[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 187 (Wednesday, September 27, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49928-49929]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-23932]



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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Conversion to the Metric System

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Policy statement; request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: On October 7, 1992, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
(NRC) published its policy statement on Conversion to the Metric System 
in the Federal Register. The policy called for the Commission to assess 
the state of metric use by the licensed nuclear industry in the United 
States after 3 years to determine whether the policy should be 
modified. The purpose of this notice is to gain additional information 
on the state of metric use by NRC licensees so that the Commission may 
determine whether the NRC's metrication policy should be modified.

DATES: The comment period expires on December 11, 1995. Comments 
received after this time will be considered if it is practical to do 
so, but assurance of consideration cannot be given except for comments 
received on or before this date.

ADDRESSES: Mail written comments to the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, Attention: Docketing and 
Service Branch. Deliver comments to One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on 
Federal workdays. Comments may also be delivered to the NRC Public 
Document Room, 2120 L Street NW. (Lower Level), Washington, DC, between 
7:45 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. Copies of comments received may be examined at 
the NRC Public Document Room. For information on submitting comments 
electronically, see the discussion under Electronic Access in the 
Supplementary Information Section.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Frank A. Costanzi, Chairman, NRC 
Metrication Oversight Committee, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555; telephone (301) 415-6250; e-mail [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On October 7, 1992 (57 FR 46202), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) published its policy statement on Conversion to the 
Metric System 1 in the Federal Register. The statement was in 
response to the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (the Act) 
and Executive Order 12770. The policy supports and encourages the use 
of the metric system of measurement and requires the NRC to follow the 
Federal Acquisition Regulation and the General Services Administration 
metrication program in executing procurements. It further requires the 
NRC to publish essentially all documents which are not specific to a 
given licensee in dual units, i.e., International System of Units first 
with the English unit in brackets. A key component of the policy 
requires that ``should the NRC conclude that the use of any particular 
system of measurement be detrimental to the public health and safety, 
the Commission will proscribe, by regulation, order, or other 
appropriate means, the use of that system.'' As a result, the policy 
requires that all event reporting and emergency response communications 
between licensees and any Government authorities will be in the English 
system of measurement. Finally, the policy calls for the Commission to 
assess the state of metric use by the licensed nuclear industry in the 
United States after three years to determine whether the policy should 
be modified.

    \1\ The metric system refers to units belonging to the 
Internationale System of Units, which is abbreviated SI (from the 
French Le Systeme Internationale d'Units), as interpreted or 
modified for use in the United States by the Secretary of Commerce.
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    In order to implement this last portion of the policy, the NRC 
staff has undertaken several actions. First, the NRC's Metrication 
Oversight Committee met to discuss both agency and licensee experiences 
with the Commission's metrication policy. Next, representatives of 
various industrial and standards groups were contacted to determine 
their association's view of the policy. The associations contacted 
included the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the American 
Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Institute of Electrical and 
Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE), the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), 
the Nuclear Utility Backfitting and Reform Group (NUBARG), the United 
States Pharmacopeial Convention, Inc. (USP), the Society of Nuclear 
Medicine, and the Organization of Agreement States (OAS). The 
Committee's findings follow.

Comments Received

    With few exceptions, these various organizations stated their 
support for the current NRC policy. The nuclear power industry position 
seems to be exemplified by the NEI comments in which they continue to 
support the current NRC Metrication Policy and ``a transition to the 
metric system that is market-driven and avoids a sudden or precipitous 
move to conduct licensing and regulatory matters in metric units.'' 
Similarly, although NUBARG did not respond in writing, a phone 
conversation with a representative indicated that NUBARG was ``very 
comfortable'' with the NRC's metrication policy.
    As for the standards-setting groups, ASME strongly supports the 
Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act and believes that the NRC policy 
is in accordance with those requirements. IEEE related that its 
``standards are to be primarily metric beginning in 1998 and, with 
minor exceptions, exclusively metric beginning in 2000.'' Also, IEEE 
believes that the United States Government ``can and should do more 
than it has done to further the metrication process in this country.'' 
In response to the NRC's request, IEEE provided the following three 
comments relating directly to the NRC's position: (1) The NRC should 
drop the use of dual units in its publications and to use ``metric 
units exclusively except where doing so would clearly be detrimental to 
public health and safety.''
    (2) The NRC policy of using the English system for all event 
reporting and emergency response communications, although prudent in 
1992, may now cause confusion and have a negative impact after various 
relevant standards have been converted.
    (3) The NRC should include the following statement in its policy: 
``Nothing in this statement of policy should be interpreted to require 
the use of the English system of measurement, or to forbid the use of 
consensus based standards that are exclusively metric.'' This was 
proposed so elements of the private sector that wish to move faster 
than the Government may be protected.
    The USP pointed out that the use of dual units by NRC is in line 
with USP's position and practice. However, the OAS position is that 
``to be truly responsive to Congress the Commission now should go on 
record as requiring the use of SI units in all its communication and 
documentation.'' OAS recommended that the NRC ``support the dual 
citation standard with the SI unit appearing first and the English or 
special units following in 

[[Page 49929]]
brackets or parentheses . . .'' to accommodate the editing style of the 
various States.
    Comments have not been received from the remaining groups.

