52822 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 197 / Wednesday, October 14, 2009 / Notices 

be examined, and/or copied for a fee, at 

the NRC’s Public Document Room 

(PDR), located at One White Flint North, 

Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 

Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, 

Maryland. Publicly available records 

will be accessible electronically from 

the Agencywide Documents Access and 

Management System (ADAMS) Public 

Electronic Reading Room on the internet 

at the NRC Web site, 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 PDR 

Reference staff by telephone at 1–800– 

397–4209, or 301–415–4737 or by e-mail 

to pdr.resource@nrc.gov. 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 6th day 

of October 2009. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Douglas V. Pickett, 

Senior Project Manager, Plant Licensing 

Branch I–1, Division of Operating Reactor 

Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor 

Regulation. 

[FR Doc. E9–24726 Filed 10–13–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[NRC–2009–0453] 

Draft Regulatory Guide: Issuance, 

Availability 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Notice of Issuance and 

Availability of Draft Regulatory Guide, 

DG–1199, ‘‘Alternative Radiological 

Source Terms for Evaluating Design 

Basis Accidents at Nuclear Power 

Reactors.’’ 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Mark Blumberg, U. S. Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission, Washington, 

DC 20555–0001, telephone: (301) 415– 

1083 or e-mail Mark.Blumberg@nrc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Introduction 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is issuing for public 

comment a draft regulatory guide in the 

agency’s ‘‘Regulatory Guide’’ series. 

This series was developed to describe 

and make available to the public such 

information as methods that are 

acceptable to the NRC staff for 

implementing specific parts of the 

NRC’s regulations, techniques that the 

staff uses in evaluating specific 

problems or postulated accidents, and 

data that the staff needs in its review of 

applications for permits and licenses. 

The draft regulatory guide (DG), titled, 

‘‘Alternative Radiological Source Terms 

for Evaluating Design Basis Accidents at 

Nuclear Power Reactors,’’ is temporarily 

identified by its task number, DG–1199, 

which should be mentioned in all 

related correspondence. DG–1199 is 

proposed Revision 1 of Regulatory 

Guide 1.183, dated July 2000. This 

regulatory guide describes a method that 

the staff of the NRC considers 

acceptable in complying with 

alternative source term (AST) 

regulations for design basis accident 

dose consequence analysis. This 

guidance for light-water reactor designs 

includes the scope, nature, and 

documentation of associated analyses, 

evaluations; consideration of impacts on 

analyzed risk; and content of submittals. 

This guide establishes the AST based on 

NUREG–1465, ‘‘Accident Source Terms 

for Light-Water Nuclear Power Plants,’’ 

and identifies significant attributes of 

other accident source terms that may be 

acceptable. This guide also identifies 

acceptable radiological analysis 

assumptions for use in conjunction with 

the AST. In some cases, unusual site 

characteristics, plant design features, or 

other factors may require different 

assumptions, which will be considered 

on an individual case basis. 

The draft guide references Regulatory 

Guide 1.89, ‘‘Environmental 

Qualification of Certain Electric 

Equipment Important to Safety for 

Nuclear Power Plants,’’ regarding 

environmental qualification analyses 

that may be affected by implementing 

alternate source terms. This guidance 

will be available in the forthcoming 

revision of Regulatory Guide 1.89 and is 

currently available in Appendix I of 

Regulatory Guide 1.183, Revision 0. 

II. Further Information 

The Commission invites advice and 

recommendations on the content of DG– 

1199. Specifically, comments are 

solicited for the following questions. 

Each comment should include 

supporting basis or rationale to enable 

the staff to fully understand the point of 

view being provided. 

1. The alternative source term 

methodology described in the draft 

regulatory guide permits the assumption 

that the release of radioactive effluent to 

the environment occurs at some time 

period following the onset of the 

accident within the plant facility. 

