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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 124 / Thursday, July 1, 2021 / Proposed Rules
for a license, the exemption would be subject to litigation in the same manner as other issues in the licensing hearing, consistent with 52.63b1. If the exemption is requested by a licensee, then the exemption would be subject to litigation in the same manner as a license amendment.
Paragraph VIII.B.5 would allow an applicant or licensee to depart from Tier 2 information, without prior NRC
approval, if it does not involve a change to, or departure from, Tier 1
information, technical specification, or does not require a license amendment under paragraphs VIII.B.5.b or c. The technical specifications referred to in VIII.B.5.a of this paragraph are the technical specifications in Chapter 16 of the generic DCD, including bases, for departures made prior to the issuance of the COL. After the issuance of the COL, the plant-specific technical specifications would be controlling under paragraph VIII.B.5. The requirement for a license amendment in paragraph VIII.B.5.b would be similar to the requirement in 50.59 and would apply to all of the information in Tier 2 except for the information that resolves the severe accident issues or the information required by 52.47a28 to address aircraft impacts.
Paragraph VIII.B.5.d addresses information described in the DCD to address aircraft impacts, in accordance with 52.47a28. Under 52.47a28, applicants are required to include the information required by 50.150b in their DCD. An applicant or licensee who changes this information is required to consider the effect of the changed design feature or functional capability on the original aircraft impact assessment required by 50.150a. The applicant or licensee is also required to describe in the plantspecific DCD how the modified design features and functional capabilities continue to meet the assessment requirements in 50.150a1.
Submittal of this updated information is governed by the reporting requirements in Section X.B.
During an ongoing adjudicatory proceeding e.g., for issuance of a COL, a party who believes that an applicant or licensee has not complied with paragraph VIII.B.5 when departing from Tier 2 information may petition to admit such a contention into the proceeding under paragraph VIII.B.5.g. As set forth in paragraph VIII.B.5.g, the petition would have to comply with the requirements of 2.309 and show that the departure does not comply with paragraph VIII.B.5. If on the basis of the petition and any responses thereto, the
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presiding officer in the proceeding determines that the required showing has been made, the matter would be certified to the Commission for its final determination. In the absence of a proceeding, assertions of nonconformance with paragraph VIII.B.5 requirements applicable to Tier 2 departures would be treated as petitions for enforcement action under 2.206.
Operational Requirements The change process for technical specifications and other operational requirements that were reviewed and approved in the design certification rule is set forth in Section VIII, paragraph C.
The key to using the change processes described in Section VIII is to determine if the proposed change or departure would require a change to a design feature described in the generic DCD. If a design change is required, then the appropriate change process in paragraph VIII.A or VIII.B would apply. However, if a proposed change to the technical specifications or other operational requirements does not require a change to a design feature in the generic DCD, then paragraph VIII.C would apply. This change process has elements similar to the Tier 1 and Tier 2 change processes in paragraphs VIII.A and VIII.B, but with significantly different change standards. Because of the different finality status for technical specifications and other operational requirements, the NRC designated a special category of information, consisting of the technical specifications and other operational requirements, with its own change process in paragraph VIII.C. The language in paragraph VIII.C also distinguishes between generic Chapter 16 of the DCD
and plant-specific technical specifications to account for the different treatment and finality consistent with technical specifications before and after a license is issued.
The process in paragraph VIII.C.1 for making generic changes to the generic technical specifications in Chapter 16 of the DCD or other operational requirements in the generic DCD would be accomplished by rulemaking and governed by the backfit standards in 50.109. The determination of whether the generic technical specifications and other operational requirements were completely reviewed and approved in the design certification rule would be based upon the extent to which the NRC
reached a safety conclusion in the final safety evaluation report on this matter.
If a technical specification or operational requirement was completely reviewed and finalized in the design
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certification rule, then the requirement of 50.109 would apply because a position was taken on that safety matter.
Generic changes made under paragraph VIII.C.1 would be applicable to all applicants or licensees refer to paragraph VIII.C.2, unless the change is irrelevant because of a plant-specific departure.
Some generic technical specifications contain values in brackets . The brackets are placeholders indicating that the NRCs review is not complete, and represent a requirement that the applicant for a COL referencing the NuScale design certification rule must replace the values in brackets with final plant-specific values refer to guidance provided in Regulatory Guide 1.206, Revision 1, Applications for Nuclear Power Plants, dated October 2018
ADAMS Accession No.
ML18131A181. The values in brackets are neither part of the design certification rule nor are they binding.
Therefore, the replacement of bracketed values with final plant-specific values does not require an exemption from the generic technical specifications.
Plant-specific departures may occur by either an order under paragraph VIII.C.3 or an applicants exemption request under paragraph VIII.C.4. The basis for determining if the technical specification or operational requirement was completely reviewed and approved for these processes would be the same as for paragraph VIII.C.1 previously discussed. If the technical specifications or operational requirement was comprehensively reviewed and finalized in the design certification rule, then the NRC must demonstrate that special circumstances are present before ordering a plant-specific departure. If not, there would be no restriction on plant-specific changes to the technical specifications or operational requirements, prior to the issuance of a license, provided a design change is not required. Although the generic technical specifications were reviewed and approved by the NRC in support of the design certification review, the NRC
intends to consider the lessons learned from subsequent operating experience during its licensing review of the plantspecific technical specifications. The process for petitioning to intervene on a technical specification or operational requirement contained in paragraph VIII.C.5 would be similar to other issues in a licensing hearing, except that the petitioner must also demonstrate why special circumstances are present pursuant to 2.335.
Paragraph VIII.C.6 states that the generic technical specifications would have no further effect on the plant-

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