Bøger af U S Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Safety and security continues to be NRC's highest priority. The NRC has strengthened safety and security at commercial nuclear facilities and augmented protection of NRC-regulated radioactive material. In addition, we increased efforts to improve preparedness and emergency response capabilities significantly. As a result, America's nuclear facilities are more secure and better defended today than ever before.

This document is a supplement to NUREG-1759, "Safety Evaluation Report Related to the License Renewal of the Turkey Point Nuclear Plant, Units 3 and 4."

As part of its redesign of the materials licensing process, NRC is consolidating and updating numerous guidance documents into a single comprehensive repository as described in NUREG-1539, "Methodology and Findings of the NRC's Materials Licensing Process Redesign," dated April 1996.

This revision does not alter the conclusions of NUREG-0484. It extends the conclusions of NUREG-0484 on the use of SRSS methodology for the combination of SSE and LOCA responses beyond the Reactor Coolant Pressure Boundary to any other ASME Section III, Class 1, 2, or 3 affected system, component, or support, and provides criteria for the combination of dynamic responses other than SSE and LOCA.

In February 2007, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.129 Rev. 2, "Maintenance, Testing, and Replacement of Vented Lead-Acid Storage Batteries for Nuclear Power Plants." In this RG, the NRC staff endorsed the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard 450-2002, "Recommended Practice for Maintenance, Testing, and Replacement of Vented Lead-Acid Batteries for Stationary Applications." This standard provides the recommended practices, test schedules, and testing procedures including recommended methods for determining a battery's state-of-charge to maintain permanently installed vented lead-acid storage batteries (typically of the lead-calcium type) for their standby power applications. Previous versions of this standard suggested that either float current or specific gravity could be used for determining the battery's state-of-charge. The NRC sponsored the research project described herein to validate the use of float charging current as a measure of a battery's state-of-charge for batteries that are used in the nuclear industry. This report describes the approach taken, the specific activities performed to achieve the objectives of this research effort, and the results achieved. It provides analysis of the data and offers observations and recommendations for use by the NRC and its licensees.

As the use of fire modeling increases in support of day-to-day nuclear power plant (NPP) applications and fire risk analyses, the importance of verification and validation (V&V) also increases. V&V studies build confidence in a model by evaluating its underlying assumptions, capabilities, and limitations, and quantifying its performance in predicting the fire conditions that have been measured in controlled experiments. This volume documents a V&V study for the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, for applications relevant to NPPs. Guidance has been provided by ASTM E 1355, Standard Guide for Evaluating the Predictive Capability of Deterministic Fire Models, including the basic structure of this report. FDS was developed, and is maintained, by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Version 4 was officially released in July 2004, and several minor updates had been released as of the time of publication of this report. All of the simulations performed for the current V&V study were done with Version 4.06. With support from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the FDS Technical Reference Guide for Version 4 was rewritten to follow the basic outline suggested by ASTM E 1355. However, the Guide does not specifically address NPPs. The primary purpose of this report is to document the accuracy of FDS in predicting the results of six sets of large-scale fire experiments that are relevant to NPPs. These results are found in Appendix A and discussed in Chapter 6 of this report. Chapters 2 through 5 provide brief summaries of corresponding chapters within the FDS Technical Reference Guide, which discuss the underlying theory and the numerical methods.

Section 208 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-438) defines an "abnormal occurrence" (AO) as an unscheduled incident or event that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) determines to be significant from the standpoint of public health or safety. The Federal Reports Elimination and Sunset Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-66) requires that the NRC report AOs to Congress annually.

As part of its redesign of the material licensing process, NRC is consolidating and updating numerous guidance documents into a single comprehensive repository, as described in NUREG-1537.

On February 28, 2001, Duke COGEMA Stone & Webster (DCS or the applicant), a limited liability company, submitted a request to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to construct a Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF or the facility) on the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina. DCS is a DOE contractor. If its construction authorization request (CAR), as revised, is approved, DCS is expected to then submit a license application for authority to possess and use licensed material at the MFFF. Following an acceptance review of such an application, a notice of opportunity for hearing would be published in the Federal Register. In support of its revised CAR, DCS has submitted several items to the NRC, including a quality assurance plan and an environmental report.

