Safety-Related Steel Structures and Steel-Plate Composite Walls for Other Than Reactor Vessels and Containments

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Regulatory guide; issuance.

SUMMARY:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.243, “Safety-Related Steel Structures and Steel-Plate Composite Walls for Other Than Reactor Vessels and Containments.” RG 1.243 is a new guide that proposes guidance to meet regulatory requirements for safety-related steel structures and steel plate composite walls for other than reactor vessels and containments by endorsing with exceptions, the 2018 edition of ANSI/ANS N690-2018, “Specification for Safety-Related Steel Structures for Nuclear Facilities.”

DATES:

RG 1.243 is available on September 7, 2021.

ADDRESSES:

Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2020-0038 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You may obtain publicly available information related to this document using any of the following methods:

• Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2020-0038. 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.
• 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, 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 this document.
• Attention: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of public documents, is currently closed. You may submit your request to the PDR via email at pdr.resource@nrc.gov or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (ET), Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

RG 1.243 and the regulatory analysis may be found in ADAMS under Accession Nos. ML21089A032 and ML20339A559, respectively.

Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and NRC approval is not required to reproduce them.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Edward O'Donnell, telephone: 301-415-3317, email: Edward.ODonnell@nrc.gov and Marcos Rolon Acevedo, telephone: 301-415-2208, email: Marcos.RolonAcevedo@nrc.gov. Both are staff of the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Discussion

The NRC is issuing a new guide in the NRC's “Regulatory Guide” series. This series was developed to describe and make available to the public information regarding methods that are acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the agency's regulations, techniques that the NRC staff uses in evaluating specific issues or postulated events, and data that the NRC staff needs in its review of applications for permits and licenses.

RG 1.243 was issued with a temporary identification of Draft Regulatory Guide, DG-1304.

II. Additional Information

The NRC published a notice of the availability of DG-1304 in the Federal Register on February 10, 2021 (86 FR 8928) for a 45-day public comment period. The public comment period closed on March 29, 2020. Public comments on DG-1304 and the staff responses to the public comments are available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML21089A033.

III. Congressional Review Act

This RG is a rule as defined in the Congressional Review Act (5 U.S.C. 801-808). However, the Office of Management and Budget has not found it to be a major rule as defined in the Congressional Review Act.

IV. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality

Issuance of this RG does not constitute backfitting as defined in section 50.109 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), “Backfitting,” and as described in NRC Management Directive 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, Certificates, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.” As explained in this regulatory guide, applicants and licensees are not required to comply with the positions set forth in this regulatory guide.