Concentration Averaging and Encapsulation Branch Technical Position, 3166-3167 [2016-00972]
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Agenda: To provide updates on agency
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Dated: January 14, 2016.
Crystal Robinson,
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[FR Doc. 2016–00996 Filed 1–19–16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555–01–P
NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
[NRC–2011–0022]
Don
Lowman, Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555–0001; telephone: 301–415–
5452; email: Donald.Lowman@nrc.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Concentration Averaging and
Encapsulation Branch Technical
Position
Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
ACTION: Branch technical position;
request for comment.
AGENCY:
tkelley on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and
Submitting Comments
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) is requesting
comments on whether the NRC staff
should formally document a position on
contaminated material and
contaminated trash. The NRC issued
Revision 1 of the Branch Technical
Position on Concentration Averaging
and Encapsulation (CA BTP) in
February of 2015. The CA BTP provides
acceptable methods that can be used to
perform concentration averaging of
Low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW)
for the purpose of determining its waste
class for disposal. When the NRC issued
the revised CA BTP, it noted that one
issue, distinguishing contaminated
materials from contaminated trash, may
need further clarification. The NRC also
stated that it would consider whether
additional guidance, such as a
Regulatory Issue Summary (RIS), would
be warranted for distinguishing
contaminated materials from
contaminated trash.
DATES: Submit comments by March 21,
2016. Comments received after this date
will be considered if it is practical to do
so, but the Commission is able to ensure
consideration only for comments
received before this date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments
by any of the following methods (unless
this document describes a different
SUMMARY:
VerDate Sep<11>2014
18:12 Jan 19, 2016
method for submitting comments on a
specific subject):
• Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to
https://www.regulations.gov and search
for Docket ID NRC–2011–0022. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol
Gallagher; telephone: 301–415–3463;
email: Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. For
technical questions, contact the
individual listed in the FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT section of this
document.
• Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey,
Office of Administration, Mail Stop:
OWFN–12–H08, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555–0001.
For additional direction on obtaining
information and submitting comments,
see ‘‘Obtaining Information and
Submitting Comments’’ in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of
this document.
Jkt 238001
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC–2011–
0022 when contacting the NRC about
the availability of information for this
action. You may obtain publiclyavailable information related to this
action by any of the following methods:
• Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to
https://www.regulations.gov and search
for Docket ID NRC–2011–0022.
• NRC’s Agencywide Documents
Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publiclyavailable documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection at
https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/
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. Volume
1 and Volume 2 of the revised CA BTP
are available in ADAMS under
Accession Nos. ML12254B065 and
ML12326A611, respectively.
• NRC’s PDR: You may examine and
purchase copies of public documents at
the NRC’s PDR, Room O1–F21, One
White Flint North, 11555 Rockville
Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
PO 00000
Frm 00073
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
B. Submitting Comments
Please include Docket ID NRC–2011–
0022 in the subject line of your
comment submission. The NRC cautions
you not to include identifying or contact
information that you do not want to be
publicly disclosed in you comment
submission. The NRC will post all
comment submissions at https://
www.regulations.gov as well as enter the
comment submissions into ADAMS.
The NRC does not routinely edit
comment submissions to remove
identifying or contact information.
If you are requesting or aggregating
comments from other persons for
submission to the NRC, then you should
inform those persons not to include
identifying or contact information that
they do not want to be publicly
disclosed in their comment submission.
Your request should state that the NRC
does not routinely edit comment
submissions to remove such information
before making the comment
submissions available to the public or
entering the comment submissions into
ADAMS.
