[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 103 (Friday, May 29, 1998)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 29357]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-14099]


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 Proposed Rules
                                                 Federal Register
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of 
 the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these 
 notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in 
 the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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  Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 103 / Friday, May 29, 1998 / Proposed 
Rules  

[[Page 29357]]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Parts 50 and 70


Criticality Accident Requirements; Public Meeting

AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting.

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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has initiated a 
rulemaking to provide light-water nuclear power reactor licensees with 
greater flexibility in meeting the requirement that licensees 
authorized to possess more than a small amount of special nuclear 
material (SNM), maintain a criticality monitoring system in each area 
where the material is handled, used, or stored. This action is taken as 
a result of the experience gained in processing and evaluating a number 
of exemption requests from power reactor licensees and NRC's safety 
assessments in response to these requests that concluded that the 
likelihood of criticality was negligible.
    On December 3, 1997 (62 FR 63825), the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission published in the Federal Register a direct final rule 
amending its regulations that would have provided persons licensed to 
construct or operate light-water nuclear power reactors with the option 
of either meeting the criticality accident requirements of paragraph 
(a) of 10 CFR 70.24 in handling and storage areas for SNM, or electing 
to comply with requirements that would be incorporated into 10 CFR part 
50 at Sec. 50.68. The direct final rule would have become effective on 
February 17, 1998. Significant adverse comments were received from the 
public, resulting in the staff withdrawing the rule. In an attempt to 
better understand the focus of the public comments, the staff is 
conducting a public meeting.

DATES: The meeting will be held on Monday, June 8, 1998.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at the NRC Headquarters, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852, in room O-10B-11, starting at 1:00 
pm.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is 
proposing to amend its regulations to provide persons licensed to 
construct or operate light-water nuclear power reactors with the option 
of either meeting the criticality accident requirements of paragraph 
(a) of 10 CFR 70.24 in handling and storage areas for SNM, or electing 
to comply with certain requirements that would be incorporated into 10 
CFR part 50. These are generally the requirements that the NRC has used 
to grant specific exemptions to the requirements of 10 CFR 70.24. In 
addition, the NRC is proposing to revise the current text of the 
section relating to seeking specific exemptions from regulations in 10 
CFR 70.24(d) which provided that a licensee could seek an exemption to 
all or part of 10 CFR 70.24 for good cause because it is redundant to 
10 CFR 70.14(a). A new section, 10 CFR 70.24 (d) may be added to 
clarify that the requirements in paragraph (a) through (c) of 10 CFR 
70.24 do not apply to holders of a construction permit or operating 
license for a nuclear power reactor issued pursuant to 10 CFR part 50, 
or combined licenses issued under 10 CFR part 52, if the holders comply 
with the requirements of 10 CFR 50.68 (b). It is proposed that 
exemptions acquired under 10 CFR 70.24 after the issuance of the 
operating license will still be valid if the option selected is 10 CFR 
70.24 or if the 10 CFR 70.24 exemptions were explicitly renewed when 
the 10 CFR part 50 operating license was issued.
    The meeting will be open to the public, on a space available basis. 
The agenda for the workshop will focus on a discussion of the public 
comments received and the above regulatory issues. Members of the 
public who are unable to attend the workshop can obtain copies of the 
papers developed by the staff through NRC's Public Document Room (U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Attention: NRC Public Document Room, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001) or on the Internet via NRC's Technical 
Conference Forum (http://techconf.llnl.gov/noframe.html).

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 21st day of May, 1998.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Thomas H. Essig,
Acting Chief, Generic Issues and Environmental Projects Branch, 
Division of Reactor Program Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 98-14099 Filed 5-28-98; 8:45 am]
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