31 December 2011
Nuclear Power Stations Site Suitability Criteria
[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 251 (Friday, December 30, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 82201-82202]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-33577]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
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.
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Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 251 / Friday, December 30, 2011 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 82201]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Parts 50, 51, and 52
[NRC-2011-0297]
General Site Suitability Criteria for Nuclear Power Stations
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft regulatory guide; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for
public comment draft regulatory guide DG-4021, ``General Site
Suitability Criteria for Nuclear Power Stations.'' This guide describes
a method that the NRC staff considers acceptable to implement the site
suitability requirements for nuclear power stations.
DATES: Submit comments by February 25, 2012. 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. Although a time limit is given, comments and suggestions in
connection with items for inclusion in guides currently being developed
or improvements in all published guides are encouraged at any time.
ADDRESSES: Please include Docket ID NRC-2011-0297 in the subject line
of your comments. For additional instructions on submitting comments
and instructions on accessing documents related to this action, see
``Submitting Comments and Accessing Information'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section of this document. You may submit comments by any
one of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web Site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov
and search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-
2011-0297. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher,
telephone: (301) 492-3668; email: Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov.
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules,
Announcements, and Directives Branch (RADB), Office of Administration,
Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
Fax comments to: RADB at (301) 492-3446.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jacob Philip, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: (301) 251-7471 or
email Jacob.Philip@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Submitting Comments and Accessing Information
Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted
on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site,
http://www.regulations.gov. Because your comments will not be edited to
remove any identifying or contact information, the NRC cautions you against
including any information in your submission that you do not want to be
publicly disclosed.
The NRC requests that any party soliciting or aggregating comments
received from other persons for submission to the NRC inform those
persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to remove any
identifying or contact information, and therefore, they should not
include any information in their comments that they do not want
publicly disclosed.
You can access publicly available documents related to this
document using the following methods:
NRC's Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine
and have copied, for a fee, publicly available documents at the NRC's
PDR, O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville,
Maryland 20852.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC
are available online in the NRC Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-
rm/adams.html. From this page, the public can gain entry into ADAMS,
which provides text and image files of the NRC's public documents. If
you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing
the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC's PDR reference staff
at 1-(800) 397-4209, (301) 415-4737, or by email to
pdr.resource@nrc.gov. DG-4021 is available electronically under ADAMS
Accession Number ML102380302. The regulatory analysis may be found in
ADAMS under Accession No. ML102380311.
Federal Rulemaking Web Site: Public comments and
supporting materials related to this notice can be found at
http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID NRC-2011-0297.
Further Information
The NRC is issuing a revision to an existing guide in the NRC's
``Regulatory Guide'' series. This series was developed to describe and
make available to the public information such as methods that are
acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the
agency'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), entitled, ``General Site
Suitability Criteria for Nuclear Power Stations,'' is temporarily
identified by its task number, DG-4021, which should be mentioned in
all related correspondence. DG-4021 is proposed Revision 3 of
Regulatory Guide 4.7, dated April 1998.
This guide discusses 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 light-water-
cooled nuclear power stations. Applicants may use the guidelines in
identifying suitable candidate sites for nuclear power stations. The
decision that a station may be built on a specific candidate site is
based on a detailed evaluation of the proposed site-plant combination
and a cost-benefit analysis comparing it with alternative site-plant
combinations, as discussed in Regulatory Guide 4.2, ``Preparation of
Environmental Reports for Nuclear Power Stations.''
Backfitting and Issue Finality
Issuance of this draft regulatory guide in final form does not
constitute backfitting as defined in 10 CFR 50.109 (the Backfit Rule)
and is not otherwise inconsistent with the issue finality provisions in
10 CFR part 52. This regulatory guide will not apply to any
[[Page 82202]]
construction permits, operating licenses, early site permits, limited
work authorizations issued under 10 CFR 50.10 for which the NRC issued
a final environmental impact statement (EIS) preceded by a draft EIS
under 10 CFR 51.76 or 51.75, or combined licenses, 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.
This regulatory guide may be applied to applications for early site
permits, combined licenses, and limited work authorizations issued
under 10 CFR 50.10, which includes information under 10 CFR 51.49(b) or
(f), where the application is docketed by the NRC as of the date of
issuance of the final regulatory guide, as well as future applications
for construction permits, early site permits, combined licenses, and
limited work authorizations, which includes information under 10 CFR
51.49(b) or (f), where the application is submitted after the issuance
of the final regulatory guide. Such action does not constitute
backfitting as defined in 10 CFR 50.109(a)(1) and is not otherwise
inconsistent with the applicable issue finality provisions in 10 CFR
part 52, inasmuch as such applicants or potential applicants are not
within the scope of entities protected by the Backfit Rule or the
relevant issue finality provisions in Part 52.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 21st day of December 2011.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Harriet Karagiannis,
Acting Chief, Regulatory Guide Development Branch, Division of
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2011-33577 Filed 12-29-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
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