This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains notices to the public of the proposed

issuance of rules and regulations. The

purpose of these notices is to give interested

persons an opportunity to participate in the

rule making prior to the adoption of the final

rules.

Proposed Rules Federal Register

71777 

Vol. 88, No. 200 

Wednesday, October 18, 2023 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

10 CFR Parts 50, 52, and 100 

[NRC–2023–0153] 

Draft Regulatory Guide: General Site 

Suitability Criteria for Nuclear Power 

Stations 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Draft guide; request for 

comment. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is issuing for public 

comment a draft regulatory guide (DG), 

DG–4034, ‘‘General Site Suitability 

Criteria for Nuclear Power Stations.’’ 

This DG is a proposed Revision 4 for 

Regulatory Guide (RG) 4.7 of the same 

name which describes the major site 

characteristics related to public health 

and safety and environmental issues 

that the NRC staff considers in 

determining the suitability of sites for 

commercial nuclear power stations. 

DATES: Submit comments by November 

17, 2023. 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. 

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–2023–0153. Address 

questions about Docket IDs in 

Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; 

telephone: 301–415–0624; email: 

Stacy.Schumann@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 obtaining 

information and submitting comments, 

see ‘‘Obtaining Information and 

Submitting Comments’’ in the 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of 

this document. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Belkys Sosa, Office of Nuclear Reactor 

Regulation, telephone: 301–415–3357; 

email: Belkys.Sosa@nrc.gov and Edward 

O’Donnell, Office of Nuclear Regulatory 

Research, telephone: 301–415–3317; 

email: Edward.Odonnell@nrc.gov. Both 

are staff of the 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–2023– 

0153 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: 

• Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to 

https://www.regulations.gov and search 

for Docket ID NRC–2023–0153. 

• 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, at 

301–415–4737, or by email to 

PDR.Resource@nrc.gov. The DG–4034, 

‘‘General Site Suitability Criteria for 

Nuclear Power Stations’’ is available in 

ADAMS under Accession No. 

ML23123A090. 

• NRC’s PDR: 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 PDR.Resource@nrc.gov 

or call 1–800–397–4209 or 301–415– 

4737, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern 

time (ET), 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–2023–0153 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 will post all comment 

submissions at https://

www.regulations.gov as well as enter 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 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, entitled ‘‘General Site 

Suitability Criteria for Nuclear Power 

Stations,’’ is temporarily identified by 

its task number, DG–4034. 

This proposed revision to RG 4.7 

implements the Commission approved 

alternative population-related criteria in 

SRM–SECY–20–0045, ‘‘PopulationRelated Siting Considerations for 

Advanced Reactors,’’ (ADAMS 

Accession No. ML22194A885) through 

the addition of Appendix A. It provides 

alternatives to demonstrate compliance 

with paragraph 100.21(h) of title 10 of 

the Code of Federal Regulations (10 

CFR) in determining the suitability of 

sites for commercial nuclear power 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with PROPOSALS1
71778 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 200 / Wednesday, October 18, 2023 / Proposed Rules 

stations to support licensing for nonlight-water reactors (LWRs) and lightwater small modular reactors with 

attributes that could support siting a 

commercial nuclear power station closer 

to population centers than large LWRs 

typically have been sited. Appendix A 

retains the regulatory requirements in 

10 CFR part 100 that call for licensees 

to establish an exclusion area, a low 

population zone, and a minimum 

distance to the nearest densely 

populated center containing more than 

25,000 residents. In addition, Appendix 

A introduces a new graded approach 

where instead of locating a reactor in an 

area where the population density does 

not exceed 500 persons per square mile 

out to 20 miles from the reactor, an 

applicant can demonstrate compliance 

with 10 CFR 100.21(h) by siting a 

nuclear reactor in a location where the 

population density does not exceed 500 

persons per square mile out to a 

distance equal to twice the distance at 

which a hypothetical individual could 

receive a calculated total effective dose 

equivalent of 1 rem over a period of 1 

month from the release of radionuclides 

following postulated accidents. 

In addition, proposed Revision 4 

restructures RG 4.7 to remove repetition 

found in Revision 3 by consolidating 

materials from the Discussion section 

and the two tables in Revision 3 of the 

RG into Section C, ‘‘Staff Regulatory 

Guidance.’’ To improve clarity and 

cohesiveness each topic in Section C 

was structured to list (1) relevant 

statutes and regulations, (2) related 

guidance, and (3) considerations, 

regulatory experience, and staff 

position. 

The staff is also issuing for public 

comment a draft regulatory analysis 

(ADAMS Accession No. ML23123A095). 

The staff developed a regulatory 

analysis to assess the value of issuing or 

revising a regulatory guide as well as 

alternative courses of action. 

