NRC TO RELEASE PRELIMINARY EVALUATIONS OF RULEMAKING REQUEST

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NRC TO RELEASE PRELIMINARY EVALUATIONS OF RULEMAKING REQUESTREGARDING EMERGENCY CORE COOLING REQUIREMENTSTo increase transparency and meet public interest, the NRC will soon begin postingpreliminary conclusions and other material related to a petition about NRC regulations for reactor core emergency cooling systems.In the course of reviewing Petition for Rulemaking (PRM)-50-93/95 and releasing its preliminary findings, the NRC is departing from its usual petition review process. We are doing so because of the complexity of the issues raised in the petition, the length of the anticipated reviewperiod and the goal of providing a more transparent review process.The petition claims that calculations required by NRC regulations underestimate claddingoxidation, hydrogen production, and heat generation from the zirconium-water reaction during loss-of-coolant accidents. The NRC’s initial assessment of the petition concluded that there are no immediate safety concerns.However, to properly address the petitioners’ detailed concerns, the agency must carefullyreview and re-consider more than 200 different technical citations related to experiments performed over the last 40 years. As the petition review completes its examinations of the experiments, theNRC will release its preliminary conclusions to inform the public about the review’s progress. Theagency’s final decision regarding PRM-50-93/95 will not be issued until after the NRCCommissioners have considered all staff recommendations and evaluations.These periodic preliminary evaluations and other documents related to (PRM 50-93/95) willbe available at regulations.gov by searching on NRC-2009-0554 and on the NRC website. A message via Twitter will also be sent notifying the public whenever new information is posted relative to this petition. Go to www.twitter.com/NRCgov to follow the NRC and receive thesemessages.###