Proposed rulemaking to risk-inform special treatment requirements

This paper presents the status of Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rulemaking efforts to risk-inform special treatment requirements that reside in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, 10 CFR Part 21, Part 50, and Part 100. The staff has prepared a proposed rulemaking to add a new section to 10 CFR Part 50 to provide an alternative set of requirements for treatment of structures, systems and components (SSCs), using a risk-informed categorization process to determine safety significance of the SSCs. These requirements can be voluntarily adopted by light-water reactor licensees and applicants. The proposed rule is based upon extensive interactions with stakeholders (including consideration of public comments on draft rule language made available on the NRC rulemaking web site), experience with pilot plants, and guidance development activities. The NRC staff expects that stakeholder input provided in response to the proposed rule issuance will be valuable and support the efforts to issue the final rule. (author)