44778 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 148 / Thursday, July 31, 2008 / Notices 

requirement or request: 10,868 hours 

(1,460 hours for NRC licensees [485 

hours reporting and 975 hours 

recordkeeping] and 9,408 hours for 

Agreement State licensees [4,558 hours 

reporting and 4,850 hours 

recordkeeping]). 

10. Abstract: 10 CFR Part 31 

establishes general licenses for the 

possession and use of byproduct 

material in certain devices. General 

licensees are required to keep testing 

records and submit event reports 

identified in Part 31, which assist NRC 

in determining with reasonable 

assurance that devices are operated 

safely and without radiological hazard 

to users or the public. 

A copy of the final supporting 

statement may be viewed free of charge 

at the NRC Public Document Room, One 

White Flint North, 11555 Rockville 

Pike, Room O–1 F21, Rockville, 

Maryland 20852. OMB clearance 

requests are available at the NRC 

worldwide Web site: http:// 

www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doccomment/omb/index.html. The 

document will be available on the NRC 

home page site for 60 days after the 

signature date of this notice. 

Comments and questions should be 

directed to the OMB reviewer listed 

below by September 2, 2008. Comments 

received after this date will be 

considered if it is practical to do so, but 

assurance of consideration cannot be 

given to comments received after this 

date. 

Nathan J. Frey, Office of Information 

and Regulatory Affairs (3150–0016), 

NEOB–10202, Office of Management 

and Budget, Washington, DC 20503. 

Comments can also be e-mailed to 

Nathan_J._Frey@omb.eop.gov or 

submitted by telephone at (202) 395–

7345. 

The NRC Clearance Officer is Russell 

Nichols, (301) 415–6874. 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 24th day 

of July, 2008. 

Tremaine Donnell, 

Acting NRC Clearance Officer, Office of 

Information Services. 

[FR Doc. E8–17541 Filed 7–30–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[NRC–2008–0332] 

Notice of Availability and Solicitation 

of Public Comments on Documents 

Under Consideration To Establish the 

Technical Basis for New PerformanceBased Emergency Core Cooling 

System Requirements 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Notice of availability and 

request for public comment. 

SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is announcing the 

availability of Research Information 

Letter (RIL) 0801, ‘‘Technical Basis for 

Revision of Embrittlement Criteria in 10 

CFR 50.46’’ and NUREG/CR–6967, 

‘‘Cladding Embrittlement During 

Postulated Loss-of-Coolant Accidents,’’

and is seeking public comment on these 

documents. The NRC is soliciting 

comment on the subject documents to 

confirm that a sufficient technical basis 

exists to proceed with new 

performance-based regulations on 

emergency core cooling system (ECCS) 

acceptance criteria, and to identify 

issues that may arise with respect to 

experimental data development or 

regulatory costs or impacts of new 

requirements. 

DATES: Comments on these documents 

should be submitted by September 5, 

2008. Comments received after this date 

will be considered to the extent 

practical, but assurance of consideration 

cannot be given to comments received 

after this date. 

ADDRESSES: Members of the public are 

invited and encouraged to submit 

comments by mail to Michael Lesar, 

Chief, Rulemaking, Directives and 

Editing Branch, Office of 

Administration, Mail Stop T6–D59, U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 

Washington, DC 20555–0001. 

You may also submit comments 

electronically at the federal rulemaking 

portal, http://www.regulations.gov; 

search on rulemaking docket ID: NRC–

2008–0332. 

To ensure efficient and complete 

comment resolution, comments should 

include references to the section and 

page numbers of the document to which 

the comment applies, if possible. 

Comments will be discussed during a 10 

CFR 50.46(b) public workshop 

tentatively scheduled for September 

2008 (specific date and location to be 

noticed separately). 

You can access publicly available 

documents related to this notice using 

the following methods: Federal eRulemaking Portal: Documents related 

to this action, including public 

comments, are accessible at the federal 

rulemaking portal, http:// 

www.regulations.gov, by searching on 

rulemaking docket ID: NRC–2008–0332. 

