NuScale Power, LLC, Design-Specific Review Standard and Safety Review Matrix

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Design-specific review standard; request for comment.

SUMMARY:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is soliciting public comment on the Design-Specific Review Standard (DSRS) and Safety Review Matrix for the NuScale Power, LLC, design (NuScale DSRS Scope and Safety Review Matrix). The purpose of the NuScale DSRS is to provide guidance to NRC staff in performing safety reviews where existing NUREG-0800, “Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants: LWR Edition,” Standard Review Plans (SRP) have been modified by the staff specifically for the NuScale design, or do not address unique features of the NuScale design. The DSRS also allows NRC staff to more fully integrate the use of design-specific risk insights into the review of the NuScale design certification application (DC) or an early site permit (ESP) or combined license (COL) application that references the NuScale design.

DATES:

Submit comments by August 31, 2015. 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 (unless this document describes a different method for submitting comments on a specific subject):

• Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0160. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-3463; email: Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.
• Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements, and Directives Branch (RADB), Office of Administration, Mail Stop: OWFN-12-H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

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:

Jenny Gallo, Office of New Reactors, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-7367; email: NuScale-DSRS@nrc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2015-0160 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You may obtain publicly-available information related to this action by any of the following methods:

• Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0160.
• NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select “ADAMS Public Documents” and then 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, 301-415-4737, or by email to pdr.resource@nrc.gov. The ADAMS accession number for each document referenced (if it is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that it is mentioned in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section. The NuScale DSRS Scope and Safety Review Matrix is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML15156B063.
• NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.

B. Submitting Comments

Please include Docket ID NRC-2015-0160 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 http://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. Further Information

A. Background

In the Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM) COMGBJ-10-0004/COMGEA-10-0001, “Use of Risk Insights to Enhance the Safety Focus of Small Modular Reactor Reviews,” dated August 31, 2010 (ADAMS Accession No. ML102510405), the Commission provided direction to the NRC staff on the preparation for, and review of, small modular reactor (SMR) applications, with a near-term focus on integral pressurized-water reactor designs. The Commission directed the NRC staff to more fully integrate the use of risk insights into pre-application activities and the review of applications and, consistent with regulatory requirements and Commission policy statements, to align the review focus and resources to risk-significant structures, systems, and components and other aspects of the design that contribute most to safety in order to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the review process. The Commission directed the NRC staff to develop a design-specific, risk-informed review plan for each SMR design to address pre-application and application review activities. An important part of this review plan is the DSRS. The DSRS for the NuScale design is the result of the implementation of the Commission's direction.

B. DSRS for the NuScale Design

The NuScale DSRS reflects current NRC staff safety review methods and practices which integrate risk insights and, where appropriate, lessons learned from the NRC's reviews of DC and COL applications completed since the last revision of the NUREG-0800, SRP Introduction, Part 2, “Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants: Light-Water Small Modular Reactor Edition,” January 2014 (ADAMS Accession No. ML13207A315). The NuScale DSRS Scope and Safety Matrix provides a complete list of SRP sections and identifies which SRP sections will be used for DC, COL, or ESP reviews concerning the NuScale design; which SRP sections are not applicable to the NuScale design; and which new DSRS sections are design-specific to NuScale. The NuScale DSRS Scope and Safety Review Matrix is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML15156B063.

The NRC staff is soliciting public comment on the NuScale DSRS Scope and Safety Review Matrix and the individual NuScale-specific DSRS sections referenced in the table below. Specifically, the NRC requests comment on the sufficiency of the scope of the proposed NuScale review, as encompassed by the Safety Review Matrix, and on the technical content of the individual NuScale-specific DSRS sections identified in the table below. These sections were revised from the relative SRP sections or developed to incorporate design-specific review guidance based on features of the NuScale design. The NRC is not soliciting general comments on NUREG-0800 sections that are designated with the applicability “A) Use SRP Section” in the Safety Review Matrix, but specific comments on the adequacy of these NUREG-0800 sections for use in the review of the NuScale design certification application will be considered.