Document: NRC Regulatory Guide
Document ID: 5810150e-ee20-4cd1-b72f-6e918a603f73
Document Type: regulatory_guide
Title: Applications for Nuclear Power Plants (Rev. 1)
Source: NRC Regulatory Guide Division 1
Source URL: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1523/ML15233A056.pdf
Revision Date: 2023-06
Chapter: 
Section ID: RG-1.206
CFR Part: 
CFR Title: 

Content:
heir application. Any COLA, including the FSAR, should be complete and sufficient to support the required NRC’s safety, security, and environmental findings. If an applicant wishes to take advantage of previous NRC staff findings and other applicant or licensee submissions, the applicant needs to clearly articulate that desire and provide justification as to why the staff’s previous findings are an appropriate precedent. This can be accomplished by using and/or refining current referencing practices that include LMA and endorsement letters related to RAI responses by previous COL applicants. There is no regulatory requirement that future COLAs adopt standard content solely from a DCWG-identified R-COL application, as demonstrated in the William States Lee III Nuclear Station (WLS) COLA (Ref. 69), which references content from the Levy Nuclear Plant (LNP) COLA. Similarly, there is no regulatory requirement to constrain future COL applicants from further refinement of approaches to referencing previous NRC staff findings to best meet their needs as applicants. It is essential that S-COL applicants clearly reference any information related to previous NRC reviews whether such information is related to an R-COL application, another S-COL application, or post-licensing actions such as LARs and postlicense departures and exemptions. Referencing such material should be an important part of preapplication meetings with NRC staff. Transparent communications with the NRC concerning such referencing should continue throughout the COLA review process. It is recommended that COL applicants further increase review efficiency whenever possible by explaining how the referenced material is applicable to their application. For example, the applicant should explain how the assumptions used are the same as the referenced material and clearly demonstrate that any differences do not affect safety. The use of the terms “reference COL” and “subsequent COL” does not imply that