96-29586. Draft Regulatory Guide; Issuance, Availability

[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 224 (Tuesday, November 19, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58910-58911]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-29586]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Draft Regulatory Guide; Issuance, Availability

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued for public comment a 
draft of a guide planned for its Regulatory Guide Series. This series 
has been developed to describe and make available to the public such 
information as methods acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing 
specific parts of the Commission's regulations, techniques used by the 
staff in evaluating specific problems or postulated accidents, and data 
needed by the staff in its review of applications for permits and 
licenses.
    The draft guide, temporarily identified by its task number, DG-1052 
(which should be mentioned in all correspondence concerning this draft 
guide), is titled ``Time Response Design Criteria for Safety-Related 
Operator Actions.'' The guide will be in Division 1, ``Power 
Reactors.'' This regulatory guide is being developed to provide methods 
acceptable to the NRC staff for developing and applying timing criteria 
for safety-related operator actions. This guide endorses the American 
National Standards Institute/American Nuclear Society standard ANSI/
ANS-58.8-1994, ``Time Response Design Criteria for Safety-Related 
Operator Actions.''
    This draft guide DG-1052 supersedes DG-1040, which was issued in 
June 1995 with the same title. DG-1052 has been developed as a result 
of comments received on DG-1040 and review by the NRC's Advisory 
Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS). Based on the information 
presented in DG-1040, the ACRS, in its letter dated November 14, 1995, 
to the NRC Executive Director for Operations,1 has raised the 
following concerns: (1) There is no technical basis for the estimates 
of minimum times for operator actions in ANSI/ANS-58.8-1994; (2) 
comparison of the recommended times with results from exercises on 
plant simulators does not demonstrate that these times are 
appropriately conservative; (3) endorsement of the standard is not the 
appropriate way to resolve Generic Safety Issue B-17; and (4) the 
standard does not address operator response times for advanced nuclear 
power plants.
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    \1\ Copies of this letter are available for inspection or 
copying for a fee from the NRC Public Document Room at 2120 L Street 
NW., Washington, DC; the PDR's mailing address is Mail Stop LL-6, 
Washington, DC 20555; telephone [phone]; fax [phone].
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    The draft guide has not received complete staff review and does not 
represent an official NRC staff position.
    Public comments are being solicited on Draft Regulatory Guide DG-
1052 and on the ACRS concerns. Comments may be accompanied by 
additional relevant information or supporting data. Written comments 
may be submitted to the Rules Review and Directives Branch, Division of 
Freedom of Information and Publications Services, Office of 
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555. Copies of comments received may be examined at the NRC Public 
Document Room, 2120 L Street NW., Washington, DC. Comments will be most 
helpful if received by January 24, 1997.
    Although a time limit is given for comments on this draft guide, 
comments and suggestions in connection with items for inclusion in 
guides currently being developed or improvements in all published 
guides are encouraged at any time.
    Comments may be submitted electronically, in either ASCII text or 
Wordperfect format (version 5.1 or later), by calling the NRC 
Electronic Bulletin Board on FedWorld. The bulletin board may be 
accessed using a personal computer, a modem, and one of the commonly 
available communications software packages, or directly via Internet.
    If using a personal computer and modem, the NRC subsystem on 
FedWorld can be accessed directly by dialing the toll free number: 1-
800-

[[Page 58911]]

 303-9672. Communication software parameters should be set as follows: 
parity to none, data bits to 8, and stop bits to 1 (N,8,1). Using ANSI 
or VT-100 terminal emulation, the NRC NUREGs and RegGuides for Comment 
subsystem can then be accessed by selecting the ``Rules Menu'' option 
from the ``NRC Main Menu.'' For further information about options 
available for NRC at FedWorld, consult the ``Help/Information Center'' 
from the ``NRC Main Menu.'' Users will find the ``FedWorld Online 
User's Guides'' particularly helpful. Many NRC subsystems and data 
bases also have a ``Help/Information Center'' option that is tailored 
to the particular subsystem.
    The NRC subsystem on FedWorld can also be accessed by a direct dial 
phone number for the main FedWorld BBS, 703-321-3339, or by using 
Telnet via Internet, fedworld.gov. If using 703-321-3339 to contact 
FedWorld, the NRC subsystem will be accessed from the main FedWorld 
menu by selecting the ``Regulatory, Government Administration and State 
Systems,'' then selecting ``Regulatory Information Mall.'' At that 
point, a menu will be displayed that has an option ``U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission'' that will take you to the NRC Online main menu. 
The NRC Online area also can be accessed directly by typing ``/go nrc'' 
at a FedWorld command line. If you access NRC from FedWorld's main 
menu, you may return to FedWorld by selecting the ``Return to 
FedWorld'' option from the NRC Online Main Menu. However, if you access 
NRC at FedWorld by using NRC's toll-free number, you will have full 
access to all NRC systems but you will not have access to the main 
FedWorld system.
    If you contact FedWorld using Telnet, you will see the NRC area and 
menus, including the Rules menu. Although you will be able to download 
documents and leave messages, you will not be able to write comments or 
upload files (comments). If you contact FedWorld using FTP, all files 
can be accessed and downloaded but uploads are not allowed; all you 
will see is a list of files without descriptions (normal Gopher look). 
An index file listing all files within a subdirectory, with 
descriptions, is included. There is a 15-minute time limit for FTP 
access.
    Although FedWorld can be accessed through the World Wide Web, like 
FTP that mode only provides access for downloading files and does not 
display the NRC Rules menu.
    For more information on NRC bulletin boards call Mr. Arthur Davis, 
Systems Integration and Development Branch, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555, telephone [phone]; e-mail 
[e-mail]. For more information on this draft regulatory guide, 
contact J.J. Kramer at the NRC, telephone [phone]; e-mail 
[e-mail].
    Regulatory guides are available for inspection at the Commission's 
Public Document Room, 2120 L Street NW., Washington, DC. Requests for 
single copies of draft or final guides (which may be reproduced) or for 
placement on an automatic distribution list for single copies of future 
draft guides in specific divisions should be made in writing to the 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, Attention: 
Distribution and Mail Services Section; or by fax at [phone]. 
Telephone requests cannot be accommodated. Regulatory guides are not 
copyrighted, and Commission approval is not required to reproduce them.

(5 U.S.C. 552(a))

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 6th day of November 1996.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
M. Wayne Hodges,
Director, Division of Systems Technology, Office of Nuclear Regulatory 
Research.
[FR Doc. 96-29586 Filed 11-18-96; 8:45 am]
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