Status of Licensee Metrication Efforts

Reactors

    Although there are no power reactor licensees operating in the 
metric system, some of the advanced reactors have vendor-generated 
licensing documents that use the metric system of measurement. For 
example, both of General Electric's applications for the ABWR and SBWR 
designs have their Standard Safety Analysis Reports (SSAR) in the SI 
system of measurement. However, both the Westinghouse AP600 and the 
ABB-CE System 80+ have their SSARs in the traditional inch-pound 
system. The NRC's completed Final Safety Evaluation Reports (FSER) for 
the System 80+ and the ABWR are in dual units as prescribed by the 
Commission's policy statement. When the FSERs for the AP600 and the 
SBWR are published, they also will be in dual units.

Selected Examples of Metric Usage

    There are varying degrees of use of the metric system of 
measurement by the non-power reactor nuclear industries. Also, within a 
particular profession or industry, there are varying degrees of metric 
use. For example, in the field of radiation oncology, the centigray (an 
SI unit) has been the meter of therapy doses, while the millicurie and 
curie (traditional units) are used as the measure expressing quantity 
or dosages.

Health Physics

    It is also the case that most of the operational health physics 
community still uses the traditional system of measurement because of 
the use of instrumentation that is calibrated or expressed in that 
system. Some newer instrumentation that offers dual-unit options will 
assist in metric conversion, as the new instruments are being 
integrated into existing stock.

Public Comment

    The NRC staff, through this request, is inviting comment from 
interested individuals on the NRC's metrication efforts to learn if 
there is a need for the Commission to revise its metrication policy.

Electronic Access

    Comments may be submitted electronically, in either ASCII text or 
Wordperfect format (version 5.1 or later), by calling the NRC 
Electronic Bulletin Board on FedWorld. The bulletin board may be 
accessed using a personal computer, a modem, and one of the commonly 
available communications software packages, or directly via Internet.
    If using a personal computer and modem, the NRC subsystem on 
FedWorld can be accessed directly by dialing the toll free number: 1-
800-303-9672. Communication software parameters should be set as 
follows: Parity to none, data bits to 8, and stop bits to 1 (N,8,1). 
Using ANSI or VT-100 terminal emulation, the NRC rulemaking subsystems 
can then be accessed by selecting the ``Rules Menu'' option from the 
``NRC Main Menu.'' For further information about options available for 
NRC at FedWorld consult the ``Help/Information Center'' from the ``NRC 
Main Menu.'' Users will find the ``FedWorld Online User's Guides'' 
particularly helpful. Many NRC subsystems and databases also have a 
``Help/Information Center'' option that is tailored to the particular 
subsystem.
    The NRC subsystem on FedWorld can also be accessed by a direct dial 
phone number for the main FedWorld BBS: 703-321-8020; Telnet via 
Internet: fedworld.gov (192.239.93.3); File Transfer Protocol (FTP) via 
Internet: ftp.fedworld.gov (192.239.92.205); and World Wide Web using: 
http://www.fedworld.gov (this is the Uniform Resource Locator (URL)). 
If using a method other than the toll free number to contact FedWorld, 
then the NRC subsystem will be accessed from the main FedWorld menu by 
selecting the ``F--Regulatory, Government Administration and State 
Systems'', then selecting ``A--Regulatory Information Mall''. At that 
point, a menu will be displayed that has an option ``A--U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission'' that will take you to the NRC Online main menu. 
You can also go directly to the NRC Online area by typing ``/go nrc'' 
at a FedWorld command line. If you access NRC from FedWorld's main 
menu, then you may return to FedWorld by selecting the ``Return to 
FedWorld'' option from the NRC Online Main Menu. However, if you access 
NRC at FedWorld by using NRC's toll-free number, you will have full 
access to all NRC systems but you will not have access to the main 
FedWorld system. For more information on NRC bulletin boards call Mr. 
Arthur Davis, Systems Integration and Development Branch, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, telephone (301) 415-5780; 
e-mail AXD[email protected].
    Lastly, the Act has a reporting requirement for Federal agencies to 
include an annual metric report as part of their annual budget 
submission to the Congress. The reporting requirement expires in the 
fiscal year after an agency has fully implemented metric usage. Unless 
the Commission receives comment which would require it to revise its 
policy, it will consider its policy final and its conversion to the 
metric system complete.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 14th day of September 1995.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
James M. Taylor,
Executive Director for Operations.
[FR Doc. 95-23932 Filed 9-26-95; 8:45 am]
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