ML23047A119
| ML23047A119 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 03/27/2023 |
| From: | James Corbett NRC/OCFO |
| To: | Elliott G Framatome |
| Shared Package | |
| ML23047A128 | List: |
| References | |
| Download: ML23047A119 (4) | |
Text
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001 March 27, 2023 Gayle Elliott Licensing & Regulatory Affairs Framatome 3315 Old Forest Rd Lynchburg, VA 24501
Dear Gayle Elliott:
On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), I am responding to your letter dated October 18, 2022 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS)
Accession No. ML22294A163), requesting a fee exemption under Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 170.11(a)(1)(ii) for the NRCs review of a topical report for single-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) licensing.
The NRC has established regulations for the granting of fee exemptions under 10 CFR 170.11 Exemptions. An interested person may apply for an exemption under 10 CFR 170.11 in accordance with 10 CFR 170.5, Communications.1 The NRC staff reviewed your request based on the regulations in 10 CFR 170.11(a)(1)(ii) and 10 CFR 170.11(d). Section 170.11(a)(1)(ii) states:
No application fees, license fees, renewal fees, inspection fees, or special project fees shall be required for: (1) A special project that is a request/report submitted to the NRC . . . (ii) When the NRC, at the time the request/report is submitted, plans to use the information to assist the NRC in generic regulatory improvements or efforts (e.g., rules, regulatory guides, regulations, policy statements, generic letters, or bulletins).
Section 170.11(d) states:
All fee exemption requests must be submitted in writing to the Chief Financial Officer in accordance with § 170.5, and the Chief Financial Officer will grant or deny such requests in writing.
In your letter, you state that the industry is increasingly relying on CFD analysis to support design decisions, including safety applications. Further, you believe Framatome has developed a methodology which is sufficiently mature for safety applications, and that licensing this CFD methodology is feasible. Finally, you state that the CFD topical report represents a first-of-a-kind application that can be used by the NRC to prepare regulatory guidance for future applications and can assist the NRC in defining the standard requirements and develop a standard review 1 10 CFR 170.5 provides that All communications concerning the regulations in this part should be addressed to the NRCs Chief Financial Officer, either by mail to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; by hand delivery to the NRCs offices at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland; or, where practicable, by electronic submission, for example, via Electronic Information Exchange, or CD-ROM.
G. Elliott plan for future CFD-based applications. The NRC staff agrees with your assessment, that the planned CFD topical report can assist the NRC in developing CFD guidance.
With the increase in available computational power, CFD has become a much more accessible tool and is being used in more applications. Additionally, CFD seems to be very well suited to safety applications of advanced reactors due to the unique designs. Therefore, in 2020, the NRC performed an evaluation of the available CFD guidance to determine if any of that guidance could be used to assist NRR staff in performing its reviews. The NRC staff concluded that much of this guidance cannot be directly applied during the review of a typical application because much of the guidance was too generic or too high level to be directly applied. The NRC staff further recommended that the NRC should develop specific guidance which could be used in performing regulatory reviews of CFD.
Over the past decade, the NRC staff encountered challenges in reviewing license amendment requests which relied on CFD analysis, because of inadequate guidance. In 2021, the NRC received an application which attempted to use CFD analysis to support its decision making.
Due to concerns with the CFD analysis, it was ultimately withdrawn. The lack of clear usable guidance contributed to the complex review and concerns identified with CFD analysis.
As a result, the NRC recognized the need for CFD guidance and generated a plan to develop guidance. A key aspect of this development was ensuring that the guidance could be practically applied in a review, and therefore, the NRC staff believed a CFD application (such as the Framatome CFD topical report) is necessary for developing practical guidance. The NRC staff did consider developing such guidance without an associated CFD application. However, the NRC believes that the guidance developed without an associated CFD analysis application would likely not be useful to the staff in performing reviews.
The NRC staff does expect that portions of the Framatome CFD topical report will be withheld as proprietary information. As a result, the NRC staff also expects that portions of the NRC staffs safety evaluation will also be withheld as Framatome proprietary information. However, the guidance document that the NRC staff will develop will not contain any proprietary information and will be publicly available. Given the expected increases in computational power, the wide applicability of CFD analysis, and the increased reliance on computational simulations in decision making, the NRC staff knows that developing CFD guidance is important to efficient and effective disposition of CFD analysis-based applications.
Therefore, for the reasons cited above, I conclude that Framatomes request for fee exemption for the NRCs review, which includes pre-application activities associated with the review of the CFD topical report, meets the criteria under 10 CFR 170.11(a)(1)(ii) because the guidance which will be generated by the NRC will assist the NRC in many future generic regulatory improvements or efforts; therefore, the fee exemption request is approved. This approval is not transferrable to any future revisions of this topical report. Any future revisions should be submitted separately for a fee exemption consideration.
G. Elliott If you have any technical questions regarding this matter, please contact Mr. Joshua Kaizer at 301-415-1532. Please contact Mr. Billy Blaney, of my staff, at 301-415-5092 for any fee-related questions.
Sincerely, Signed by Corbett ,James on 03/27/23 James C. Corbett Acting Chief Financial Officer
G. Elliott
SUBJECT:
LETTER TO GAYLE ELLIOTT IN RESPONSE TO REQUEST FROM GARY PETERS (FRAMATOME) FEE EXEMPTION NRC REVIEW OF A TOPICAL REPORT FOR SINGLE-PHASE COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS LICENSING, DATED: MARCH 27, 2023 DISTRIBUTION:
NAridi, OCFO JKaizer, NRR NOtto, NRR RidsNrrOd Resource ADAMS Accession Number: ML23047A128 Package; ML23047A119 Memo OFFICE OCFO/DOB OCFO/DOB NRR/DSS NRR/DORL NRR/DORL NAME BBlaney JJacobs SKrepel CRosales-Cooper GSuber DATE 02/17/2023 02/16/2023 02/22/2023 02/17/2023 02/22/2023 OFFICE OGC OCFO/DOC OCFO/DOC OCFO/DOB OCFO/DOB NAME BHarris NLO RRevinzon MBlair ARossi RAllwein DATE 03/13/2023 02/24/2023 02/23/2023 02/24/2023 03/13/2023 OFFICE OCFO/DOB CFO CFO NAME JShay BFicks JCorbett DATE 03/16/2023 03/20/2023 03/27/2023 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY