 

proposals annually for new projects, 

and makes approximately 11,000 new 

awards. 

Support is made primarily through 

grants, contracts, and other agreements 

awarded to approximately 2,000 

colleges, universities, academic 

consortia, nonprofit institutions, and 

small businesses. The awards are based 

mainly on merit evaluations of 

proposals submitted to the Foundation. 

The Foundation has a continuing 

commitment to monitor the operations 

of its information collection to identify 

and address excessive reporting burdens 

as well as to identify any real or 

apparent inequities based on gender, 

race, ethnicity, or disability of the 

proposed principal investigator(s)/ 

project director(s) or the co-principal 

investigator(s)/co-project director(s). 

Burden on the Public: The Foundation 

estimates that an average of 120 hours 

is expended for each proposal 

submitted. An estimated 50,000 

proposals are expected during the 

course of one year for a total of 

6,000,000 public burden hours 

annually. 

Comments: Comments are invited on 

(a) whether the proposed collection of 

information is necessary for the proper 

performance of the functions of the 

Agency, including whether the 

information shall have practical utility; 

(b) the accuracy of the Agency’s 

estimate of the burden of the proposed 

collection of information; (c) ways to 

enhance the quality, utility, and clarity 

of the information on respondents, 

including through the use of automated 

collection techniques or other forms of 

information technology; and (d) ways to 

minimize the burden of the collection of 

information on those who are to 

respond, including through the use of 

appropriate automated, electronic, 

mechanical, or other technological 

collection techniques or other forms of 

information technology. 

Dated: December 9, 2020. 

Suzanne H. Plimpton, 

Reports Clearance Officer, National Science 

Foundation. 

[FR Doc. 2020–27448 Filed 12–11–20; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7555–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[NRC–2020–0256] 

Plant-Specific, Risk-Informed 

Decisionmaking for Inservice 

Inspections of Piping 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Draft regulatory guide; request 

for comment. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is re-issuing for 

public comment draft regulatory guide 

(DG), DG–1288 (Revision 1), ‘‘PlantSpecific, Risk-Informed Decisionmaking 

for Inservice Inspection of Piping.’’ This 

proposed guide is Revision 2 of 

regulatory guide (RG) 1.178, ‘‘An 

Approach for Plant-Specific, RiskInformed Decisionmaking for Inservice 

Inspection of Piping.’’ It incorporates 

information to be consistent with the 

terminology and defense-in-depth 

philosophy provided in RG 1.174, ‘‘An 

Approach for Using Probabilistic Risk 

Assessment in Risk-Informed Decisions 

on Plant-Specific Changes to the 

Licensing Basis,’’ as well as to endorse 

the American Society of Mechanical 

Engineers (ASME) Code Case N–716–1, 

‘‘Alternative Classification and 

Examination Requirements, Section XI, 

Division 1.’’ 

DATES: Submit comments by January 13, 

2021. 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 on or before this date. 

Although a time limit is given, 

comments and suggestions in 

connection with items for inclusion in 

guides currently being developed or 

improvements in all published guides 

are encouraged at any time. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

by any of the following methods; 

however, the NRC encourages electronic 

comment submission through the 

Federal Rulemaking website: 

• Federal Rulemaking website: Go to 

https://www.regulations.gov and search 

for Docket ID NRC–2020–0256. Address 

questions about Docket IDs in 

Regulations.gov to Jennifer Borges; 

telephone: 301–287–9127; email: 

Jennifer.Borges@nrc.gov. For technical 

questions, contact the individuals listed 

in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT section of this document. 

• Mail comments to: Office of 

Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN–7– 

A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission, Washington, DC 20555– 

0001, ATTN: Program Management, 

Announcements and Editing Staff. 

For additional direction on accessing 

information and submitting comments, 

see ‘‘Obtaining Information and 

Submitting Comments’’ in the 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of 

this document. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Zeechung Wang, telephone: 301–415– 

1686, email: Zeechung.Wang@nrc.gov, 

or Harriet Karagiannis, telephone: 301– 

415–2493, email: Harriet.Karagiannis@

nrc.gov. Both are staff of the Office of 

Nuclear Regulatory Research, U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 

Washington, DC 20555–0001. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Obtaining Information and 

Submitting Comments 

A. Obtaining Information 

Please refer to Docket ID NRC–2020– 

0256 when contacting the NRC about 


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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 240 / Monday, December 14, 2020 / Notices 80825 

the availability of information regarding 

this action. You may obtain publicly 

available information related to this 

action, by any of the following methods: 

• Federal Rulemaking website: Go to 

https://www.regulations.gov and search 

for Docket ID NRC–2020–0256. 

• NRC’s Agencywide Documents 

Access and Management System 

(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly 

available documents online in the 

ADAMS Public Documents collection at 

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ 

adams.html. 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, 301– 

415–4737, or by email to pdr.resource@

nrc.gov. 

• Attention: The PDR, where you may 

examine and order copies of public 

documents is currently closed. You may 

submit your request to the PDR via 

email at PDR.Resource@nrc.gov or call 

1–800–397–4209 between 8:00 a.m. and 

4:00 p.m. (EST), Monday through 

Friday, except Federal holidays. 