As noted in the Federal Register on 

December 9, 2022 (87 FR 75671), this 

document is being published in the 

‘‘Proposed Rules’’ section of the Federal 

Register to comply with publication 

requirements under 1 CFR chapter I. 

III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and 

Issue Finality 

Issuance of this DG does not 

constitute backfitting as defined in 10 

CFR 50.109, ‘‘Backfitting,’’ and as 

described in NRC Management Directive 

(MD) 8.4, ‘‘Management of Backfitting, 

Forward Fitting, Issue Finality, and 

Information Requests,’’ would not affect 

the issue finality of any approval issued 

under 10 CFR part 52; and would not 

constitute forward fitting as that term is 

defined and described in MD 8.4. 

If finalized, this regulatory guide will 

not apply to any construction permits, 

operating licenses, early site permits, 

limited work authorizations issued 

under 10 CFR 50.10, or combined 

licenses, for which the NRC issued a 

final environmental impact statement 

(EIS) preceded by a draft EIS under 10 

CFR 51.76 or 51.75, any of which were 

issued by the NRC prior to issuance of 

the final regulatory guide. The NRC has 

already completed its siting 

determination for those construction 

permits, operating licenses, early site 

permits, limited work authorizations, 

and combined licenses. Therefore, no 

further NRC regulatory action on siting 

will occur for those licenses, permits, 

and authorizations, for which the 

guidance in the regulatory guide would 

be relevant. 

The methods described in this 

proposed RG will be used in evaluating 

applications for construction permits, 

early site permits, combined operating 

licenses and limited work 

authorizations, which includes 

information under 10 CFR 51.49(b) or 

(f), with respect to compliance with 

applicable regulations governing the 

siting of new nuclear power plants and 

testing facilities, unless the applicant 

proposes an acceptable alternative 

method for complying with those 

regulations. Methods that differ from 

those described in this proposed RG 

may be deemed acceptable if the 

applicant provides sufficient basis and 

information for the NRC staff to verify 

that the proposed alternative complies 

with the applicable NRC regulations. 

IV. Submitting Suggestions for 

Improvement of Regulatory Guides 

A member of the public may, at any 

time, submit suggestions to the NRC for 

improvement of existing RGs or for the 

development of new RGs. Suggestions 

can be submitted on the NRC’s public 

website at https://www.nrc.gov/readingrm/doc-collections/reg-guides/ 

contactus.html. Suggestions will be 

considered in future updates and 

enhancements to the ‘‘Regulatory 

Guide’’ series. 

Dated: October 13, 2023. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Stanley J. Gardocki, 

Acting Chief, Regulatory Guide and Programs 

Management Branch, Division of Engineering, 

Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. 

[FR Doc. 2023–22980 Filed 10–17–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Aviation Administration 

14 CFR Part 39 

[Docket No. FAA–2023–1999; Project 

Identifier MCAI–2023–00697–T] 

RIN 2120–AA64 

Airworthiness Directives; Airbus 

Defense and Space S.A. (Formerly 

Known as Construcciones 

Aeronauticas, S.A.) Airplanes 

AGENCY: Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking 

(NPRM). 

SUMMARY: The FAA proposes to 

supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 

2021–02–18, which applies to all Airbus 

Defense and Space S.A. Model CN–235, 

CN–235–100, CN–235–200, and CN– 

235–300 airplanes and Model C–295 

airplanes. AD 2021–02–18 requires 

repetitive inspections for cracking or 

broken rivets of certain left- and righthand stringers and surrounding 

structure, and repair if necessary. Since 

the FAA issued AD 2021–02–18, a 

modification was developed to reinforce 

the structure in the affected area, 

providing terminating action for the 

repetitive inspections required by AD 

2021–02–18. This proposed AD 

continues to require the actions in AD 

2021–02–18 and proposes to require the 

new terminating action for the repetitive 

inspections, as specified in a European 

Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) 

AD, which is proposed for incorporation 

by reference. The FAA is proposing this 

AD to address the unsafe condition on 

these products. 

DATES: The FAA must receive comments 

on this proposed AD by December 4, 

2023. 

ADDRESSES: You may send comments, 

using the procedures found in 14 CFR 

11.43 and 11.45, by any of the following 

methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

regulations.gov. Follow the instructions 

for submitting comments. 

• Fax: 202–493–2251. 

• Mail: U.S. Department of 

Transportation, Docket Operations, M– 

30, West Building Ground Floor, Room 

W12–140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, 

Washington, DC 20590. 

• Hand Delivery: Deliver to Mail 

address above between 9 a.m. and 5 

p.m., Monday through Friday, except 

Federal holidays. 

AD Docket: You may examine the AD 

docket at regulations.gov under Docket 

No. FAA–2023–1999; or in person at 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with PROPOSALS1