Nuclear Regulatory Commission November 10, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) has received 15 petitions for rulemaking (PRMs), each dated August 10, August 11, or August 12, 2011, from the multiple petitioners listed in Section I, Procedural Processing, of this document. The petitioners request that the NRC rescind its regulations that allow generic conclusions about the environmental impacts of severe reactor and spent fuel pool accidents and its regulations that preclude considerations of those issues in individual licensing proceedings. The petitioners also request the NRC to suspend multiple ongoing licensing proceedings while the NRC considers these petitions and the environmental issues raised in the Fukushima Task Force Report. The NRC is not instituting a public comment period for these PRMs at this time.

By letter dated October 10, 2007, the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE)'s, Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division (the Division) submitted a proposal for alternative standards for soil clean up in four areas of the Uravan Site in Montrose County, Colorado. The Division approved the proposed alternative standards and requested the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC or the Commission) concurrence. Colorado's proposed alternative soil standards are to leave the remaining radioactive contamination in place in these four areas without any further remediation. The NRC staff has determined that Colorado's proposal constitutes use of alternative standards. Under Section 274o of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), the Commission must make a determination that such alternatives will achieve a level of stabilization and containment of the sites concerned, and a level of protection for public health, safety, and the environment from radiological and non-radiological hazards associated with such sites, after notice and opportunity for public hearing. Through this action, the Commission intends to fulfill both the notice and opportunity for public hearing provisions of Section 274o.