Section 5.3, Meteorology Assumptions, 

provides guidance on pairing 

atmospheric dispersion factors (c/Q 

values) with the periods of maximum 

postulated release of radioactive effluent 

to the environment. 

a. Is it equally or more appropriate to 

include consideration of engineering 

factors such as time of control room 

isolation and initiation of filtration, in 

addition to the time sequence release of 

radiological effluent to the environment, 

when assessing the limiting dose to 

control room operators? 

2. Table 3 of DG–1199 provides 

revised non-loss of coolant accident 

fission product gap inventories 

applicable to all current fuel designs. 

The purpose of revising Table 3 was to 

expand its applicability by replacing the 

prior footnote 11 limitation (i.e., 6.3 kw/ 

ft beyond 54 GWd/MTU) with bounding 

fuel rod power envelopes. 

a. Does the bounding fuel rod power 

envelopes depicted in Figure 1 of DG– 

1199 provide sufficient fuel 

management flexibility such that 

current and anticipated fuel loading 

patterns will be able to utilize the Table 

3 fission product gap fractions? 

b. Fission gas release and the resulting 

fission product gap inventory are 

sensitive to fuel rod design and rod 

power history. To maintain consistency 

with current regulatory guidance, the 

revised Table 3 remains applicable to all 

current pressurized water reactor (PWR) 

and boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel rod 

designs (limited only by the bounding 

power envelope). Significant reductions 

in fission product gap inventories are 

achievable with specific fuel rod design 

calculations (e.g., PWR 17×17 versus 

PWR 14×14) and/or less bounding rod 

power histories. Should RG 1.183 

provide alternate versions of Table 3, 

each with its own set of applicability 

criteria? 

3. Reference 18 of DG–1199 

documents the expanded fission gas 

release empirical database and methods 

used to calculate the revised Table 3 

and Table 4 fission product gap 

inventories. Are any further fission gas 

measurements available which would 

help enhance the gap inventories listed 

in Table 3 and 4? 

Comments should mention DG–1199 

in the subject line. Comments submitted 

in writing or in electronic form will be 

made available to the public in their 

entirety through the NRC’s Agencywide 

Documents Access and Management 

System (ADAMS). 

Personal information will not be 

removed from the comments. Comments 

may be submitted by any of the 

following methods: 

1. Mail comments to: Rulemaking and 

Directives Branch, Division of 

Administrative Services, Mail Stop: 

TWB–05–B01M, Office of 

Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

mstockstill on DSKH9S0YB1PROD with NOTICES

Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 197 / Wednesday, October 14, 2009 / Notices 52823 

Commission, Washington, DC 20555– 

0001. 

2. Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov and search 

for documents filed under Docket ID 

[NRC–2009–0453]. Address questions 

about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher, 

301–492–3668; e-mail 

Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. 

3. Fax comments to: Rulemaking and 

Directives Branch, Division of 

Administrative Services, Office of 

Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission at (301) 492–3446. 

Requests for technical information 

about DG–1199 may be directed to Mark 

Blumberg at (301) 415–1083 or e-mail to 

Mark.Blumberg@nrc.gov. 

Comments would be most helpful if 

received by December 11, 2009. 

Comments received after that 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. 

Electronic copies of DG–1199 are 

available through the NRC’s public Web 

site under Draft Regulatory Guides in 

the ‘‘Regulatory Guides’’ collection of 

the NRC’s Electronic Reading 

Room at http://www.nrc.gov/readingrm/doc-collections/. Electronic copies 

are also available in ADAMS (http:// 

www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html), 

under Accession No. ML090960464. In 

addition, regulatory guides are available 

for inspection at the NRC’s Public 

Document Room (PDR) located at 11555 

Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. 

The PDR’s mailing address is USNRC 

PDR, Washington, DC 20555–0001. The 

PDR can also be reached by telephone 

at (301) 415–4737 or (800) 397–4205, by 

fax at (301) 415–3548, and by e-mail to 

pdr.resource@nrc.gov. 

Regulatory guides are not 

copyrighted, and Commission approval 

is not required to reproduce them. 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 6th day 

of October 2009. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Andrea D. Valentin, 

Chief, Regulatory Guide Development Branch, 

Division of Engineering, Office of Nuclear 

Regulatory Research. 