II. Background
The NRC issued Revision 1 of the CA
BTP (‘‘Revised CA BTP’’) on February
25, 2015, (80 FR 10165). This revision
provided updated guidance on the
interpretation of § 61.55(a)(8) of title 10
of the Code of Federal Regulations (10
CFR), ‘‘Determination of concentrations
in wastes,’’ as it applies to the
classification (as Class A, B, or C waste)
of a variety of different types and forms
of LLW. Section 61.55(a)(8) states that
radionuclide concentrations can be
averaged over the volume of the waste
or its weight if the units are expressed
as nanocuries per gram. The average
radionuclide concentrations are
compared with the waste classification
tables in § 61.55 to determine the class
of the waste. The waste class determines
the minimum safety measures to be
applied in order to provide reasonable
assurance of safe disposal of the waste.
The previous version of the CA BTP was
published in 1995 (ADAMS Accession
No. ML033630732).
In developing the Revised CA BTP,
the staff identified one issue that may
need further clarification. One of the
categories of discrete wastes that are
subject to additional concentration
averaging constraints is ‘‘contaminated
materials.’’ Both the 1995 and Revised
CA BTPs define contaminated materials
as components or metals on which
radioactivity resides on or near the
surface in a fixed or removable
condition. To demonstrate compliance
with these averaging constraints, the
E:\FR\FM\20JAN1.SGM
20JAN1
Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 12 / Wednesday, January 20, 2016 / Notices
tkelley on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
radiological characteristics and volumes
of individual items are typically
determined. However, items with
surface contamination may also be
categorized as contaminated trash
which has fewer averaging constraints.
Both the 1995 and the Revised CA BTP
used the term contaminated trash which
is intended to be the equivalent of waste
descriptor codes 39 and 40 (i.e.,
Compactible Trash and Noncompactible
Trash) of NRC Form 541, ‘‘Uniform
Low-Level Radioactive Waste
Manifest—Container and Waste
Description.’’ Items in contaminated
trash do not need to be individually
characterized. Instead, a container of
contaminated trash can be surveyed to
determine its overall radioactivity and
its classification determined by dividing
the overall activity by the waste volume.
Neither the 1995 CA BTP nor draft
revisions published for public comment
provided guidance for categorizing
items as either contaminated materials
or contaminated trash. In addition, the
NRC received no comments from
stakeholders on this issue. The NRC is
now addressing whether additional
guidance, such as a Regulatory Issue
Summary (RIS), is warranted for
distinguishing contaminated materials
from contaminated trash.
III. Specific Request for Comments
The NRC is trying to determine what
items that could be defined as
contaminated material per the CA BTP,
if any, are currently being disposed of
as contaminated trash. The NRC is
requesting that persons consider and
address the following questions as they
develop and provide their comments:
1. Is additional guidance needed to
clarify the distinction between
contaminated trash and contaminated
material?
2. When filling out the Uniform Waste
Manifest (UWM)(NRC Forms 540, 541,
and 542), how is contaminated
equipment (UWM code 33) currently
distinguished from contaminated trash
(UWM codes 39 and 40)?
3. Should numerical constraints be
developed to clarify the distinction
between contaminated materials and
contaminated trash? If so, what basis
should be used to develop the
numerical constraints? If not, what
qualitative factors should be
considered?
4. If numerical values are developed,
would activity or concentration
constraints be preferable? Would an
option to use either be feasible to
implement?
5. What challenges, if any, do you
foresee with implementing numerical
thresholds for distinguishing between
VerDate Sep<11>2014
18:12 Jan 19, 2016
Jkt 238001
contaminated trash and contaminated
materials? How could these challenges
be ameliorated?
6. Would an emphasis on using
process knowledge be sufficient to avoid
the unintended consequence of causing
licensees to characterize individual
pieces of trash that have radionuclide
concentrations significantly less than
the class limits?
7. The NRC understands that items
referred to as ‘‘high rad trash’’ are
placed in containers of contaminated
trash and averaged. The NRC also
understands that this practice reduces
worker exposure as compared to
evaluating each item of trash. Please
provide examples of ‘‘high rad trash,’’
estimated annual volume, areas of the
facilities where this waste is generated,
and typical contact dose rates (if
available).
8. When classifying contaminated
trash, is the same sample data (e.g.,
scaling factors) for determining the
radionuclide content of ‘‘normal’’
contaminated trash used for classifying
the ‘‘high rad trash’’?
9. What process currently is used to
determine whether items of ‘‘high rad
trash’’ can be disposed of with loweractivity contaminated trash or whether
items are treated as contaminated
materials and averaged with the
constraints described for contaminated
materials under the 1995 CA BTP?
10. Is clarification needed for the term
‘‘component’’ in the definition of
contaminated materials used in the 1995
and 2015 CA BTP?
Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 12th day
of January 2016.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Andrew Persinko,
Deputy Director, Division of
Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and
Waste Programs, Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2016–00972 Filed 1–19–16; 8:45 am]
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OFFICE OF PERSONNEL
MANAGEMENT
Excepted Service; Consolidated
Listing of Schedules A, B, and C
Exceptions
Office of Personnel
Management.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
This provides the
consolidated notice of all agency
specific excepted authorities, approved
by the Office of Personnel Management
(OPM), under Schedule A, B, and C, as
SUMMARY:
PO 00000
Frm 00074
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
3167
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Competitive Service.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
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Senior Executive Service and
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Services, 202–606–2246.
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management
(OPM) to publish notice of exceptions
granted under Schedule A, B, and C.
Under 5 CFR 213.103(a) it is required
that all Schedule A, B, and C appointing
authorities available for use by all
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in the Federal Register (FR) and the
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).
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That notice follows. Governmentwide
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When making appointments under an
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Schedule A, 213.3104(x)(x). Agencies
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Schedule A
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
E:\FR\FM\20JAN1.SGM
20JAN1
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[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 12 (Wednesday, January 20, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3166-3167]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-00972]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2011-0022]
Concentration Averaging and Encapsulation Branch Technical
Position
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Branch technical position; request for comment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting
comments on whether the NRC staff should formally document a position
on contaminated material and contaminated trash. The NRC issued
Revision 1 of the Branch Technical Position on Concentration Averaging
and Encapsulation (CA BTP) in February of 2015. The CA BTP provides
acceptable methods that can be used to perform concentration averaging
of Low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW) for the purpose of determining
its waste class for disposal. When the NRC issued the revised CA BTP,
it noted that one issue, distinguishing contaminated materials from
contaminated trash, may need further clarification. The NRC also stated
that it would consider whether additional guidance, such as a
Regulatory Issue Summary (RIS), would be warranted for distinguishing
contaminated materials from contaminated trash.
DATES: Submit comments by March 21, 2016. Comments received after this
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission
is able to ensure consideration only for comments received before this
date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods
(unless this document describes a different method for submitting
comments on a specific subject):
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2011-0022. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact
the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of
this document.
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration,
Mail Stop: OWFN-12-H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Don Lowman, Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-5452; email: Donald.Lowman@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2011-0022 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain
publicly-available information related to this action by any of the
following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2011-0022.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/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.
Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the revised CA BTP are available in ADAMS
under Accession Nos. ML12254B065 and ML12326A611, respectively.
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
B. Submitting Comments
Please include Docket ID NRC-2011-0022 in the subject line of your
comment submission. The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or
contact information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in
you comment submission. The NRC will post all comment submissions at
https://www.regulations.gov as well as enter the comment submissions
into ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to
remove identifying or contact information.
If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons
for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to
include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be
publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should
state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to
remove such information before making the comment submissions available
to the public or entering the comment submissions into ADAMS.
II. Background
The NRC issued Revision 1 of the CA BTP (``Revised CA BTP'') on
February 25, 2015, (80 FR 10165). This revision provided updated
guidance on the interpretation of Sec. 61.55(a)(8) of title 10 of the
Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Determination of concentrations
in wastes,'' as it applies to the classification (as Class A, B, or C
waste) of a variety of different types and forms of LLW. Section
61.55(a)(8) states that radionuclide concentrations can be averaged
over the volume of the waste or its weight if the units are expressed
as nanocuries per gram. The average radionuclide concentrations are
compared with the waste classification tables in Sec. 61.55 to
determine the class of the waste. The waste class determines the
minimum safety measures to be applied in order to provide reasonable
assurance of safe disposal of the waste. The previous version of the CA
BTP was published in 1995 (ADAMS Accession No. ML033630732).
In developing the Revised CA BTP, the staff identified one issue
that may need further clarification. One of the categories of discrete
wastes that are subject to additional concentration averaging
constraints is ``contaminated materials.'' Both the 1995 and Revised CA
BTPs define contaminated materials as components or metals on which
radioactivity resides on or near the surface in a fixed or removable
condition. To demonstrate compliance with these averaging constraints,
the
[[Page 3167]]
radiological characteristics and volumes of individual items are
typically determined. However, items with surface contamination may
also be categorized as contaminated trash which has fewer averaging
constraints. Both the 1995 and the Revised CA BTP used the term
contaminated trash which is intended to be the equivalent of waste
descriptor codes 39 and 40 (i.e., Compactible Trash and Noncompactible
Trash) of NRC Form 541, ``Uniform Low-Level Radioactive Waste
Manifest--Container and Waste Description.'' Items in contaminated
trash do not need to be individually characterized. Instead, a
container of contaminated trash can be surveyed to determine its
overall radioactivity and its classification determined by dividing the
overall activity by the waste volume. Neither the 1995 CA BTP nor draft
revisions published for public comment provided guidance for
categorizing items as either contaminated materials or contaminated
trash. In addition, the NRC received no comments from stakeholders on
this issue. The NRC is now addressing whether additional guidance, such
as a Regulatory Issue Summary (RIS), is warranted for distinguishing
contaminated materials from contaminated trash.
III. Specific Request for Comments
The NRC is trying to determine what items that could be defined as
contaminated material per the CA BTP, if any, are currently being
disposed of as contaminated trash. The NRC is requesting that persons
consider and address the following questions as they develop and
provide their comments:
1. Is additional guidance needed to clarify the distinction between
contaminated trash and contaminated material?
2. When filling out the Uniform Waste Manifest (UWM)(NRC Forms 540,
541, and 542), how is contaminated equipment (UWM code 33) currently
distinguished from contaminated trash (UWM codes 39 and 40)?
3. Should numerical constraints be developed to clarify the
distinction between contaminated materials and contaminated trash? If
so, what basis should be used to develop the numerical constraints? If
not, what qualitative factors should be considered?
4. If numerical values are developed, would activity or
concentration constraints be preferable? Would an option to use either
be feasible to implement?
5. What challenges, if any, do you foresee with implementing
numerical thresholds for distinguishing between contaminated trash and
contaminated materials? How could these challenges be ameliorated?
6. Would an emphasis on using process knowledge be sufficient to
avoid the unintended consequence of causing licensees to characterize
individual pieces of trash that have radionuclide concentrations
significantly less than the class limits?
7. The NRC understands that items referred to as ``high rad trash''
are placed in containers of contaminated trash and averaged. The NRC
also understands that this practice reduces worker exposure as compared
to evaluating each item of trash. Please provide examples of ``high rad
trash,'' estimated annual volume, areas of the facilities where this
waste is generated, and typical contact dose rates (if available).
8. When classifying contaminated trash, is the same sample data
(e.g., scaling factors) for determining the radionuclide content of
``normal'' contaminated trash used for classifying the ``high rad
trash''?
9. What process currently is used to determine whether items of
``high rad trash'' can be disposed of with lower-activity contaminated
trash or whether items are treated as contaminated materials and
averaged with the constraints described for contaminated materials
under the 1995 CA BTP?
10. Is clarification needed for the term ``component'' in the
definition of contaminated materials used in the 1995 and 2015 CA BTP?
Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 12th day of January 2016.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Andrew Persinko,
Deputy Director, Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and
Waste Programs, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2016-00972 Filed 1-19-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P