Draft Regulatory Guide: Acceptable ASME Section XI Inservice Inspection Code Cases

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-3058. This DG is a proposed new Regulatory Guide (RG) 3.78 and provides applicants and licensees with methods that the NRC staff considers acceptable for specific or general independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) licensees and certificate of compliance (CoC) holders to comply with NRC regulations for inservice inspection of confinement boundary components and aging management activities associated with the renewals of ISFSIs, general licensees, and CoC holders for spent fuel storage systems.

DATES:

Submit comments by August 16, 2024. 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-2024-0121. 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:

Darrell Dunn, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301-415-7079; email: Darrell.Dunn@nrc.gov, or Harriet Karagiannis, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, telephone: 301-415-2493; email: Harriet.Karagiannis@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-2024-0121 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-2024-0121.
• 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.
• 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-2024-0121 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.

The DG, entitled “Acceptable ASME Section XI Inservice Inspection Code Cases for 10 CFR part 72,” is temporarily identified by its task number, DG-3058 (ADAMS Accession No. ML24093A010).

This DG-3058 is a proposed Revision 0 to a new RG 3.78 and provides the NRC staff and the industry with guidance using codes and standards for inservice inspection of confinement boundary components and aging management activities associated with the renewals of ISFSIs, general licensees, and CoC holders for spent fuel storage systems. This DG is endorsing the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code Case N-860, “Inspection Requirements and Evaluation Standards for Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and Transportation Containment Systems Section XI, Division 1; Section XI, Division 2,” dated July 6, 2020.

The staff is also issuing for public comment a draft regulatory analysis (ADAMS Accession No. ML24093A012). The staff develops 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 chapter I of title 1 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality

Issuance of this DG would not constitute backfitting as defined in 10 CFR 72.62, “Backfitting,” and as described in NRC Management Directive 8.4, “Management of Backfitting, Forward Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information Requests” (ADAMS Accession No. ML18093B087). That is, licensees would not be required to comply with the positions set forth in this proposed regulatory guide.

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/reading-rm/doc-collections/reg-guides/contactus.html. Suggestions will be considered in future updates and enhancements to the “Regulatory Guide” series.