In February 2006, the Commission directed the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste and Materials (ACNW&M) to remain abreast of developments in the area of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, and to be ready to provide advice should the need arise. A white paper was prepared in response to that direction and focuses on three major areas: (1) historical approaches to development, design, and operation of spent nuclear fuel recycle facilities, (2) recent advances in spent nuclear fuel recycle technologies, and (3) technical and regulatory issues that will need to be addressed if advanced spent nuclear fuel recycle is to be implemented. This white paper was sent to the Commission by the ACNW&M as an attachment to a letter dated October 11, 2007 (ML072840119). In addition to being useful to the ACNW&M in advising the Commission, the authors believe that the white paper could be useful to a broad audience, including the NRC staff, the U.S. Department of Energy and its contractors, and other organizations interested in understanding the nuclear fuel cycle.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has instituted an initiative for regulatory improvement to focus license and NRC resources on risk significant activities.

The NRC has succeeded over the last few years in its effort to tie research activities it undertakes to near-term issues being confronted by the NRC line organizations (NRO, NRR, NMSS, NSIR, and FSME). Two-thirds of research activities support specific needs of these offices. One-third are mandated programs such as the Accident Sequence Precursor (ASP) program. A small portion of the research budget focuses on long-term research subjects expected to be critical in 5 to 10 years.

The report contains the result of the NRC staff's evaluation of shutdown and low-power operations at commercial nuclear power plants in the United States. This report describes studies conducted by the staff in the following areas: operations, probabilistic risk assessment of shut-down and low-power operations.

This report contains papers from the nuclear fuels sessions of the 2004 Nuclear Safety Research Conference held at the Marriott Hotel at Metro Center in Washington, DC, October 25-27, 2004.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requires nuclear power reactor licensees to annually adjust the estimate of the cost of decommissioning their plants, in dollars of the current year, as part of the process providing reasonable assurance that adequate funds for decommissioning will be available when needed. This report, which is revised periodically, explains the formula acceptable to the NRC for determining the minimum decommissioning fund requirements for nuclear power plants. The sources of information used in the formula are identified, and the values developed for the estimation of radioactive waste burial/disposition costs, by site and year, are given. Licensees may use the formula, coefficients, and burial/disposition adjustment factors from this report in their cost analyses, or they may use adjustment factors derived from any methodology that results in a total cost estimate of no less than the amount estimated by using the parameters presented in this report.

This document is a supplemental safety evaluation report (SSER) on the application for license renewal for the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (BFN), as filed by Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA or the applicant). By letter dated December 31, 2003, TVA submitted its application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) for renewal of the BFN operating licenses for an additional 20 years. The NRC staff (the staff) issued a safety evaluation report (SER), dated January 12, 2006, which summarizes the results of its safety review of the renewal application for compliance with the requirements of Title 10, Part 54, of the Code of Federal Regulations, (10 CFR Part 54), "Requirements for Renewal of Operating Licenses for Nuclear Power Plants."

The Yucca Mountain Review Plan provides guidance for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff to evaluate a U.S. Department of Energy license application for a geologic repository. It is not a regulation and does not impose regulatory requirements. The licensing criteria are contained in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 10, Part 63 (10 CFR Part 63), "Disposal of High-Level Radioactive Wastes in a Proposed Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada." The Secretary of Energy has recommended the Yucca Mountain site to the President for the development of a Yucca Mountain repository. The President has notified Congress that he considers the Yucca Mountain site qualified for application for a construction authorization for a repository. Nevada filed a notice of disapproval of the President's recommendation; however, Congress later approved the site recommendation. The U.S. Department of Energy may now submit a license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The principal purpose of the Yucca Mountain Review Plan is to ensure the quality, uniformity, and consistency of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff reviews of the license application and any requested amendments. The Yucca Mountain Review Plan has separate sections for reviews of general information, repository safety before permanent closure, repository safety after permanent closure, the research and development program to resolve safety questions, the performance confirmation program, and administrative and programmatic requirements. Each section addresses determining compliance with specific regulatory requirements from 10 CFR Part 63. The regulations and the Yucca Mountain Review Plan are risk-informed, performance-based to the extent practical.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency created by congress. The mission of the NRC is to license and regulate the Nation's civilian use of byproduct, source, and special nuclear materials to ensure the adequate protection of public health and safety.

Section 208 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-438) defines an "abnormal occurrence" (AO) as an unscheduled incident or event that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) determines to be significant from the standpoint of public health or safety. The Federal Reports Elimination and Sunset Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-66) requires that the NRC must report AOs to Congress annually. This report describes those events that the NRC or an Agreement State identified as AOs during fiscal year (FY) 2005.

The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission is using Business Process Redesign techniques to redesign its materials licensing process.