[FR Doc. E9–24719 Filed 10–13–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[NRC–2009–0452; Docket Nos. 50–413 and 

50–414] 

Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC; Catawba 

Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2; 

Environmental Assessment and 

Finding of No Significant Impact 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is considering 

issuance of amendments to Facility 

Operating License No. NPF–35 and 

Facility Operating License No. NPF–52, 

issued to Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC 

(the licensee), for operation of the 

Catawba Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2 

(Catawba 1 and 2), located in York 

County, South Carolina, in accordance 

with Title 10 of the Code of Federal 

Regulations (10 CFR) part 50. Therefore, 

as required by 10 CFR part 51, the NRC 

performed an environmental 

assessment. Based on the results of the 

environmental assessment, the NRC is 

issuing a finding of no significant 

impact. 

Environmental Assessment 

Identification of the Proposed Action 

The proposed action would revise the 

Technical Specifications (TSs) by 

removing and updating portions of the 

TSs which are outdated or are obsolete 

including footnotes and references. The 

proposed changes are editorial or 

administrative in nature as they update 

the current TSs to reflect changes 

previously approved by the NRC. 

The proposed action is in accordance 

with the licensee’s application dated 

October 8, 2008, as supplemented by 

letter dated May 5, 2009. 

The Need for the Proposed Action 

The proposed action is needed to 

update the TSs and remove out of date 

and obsolete information. 

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed 

Action 

The NRC has completed its safety 

evaluation of the proposed action and 

concludes that there are no 

environmental impacts associated with 

granting the subject license amendment 

updating the TSs to remove outdated or 

obsolete information. The details of the 

NRC staff’s safety evaluation will be 

provided in a letter to the licensee upon 

approval of the license amendment. 

The proposed action will not 

significantly increase the probability or 

consequences of accidents. No changes 

are being made in the types of effluents 

that may be released offsite. There is no 

significant increase in the amount of 

any effluent released offsite. There is no 

significant increase in occupational or 

public radiation exposure. Therefore, 

there are no significant radiological 

environmental impacts associated with 

the proposed action. 

With regard to potential nonradiological impacts, the proposed 

action does not have any foreseeable 

impacts to land, air, or water resources, 

including impacts to biota. In addition, 

there are also no known socioeconomic 

or environmental justice impacts 

associated with such proposed action. 

Therefore, there are no significant nonradiological environmental impacts 

associated with the proposed action. 

Accordingly, the NRC concludes that 

there are no significant environmental 

impacts associated with the proposed 

action. 

Environmental Impacts of the 

Alternatives to the Proposed Action 

As an alternative to the proposed 

action, the staff considered denial of the 

proposed action (i.e., the ‘‘no-action’’ 

alternative). Denial of the application 

would result in no change in current 

environmental impacts. The 

environmental impacts of the proposed 

action and the alternative action are 

similar. 

Alternative Use of Resources 

The action does not involve the use of 

any different resources than those 

previously considered in the Final 

Environmental Statement for Catawba 

Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2, NUREG– 

0921, dated January 1983 and Final 

Supplemental Environmental Impact 

Statement (NUREG–1437, Supplement 

9) dated December 2002. 

Agencies and Persons Consulted 

On September 23, 2009, the NRC staff 

consulted with the South Carolina State 

official, Mr. Michael Gandy, Department 

of Health and Environmental Control, 

regarding the environmental impact of 

the proposed action. The State official 

had no comments. 

Finding of No Significant Impact 

On the basis of the environmental 

assessment, the NRC concludes that the 

proposed action will not have a 

significant effect on the quality of the 

human environment. No substantial 

changes to the facility or its operation 

are associated with the proposed license 

amendment. Accordingly, the NRC has 

determined not to prepare an 

environmental impact statement for the 

proposed action. 

For further details with respect to the 

proposed action, see the licensee’s letter 

dated October 8, 2008, as supplemented 

mstockstill on DSKH9S0YB1PROD with NOTICES