ML23293A025

Letter to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) in Response to a Request for a Fee Exemption for Endorsement, Review and Meeting to Discuss Draft NEI Technical Report NEI 23-01

ML23293A025
Person / Time
Issue date:	11/14/2023
From:	Osborne H NRC/OCFO
To:	Yuen S Nuclear Energy Institute
Shared Package
ML23293A021	List: ML23268A010 ML23293A025
References
Download: ML23293A025 (4)

Text

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001 November 14, 2023 Stew Yuen, Sr. Project Manager Engineering and Risk Nuclear Energy Institute 1201 F Street, NW, Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20004

SUBJECT:

LETTER TO THE NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE IN RESPONSE TO A REQUEST FOR A FEE EXEMPTION FOR ENDORSEMENT, REVIEW AND MEETING TO DISCUSS DRAFT NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE TECHNICAL REPORT NEI 23-01

Dear Stew Yuen:

On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), I am responding to your letter dated September 22, 2023 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML23268A010), requesting a fee exemption under Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 170.11(a)(1)(ii) for the endorsement, review and meeting to discuss Draft Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) Technical Report NEI 23-01, Operator Cold License Training Plan for Advanced Nuclear Reactors (NEI 23-01).

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).

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.

S.Yuen 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.

Your letter states that NEI 23-01 will assist the NRC in generic regulatory improvements or efforts by minimizing variations in applicants approaches to operator cold license training, thus potentially saving review time on the part of the NRC staff. Further, you state NRC review and endorsement of NEI 23-01 will allow applicants to reference this plan within their Advanced Reactor Construction Permit (CP) or Combined Operating License (COL) application and reduce the time the staff needs to review the application. In addition, you state that existing industry guidance for Operator Cold License Training is not well suited to advanced reactors, including light-water small modular reactors, and that each applicant will need to have a plan in their CP/COL application for how to approach this topic.

NEI 23-01 may provide information related to how Advanced Nuclear Reactor (a specific term used within draft NEI 23-01) applicants would approach certain aspects of operator training and licensing. As the NRC staff anticipates that advanced reactors may present new operator training and qualification considerations, pre-submittal engagement for NEI 23-01 is expected to be useful in informing the development of regulatory guidance with a similar technical scope.

The NRC staff notes that existing guidance documents such as NEI 06-13A, Template for an Industry Training Program Description, Revision 1 (ML082950140), and Regulatory Guide 1.8, Qualification and Training of Personnel for Nuclear Power Plants, Revision 4 (ML19101A395),

while broadly applicable to commercial nuclear plant training and qualifications, were not specifically crafted to address operational and staffing-related considerations for geographically remote facilities with small staffing complements.

Accordingly, I am partially granting your fee exemption request specifically for the NRCs pre-submittal activities associated with NEI 23-01 (i.e., NRC activities associated with review of the draft NEI 23-01 and pre-submittal engagements before NEI 23-01 is finalized) because the NRC staff currently plans to use information from these activities to assist the NRC in generic regulatory improvements or efforts and thus these activities satisfy the requirements stated in 10 CFR 170.11(a)(1)(ii) for a fee exemption.

I am denying the request to grant a fee exemption for an endorsement review of NEI 23-01 at this time because the NRC staff currently cannot make a determination regarding whether it plans to use the information from the endorsement review activities to assist the NRC in generic regulatory improvements or efforts. Specifically, NEI 23-01 has, thus far, only been made available to the NRC staff in a draft form. If NEI chooses to submit NEI 23-01 for an endorsement review subsequent to pre-submittal discussions, NEI may elect to submit a fee exemption request for the endorsement review at that time.

The fee exemption granted in this letter for pre-submittal activities is limited to a time period not to exceed 12 months from the date of this letter or completion of the pre-submittal activities if sooner. The effort will be evaluated at a six-month interval to determine if the pre-submittal activities should continue.

S.Yuen If you have any technical questions regarding this matter, please contact Jesse Seymour at 301-415-0589. Please contact Billy Blaney, of my staff, at 301-415-5092 for any fee-related questions.

Sincerely, Signed by Osborne, Howard on 11/14/23 Howard K. Osborne Chief Financial Officer

S.Yuen

SUBJECT:

LETTER TO THE NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE IN RESPONSE TO A REQUEST FOR A FEE EXEMPTION FOR ENDORSEMENT, REVIEW AND MEETING TO DISCUSS DRAFT NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE TECHNICAL REPORT NEI 23-01, DATED: NOVEMBER 14, 2023 DISTRIBUTION: OCFO-23-00177 NAridi, OCFO MVelasquez, OCFO MScheetz, NRR JSeymour, NRR RidsNrrOd Resource ADAMS Accession Number: ML23293A021 Package; ML23293A025 Letter OFFICE OCFO/DOB NRR/DANU NRR/DANU OGC/DANU NAME BBlaney ROber SLynch MShams*

(JGreives for)

DATE 10/23/2023 10/24/2023 10/24/2023 10/30/2023 OFFICE NRR/DRO OGC OCFO/DOC OCFO/DOB NAME PMcKenna EAnderson*NLO RRevinzon ARossi DATE 10/31/2023 11/08/2023 11/09/2023 11/09/2023 OFFICE OCFO/DOB OCFO/DOB CFO CFO NAME LYee MSchofer DDAbate HOsborne DATE 11/09/2023 11/09/2023 11/13/2023 11/14/2023 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY