Rules and Regulations. Final guide; issuance

Agency: Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Action: Final guide; issuance
Citation: FR Doc. 2023-15692 · NRC-2021-0091 · 10 CFR 51, 52, 100

Summary

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a new Regulatory Guide (RG) 4.27, “Use of Plant Parameter Envelope in Early Site Permit Applications for Nuclear Power Plants.” This RG provides guidance for nuclear power plant applicants that elect to use the plant parameter envelope concept to assume certain design parameters for an early site permit application when a specific reactor technology has not been selected for a proposed site.

Dates

Revision 0 of RG 4.27 is available on July 25, 2023.

Supplementary Information

I. Discussion The NRC is issuing a new guide 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. RG 4.27 was issued with a temporary identification of Draft Regulatory Guide, DG-4029 (ADAMS Accession No. ML21049A181). II. Additional Information The NRC published a notice of the availability of DG-4029 in the Federal Register on June 24, 2021 (86 FR 33384) for a 45-day public comment period. The public comment period closed on August 9, 2021. Public comments on DG-4029 and the staff responses to the public comments are available under ADAMS under Accession No. ML23010A111. As noted in the Federal Register on December 9, 2022 (87 FR 75671), this document is being published in the “Rules” section of the Federal Register to comply with publication requirements under 1 CFR chapter I. III. Congressional Review Act This RG is not a rule as defined in the Congressional Review Act (5 U.S.C. 801-808). IV. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality Issuance of RG 4.27 would not constitute backfitting as that term is defined in section 50.109 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), “Backfitting,” and as described in NRC Management Directive (MD) 8.4, “Management of Backfitting, Forward Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information Requests”; constitute forward fitting as that term is defined and described in MD 8.4; or affect issue finality of any approval issued under 10 CFR part 52, “Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.” As explained in RG 4.27, applicants and licensees are not required to comply with the positions set forth in RG 4.27. V. 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. Dated: July 20, 2023. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Meraj Rahimi, Chief, Regulatory Guide and Programs Management Branch, Division of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. [FR Doc. 2023-15692 Filed 7-24-23; 8:45 am]