ML18305B136
| ML18305B136 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 10/31/2018 |
| From: | Yanely Malave-Velez Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards |
| To: | Popik T Foundation for Resilient Societies |
| Malave-Velez, Yanely | |
| References | |
| NRC-2011-0069, PRM-50-96 | |
| Download: ML18305B136 (2) | |
Text
Malave-Velez, Yanely From: Malave-Velez, Yanely Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2018 12:36 PM To: 'thomasp@resilientsocieties.org' Cc: Khanna, Meena
Subject:
Status Update for PRM-50-96 Mr. Popik:
I am contacting you to provide a status update on the petition for rulemaking you submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), dated March 14, 2011, on behalf of the Foundation for Resilient Societies (the Foundation). In your petition, you requested that the NRC amend its regulations in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 50 to address concerns about the effects of long-term commercial grid outage on spent fuel pool cooling and water makeup. You stated that in the event of a long-term loss of commercial grid power extending beyond a month, it is likely that water in spent fuel pools would heat up and boil off, fuel rods would become uncovered by water, zirconium cladding would catch fire, and large amounts of dangerous radionuclides would be released into the atmosphere.
The NRC docketed your letter as petition for rulemaking PRM-50-96, and the NRC published a notice of receipt in the Federal Register on May 6, 2011 (76 FR 26223). The status of PRM-50-96 can be found at the NRC Rules and Petition page at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/rulemaking-ruleforum/active/
PetitionIndex.html. At this Web site there is a link to a listing of all active NRC PRMs. You can monitor this site for status updates as they become available.
You can also continue to monitor the docket for PRM-50-96 at http://www.regulations.gov. The Federal rulemaking Web site allows you to receive alerts when changes or additions occur in a docket folder. To subscribe: 1) navigate to the docket folder (NRC-2011-0069); 2) click the Sign up for E-mail Alerts link; and 3) enter your On December 18, 2012, the NRC published a notice in the Federal Register (77 FR 74788) indicating that that it would monitor the progress of the Mitigation of Beyond-Design-Basis Events (MBDBE) rule to determine whether the requirements established therein would address, in whole or in part, the issues that you raised in PRM-50-96. In this context, the requirements in draft final § 50.155(b)(1) and (c) and the associated regulatory guidance (currently with the Commission for their deliberation), would, address, in part, the issues that you raised because these regulations require licensees to establish offsite assistance to support maintenance of the key functions (including both reactor and SFP cooling) following an extended loss of ac power, which has been postulated as a consequence of geomagnetic disturbances.
The other issues raised in PRM-50-96 related to geomagnetic disturbances remain under NRC consideration.
The issue of geomagnetic disturbances, as it impacts transmission system protection, is being addressed at a national level by the White Houses Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The OSTP has been meeting with representatives from several different Federal agencies, including the NRC, over the last several years to develop the National Space Weather Strategy (NSWS) and the National Space Weather Action Plan (NSWAP). On October 13, 2016, President Obama issued Executive Order 13744, Coordinating Efforts To Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events, (81 FR 71573; October 18, 2016) requiring agencies to begin to implement the NSWAP. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the sector-specific agency with lead responsibility for nuclear reactors, materials, and waste; therefore, the NRC is working with DHS on delineating the NRC authorities associated with the NSWAP.
Once the Commission has approved the MBDBE rulemaking, the NRC will address PRM-50-96 giving consideration to the NSWAP, the MBDBE rule, requirements recently established by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to address geomagnetic disturbances (81 FR 67120; September 30, 2016), and the 1
additional comments that were submitted on this rulemaking that further inform the consideration of geomagnetic disturbances.
Please feel free to contact me at Yanely.Malave@nrc.gov or (301)-415-1519 if you have questions or concerns.
Thanks ltÇxç `tt°@i°xé Project Manager US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Nuclear Material and Safeguards Division of Rulemaking yanely.malave@nrc.gov 301-415-1519 2