[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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