Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 228 / Wednesday, November 26, 2014 / Notices 70575 

previously announced meeting of the 

Human Exploration and Operations 

Committee of the NASA Advisory 

Council (NAC). The meeting had been 

scheduled to be held on December 2 and 

3, 2014. The meeting is being postponed 

by NASA due to exceptional 

circumstances and schedule conflicts of 

the NASA top leadership. The latter’s 

attendance is required during this 

period for the NASA Senior 

Management Council meeting and final 

countdown preparations for launch of 

the Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 

(EFT–1) on December 4, 2014, at NASA 

Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. 

Bette Siegel, Human Exploration and 

Operations Mission Directorate, NASA 

Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546, 

(202) 358–2245, or bette.siegel@

nasa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

meeting was originally announced as 

NASA Notice 14–113 in the Federal 

Register on November 13, 2014, at 79 

FR 67468. The meeting had been 

scheduled to be held on Tuesday, 

December 2, 2014, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; and 

Wednesday, December 3, 2014, 8 a.m. to 

4:30 p.m.; Local Time, at NASA 

Headquarters, 300 E Street SW., 

Washington, DC 20546. 

Patricia D. Rausch, 

Advisory Committee Management Officer, 

National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. 2014–28061 Filed 11–25–14; 8:45 am] 

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NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND 

SPACE ADMINISTRATION 

[Notice: 14–123] 

NASA Advisory Council; Science 

Committee; Meeting Postponement 

AGENCY: National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration. 

ACTION: Notice of postponement of 

meeting. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public 

Law 92–463, as amended, NASA 

announces a postponement of the 

previously announced meeting of the 

Science Committee of the NASA 

Advisory Council (NAC). The meeting 

was originally announced in the Federal 

Register on November 14, 2014. The 

meeting had been scheduled to be held 

December 1–3, 2014. The meeting is 

being postponed by NASA due to 

exceptional circumstances and schedule 

conflicts of the NASA top leadership. 

The latter’s attendance is required 

during this period for the NASA Senior 

Management Council meeting and final 

countdown preparations for launch of 

the Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 

(EFT–1) on December 4, 2014, at NASA 

Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. 

Ann Delo, Science Mission Directorate, 

NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 

20546, (202) 358–0750, or ann.b.delo@

nasa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

meeting was originally announced as 

NASA Notice 14–115 in the Federal 

Register on Friday, November 14, 2014 

at 79 FR 68304. The meeting had been 

scheduled to be held on Monday, 

December 1, 2014, 8 a.m.–5 p.m.; 

Tuesday, December 2, 2014, 8 a.m.–6 

p.m.; and Wednesday, December 3, 

2014, 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; Local Time, 

at NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street 

SW., Washington, DC 20546. 

Patricia D. Rausch, 

Advisory Committee Management Officer, 

National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. 2014–28059 Filed 11–25–14; 8:45 am] 

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NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[NRC–2014–0254] 

Advanced Light-Water Reactor 

Probabilistic Risk Assessment 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Draft interim staff guidance; 

request for comment. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is issuing this notice 

for use of and requesting public 

comment on its draft Interim Staff 

Guidance (ISG) DC/COL–ISG–028, 

‘‘Assessing the Technical Adequacy of 

the Advanced Light-Water Reactor 

Probabilistic Risk Assessment for the 

Design Certification Application and 

Combined License Application.’’ The 

purpose of this ISG would be to provide 

guidance for assessing the technical 

adequacy of the probabilistic risk 

assessment (PRA) needed for advanced 

light-water reactor (ALWR) design 

certification (DC) and combined license 

(COL) applications. This guidance 

would only address the typical 

conditions for the DC and COL 

application. 

DATES: Submit comments by January 26, 

2015. 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 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–2014–0254. Address 

questions about NRC dockets to Carol 

Gallagher; telephone: 301–287–3422; 

email: Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. For 

technical questions, contact the 

individual listed in the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section of this 

document. 

• Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, 

Office of Administration, Mail Stop: 

3WFN–06–A44M, U.S. Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission, Washington, 

DC 20555–0001. 

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: 

Tanya Hood, Office of New Reactors, 

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 

Washington, DC 20555–0001; telephone: 

301–415–1387, email: Tanya.Hood@

nrc.gov 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Obtaining Information and 

Submitting Comments 

A. Obtaining Information 

Please refer to Docket ID NRC–2014– 

0254 when contacting the NRC about 

the availability of information for this 

action. You may obtain publiclyavailable information related to this 

action by any of the following methods: 

• Federal rulemaking Web site: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov and search 

for Docket ID NRC–2014–0254. 

• NRC’s Agencywide Documents 

Access and Management System 

(ADAMS): You may obtain publiclyavailable documents online in the 

ADAMS Public Documents collection 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 (if it is available in 

ADAMS) is provided the first time that 

it is mentioned in the SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION section. The proposed DC/ 

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70576 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 228 / Wednesday, November 26, 2014 / Notices 

COL–ISG–028 is available electronically 

under ADAMS Accession No. 

ML14230A111. 

