Readiness Assessment
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General Information
A prospective applicant may complete a voluntary readiness assessment for any forthcoming permit or license applications, including construction permits, operating licenses, combined licenses, design certifications, and early site permits.
The readiness assessment allows the NRC staff to: (1) identify information gaps between the draft application and the technical content that should be included in the application submitted to the NRC, (2) identify major technical or policy issues that may adversely impact the acceptance or technical review of the application, (3) become familiar with the application, particularly in areas involving proposed new concepts or novel design features, and (4) support the NRC’s process for planning and budgeting and for allocating resources by providing the staff with better clarity on the application’s content and schedule. The readiness assessment is an opportunity for a prospective application to obtain early feedback on a draft application; however, the readiness assessment does not predetermine whether an application will be accepted and docketed, nor does it provide any regulatory determinations to the prospective applicant.
Ideally, the scope of the assessment should include the overall application, but a phased assessment can be implemented if the entire application is not ready at one time. Alternatively, the assessment scope may be limited to selected parts of the application such as those topics identified as challenging areas in prior application reviews.
The NRC staff documents the readiness assessment results in a report that is issued to the prospective applicant and made publicly available to the extent possible.
More information can be found in the NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation's internal guidance on readiness assessments.
Communication and Correspondence
The prospective applicant should ideally engage with the NRC about their intent to conduct the assessment at least 9 months before the planned application submittal date, with the assessment starting approximately 6 months before. This timeline allows prospective applicants to consider the results from the readiness assessment as they finalize their applications and to reevaluate their application submission date, if needed.
Prospective applicants that choose to have a readiness assessment should submit a written request at least 60 days prior to proposed start date of the readiness assessment to ensure the readiness assessment planning process can be completed before starting the assessment. The NRC project manager will develop a readiness assessment plan after discussions with the prospective applicant and the NRC technical staff in coordination with, and consistent with, the proposed application development and submission schedule. The readiness assessment plan will be issued to the prospective applicant at least 30 days before the start of the readiness assessment.
The NRC staff review of the application documentation most often occurs via read-only access to an electronic reading room; therefore, prospective applicants should be prepared to set up and use an electronic reading room. Using an electronic reading room provides two benefits to the NRC and prospective applicant: (1) information (including proprietary and other business sensitive information) under review is not in NRC possession and (2) modifications to the information can be quickly made, if needed, by the prospective applicant.
A readiness assessment report will typically be issued by the NRC staff within 45 calendar days after completion of the review.
Review Fees
Readiness Assessments are normally subject to fees based on the full cost of the review, as set forth in 10 CFR Part 170.
Exemptions to the fee recovery requirements are made on a case-by-case basis, as set forth in 10 CFR 170.11.