Criteria for Nominating Materials Licensees for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Agency Action Review Meeting, 54917-54918 [2010-22481]
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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 174 / Thursday, September 9, 2010 / Notices
NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
[NRC–2010–0294]
Criteria for Nominating Materials
Licensees for the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission’s Agency
Action Review Meeting
Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
ACTION: Request for comment.
AGENCY:
It is the policy of the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
to have its senior managers conduct an
annual Agency Action Review Meeting
(AARM). The AARM is an integral part
of the evaluative process used by the
agency to ensure the operational safety
performance of licensees. As a part of
the AARM process, the NRC reviews the
agency’s actions concerning fuel cycle
facilities and other materials licensees
(including Agreement State licensees)
with significant performance concerns.
In 2002, the NRC developed criteria for
determining materials licensees that
would be discussed at the AARM. The
NRC revised the criteria to incorporate
NRC’s current policies and procedures
in 2008. The criteria that is currently
used to determine materials licensees
that will be discussed at the AARM may
be found in Enclosure 2 of SECY–08–
0135, ‘‘Revision of the Criteria for
Identifying Nuclear Materials Licensees
for Discussion at the Agency Action
Review Meeting,’’ dated September 16,
2008 (ADAMS Accession Number:
ML082480564).
Currently, the NRC is considering
revisions to this criteria for Identifying
Materials Licensees for Discussion at the
AARM. A draft revised criterion found
in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
below provides an additional criterion
to address licensees previously
discussed at the AARM. The reason this
additional criterion has been added is to
allow NRC’s senior management to
address why the previously identified
issues are not being resolved. The NRC
is seeking public comment on this
revised criterion.
DATES: Please submit comments
regarding the proposed criteria, by
October 25, 2010. Comments received
after this date will be considered if
practical to do so, but the NRC staff is
able to ensure consideration only for
those comments received on or before
this date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments
by any one of the following methods.
Please include Docket ID NRC–2010–
0294 in the subject line of your
comments. Comments submitted in
mstockstill on DSKH9S0YB1PROD with NOTICES
SUMMARY:
VerDate Mar<15>2010
17:24 Sep 08, 2010
Jkt 220001
writing or in electronic form will be
posted on the NRC Web site and on the
Federal rulemaking Web site, https://
www.regulations.gov. Because your
comments will not be edited to remove
any identifying or contact information,
the NRC cautions you against including
any information in your submission that
you do not want to be publicly
disclosed.
The NRC requests that any party
soliciting or aggregating comments
received from other persons for
submission to the NRC inform those
persons that the NRC will not edit their
comments to remove any identifying or
contact information, and therefore, they
should not include any information in
their comments that they do not want
publicly disclosed.
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to
https://www.regulations.gov and search
for documents filed under Docket ID
NRC–2010–0294. Address questions
about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher
301–492–3668; e-mail
Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov.
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey,
Chief, Rules, Announcements and
Directives Branch (RADB), Division of
Administrative Services, Office of
Administration, Mail Stop: TWB–05–
B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555–
0001, or by fax to RADB at (301) 492–
3446.
You can access publicly available
documents related to this notice using
the following methods:
NRC’s Public Document Room (PDR):
The public may examine and have
copied, for a fee, publicly available
documents at the NRC’s PDR, Public
File Area O1 F21, One White Flint
North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville,
Maryland.
NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access
and Management System (ADAMS):
Publicly available documents created or
received at the NRC are available
electronically at the NRC’s Electronic
Reading Room at https://www.nrc.gov/
reading-rm/adams.html. From this page,
the public can gain entry into ADAMS,
which provides text and image files of
NRC’s public documents. If you do not
have access to ADAMS or if there are
problems in accessing the documents
located in ADAMS, contact the NRC’s
PDR reference staff at 1–800–397–4209,
301–415–4737, or by e-mail to
pdr.resource@nrc.gov. The Proposed
Criteria for Identifying Materials
Licensees for Discussion at the AARM is
also available electronically under
ADAMS Accession Number
ML101900346.
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Public
comments and supporting materials
PO 00000
Frm 00072
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
54917
related to this notice can be found at
https://www.regulations.gov by searching
on Docket ID: NRC–2010–0294.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Duane White by telephone at 301–415–
6272, E-mail: Duane.White@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
In 2002, NRC developed a process for
providing information to the
Commission on significant nuclear
materials issues and adverse licensee
performance. This process was
discussed in SECY–02–0216, ‘‘Proposed
Process for Providing Information on
Significant Nuclear Materials Issues and
Adverse Licensee Performance,’’ dated
December 11, 2002. As part of this
process, the staff developed criteria to
determine nuclear material licensees
with significant performance problems
that would be discussed at the AARM.
In 2008, the NRC revised the criteria to
provide additional clarification
regarding the criteria requirements and
to incorporate NRC’s current policy and
procedures.
Discussion
NRC is preparing to revise the current
criteria used to determine material
licensees that will be discussed at the
AARM. The agency currently identifies
material licensees, including fuel cycle
and Agreement State licensees, for
AARM discussion based on operating
performance, inspection results, and
judgment of the severity of problems of
safety performance. Although the
revised AARM criteria will continue to
be based upon the same principles as
the existing criteria, the staff is
proposing to include one additional
element (i.e., criterion). This criterion
focuses on those licensees previously
discussed at the AARM who did not
address or were ineffective in correcting
their underlying issues.
Current Criteria for Determining
Materials Licensees for the AARM
The current criteria for determining
materials licensees for the AARM, as
described in Enclosure 2 of SECY–08–
0135, is as follows: (1) Strategic Plan—
Licensee has an event that results in the
failure to meet a strategic outcome for
safety and security in the NRC Strategic
Plan (NUREG–1614); (2) Significant
Issue or Event—Licensee has an issue or
event that results in an abnormal
occurrence report to Congress (per NRC
Management Directive 8.1), or a severity
level I or II violation, as described in the
NRC Enforcement Policy (including
equivalent violations dispositioned by
Alternative Dispute Resolution), or a
level 3 or higher International Nuclear
E:\FR\FM\09SEN1.SGM
09SEN1
54918
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 174 / Thursday, September 9, 2010 / Notices
mstockstill on DSKH9S0YB1PROD with NOTICES
Event Scale Report to the International
Atomic Energy Agency (per NRC
Management Directive 5.12), and there
are unique or unusual aspects of the
licensee’s performance that warrant
additional NRC oversight (e.g., a
significant event, which requires an
incident investigation team (IIT) or
augmented inspection team (AIT)); or
(3) Performance Trend—Licensee has
multiple and/or repetitive significant
program issues identified over more
than one inspection, or inspection
period, and the issues are supported by
severity level I, II, or III violation, as
described in the NRC Enforcement
Policy (including equivalent violations
dispositioned by Alternative Dispute
Resolution). And, there are unique or
unusual aspects of the licensee’s
performance that warrant additional
NRC oversight (e.g., oversight panel
formed for order implementation).
Proposed Criteria for Determining
Materials Licensees for the AARM
The NRC is proposing the following
revision to the existing criteria for
determining materials licensees with
significant performance issues: (1)
Strategic Plan—Licensee has an event
that results in the failure to meet a
strategic outcome for safety and security
in the NRC Strategic Plan (NUREG–
1614); (2) Significant Issue or Event—
Licensee has an issue or event that
results in an abnormal occurrence report
to Congress (per NRC Management
Directive 8.1), or a severity level I or II
violation, as described in the NRC
Enforcement Policy (including
equivalent violations dispositioned by
Alternative Dispute Resolution), or a
level 3 or higher International Nuclear
Event Scale Report to the International
Atomic Energy Agency (per NRC
Management Directive 5.12), and there
are unique or unusual aspects of the
licensee’s performance that warrant
additional NRC oversight (e.g., a
significant event, which requires an IIT
or AIT); or (3) Performance Trend—
Licensee has multiple and/or repetitive
significant program issues identified
over more than one inspection, or
inspection period, and the issues are
supported by severity level I, II, or III
violation, as described in the NRC
Enforcement Policy (including
equivalent violations dispositioned by
Alternative Dispute Resolution). And,
there are unique or unusual aspects of
the licensee’s performance that warrant
additional NRC oversight (e.g., oversight
panel formed for order implementation);
or (4) Identified for Discussion at
Previous AARM—Licensee corrective
actions did not address or were
ineffective in correcting the underlying
VerDate Mar<15>2010
17:24 Sep 08, 2010
Jkt 220001
issues that were previously discussed at
the AARM.
You can find NRC’s strategic plan
(NUREG–1614) and the referenced
management directives and enforcement
policy on NRC’s public document
collections Web page at https://
www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doccollections/.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 25th day
of August 2010.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Cynthia A. Carpenter,
Deputy Director, Office of Federal and State
Materials and Environmental Management
Programs.
[FR Doc. 2010–22481 Filed 9–8–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590–01–P
NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
[NRC–2010–0288]
Draft Regulatory Guide, DG–1247,
‘‘Design-Basis Hurricane and
Hurricane Missiles for Nuclear Power
Plants’’ and Supporting Technical
Basis Documents NUREG/CR 7004 and
7005
DG–1247 is a proposed new
regulatory guide. Issuance and
Availability; Correction and Comment
Period Extension:
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
ACTION: Notice of issuance; correction
and comment period extension.
On August 31, 2010 (75 FR
53352), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) published a notice
of issuance and availability of Draft
Regulatory Guide (DG)—1247, ‘‘DesignBasis Hurricane and Hurricane Missiles
for Nuclear Power Plants.’’ This Federal
Register Notice did not provide all the
information regarding the supporting
technical basis documents NUREG/CR
7004 and 7005. Due to this correction
the comment period has been extended
to November 5, 2010.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Robert G. Carpenter, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555–0001, telephone (301) 251–
7483, or e-mail
Robert.Carpenter@nrc.gov.
SUMMARY:
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) is issuing for public
comment a draft guide in the agency’s
‘‘Regulatory Guide’’ series and the
supporting technical basis documents,
NUREG/CR 7004 and 7005. This series
PO 00000
Frm 00073
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
was developed to describe and make
available to the public such information
as methods that are acceptable to the
NRC staff for implementing specific
parts of the NRC’s regulations,
techniques that the staff uses in
evaluating specific problems or
postulated accidents, and data that the
staff needs in its review of applications
for permits and licenses.
The draft regulatory guide (DG),
entitled, ‘‘Design-Basis Hurricane and
Hurricane Missiles for Nuclear Power
Plants,’’ is temporarily identified by its
task number, DG–1247, which should be
mentioned in all related
correspondence. DG–1247 is a proposed
new regulatory guide.
This guide describes a method that
the NRC staff considers acceptable to
support reviews of applications that the
agency expects to receive for new
nuclear reactor construction permits or
operating licenses under 10 CFR Part 50;
design certifications under 10 CFR Part
52, ‘‘Early Site Permits; Standard Design
Certifications; and Combined Licenses
for Nuclear Power Plants’’ (Ref. 9); and
combined licenses under 10 CFR Part 52
that do not reference a standard design.
Specifically, this regulatory guide
provides new guidance that the staff of
the NRC considers acceptable for use in
selecting the design-basis hurricane
windspeeds and hurricane-generated
missiles that a new nuclear power plant
should be designed to withstand to
prevent undue risk to the health and
safety of the public. This guidance
applies to the contiguous United States
but does not address the determination
of the design-basis hurricane and
hurricane missiles for sites located
along the Pacific coast or in Alaska,
Hawaii, or Puerto Rico; the NRC will
evaluate such determinations on a caseby-case basis. This guide also does not
identify the specific structures, systems,
and components that should be
designed to withstand the effects of the
design-basis hurricane or should be
protected from hurricane-generated
missiles and remain functional. Nor
does this guide address other externally
generated hazards, such as aviation
crashes, nearby accidental explosions
resulting in blast overpressure levels
and explosion-borne debris and
missiles, and turbine missiles. NUREG/
CR 7004 is the technical basis for
regulatory guidance on design-basis
hurricane-borne missile speeds and
NUREG/CR 7005 is the technical basis
for regulatory guidance on design-basis
hurricane wind speeds for new nuclear
power plants.
E:\FR\FM\09SEN1.SGM
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Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 174 (Thursday, September 9, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54917-54918]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-22481]
[[Page 54917]]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2010-0294]
Criteria for Nominating Materials Licensees for the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission's Agency Action Review Meeting
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Request for comment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: It is the policy of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) to have its senior managers conduct an annual Agency Action
Review Meeting (AARM). The AARM is an integral part of the evaluative
process used by the agency to ensure the operational safety performance
of licensees. As a part of the AARM process, the NRC reviews the
agency's actions concerning fuel cycle facilities and other materials
licensees (including Agreement State licensees) with significant
performance concerns. In 2002, the NRC developed criteria for
determining materials licensees that would be discussed at the AARM.
The NRC revised the criteria to incorporate NRC's current policies and
procedures in 2008. The criteria that is currently used to determine
materials licensees that will be discussed at the AARM may be found in
Enclosure 2 of SECY-08-0135, ``Revision of the Criteria for Identifying
Nuclear Materials Licensees for Discussion at the Agency Action Review
Meeting,'' dated September 16, 2008 (ADAMS Accession Number:
ML082480564).
Currently, the NRC is considering revisions to this criteria for
Identifying Materials Licensees for Discussion at the AARM. A draft
revised criterion found in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION below provides
an additional criterion to address licensees previously discussed at
the AARM. The reason this additional criterion has been added is to
allow NRC's senior management to address why the previously identified
issues are not being resolved. The NRC is seeking public comment on
this revised criterion.
DATES: Please submit comments regarding the proposed criteria, by
October 25, 2010. Comments received after this date will be considered
if practical to do so, but the NRC staff is able to ensure
consideration only for those comments received on or before this date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods.
Please include Docket ID NRC-2010-0294 in the subject line of your
comments. Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be
posted on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site,
https://www.regulations.gov. Because your comments will not be edited to
remove any identifying or contact information, the NRC cautions you
against including any information in your submission that you do not
want to be publicly disclosed.
The NRC requests that any party soliciting or aggregating comments
received from other persons for submission to the NRC inform those
persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to remove any
identifying or contact information, and therefore, they should not
include any information in their comments that they do not want
publicly disclosed.
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and
search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-2010-0294. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher 301-492-3668; e-mail
Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov.
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements and
Directives Branch (RADB), Division of Administrative Services, Office
of Administration, Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax to RADB at (301) 492-
3446.
You can access publicly available documents related to this notice
using the following methods:
NRC's Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine and have
copied, for a fee, publicly available documents at the NRC's PDR,
Public File Area O1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS):
Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC are
available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this page, the public can gain
entry into ADAMS, which provides text and image files of NRC's public
documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems
in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC's PDR
reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to
pdr.resource@nrc.gov. The Proposed Criteria for Identifying Materials
Licensees for Discussion at the AARM is also available electronically
under ADAMS Accession Number ML101900346.
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Public comments and supporting
materials related to this notice can be found at https://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID: NRC-2010-0294.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Duane White by telephone at 301-415-
6272, E-mail: Duane.White@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
In 2002, NRC developed a process for providing information to the
Commission on significant nuclear materials issues and adverse licensee
performance. This process was discussed in SECY-02-0216, ``Proposed
Process for Providing Information on Significant Nuclear Materials
Issues and Adverse Licensee Performance,'' dated December 11, 2002. As
part of this process, the staff developed criteria to determine nuclear
material licensees with significant performance problems that would be
discussed at the AARM. In 2008, the NRC revised the criteria to provide
additional clarification regarding the criteria requirements and to
incorporate NRC's current policy and procedures.
Discussion
NRC is preparing to revise the current criteria used to determine
material licensees that will be discussed at the AARM. The agency
currently identifies material licensees, including fuel cycle and
Agreement State licensees, for AARM discussion based on operating
performance, inspection results, and judgment of the severity of
problems of safety performance. Although the revised AARM criteria will
continue to be based upon the same principles as the existing criteria,
the staff is proposing to include one additional element (i.e.,
criterion). This criterion focuses on those licensees previously
discussed at the AARM who did not address or were ineffective in
correcting their underlying issues.
Current Criteria for Determining Materials Licensees for the AARM
The current criteria for determining materials licensees for the
AARM, as described in Enclosure 2 of SECY-08-0135, is as follows: (1)
Strategic Plan--Licensee has an event that results in the failure to
meet a strategic outcome for safety and security in the NRC Strategic
Plan (NUREG-1614); (2) Significant Issue or Event--Licensee has an
issue or event that results in an abnormal occurrence report to
Congress (per NRC Management Directive 8.1), or a severity level I or
II violation, as described in the NRC Enforcement Policy (including
equivalent violations dispositioned by Alternative Dispute Resolution),
or a level 3 or higher International Nuclear
[[Page 54918]]
Event Scale Report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (per NRC
Management Directive 5.12), and there are unique or unusual aspects of
the licensee's performance that warrant additional NRC oversight (e.g.,
a significant event, which requires an incident investigation team
(IIT) or augmented inspection team (AIT)); or (3) Performance Trend--
Licensee has multiple and/or repetitive significant program issues
identified over more than one inspection, or inspection period, and the
issues are supported by severity level I, II, or III violation, as
described in the NRC Enforcement Policy (including equivalent
violations dispositioned by Alternative Dispute Resolution). And, there
are unique or unusual aspects of the licensee's performance that
warrant additional NRC oversight (e.g., oversight panel formed for
order implementation).
Proposed Criteria for Determining Materials Licensees for the AARM
The NRC is proposing the following revision to the existing
criteria for determining materials licensees with significant
performance issues: (1) Strategic Plan--Licensee has an event that
results in the failure to meet a strategic outcome for safety and
security in the NRC Strategic Plan (NUREG-1614); (2) Significant Issue
or Event--Licensee has an issue or event that results in an abnormal
occurrence report to Congress (per NRC Management Directive 8.1), or a
severity level I or II violation, as described in the NRC Enforcement
Policy (including equivalent violations dispositioned by Alternative
Dispute Resolution), or a level 3 or higher International Nuclear Event
Scale Report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (per NRC
Management Directive 5.12), and there are unique or unusual aspects of
the licensee's performance that warrant additional NRC oversight (e.g.,
a significant event, which requires an IIT or AIT); or (3) Performance
Trend--Licensee has multiple and/or repetitive significant program
issues identified over more than one inspection, or inspection period,
and the issues are supported by severity level I, II, or III violation,
as described in the NRC Enforcement Policy (including equivalent
violations dispositioned by Alternative Dispute Resolution). And, there
are unique or unusual aspects of the licensee's performance that
warrant additional NRC oversight (e.g., oversight panel formed for
order implementation); or (4) Identified for Discussion at Previous
AARM--Licensee corrective actions did not address or were ineffective
in correcting the underlying issues that were previously discussed at
the AARM.
You can find NRC's strategic plan (NUREG-1614) and the referenced
management directives and enforcement policy on NRC's public document
collections Web page at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 25th day of August 2010.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Cynthia A. Carpenter,
Deputy Director, Office of Federal and State Materials and
Environmental Management Programs.
[FR Doc. 2010-22481 Filed 9-8-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P