10 CFR Part 51, Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions
Revision of a currently approved collection
No
Regular
Approved without change
08/06/2024
08/06/2024
In accordance with 5 CFR 1320, the information collection is approved for three years.
table that charts list comparision
Inventory as of this Action
Requested
Previously Approved
08/31/2027
07/31/2025
07/31/2025
27
0
19
140,000
0
68,933
0
0
0
FINAL RULE _ RENEWING NUCLEAR POWER PLANT OPERATING LICENSES â ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW.
The NRCâs regulations at 10 CFR part 51 specify information to be provided in environmental reports by applicants and licensees so that the NRC can make determinations necessary to adhere to the policies, regulations, and public laws of the United States, which are interpreted and administered in accordance with the provisions set forth in the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended. The NRC is amending its environmental protection regulations by updating the Commissionâs 2013 findings on the environmental effect of renewing the operating license of a nuclear power plant. This final rule redefines the number and scope of the environmental issues that must be addressed during the review of each application for license renewal. As part of this update, the NRC is issuing Revision 2 to NUREG-1437, âGeneric Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plantsâ (LR GEIS), to account for new information and to address the impacts of initial license renewals, which the previous versions considered, as well as first subsequent license renewals. The LR GEIS, Revision 2, provides the technical basis for the final rule. The information submitted in the Environmental Report will be used by the NRC to fulfill its responsibilities in the licensing review of nuclear power plants.
The rule will increase the burden for this information collection from 68,933 to 140,000 an increase of 71,067 hours. The number of responses to the Part 51 information collection will increase from 19 to 27.3, an increase of 8.3 responses. The information collection burden increase for applicants for renewal of nuclear power plant operating licenses is primarily driven by the changing landscape in the industry and the revised estimates for the number of respondents to this information collection. The NRC staff expects that there will be no applications for initial LRs received during this period, increases to the burden imposed on these applicants will be included in the next renewal of the Part 51 clearance.
The current OMB clearance for 10 CFR Part 51 estimates the industry burden for license renewal applications based the expected submission of SLR application during 2023-2024. Therefore, the NRC staff estimated that 3 license renewal applications will be received during the current clearance period or 1 application annually, on average. The NRC staff calculated the industry burden per response to be 12,300 hours, or $3,542,400 at a labor rate of $288/hour. This estimate was based on the best available information at the time of the submission of the clearance renewal in April 2022.
For the rule, the NRC staff revised the estimated number of respondents to reflect the latest information known by the NRC on future SLR applications. The NRC now expects that there will be 15 future SLR applications (all submitted after the effective date of the final rule) and 10 near-term and submitted applications, and issued SLRs. Therefore, the NRC staff concluded that the 15 future SLR applications were not previously included in the estimated burden associated with information collections for license renewal applications. The increase in burden is divided between the future SLR applicants and licensees with near-term and submitted applications, and issued SLRs as follows:
⢠For future SLR applicants, the estimated burden of 64,695 hours for reporting (annualized) represents the total burden for the licensees to prepare and submit an environmental report as required in 10 CFR 51.53(c) and evaluating all issues described in the revised Table B-1. When divided by 5 responses per year on average, this burden represents an estimated 12,939 hours per respondent. In the current information collections clearance for 10 CFR Part 51, the estimated burden for license renewal applications is 12,300 hours per response. Therefore, the incremental change is burden is 639 hours per application for a future SLR.
⢠For licensees with near-term and submitted applications, and issued SLRs, the estimated total annual burden of 6,372 hours for one-time reporting represents an increase in reporting requirements to include additional information in the applicantâs supplemental submittal to address changes made to Table B-1 (e.g., new Category 1 and 2 issues, consolidation of Category 1 issues into Category 2 issues, and dividing an existing Category 2 issue into multiple Category 2 issues). When divided by 3.3 responses per year on average, this burden represents an estimated 1,931 hours per near-term and submitted applications, and issued SLRs.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
NUREG-1437, Revision 2, Volume 2_Final.pdf
Final Rule - Reg Analysis for Renewing Nuclear Power Plant Op Licenses - Env Review (CLEAN).docx
10 CFR Part 51, Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory