View source for RIS 2023-02, Scheduling Information for the Licensing of Accident Tolerant, Increased Enrichment, and Higher Burnup Fuels

{{Adams
| number = ML23123A166
| issue date = 06/26/2023
| title = Scheduling Information for the Licensing of Accident Tolerant, Increased Enrichment, and Higher Burnup Fuels
| author name = Clark P
| author affiliation = NRC/NRR/DRO/IOEB
| addressee name = 
| addressee affiliation = 
| docket = 
| license number = 
| contact person = 
| case reference number = OMB 3150-0258
| document report number = RIS 2023-02
| document type = NRC Regulatory Issue Summary
| page count = 5
}}
{{#Wiki_filter:OMB Control No.: 3150-0258 Expires: 4/30/2026 UNITED STATES
                               NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
                          OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REACTOR REGULATION
                 OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY AND SAFEGUARDS
                                   WASHINGTON, DC 20555-0001 June 26, 2023 NRC REGULATORY ISSUE SUMMARY 2023-02 SCHEDULING INFORMATION FOR THE LICENSING OF ACCIDENT TOLERANT,
                    INCREASED ENRICHMENT, AND HIGHER BURNUP FUELS

==ADDRESSEES==
All holders of operating licenses for nuclear power reactors under the provisions of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 50, Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities, or holders of a combined license under 10 CFR Part 52, Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants, except those that have permanently ceased operations and have certified that fuel has been permanently removed from the reactor vessel.

All holders of licenses and potential applicants for a fuel cycle facility under the provisions of
10 CFR Part 70, Domestic Licensing of Special Nuclear Material, and holders of licenses and Certificates of Compliance (CoC) and potential applicants for transportation and storage systems under the provisions of 10 CFR Part 71, Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Material, and 10 CFR Part 72, Licensing Requirements for the Independent Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel, High-Level Radioactive Waste, and Reactor-Related Greater than Class C
Waste.

==INTENT==
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing this regulatory issue summary (RIS)
to assist the NRC in determining budgetary and technical resource needs with respect to the licensing of reactor fuels with accident tolerant fuel (ATF) concepts, higher burnup, and increased enrichment and any changes in previously announced plans to license the use of these technologies.

Additionally, this RIS is intended to promote early communication between the NRC and licensees and potential applicants about the planned licensing of reactor fuel with ATF
concepts, increased enrichment, and higher burnup. This RIS does not transmit or imply any new or changed requirements or staff positions. Although no specific action or written response is required, submission of the requested information will enable the NRC to plan its licensing activities more efficiently and effectively.

ML23123A166 

==BACKGROUND INFORMATION==
The U.S. Congress has provided funding through the U.S. Department of Energy to support the development and deployment of fuels containing ATF concepts, increased enrichment, and higher burnup. The NRC understands that the industrys goal is to begin deploying fuels with combinations of these technologies in existing nuclear power reactors by the mid-to-late 2020s.

The NRC encourages licensees and vendors to engage early with the NRC staff so that potential technical or policy issues can be identified before an application is submitted. Given this interest, the NRC is seeking additional information to forecast its project workload. The NRC
will use the information obtained from this RIS to inform its budgetary and technical resource allocation planning.

==SUMMARY OF ISSUE==
The NRC encourages licensees and potential applicants to provide the agency with scheduling information for preapplication activities and licensing submittals for ATF, increased enrichment, and higher burnup fuel. This information will allow the NRC to better allocate its budgetary and technical resources to perform timely and effective reviews of such applications.

==VOLUNTARY RESPONSE==
The NRC staff has developed several questions on the scheduling of activities related to ATF, increased enrichment, and higher burnup fuel. The NRC will use addressees responses to help determine resource allocation and prioritization for such applications that will be submitted in upcoming fiscal years.

The NRC may share the application schedules with other Federal agencies to support its planning for reviewing licensing submittals for ATF, increased enrichment, and higher burnup fuels. If a prospective applicant deems this information proprietary, a request to withhold information from public disclosure in accordance with 10 CFR 2.390, Public inspections, exemptions, requests for withholding, must accompany the information. RIS 2004-11, Supporting Information Associated with Requests for Withholding Proprietary Information, dated June 29, 2004 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS)
Accession No. ML041180231), provides additional information about requests for withholding proprietary information from public disclosure. The NRC asks potential applicants to request withholding only for information that is currently treated as proprietary and to provide, where necessary, the proprietary information in designated attachments to their response to this RIS.

If an addressee chooses to provide a voluntary response, the NRC would like to obtain the information within 60 days of the date of this RIS. Respondents should answer the questions below to the best of their ability, providing as much detail as possible.

