Draft Regulatory Guide: Suspicious Activity Reports, 73769-73770 [2023-23796]

Agencies

• NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 207 (Friday, October 27, 2023)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 73769-73770]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-23796]



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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 73

[NRC-2023-0173]


Draft Regulatory Guide: Suspicious Activity Reports

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft guide; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment a draft Regulatory Guide (DG), DG-5082, ``Suspicious 
Activity Reports.'' This DG-5082 is proposed Revision 1 of Regulatory 
Guide (RG) 5.87 of the same name. This DG provides an approach 
acceptable to the NRC staff for licensees to use for reporting 
suspicious activity under NRC regulations, ``Physical Protection of 
Plants and Materials,'' to local law enforcement, the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation, the NRC, and the Federal Aviation Administration.

DATES: Submit comments by December 11, 2023. Comments received after 
this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC 
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-2023-0173. Address 
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; 
telephone: 301-415-0624; email: [email protected]. For technical 
questions, contact the individuals 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: Phil Brochman, Office of Nuclear 
Security and Incident Response, telephone: 301-287-3691; email: 
[email protected], or Stanley Gardocki, Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research, telephone: 301-415-1067; email: 
[email protected]. Both are staff 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-2023-0173 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-2023-0173.
     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 ``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, at 301-415-4737, 
or by email to [email protected]. DG-5082, ``Suspicious Activity 
Reports under 10 CFR part 73,'' and its associated regulatory analysis 
are available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML23198A151 and ML23200A284, 
respectively.
     NRC's PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies 
of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. 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-2023-0173 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. Additional Information

    The NRC is issuing for public comment a DG in the NRC's 
``Regulatory Guide'' series. This series was developed to describe 
methods that are acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific 
parts of the agency's regulations, to explain techniques that the staff 
uses in evaluating specific issues or postulated events, and to 
describe information that the staff needs in its review of applications 
for permits and licenses.
    The DG, entitled ``Suspicious Activity Reports Under 10 CFR part 
73,'' is temporarily identified by its task number, DG-5082.
    Proposed Revision 1 to RG 5.87 is being revised on a limited-scope 
basis to provide additional guidance on suspicious activity reporting. 
These new requirements are part of the NRC's final rule, titled 
``Enhanced Weapons, Firearms Background Checks, and Security Event 
Notifications'' (hereafter the Enhanced Weapons rule), that was 
published in the Federal Register on March 14, 2023 (88 FR 15864). 
These provisions are found in the NRC's regulations under section 
73.1215 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR).
    The NRC has determined that licensees' timely submission of 
suspicious activity reports to the NRC and to law enforcement is an 
important part of the U.S. government's efforts to disrupt or dissuade 
malevolent acts against the nation's critical infrastructure. Despite 
the increasingly fluid and unpredictable nature of the threat 
environment, some elements of terrorist tactics, techniques, and 
procedures remain constant. For example, attack planning and 
preparation generally proceed through several predictable stages, 
including intelligence gathering and pre-attack surveillance. Reporting 
suspicious activities that could be indicative of preoperational 
surveillance or reconnaissance efforts, challenges to security systems 
and protocols, or elicitation of non-public information related to 
security or emergency

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response programs, offer law enforcement and security personnel the 
greatest opportunity to disrupt or dissuade acts of terrorism before 
they occur. Additionally, licensees' timely submission of suspicious 
activity reports to the NRC supports one of the agency's primary 
mission essential functions of threat assessment for licensed 
facilities, materials, and shipping activities.
    Following the publication of the final rule and RG 5.87, the NRC 
staff conducted several pre-implementation workshops with licensees. 
The NRC staff also participated in industry-led forums and symposiums 
in May and June 2023. In these meetings industry raised questions about 
RG 5.87 and identified potential inconsistencies and areas where 
additional clarification would be beneficial to licensees to implement 
the Enhanced Weapons rule effectively and efficiently. The NRC staff 
has reviewed the issues raised by industry and agrees that further 
clarification, revision, and supplementation of the guidance contained 
in RG 5.87 will be of value. Accordingly, the NRC staff is proposing to 
conduct limited-scope revisions to RG 5.87 to address these issues, 
including providing notice and opportunity for public comment on the 
proposed revisions.
    To assist with stakeholder review of the limited scope changes to 
DG-5082, staff notes the following changes have been proposed:

Section B, ``Discussion'' Topics

     ``Reason for Issuance''--updated to clarify rationale for 
RG changes.
     ``Reporting Timeliness and Order of Precedence,'' item 
number 4 and Note--updated to clarify Federal Aviation Administration 
(FAA) facility.
     ``Reporting Timeliness and Order of Precedence,'' 
paragraphs 2-5--updated to clarify FAA reporting requirements.

Section C, ``Staff Regulatory Guidance''

     Position 5.2, ``Challenges to Licensee's Security Systems 
and Procedures--Facilities,'' paragraph 3--clarifies exceptions to the 
reporting requirements.

Appendix A, ``Suspicious Aviation-Related Activities''

     A-2.1, ``Coordination with the FAA, paragraph 2''--
modified expectations regarding licensee's ongoing awareness of Notice 
to Airman advisories.
     A-3, ``Assessing Potentially Suspicious Aviation-Related 
Activity''--modified the applicable FAA facility to be notified of 
suspicious aviation-related activity.
    The staff is also issuing for public comment a regulatory analysis 
(ADAMS Accession No. ML23200A284). The staff developed a regulatory 
analysis to assess the value of issuing or revising an RG as well as 
alternative courses of action.
    As noted in the Federal Register on December 9, 2022 (87 FR 75671), 
this document is being published in the ``Proposed Rules'' section of 
the Federal Register to comply with publication requirements under 1 
CFR chapter I.

III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality

    Issuance of DG-5082 as a final RG would not constitute backfitting 
as that term is defined in 10 CFR 50.109, ``Backfitting,'' 10 CFR 
70.76, ``Backfitting,'' or 10 CFR 72.62, ``Backfitting,'' and as 
described in NRC Management Directive (MD) 8.4, ``Management of 
Backfitting, Forward Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information 
Requests,'' nor does the NRC staff intend to use the guidance to affect 
the issue finality of an approval under 10 CFR part 52, ``Licenses, 
Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.'' The staff 
also does not intend to use the guidance to support NRC staff actions 
in a manner that constitutes forward fitting as that term is defined 
and described in MD 8.4 because reporting requirements are not included 
within the scope of the NRC's backfitting or issue finality rules or 
forward fitting policy.

IV. Submitting Suggestions for Improvement of Regulatory Guides

    A member of the public may, at any time, submit suggestions to the 
NRC for improvement of existing RGs or for the development of new RGs. 
Suggestions can be submitted on the NRC's public website at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/reg-guides/contactus.html. 
Suggestions will be considered in future updates and enhancements to 
the ``Regulatory Guide'' series.

    Dated: October 24, 2023.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Stephen M. Wyman,
Acting Chief, Regulatory Guide and Programs, Management Branch, 
Division of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2023-23796 Filed 10-26-23; 8:45 am]
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