B. Submitting Comments 

The NRC encourages electronic 

comment submission through the 

Federal Rulemaking website: https://

www.regulations.gov. Please include 

Docket ID NRC–2020–0256 in your 

comment submission. 

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 https://

www.regulations.gov as well as enters 

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. Additional Information 

The NRC is issuing for public 

comment a DG in the NRC’s ‘‘Regulatory 

Guide’’ series. This series was 

developed to describe methods that are 

acceptable to the NRC staff for 

implementing specific parts of the 

agency’s regulations, to explain 

techniques that the staff uses in 

evaluating specific issues or postulated 

events, and to describe information that 

the staff needs in its review of 

applications for permits and licenses. 

This DG, identified by its task 

number, DG–1288, titled, ‘‘PlantSpecific, Risk-Informed Decisionmaking 

for Inservice Inspections of Piping,’’ 

(ADAMS Accession No. ML20210M047) 

is a proposed Revision 2 of RG 1.178 

This revision of RG 1.178 (Revision 2) 

describes an approach that is acceptable 

to the staff of the NRC for developing 

risk-informed inservice inspections of 

piping (RI–ISI) programs and 

supplements the guidance provided in 

RG 1.174, ‘‘An Approach for Using 

Probabilistic Risk Assessment in RiskInformed Decisions on Plant-Specific 

Changes to the Licensing Basis.’’ It 

updates the defense-in-depth 

philosophy to be consistent with the 

philosophy described in RG 1.174. RG 

1.174 was revised in 2018 to expand the 

meaning of, and the process for, 

assessing defense-in-depth 

considerations. Specifically, this 

revision of RG 1.178 references the 

defense-in-depth guidance in RG 1.174 

in several staff regulatory positions. 

Additionally, the NRC staff revised 

this guide to (1) update Section C.2.2, 

‘‘Evaluation of Risk Impact,’’ of this RG 

to be consistent with Section C.2.3 in 

RG 1.174, which provides specific 

considerations with respect to 

determining the acceptability of the 

probabilistic risk assessment used in 

risk-informed decisionmaking, and (2) 

add the reference to ASME Code Case 

N–716–1, ‘‘Alternative Classification 

and Examination Requirements, Section 

XI, Division 1,’’ dated January 27, 2013, 

which describes an RI–ISI process as 

approved in RG 1.147. 

A previous version of DG–1288 

(ADAMS Accession No. ML12017A076) 

was issued for public comment on June 

29, 2012 (77 FR 38856) under Docket ID 

NRC–2012–0110. The staff did not fully 

consider the public comments received 

at that time due to the extent of the 

changes for RG 1.174. However, the staff 

has reviewed and addressed some 

comments on this DG. Commenters on 

the previous version are encouraged to 

review and comment on this version. 

The staff is also issuing for public 

comment a draft regulatory analysis 

(ADAMS Accession No. 

ML20210M044). The staff develops a 

regulatory analysis to assess the value of 

issuing or revising a regulatory guide as 

well as alternative courses of action. 

III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and 

Issue Finality 

DG–1288, if finalized, would revise 

RG 1.178, Revision 2, which describes 

methods acceptable to the NRC staff for 

complying with the NRC’s regulations 

for developing RI–ISI programs and 

supplements the guidance provided in 

RG 1.174. 

Issuance of DG–1288, if finalized, 

would not constitute backfitting as 

defined in section 50.109 of the Code of 

Federal Regulation (10 CFR), 

‘‘Backfitting,’’ and as described in NRC 

Management Directive (MD) 8.4, 

‘‘Management of Backfitting, Forward 

Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information 

Requests’’; constitute forward fitting as 

that term is defined and described in 

MD 8.4; or affect the issue finality of any 

approval issued under 10 CFR part 52. 

As explained in DG–1288, applicants 

and licensees would not be required to 

comply with the positions set forth in 

DG–1288. 

Dated: December 8, 2020. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Meraj Rahimi, 

Chief, Regulatory Guidance and Generic 

Issues Branch, Division of Engineering, Office 

of Nuclear Regulatory Research. 

[FR Doc. 2020–27382 Filed 12–11–20; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[Docket Nos. EA–20–006 and EA–20–007; 

ASLBP No. 21–969–01–EA–BD01] 

In the Matter of Tennessee Valley 

Authority; Establishment of Atomic 

Safety and Licensing Board 

Pursuant to delegation by the 

Commission, see 37 FR 28710 (Dec. 29, 

1972), and the Commission’s 

regulations, see, e.g., 10 CFR 2.104, 

2.105, 2.300, 2.309, 2.313, 2.318, 2.321, 

notice is hereby given that an Atomic 

Safety and Licensing Board (Board) is 

being established to preside over the 

following proceeding: 

Tennessee Valley Authority 

(Enforcement Action) 

This Board is being established 

pursuant to a referral from the NRC 

Office of the Secretary of two hearing 

requests, one from the Tennessee Valley 

Authority (TVA), and another from Erin 

Henderson, challenging an order 

imposing a civil penalty on TVA. The 

challenged order, issued on October 29, 

2020, by the NRC Office of Enforcement, 

was published in the Federal Register 

on November 4, 2020. See 85 FR 70203 

(Nov 4, 2020). 


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