2020-18856. Information Collection: Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Notice of submission to the Office of Management and Budget; request for comment.

SUMMARY:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has recently submitted a request for renewal of an existing collection of information to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. The information collection is entitled, “Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.”

DATES:

Submit comments by September 28, 2020. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before this date.

ADDRESSES:

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice to https://www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain. Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

David Cullison, NRC Clearance Officer, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: [phone]; email: [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2019-0216 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain publicly-available information related to this action by any of the following methods:

• Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0216.
• NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/​reading-rm/​adams.html. To begin the search, select “Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.” For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document Room reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to [e-mail]. The supporting statement and burden spreadsheet are available in ADAMS under Accession Nos. ML20160A404 and ML20013E096, respectively.
• NRC's Clearance Officer: A copy of the collection of information and related instructions may be obtained without charge by contacting the NRC's Clearance Officer, David Cullison, Office of the Chief Information Officer, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: [phone]; email: [e-mail].

B. Submitting Comments

The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact information in comment submissions that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your comment submission. All comment submissions are posted at https://www.regulations.gov and entered into ADAMS. Comment submissions are not routinely edited to remove identifying or contact information.

If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons for submission to the OMB, then you should inform those persons not to include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should state that comment submissions are not routinely edited to remove such information before making the comment submissions available to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.

II. Background

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the NRC recently submitted a request for renewal of an existing collection of information to OMB for review entitled, “Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.” The NRC hereby informs potential respondents that an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and that a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

The NRC published a Federal Register notice with a 60-day comment period on this information collection on April 22, 2020 (85 FR 22463).

1. The title of the information collection: Part 52 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), “Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.

2. OMB approval number: 3150-0151.

3. Type of submission: Extension.

4. The form number if applicable: Not Applicable.

5. How often the collection is required or requested: On occasion. Applications are submitted only when licensing action is sought.

6. Who will be required or asked to respond: Applicants for early site permits (ESPs), standard design approvals (SDAs) and certifications, manufacturing licenses (MLs), and licenses which combine construction permits (CPs) and conditional operating licenses (OLs), e.g. COLs, for commercial nuclear power reactors.

7. The estimated number of annual responses: 1,428 (1,411 reporting responses plus 17 recordkeepers).

8. The estimated number of annual respondents: 17.

9. An estimate of the total number of hours needed annually to comply with the information collection requirement or request: 335,891 hours (318,716 reporting, plus 17,175 recordkeeping).

10. Abstract: The licensing processes in 10 CFR part 52 provide for issuance of ESPs, SDAs, MLs, CPs, and COLs for commercial nuclear power reactors. The applicants submit updated reports, applications for renewals, exemption requests and maintain records of changes to the facility and records of detailed design related information. These licensing procedures are options to the two-step licensing process in 10 CFR part 50, which provides for a CP and an OL. The part 52 licensing process places procedural requirements in part 52 and technical requirements in part 50. Part 52 reduces the overall paperwork burden borne by applicants for CPs and OLs because part 52 only requires a single application and provides options for referencing standardized designs. The information in 10 CFR part 52 is needed by the agency to assess the adequacy and suitability of an applicant's site, plant design, construction, training and experience, plans and procedures for the protection of public health and safety. Regulatory Guide 1.206 provides guidance for applicants for combined licenses for nuclear power plants. Section C.2.1 of Regulatory Guide 1.206 deals with pre-application activities for respondents who intend to submit applications for combined licenses for nuclear power plants. Pre-application activities encompass all the communications, correspondence, meetings, document submittals/reviews, and other interactions that occur between the NRC staff and a prospective applicant before the tendering of an application under 10 CFR part 52. Participation in pre-application activities is voluntary. Potential applicants who engage in pre-application activities benefit from an early NRC staff assessment of the completeness and level of detail of the information that the applicant proposes to submit and staff identification of potential deficiencies in the application. Pre-application activities are expected to increase the efficiency of the staff's review of those applications once they are submitted. Subpart B of 10 CFR part 52 establishes the process for obtaining design certifications. The addition of appendix F to 10 CFR part 52 allows interested parties to reference the Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400) standard design in an application for a combined license.

Dated: August 24, 2020.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

David C. Cullison,

NRC Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer.