Notice of Availability of an Evaluation of the Swine Vesicular Disease Status of Certain Regions in Italy, 74787-74788 [2012-30257]
Download as PDF
<![CDATA[
74787
Proposed Rules
Federal Register
Vol. 77, No. 243
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER
contains notices to the public of the proposed
issuance of rules and regulations. The
purpose of these notices is to give interested
persons an opportunity to participate in the
rule making prior to the adoption of the final
rules.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service
9 CFR Part 94
[Docket No. APHIS–2012–0094]
Notice of Availability of an Evaluation
of the Swine Vesicular Disease Status
of Certain Regions in Italy
Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of Availability.
AGENCY:
We are advising the public
that we have determined that the Italian
Regions of Lombardia, Emilio-Romagna,
Veneto, and Piemonte and the
autonomous provinces of Trento and
Bolzano are free of swine vesicular
disease. This determination is based on
our review of the documentation
submitted by the Government of Italy in
support of its request and the findings
of our own animal health risk
evaluation. We are making our
determination, as well as the evaluation
we have prepared in connection with
this action, available for review and
comment.
SUMMARY:
We will consider all comments
that we receive on or before February
19, 2013.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments
by either of the following methods:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to
https://www.regulations.gov/
#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2012-00940001.
• Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery:
Send your comment to Docket No.
APHIS–2012–0094, Regulatory Analysis
and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station
3A–03.8, 4700 River Road Unit 118,
Riverdale, MD 20737–1238.
Supporting documents and any
comments we receive on this docket
may be viewed at https://
www.regulations.gov/
#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2012-0094 or
in our reading room, which is located in
room 1141 of the USDA South Building,
emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with
DATES:
VerDate Mar<15>2010
15:10 Dec 17, 2012
Jkt 229001
14th Street and Independence Avenue
SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading
room hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, except
holidays. To be sure someone is there to
help you, please call (202) 799–7039
before coming.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr.
Chip Wells, Senior Staff Veterinarian,
Regionalization Evaluation Services,
Sanitary Trade Issues Team, National
Center for Import and Export, VS,
APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 38,
Riverdale, MD 20737–1231; (301) 851–
3089.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The regulations in 9 CFR part 94
(referred to below as the regulations)
govern the importation of certain
animals and animal products into the
United States in order to prevent the
introduction of various communicable
diseases, including swine vesicular
disease (SVD). These are dangerous and
destructive communicable diseases of
ruminants and swine.
Sections 94.12 and 94.14 of the
regulations contain requirements
governing the importation of pork and
pork products and swine, respectively,
from regions where SVD exists in order
to prevent the introduction of the
disease into the United States. We
consider SVD to exist in all regions
except those listed in accordance with
§ 94.12(a)(2) as being free of SVD.
Section 94.13 of the regulations
contains requirements governing the
importation of pork or pork products
from regions that have been determined
to be free of SVD, but that are subject
to certain restrictions because of their
proximity to or trading relationships
with SVD-affected regions. Such regions
are listed in accordance with paragraph
(a)(2) of that section.
The regulations in 9 CFR 92.2 contain
requirements for requesting the
recognition of the animal health status
of a region or for the approval of the
export of a particular type of animal or
animal product to the United States
from a foreign region. If, after review
and evaluation of the information
submitted in support of the request, the
Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS) believes the request can
be safely granted, APHIS will make its
evaluation available for public comment
through a notice published in the
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 4702
Sfmt 4702
Federal Register. Following the close of
the comment period, APHIS will review
all comments received and will make a
final determination regarding the
request that will be detailed in another
notice published in the Federal
Register.
In July 1997, the European
Commission and the Government of
Italy submitted a request to APHIS
seeking the recognition of certain
Regions in northern Italy (in Italy, a
‘‘Region’’ is a type of political
jurisdiction) as being free of SVD. We
conducted a qualitative risk assessment,
and on June 25, 1999, we published in
the Federal Register (64 FR 34155–
34168, Docket No. 98–090–1) a proposal
to amend the regulations in order to
recognize eight regions in northern Italy
as free of SVD. However, before that rule
was made final, SVD outbreaks occurred
in four of the eight Regions. Therefore,
in the final rule published April 7, 2003,
in the Federal Register (68 FR 16922–
16941, Docket No. 98–090–5), APHIS
recognized only those four Regions that
remained free of SVD (Friuli, Liguria,
Marche, and Valle d’Aosta). In the
intervening years, we have continued
our evaluation of the SVD status of Italy,
as is our standard procedure in cases
where the requesting country does not
withdraw its request for recognition of
disease freedom. Based on information
provided by the Italian government as
well as multiple site visits, we have now
found four Regions within north-central
Italy (Lombardia, Emilio-Romagna,
Veneto, and Piemonte) and two
autonomous provinces (Trento and
Bolzano) to be free of SVD.
APHIS has evaluated the risk of
introducing SVD into the United States
via the importation of SVD-susceptible
species or products from these areas of
Italy in accordance with 9 CFR part 92.
Based on this evaluation, APHIS has
found that that the surveillance,
prevention, and control measures
implemented by Italy in the four
Regions and two autonomous provinces
under consideration as being free of
SVD are sufficient to minimize the
likelihood of introducing SVD into the
United States via imports of SVDsusceptible species or products.
However, because of its proximity to or
trading relationships with SVD-affected
regions, we have found that it is
necessary to impose additional
restrictions in accordance with § 94.13
E:\FR\FM\18DEP1.SGM
18DEP1
74788
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 243 / Tuesday, December 18, 2012 / Proposed Rules
on the importation of pork or pork
products from the areas of Italy under
consideration for being declared free of
SVD.
Therefore, in accordance with
§ 92.2(e), we are announcing the
availability, for public review and
comment, of our evaluation of the SVD
status of the Regions and autonomous
provinces under consideration. The
evaluation may be viewed on the
Regulations.gov Web site or in our
reading room. (Instructions for accessing
Regulations.gov and information on the
location and hours of the reading room
are provided under the heading
ADDRESSES at the beginning of this
document.) The evaluation, as well as
the information evaluated, may also be
viewed at https://www.aphis.usda.gov/
import_export/animals/
reg_request.shtml by following the link
for ‘‘Previous regionalization requests
and supporting documentation.’’
After reviewing any comments we
receive, we will announce our decision
regarding the disease status of the
Italian Regions of Lombardia, EmilioRomagna, Veneto, and Piemonte and the
autonomous provinces of Trento and
Bolzano with respect to SVD and the
import status of susceptible animals and
products of such animals in a
subsequent notice.
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 450, 7701–7772, 7781–
7786, and 8301–8317; 21 U.S.C. 136 and
136a; 31 U.S.C. 9701; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and
371.4.
Done in Washington, DC, this 11th day of
December 2012.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 2012–30257 Filed 12–17–12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410–34–P
NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 50
[Docket No. PRM–50–96; NRC–2011–0069]
Long-Term Cooling and Unattended
Water Makeup of Spent Fuel Pools
Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
ACTION: Petition for rulemaking;
consideration in the rulemaking
process.
emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with
AGENCY:
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) will consider in the
NRC rulemaking process the issues
raised in a petition for rulemaking
(PRM) submitted by Thomas Popik (the
petitioner) on behalf of the Foundation
SUMMARY:
VerDate Mar<15>2010
15:10 Dec 17, 2012
Jkt 229001
for Resilient Societies. The petition was
dated March 14, 2011, and was
docketed as PRM–50–96. The petitioner
requests that the NRC amend its
regulations to require facilities licensed
by the NRC to assure long-term cooling
and unattended water makeup of spent
fuel pools (SFP).
DATES: The docket for the petition for
rulemaking, PRM–50–96, is closed on
December 18, 2012.
ADDRESSES: Further NRC action on the
issues raised by this petition can be
found on the Federal Rulemaking Web
site at https://www.regulations.gov by
searching on Docket ID NRC–2011–
0069.
You can access publicly available
documents related to the petition,
which the NRC possesses and are
publicly available, using any one of the
following methods:
• Federal Rulemaking Web site:
Public comments and supporting
materials related to this petition can be
found at https://www.regulations.gov by
searching on the petition Docket ID
NRC–2011–0069. Address questions
about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher;
telephone 301–492–3668; email:
Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov.
• NRC’s Agencywide Documents
Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may access publicly
available documents online in the NRC
Library at https://www.nrc.gov/readingrm/adams.html. To begin the search,
select ‘‘ADAMS Public Documents’’ and
then select ‘‘Begin Web-based ADAMS
Search.’’ For problems with ADAMS,
please contact the NRC’s Public
Document Room (PDR) reference staff at
1–800–397–4209, 301–415–4737, or by
email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov. The
ADAMS accession number for each
document referenced in this notice (if
that document is available in ADAMS)
is provided the first time that a
document is referenced.
• NRC’s PDR: You may examine and
purchase copies of public documents at
the NRC’s PDR, O1–F21, One White
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland 20852.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Manash Bagchi or Richard Dudley,
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555–0001; telephone
301–415–2905 or 301–415–1116, email:
Manash.Bagchi@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. The Petition
II. Regulatory Oversight of Electric Power
Systems
III. Analysis of Public Comments
IV. NRC Evaluation
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 4702
Sfmt 4702
A. NRC Requirements for Governing Spent
Fuel Pool Cooling and Provision of
Electric Power for Accidents
B. Geomagnetic Storms and Effects on the
Earth
C. Frequency of Geomagnetic Storms With
Potential Adverse Effects on the
Electrical Grid
D. Experience With Geomagnetic Storms’
Effects on the Electrical Grid
E. Federal Government Coordination and
Emergency Response
V. Conclusion
VI. Resolution of the Petition
I. The Petition
The petitioner submitted a PRM
(ADAMS Accession No. ML110750145),
dated March 14, 2011, to the NRC. The
petitioner requests that the NRC amend
its regulations to require facilities
licensed by the NRC under part 50 of
Title 10 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (10 CFR) to assure longterm cooling and unattended water
makeup of SFPs. The petitioner asserts
that the North American commercial
electric power grids are vulnerable to
prolonged outage caused by extreme
space weather, such as coronal mass
ejections and associated geomagnetic
disturbances and therefore cannot be
relied on to provide continual power for
active cooling and/or water makeup of
SFPs. Moreover, existing means for
providing onsite backup power are
designed to operate for only a few days,
while spent fuel requires active cooling
for several years after removal of the
fuel rods from the reactor core. The
petitioner suggested rule language with
the following requirements:
Licensees shall provide reliable emergency
systems to provide long-term cooling and
water makeup for spent fuel pools using only
on-site power sources. These emergency
systems shall be able to operate for a period
of two years without human operator
intervention and without offsite fuel
resupply. Backup power systems for spent
fuel pools shall be electrically isolated from
other plant electrical systems during normal
and emergency operation. If weatherdependent power sources are to be used,
sufficient water or power storage must be
provided to maintain continual cooling
during weather conditions which may
temporarily constrict power generation.
On May 6, 2011 (76 FR 26223), the
NRC published a notice of receipt and
request for public comment for this
petition in the Federal Register (FR).
The public comment period closed on
July 20, 2011, and the NRC received 97
public comments. After reviewing
public comments and evaluating other
ongoing activities, the NRC performed a
preliminary review and analysis to
ascertain the validity, accuracy, and
efficacy of the petitioner’s technical
E:\FR\FM\18DEP1.SGM
18DEP1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 243 (Tuesday, December 18, 2012)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 74787-74788]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-30257]
========================================================================
Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
========================================================================
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 243 / Tuesday, December 18, 2012 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 74787]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
9 CFR Part 94
[Docket No. APHIS-2012-0094]
Notice of Availability of an Evaluation of the Swine Vesicular
Disease Status of Certain Regions in Italy
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of Availability.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: We are advising the public that we have determined that the
Italian Regions of Lombardia, Emilio-Romagna, Veneto, and Piemonte and
the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano are free of swine
vesicular disease. This determination is based on our review of the
documentation submitted by the Government of Italy in support of its
request and the findings of our own animal health risk evaluation. We
are making our determination, as well as the evaluation we have
prepared in connection with this action, available for review and
comment.
DATES: We will consider all comments that we receive on or before
February 19, 2013.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by either of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to https://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2012-0094-0001.
Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Send your comment to
Docket No. APHIS-2012-0094, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD,
APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-
1238.
Supporting documents and any comments we receive on this docket may
be viewed at https://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2012-
0094 or in our reading room, which is located in room 1141 of the USDA
South Building, 14th Street and Independence Avenue SW., Washington,
DC. Normal reading room hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through
Friday, except holidays. To be sure someone is there to help you,
please call (202) 799-7039 before coming.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Chip Wells, Senior Staff
Veterinarian, Regionalization Evaluation Services, Sanitary Trade
Issues Team, National Center for Import and Export, VS, APHIS, 4700
River Road Unit 38, Riverdale, MD 20737-1231; (301) 851-3089.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The regulations in 9 CFR part 94 (referred to below as the
regulations) govern the importation of certain animals and animal
products into the United States in order to prevent the introduction of
various communicable diseases, including swine vesicular disease (SVD).
These are dangerous and destructive communicable diseases of ruminants
and swine.
Sections 94.12 and 94.14 of the regulations contain requirements
governing the importation of pork and pork products and swine,
respectively, from regions where SVD exists in order to prevent the
introduction of the disease into the United States. We consider SVD to
exist in all regions except those listed in accordance with Sec.
94.12(a)(2) as being free of SVD.
Section 94.13 of the regulations contains requirements governing
the importation of pork or pork products from regions that have been
determined to be free of SVD, but that are subject to certain
restrictions because of their proximity to or trading relationships
with SVD-affected regions. Such regions are listed in accordance with
paragraph (a)(2) of that section.
The regulations in 9 CFR 92.2 contain requirements for requesting
the recognition of the animal health status of a region or for the
approval of the export of a particular type of animal or animal product
to the United States from a foreign region. If, after review and
evaluation of the information submitted in support of the request, the
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) believes the request
can be safely granted, APHIS will make its evaluation available for
public comment through a notice published in the Federal Register.
Following the close of the comment period, APHIS will review all
comments received and will make a final determination regarding the
request that will be detailed in another notice published in the
Federal Register.
In July 1997, the European Commission and the Government of Italy
submitted a request to APHIS seeking the recognition of certain Regions
in northern Italy (in Italy, a ``Region'' is a type of political
jurisdiction) as being free of SVD. We conducted a qualitative risk
assessment, and on June 25, 1999, we published in the Federal Register
(64 FR 34155-34168, Docket No. 98-090-1) a proposal to amend the
regulations in order to recognize eight regions in northern Italy as
free of SVD. However, before that rule was made final, SVD outbreaks
occurred in four of the eight Regions. Therefore, in the final rule
published April 7, 2003, in the Federal Register (68 FR 16922-16941,
Docket No. 98-090-5), APHIS recognized only those four Regions that
remained free of SVD (Friuli, Liguria, Marche, and Valle d'Aosta). In
the intervening years, we have continued our evaluation of the SVD
status of Italy, as is our standard procedure in cases where the
requesting country does not withdraw its request for recognition of
disease freedom. Based on information provided by the Italian
government as well as multiple site visits, we have now found four
Regions within north-central Italy (Lombardia, Emilio-Romagna, Veneto,
and Piemonte) and two autonomous provinces (Trento and Bolzano) to be
free of SVD.
APHIS has evaluated the risk of introducing SVD into the United
States via the importation of SVD-susceptible species or products from
these areas of Italy in accordance with 9 CFR part 92. Based on this
evaluation, APHIS has found that that the surveillance, prevention, and
control measures implemented by Italy in the four Regions and two
autonomous provinces under consideration as being free of SVD are
sufficient to minimize the likelihood of introducing SVD into the
United States via imports of SVD-susceptible species or products.
However, because of its proximity to or trading relationships with SVD-
affected regions, we have found that it is necessary to impose
additional restrictions in accordance with Sec. 94.13
[[Page 74788]]
on the importation of pork or pork products from the areas of Italy
under consideration for being declared free of SVD.
Therefore, in accordance with Sec. 92.2(e), we are announcing the
availability, for public review and comment, of our evaluation of the
SVD status of the Regions and autonomous provinces under consideration.
The evaluation may be viewed on the Regulations.gov Web site or in our
reading room. (Instructions for accessing Regulations.gov and
information on the location and hours of the reading room are provided
under the heading ADDRESSES at the beginning of this document.) The
evaluation, as well as the information evaluated, may also be viewed at
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/animals/reg_request.shtml by
following the link for ``Previous regionalization requests and
supporting documentation.''
After reviewing any comments we receive, we will announce our
decision regarding the disease status of the Italian Regions of
Lombardia, Emilio-Romagna, Veneto, and Piemonte and the autonomous
provinces of Trento and Bolzano with respect to SVD and the import
status of susceptible animals and products of such animals in a
subsequent notice.
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 450, 7701-7772, 7781-7786, and 8301-8317; 21
U.S.C. 136 and 136a; 31 U.S.C. 9701; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and 371.4.
Done in Washington, DC, this 11th day of December 2012.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 2012-30257 Filed 12-17-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-34-P