The NRC also tracks all rulemaking 

actions in the ‘‘NRC Regulatory Agenda: 

Semiannual Report (NUREG–0936).’’

NRC’s Public Document Room (PDR): 

The public may examine and have 

copied for a fee, publicly available 

documents at the NRC’s PDR, Public 

File Area O–1F21, One White Flint 

North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 

Maryland. 

NRC’s Agencywide Document Access 

and Management System (ADAMS): RIL 

0801, Technical Basis for Revision of 

Embrittlement Criteria in 10 CFR 50.46’’

(ADAMS ML081350225) and NUREG/ 

CR–6967, ‘‘Cladding Embrittlement 

During Postulated Loss-of-Coolant 

Accidents’’ (ADAMS ML081780360) are 

available electronically at the NRC’s 

Electronic Reading Room at http:// 

www.nrc.gov/NRC/reading-rm/ 

adams.html. From this page, the public 

can gain entry into ADAMS, which 

provides text and image files of NRC’s 

public documents. If you do not have 

access to ADAMS or if there are any 

problems in accessing the documents 

located in ADAMS, contact the NRC 

PDR Reference staff at 1–800–397–4209, 

301–415–4737 or by e-mail to 

PDR.resource@nrc.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul 

M. Clifford, Division of Safety Systems, 

Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, 

telephone: (301) 415–4043, e-mail: 

Paul.Clifford@nrc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In early 

2003, the Commission directed the NRC 

staff to complete the technical basis and 

move forward with rulemaking to 

establish improved, performance-based 

ECCS acceptance criteria in 10 CFR 

50.46(b), ‘‘Acceptance Criteria for 

Emergency Core Cooling Systems for 

Light-Water Nuclear Power Reactors.’’

The NRC sponsored an extensive 

research and testing program at Argonne 

National Laboratory (ANL) to develop 

the body of technical information 

needed to support the new regulations. 

This information has been summarized 

in RIL 0801 and the detailed 

experimental results are contained in 

NUREG/CR–6967. Because of the 

importance of this regulation, the staff 

has decided to release the technical 

documentation for domestic and 

international public comment. With this 

approach, the NRC can address 

stakeholder questions and respond to 

comments early in the process. The 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 148 / Thursday, July 31, 2008 / Notices 44779 

public is invited to comment on the 

adequacy of this technical information, 

including the following: 

I. Technical Basis 

1. RIL 0801 Figure 1 provides the 

measured embrittlement threshold for 

all fresh and irradiated cladding 

specimens investigated during the ANL 

research program. Hydrogen dependent 

post-quench ductility regulatory criteria, 

similar to the lines on this figure, may 

be established from these experimental 

results. 

a. Is the technical information 

presented within NUREG/CR–6967 

sufficient in scope and depth to justify 

specific regulatory criteria applicable to 

all current zirconium cladding alloys? 

b. Is the technical information 

presented within NUREG/CR–6967 

sufficient in scope and depth to justify 

periodic testing on as-fabricated 

cladding material? 

c. Is the technical information 

presented within NUREG/CR–6967 

sufficient in scope and depth to address 

sensitivities to alloy composition, trace 

elements, manufacturing practices, fuel 

rod burnup, and transient temperature 

profile? 

2. Section 2 of NUREG/CR–6967 

details the experimental techniques and 

procedures employed at ANL to assess 

cladding properties. 

a. Were the experimental techniques 

and procedures adequate for their 

intended purpose of defining acceptable 

fuel criteria (e.g., specimen preparation, 

specimen size, heating/cooling rates, 

ring-compression techniques, test 

temperature, acceptance criteria for 

post-quench ductility and breakaway 

oxidation, etc.)? 

b. Is the technical information 

presented within NUREG/CR–6967 

sufficient in scope and depth to address 

uncertainties related to and repeatability 

of measured results? 

