Rules and Regulations. Regulatory guide; issuance

Agency: Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Action: Regulatory guide; issuance
Citation: FR Doc. 2011-30902 · RIN 3150-AI10 · NRC-2008-0122 · 10 CFR 50, 52

Summary

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a new regulatory guide (RG) 1.219, “Guidance on Making Changes to Emergency Plans for Nuclear Power Reactors.” This guide describes a method that the NRC staff considers acceptable to implement the requirements that relate to emergency preparedness and specifically to making changes to emergency response plans.

Dates

December 1, 2011.

Supplementary Information

I. Introduction The NRC is issuing a new guide in the agency'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. This guide describes a method that the NRC staff considers acceptable to implement the requirements in Title 10, Section 50.54(q), of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) part 50, “Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities.” Requirements in 10 CFR 50.54(q)), “Conditions of Licenses,” relate to emergency preparedness and specifically to making changes to emergency response plans. II. Further Information Draft Guide (DG)-1237 was published in the Federal Register on May 18, 2009 (74 FR 23220), for a 60 day public comment period. The public comment period closed on August 3, 2009. Public comments on DG-1237 and the staff responses to the public comments are available in ADAMS under Accession Number ML102520241. III. Backfitting and Issue Finality This regulatory guide provides the NRC's first guidance on compliance with the revised provisions of 10 CFR 50.54(q). This regulation was recently published in the Federal Register (76 FR 72560; November 23, 2011) and will become effective on December 23, 2011. Licensees must implement the amended 10 CFR 50.54(q) by January 23, 2012. The statement of considerations for the final rule that amended 10 CFR 50.54(q) discussed compliance with applicable backfitting provisions (76 FR 72560; November 23, 2011 at Page 72594). The first issuance of guidance on a new rule does not constitute backfitting, inasmuch as the guidance must be consistent with the regulatory requirements in the new rule and the backfitting considerations applicable to the new rule must, as a matter of logic, also be applicable to this newly-issued guidance. Therefore, issuance of this new regulatory guide does not constitute issuance of “new” guidance within the meaning of the definition of “backfitting” in 10 CFR 50.109(a)(1), nor does the issuance of this new regulatory guide, by itself, constitute an action inconsistent with any of the issue finality provisions in 10 CFR part 52. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 21st day of November 2011. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Thomas H. Boyce, Chief, Regulatory Guide Development Branch, Division of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. [FR Doc. 2011-30902 Filed 11-30-11; 8:45 am]