Draft Interim Staff Guidance: Use of the Decommissioning Trust Fund During Operations for Major Radioactive Component Disposal, 40337-40338 [2023-13093]

Agencies

• NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 118 (Wednesday, June 21, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40337-40338]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-13093]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2023-0111]


Draft Interim Staff Guidance: Use of the Decommissioning Trust 
Fund During Operations for Major Radioactive Component Disposal

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft guidance; issuance.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment draft Interim Staff Guidance (ISG) ``Use of the 
Decommissioning Trust Fund During Operations for Major Radioactive 
Component Disposal.'' The purpose of this proposed ISG is to provide 
the NRC staff's regulatory position to licensees of nuclear power 
reactors regarding the use of funds from the decommissioning trust fund 
dedicated to the radiological decommissioning of a reactor facility for 
the disposal of major radioactive components (MRCs) while the facility 
is in an operational status. This proposed ISG may be used in 
connection with requests for exemption from NRC regulations related to 
the withdrawal of funds from reactor decommissioning trust funds 
(DTFs).

DATES: Submit comments by August 21, 2023. 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 on or before 
this date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods; 
however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the 
Federal rulemaking website.
     Federal rulemaking website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2023-0111. Address 
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; 
telephone: 301-415-0624; email: [email protected]. For technical 
questions, contact the individual(s) listed in the FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.
     Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop: 
TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.
    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: Shawn Harwell, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301-415-1309; email: 
[email protected] and Fred Miller, Office of Nuclear Material 
Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301-415-6765; email: 
[email protected]. Both are staff members of the U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Obtaining information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2023-0111 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 Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2023-0111.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the 
ADAMS Public Documents collection at

[[Page 40338]]

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, 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 [email protected]. The ISG, 
``Use of the Decommissioning Trust Fund During Operations for Major 
Radioactive Component Disposal,'' is available in ADAMS under Accession 
No. ML23150A051.
     NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public 
documents, by appointment, at the NRC's PDR, Room P1 B35, One White 
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. To make 
an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to 
[email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 8 
a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (ET), Monday through Friday, except 
Federal holidays.

B. Submitting Comments

    The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the 
Federal rulemaking website (https://www.regulations.gov). Please 
include Docket ID NRC-2023-0111 in your comment submission.
    The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact 
information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your 
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 into ADAMS.

II. Discussion

    This proposed ISG is intended to provide clarifying guidance to 
facilitate stakeholder understanding of the NRC's position on the use 
of the decommissioning trust fund (DTF) during operations for major 
radioactive component (MRC) disposal.
    The NRC's reactor licensing regulations in part 50 of title 10 of 
the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Domestic Licensing of 
Production and Utilization Facilities,'' establish requirements for 
providing assurance that funding will be available to radiologically 
decommission a reactor facility and terminate the part 50 license. 
Specifically, these requirements address, among other things, the 
amount of decommissioning funding to be provided, the methods to be 
used for assuring sufficient funding, and provisions restricting the 
use of the DTF during operations.
    Two separate petitions for rulemaking (PRM) were submitted to the 
NRC for consideration in 2008 and 2019 requesting that the NRC revise 
the definition of Decommissioning in 10 CFR 50.2 and amend 10 CFR 50.82 
to allow access to the DTF to pay for the cost of the disposal of MRCs 
prior to permanent cessation of operations at nuclear power plants. The 
Commission subsequently denied both petitions, noting that the subject 
is adequately covered by existing regulations, including the exemption 
process in 10 CFR 50.12, ``Specific exemptions.'' In the analysis 
recommending denial of the PRMs, the NRC staff notes that any 
withdrawal of funds from the DTF during operations, other than those 
allowed by NRC regulations, may challenge the underlying intent of the 
decommissioning funding regulations. Therefore, only under 
extraordinary circumstances would a withdrawal from the DTF prior to 
permanent cessation of operations be permissible. However, the NRC 
staff envisions certain circumstances, which could be stated in an 
exemption request, that may lead to the approval of the particular 
request, based on the totality of the facts. This draft ISG discusses 
the various ways and means by which the DTF could be used to cover the 
cost of MRC disposal during operations, including what information 
would assist the NRC staff in assessing a licensee's request for 
exemption from the regulations related to the activity.

    Dated: June 14, 2023.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
John M. Moses,
Deputy Director, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial 
Support, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2023-13093 Filed 6-20-23; 8:45 am]
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