II. Performance-Based Testing 

Requirements 

1. Due to potential sensitivities to 

manufacturing processes, performance 

based testing may be required to 

characterize the loss-of-coolant accident 

(LOCA) performance of new cladding 

alloys. 

a. Section 2.1 of NUREG/CR–6967 

details all of the fresh and irradiated 

cladding specimens investigated during 

the ANL research program. Is the extent 

of the ANL material database sufficient 

to justify the applicability of 

experimental results to future cladding 

alloys? 

b. Conducting testing on irradiated 

specimens is more difficult and 

expensive than similar tests performed 

on unirradiated specimens. Does a 

sufficient technical basis exist to justify 

testing on hydrogen charged, 

unirradiated cladding specimens as a 

surrogate for irradiated fuel cladding? 

2. Due to potential sensitivities to 

manufacturing processes, routine testing 

may be required to verify material 

performance. Are there difficulties or 

limitations with periodic testing that 

would make such a requirement 

impractical? 

III. Implementation 

1. Implementing new regulatory 

criteria for 10 CFR 50.46(b) may 

necessitate further testing and new 

licensing activities (e.g., revised 

methods, updated safety analyses, etc.). 

What is the cost-benefit for 

implementing new regulatory 

requirements similar to those discussed 

in RIL 0801? 

2. Implementing hydrogen-based 

regulatory criteria may require the 

development of high confidence 

corrosion and hydrogen pickup models. 

a. What type of information is needed 

to develop such models and is such 

information readily available? 

b. What performance indicators (e.g., 

pool-side measurements, hot cell 

examinations, etc.) could be used to 

validate models? 

c. What additional regulatory 

requirements would be necessary to 

assure that the fuel is performing in 

accordance with the approved models? 

How will compliance with the rule be 

demonstrated on a cycle by cycle basis? 

3. Crud deposits on the fuel cladding 

surface may affect fuel stored energy, 

fuel rod heat transfer, and cladding 

corrosion. 

a. What role does plant chemistry and 

crud deposits play on these items? 

b. How should normal and abnormal 

levels of crud deposits be addressed 

from a regulatory perspective? 

The NRC is seeking public comment 

to receive feedback from the widest 

range of interested parties and to ensure 

that all information relevant to revision 

of the embrittlement criteria in 10 CFR 

50.46 is available to the NRC staff. The 

NRC will review public comments 

received on this technical information 

and incorporate appropriate changes 

before starting to develop the proposed 

revisions to the regulations. Comments 

will be discussed during a 10 CFR 

50.46(b) public workshop tentatively 

scheduled for September 2008 (specific 

date and location to be noticed 

separately). 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 21st day 

of July 2008. 

For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

William H. Ruland, 

Director, Division of Safety Systems, Office 

of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. 

[FR Doc. E8–17543 Filed 7–30–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

Draft Regulatory Guide: Issuance, 

Availability 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Notice of Issuance and 

Availability of Draft Regulatory Guide, 

DG–3034. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Timothy Johnson, U.S. Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission, Washington, 

DC 20555–0001, telephone: (301) 492–

3121 or e-mail to 

Timothy.Johnson@nrc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Introduction 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) has issued 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, 

‘‘General Design Guide for Ventilation 

Systems of Plutonium Processing and 

Fuel Fabrication Plants,’’ is temporarily 

identified by its task number, DG–3034, 

which should be mentioned in all 

related correspondence. 

Proposed Revision 1 of Regulatory 

Guide 3.12 describes a method that the 

staff of the NRC considers acceptable for 

use in complying with 10 CFR 

70.23(a)(3) and (a)(4) with respect to the 

design of ventilation systems for 

plutonium processing and fuel 

fabrication plants. At plutonium 

processing and fuel fabrication plants, a 

principal risk to health and safety is the 

release and dispersal of radioactive 

materials. The prevention of such 

release and dispersal is an important 

function of the ventilation systems. To 

meet these objectives, this guide 

provides recommendations for 

achieving defense in depth and for 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES