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This rulemaking would amend the NRC's regulations to enhance mitigation strategies for nuclear power reactors to withstand beyond-design-basis external events.  The rule would produce a more seamless accident response capability that includes emergency operating procedures and guidelines for beyond-design-basis external events and extensive damage mitigation.  The scope of this rulemaking would affect nuclear power reactor licensees and applicants, and address several petitions for rulemaking (PRM-50-96, PRM-50-97, PRM-50-98, PRM-50-100, PRM-50-101, and PRM-50-102). 

Statement of Need:

This rulemaking is intended to make generically applicable the requirements in EA-12-049, Order Modifying Licenses with Regard to Requirements for Mitigation Strategies for Beyond-Design-Basis External Events, which was issued on March 12, 2012.  This rulemaking is also intended to make generically applicable the requirements in EA-12-051, Order Modifying Licenses with Regard to Reliable Spent Fuel Pool Instrumentation that was issued on March 12, 2012.  These orders were issued in response to the events that occurred at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station on March 11, 2011, involving an earthquake and tsunami. 

Summary of the Legal Basis:

Order EA-12-049 requirements were imposed on current power reactor licensees under 10 CFR 50.109(a)(4)(ii) as being required for adequate protection of public health and safety.  The Commission imposed Order EA-12-051 requirements through an administrative exception to the backfit analysis requirements in 10 CFR 50.109.  This rulemaking would be making those order requirements generically applicable, and it is not anticipated that this action would be imposing substantial additional requirements beyond what has been already imposed on power reactor licensees by order.  All additional requirements that involve integration of the station blackout mitigation strategies with other existing accident procedure and guideline sets must be justified under the NRC's backfitting regulations. 

Alternatives:

As an alternative to the rulemaking, the NRC staff considered the "non-action" alternative.  This alternative would mean that the NRC would be required to issue orders or impose license conditions on each new reactor licensed to ensure that the requirements continue to be imposed on all power reactor licensees.  This alternative also would not require operators of nuclear power plants to strengthen and integrate various emergency response capabilities, improve strategies for large-scale events to promote effective decisionmaking at all levels, and have training/qualification/evaluation of key personnel to implement the procedures and strategies.  This is not the optimal regulatory approach and not consistent with the NRC's principles of good regulation.  The NRC sees benefit in pursuing a rulemaking that enables lessons-learned from implementation of EA-12-049 and external stakeholder feedback (through the public comment process) to be considered within the rulemaking to inform the requirements that are placed into the Code of Federal Regulations, which would then remove the need to issue orders or impose license conditions on each future reactor licensee. 

Anticipated Costs and Benefits:

The portions of the rulemaking that entails making station blackout mitigation strategies and reliable spent fuel pool instrumentation generically applicable is not anticipated to impose significant additional costs beyond those that are already being incurred due to implementation of EA-12-049 and EA-12-051.  The benefits associated with the mitigation strategies will occur as a result of EA-12-049 and EA-12-051 implementation rather than as a result of this rulemaking.  The costs and benefits associated with the integrated response capability portion of this rulemaking will be described in a supporting regulatory analysis. 

Risks:

The risks associated with beyond-design-basis external events have not been estimated with sufficient certainty to enable a quantitative measure of risk to be determined for these events, including the corresponding benefit associated with implementation of the new mitigation strategies.