The NRC staff recognizes that the addressees ability to respond to these questions depends, in part, on the stage of submittal preparation. In some cases, addressees may not be able to respond to all questions at this time. With this in mind, the NRC staff also encourages voluntary updates to initial responses to this RIS as significant scheduling changes occur. The NRC seeks voluntary responses to the following questions, as applicable:
(1)      Do you plan to submit a license amendment request to adopt fuel with increased enrichment, higher burnup, or one or more ATF concepts, or a license amendment request for lead test assemblies with one or more of these technologies? If so, what technologies will the fuel include, and what is the timeframe for submitting the request?
(2)      Do you plan to submit any additional, related licensing actions (e.g., requests for exemption) to support transition to one or more of these fuel types? If so, what additional licensing request(s) do you plan to submit, and what is the timeframe for submitting the request(s)?
(3)      Do you anticipate that applications for new fuel concepts could benefit from modification or enhancement of existing NRC guidance or creation of new guidance?
         If so, which guidance documents could be considered for modification or what type of new guidance could be developed and for what purpose?
(4)      Existing fuel facility licensees and CoC holders of transportation and storage systems:
         Do you plan to submit a license amendment request to allow enrichment, fuel fabrication, and transportation of material with ATF concepts, increased enrichment, or higher burnup? If so, what is the increased enrichment limit requested, what technologies will the material include, and what is the timeframe for submitting the request?
(5)      New fuel facility licensee and CoC applicants of transportation and storage systems: Do you plan to submit a new application to allow fuel fabrication, and transportation of material with ATF concepts, increased enrichment, or higher burnup? If so, what is the enrichment limit, what technologies will the material include, and what is the timeframe for submitting the request?

==BACKFITTING AND ISSUE FINALITY DISCUSSION==
This RIS requests the addressees to inform the NRC of its plans regarding the potential use of ATF, increased enrichment and higher burnup fuels, and the enrichment, manufacturing, and transportation of fuels with higher enrichment. This RIS requests the addressees to voluntarily provide information to assist the NRC in the administrative tasks of budgeting and resource allocation. This constitutes information collection and reporting and is not within the purview of the Backfit Rule, in accordance with 10 CFR 50.109, Backfitting, 10 CFR 70.76, Backfitting,
10 CFR 72.62, Backfitting, or any of the issue finality provisions in 10 CFR Part 52. In addition, this RIS does not require any action or written response from the addressees. Any action on the part of addressees to collect and transmit information in accordance with the request contained in this RIS is strictly voluntary. For these reasons, the NRC staff did not perform a backfit analysis for this RIS or further address any issue finality criteria in 10 CFR Part 52.

===FEDERAL REGISTER NOTIFICATION===
The NRC did not publish a notice of opportunity for public comment on this RIS in the Federal Register, because the RIS pertains to an administrative aspect of the regulatory process that involves the voluntary submission of information on the part of addressees and does not represent a departure from current regulatory requirements.

===CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW ACT===
The NRC staff have determined that this RIS is not a rule as defined in the Congressional Review Act (5 U.S.C. 801-808).

===PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT STATEMENT===
This RIS contains voluntary information collections that are subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved these information collections (approval number 3150-0258). The burden to the public for these information collections is estimated to average 20 hours per initial response and 10 hours for subsequent updates. Send comments regarding this information collection to the FOIA, Library, and Information Collections Branch, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Mail Stop: T6-A10M,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by e-mail to Infocollects.Resource@nrc.gov, and to the OMB reviewer at: OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (3150-0258), Attn: Desk Officer for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
725 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20503; email: oira_submission@omb.eop.gov.

Public Protection Notification The NRC may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, an information collection unless the requesting document displays a currently valid OMB control number.

==CONTACT==
Please direct any questions about this matter to the technical contacts listed below.

/RA/                                                         /RA/
Russell Felts, Director                                      Shana Helton, Director Division of Reactor Oversight,                               Division of Fuel Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation                         Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and [Removed]
Technical Contacts: Daniel King, NRR                         Jason Piotter, NMSS
                      301-415-1233                           301-415-7739 E-mail:Daniel.King@nrc.gov             E-mail:Jason.Piotter@nrc.gov Note: NRC generic communications may be found on the NRC public Web site, http://www.nrc.gov, under NRC Library/Document Collections.

ML23123A166                        EPID No. L-2023-GEN-0004 OFFICE  NRR/DORL/LLPB/PM NRR/DORL/LLPB/PM       OE/EB/BC                QTE
NAME          DKing            Croque-Cruz       JPeralta           JDougherty DATE            5/4/23              5/5/23         5/11/23              4/28/
OFFICE  NRR/DORL/LPMB/BC NMSS/DFM/CTCFB/B     NMSS/REFS/D          NMSS/DFM/D
NAME         GGeorge            DMarcano         CRegan               SHelton DATE           5/11/23           5/16/23         5/25/23              5/25/23 OFFICE     NRR/DRA/D          NRR/DORL/D       NRR/DSS/D            RES/DSA/D
NAME        MFranovich           BPham         JDonoghue             KWebber DATE         5/30/23             5/24/23         5/24/23              5/24/23 OFFICE      OGC (NLO)       NRR/DRO/IOEB/PM NRR/DRO/IOEB/PM      NRR/DRO/IOEB/LA
NAME                            BBenney           PClark               IBetts DATE          6/8/23              6/1/23          6/1/23              5/30/23 OFFICE    NRR/DRO/IOEB       NRR/DRMA/MIST   OCIO/GEMS/ISB       NMSS/DFM/CTCFB
NAME         LRegner               LHill        DCullison             JPiotter DATE         6/16/23              6/2/23          6/5/23              6/20/23 OFFICE   NMSS/DFM/CTCFB       NMSS/DFM/D       NRR/DRO/D
NAME        DMarcano             SHelton          RFelts DATE         5/16/23             6/26/23         6/26/23
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