This report provides information on the shipment of irradiated reactor fuel subject to regulation by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

This document is used by the staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review the human factors engineering (HFE) programs of applicants for construction permits, operating licenses, standard design certifications, combined operating licenses, and license amendments. The purpose of these reviews is to verify that the applicant's HFE program incorporates HFE practices and guidelines accepted by the staff as described within the twelve elements of an HFE program: HFE Program Management, Operating Experience Review, Functional Requirements Analysis and Function Allocation, Task Analysis, Staffing and Qualifications, Treatment of Important Human Actions, Human-System Interface Design, Procedure Development, Training Program Development, Human Factors Verification and Validation, Design Implementation, and Human Performance Monitoring. Each element encompasses five sections: Background, Objective, Applicant Products and Submittals, Review Criteria, and Bibliography.

Section 208 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 defines an abnormal occurrence as an unscheduled incident or even that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission determines is significant from the standpoint of public health or safety.

As part of its redesign of the materials licensing process, NRC is consolidating and updating numerous guidance documents into a single comprehensive repository, as described in NUREG-1539, "Methodology and Findings of the NRC's Material Licensing Process Redesign."

By letter dated September 18, 2008, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) received an application from Detroit Edison Company (Detroit Edison) for a combined license (COL) for a new power reactor unit, the Enrico Fermi Unit 3 (Fermi 3), at the Detroit Edison Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant (Fermi) site in Monroe County, Michigan.

This guidance document provides general procedures for the environmental review of licensing actions regulated by the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS). Although the main focus of this guidance is the NRC staff's environmental review process, it also contains related information which applicants and licensees may find useful. Chapter 1 provides a summary and overview of the guidance. This chapter briefly discusses the three ways in which an environmental review is performed: either by meeting the criteria for a categorical exclusion or by preparing an environmental assessment (EA) or environmental impact statement (EIS). This chapter also discusses early planning for an EA or EIS and methods of using previous environmental analyses related to the proposed action. Chapter 2 discusses the categorical exclusions and the basis of their use. Chapter 3 discusses the EA process, including preparation and content of the EA, and preparation of the Finding of No Significant Impact. Chapter 4 discusses the process of preparing an EIS, from developing a project plan through scoping, consultations and public meetings, to preparing the Record of Decision. Chapter 5 discusses the technical content of the EIS, and Chapter 6 discusses environmental information that should be considered by applicants and licensees in preparing their environmental report.

Revision I to NUREG-1022 clarifies the immediate notification requirements of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 50, Section 50.72 (10 CFR 50.72), and the 30-day written licensee event report (LER) requirements of 10 CFR 50.73 for nuclear power plants. This revision was initiated to improve the reporting guidelines related to 10 CFR 50.72 and 50.73 and to consolidate these guidelines into a single reference document. A first draft of this document was noticed for public comment in the Federal Register on October 7, 1991 (56 FR 50598). A second draft was noticed for comment in the Federal Register on February 7, 1994 (59 FR 5614). This document updates and supersedes NUREG-1022 and its Supplements 1 and 2 (published in September 1983, February 1984, and September 1985, respectively). It does not change the reporting requirements of 10 CFR 50.72 and 50.73.

The Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) supports the regulatory mission of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by providing technical advice, tools, and information to identify and resolve safety issues, make regulatory decisions, and issue regulations and guidance. This includes conducting confirmatory experiments and analyses; developing technical bases that support the NRC's safety decisions; and preparing the agency for the future by evaluating the safety aspects of new technologies and designs for nuclear reactors, materials, waste, and security.

Regulations set forth by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) prescribe the qualifications and staffing levels for licensed operating personnel for nuclear power plants. The introduction of advanced reactor designs and increased use of advanced automation technologies in existing nuclear power plants will likely change the roles, responsibilities, composition, and size of the crews required to control plant operations. Current regulations regarding control room staffing, which are based upon the concept of operation for existing light-water reactors, may no longer apply. Therefore, applicants for an operating license for an advanced reactor, and current licensees who have implemented significant changes to existing control rooms, may submit applications for exemptions from current staffing regulations. The NRC staff is responsible for reviewing the exemption requests and must determine whether the staffing proposals provide adequate assurance that public health and safety will be maintained at a level that is comparable to that afforded by compliance with the current regulations.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issues licenses for the possession and use of source material provided that proposed facilities meet NRC regulatory requirements and will be operated in a manner that is protective of public health and safety and the environment. Under the NRC environmental protection regulations in 10 CFR Part 51, which implement the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), issuance of a license to possess and use source material for uranium milling, as defined in 10 CFR Part 40, requires an environmental impact statement (EIS) or a supplement to an EIS.