• 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–2014– 

0254 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 in 

comment submissions that you do not 

want to be publicly disclosed in your 

comment submission. The NRC will 

post all comment submissions at 

http://www.regulations.gov as well as 

enter the comment submissions into 

ADAMS, and 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. Background 

The NRC staff issues DC/COL–ISGs to 

facilitate timely implementation of 

current staff guidance and to facilitate 

activities associated with review of 

applications for DCs and COLs by the 

Office of New Reactors. The NRC staff 

intends to incorporate the final 

approved DC/COL–ISG–28 into the next 

revision of Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.200, 

Revision 2, ‘‘An Approach for 

Determining the Technical Adequacy of 

Probabilistic Risk Assessment Results 

for Risk-Informed Activities’’ (ADAMS 

Accession No. ML090410014), RG 

1.206, ‘‘Combined License Applications 

for Nuclear Power Plants’’ (ADAMS 

Accession No. ML070720184), and 

NUREG–0800, ‘‘Standard Review Plan 

(SRP) for the Review of Safety Analysis 

Reports for Nuclear Power Plants,’’ SRP 

Section 19.0 ‘‘Probabilistic Risk 

Assessment and Severe Accident 

Evaluation for New Reactors’’ (ADAMS 

Accession No. ML12132A481), as 

appropriate. 

An early version of this ISG was made 

publicly available to support the 

September 9, 2014, meeting of the 

Working Group on Advanced Light 

Water Reactors for the American Society 

of Mechanical Engineers/American 

Nuclear Society Joint Standards 

Committee on Nuclear Risk 

Management (ADAMS Accession No. 

ML14248A683). The public should not 

provide comments to the early version 

of the ISG. 

The NRC posts all final ISGs on the 

NRC’s public Web page at http://

www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doccollections/isg/, which is where the 

public may easily obtain access to DC/ 

COL–ISG–28. 

Backfitting and Issue Finality 

The NRC is proposing to issue interim 

guidance for the NRC staff for assessing 

the technical adequacy of probabilistic 

risk assessments submitted as part of 

advanced light-water reactor design 

certification applications and combined 

license applications. Issuance of the 

draft ISG, if finalized, would not 

constitute backfitting as defined section 

50.109 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal 

Regulations (10 CFR) (the Backfit Rule) 

or otherwise be inconsistent with the 

issue finality provisions in 10 CFR part 

52. The NRC’s position is based upon 

the following considerations. 

1. The draft ISG positions, if finalized, 

do not constitute backfitting, inasmuch 

as the ISG is internal guidance to NRC 

staff. 

The ISG provides interim guidance to 

the staff on how to review an 

application for NRC regulatory approval 

in the form of licensing. Changes in 

internal staff guidance are not matters 

for which applicants or licensees are 

protected under 10 CFR 50.109 or issue 

finality provisions in part 52. 

2. Backfitting and issue finality—with 

certain exceptions discussed below—do 

not protect current or future applicants. 

Applicants and potential applicants 

are not, with certain exceptions, 

protected by either the Backfit Rule or 

any issue finality provisions under 10 

CFR part 52. This is because neither the 

Backfit Rule nor the issue finality 

provisions under 10 CFR part 52—with 

certain exclusions discussed below— 

were intended to apply to every NRC 

action that substantially changes the 

expectations of current and future 

applicants. The exceptions to the 

general principle are applicable 

whenever an applicant references a 10 

CFR part 52 license (e.g., an early site 

permit), NRC regulatory approval (e.g., a 

design certification rule), or both, with 

specified issue finality provisions. The 

staff does not, at this time, intend to 

impose the positions represented in the 

draft ISG (if finalized) in a manner that 

is inconsistent with any issue finality 

provisions. If, in the future, the staff 

seeks to impose a position in the draft 

ISG (if finalized) in a manner that does 

not provide issue finality as described 

in the applicable issue finality 

provision, then the staff must address 

the criteria for avoiding issue finality as 

described in the applicable issue finality 

provision. 

3. The staff has no intention to 

impose the draft ISG on existing nuclear 

power plant licenses or regulatory 

approvals either now or in the future 

(absent a voluntary request for change 

from the licensee, holder of a regulatory 

approval, or a design certification 

applicant). 

The staff does not intend to impose or 

apply the positions described in the 

draft ISG to existing (already issued) 

licenses (e.g., operating licenses and 

combined licenses) and regulatory 

approvals. Hence, the draft ISG—even if 

considered guidance which is within 

the purview of the issue finality 

provisions in 10 CFR part 52—need not 

be evaluated as if it were a backfit or as 

being inconsistent with issue finality 

provisions. If, in the future, the staff 

seeks to impose a position in the draft 

ISG (if finalized) on holders of already 

issued licenses in a manner that does 

not provide issue finality as described 

in the applicable issue finality 

provision, then the staff must make the 

showing as set forth in the Backfit Rule, 

or address the criteria for avoiding issue 

finality as described in the applicable 

issue finality provision, as applicable. 

Congressional Review Act 

This ISG is a rule as defined in the 

Congressional Review Act (5 U.S.C. 

801–808). However, the Office of 

Management and Budget has not yet 

determined whether it is a major rule as 

defined in the Congressional Review 

Act. 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 18th day 

of November, 2014. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Joseph Colaccino, 

Chief, New Reactor Rulemaking and 

Guidance Branch, Division of Advanced 

Reactor and Rulemaking, Office of New 

Reactors. 

[FR Doc. 2014–28047 Filed 11–25–14; 8:45 am] 

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