[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 32 (Thursday, February 15, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10537-10538]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-3826]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION


National Materials Program Working Group

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of formation of working group and public meeting.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has formed a 
working group to provide the Commission with regulatory program options 
for a proposed National Materials Program. The working group is 
composed of the Organization of Agreement States (OAS), Conference of 
Radiation Control Program Directors, Inc., (CRCPD) and NRC 
representatives.
    The working group held its first meeting in March 2000 and will 
produce a paper for the Commission that examines the impact of an 
increased number of Agreement States (AS) on the NRC's regulatory 
program and provides options for the Commission's consideration. The 
completion date for the working group's product is May 2001. To assure 
that the broadest possible alternatives are considered, the working 
group intends to hold a stakeholder's meeting to garner additional 
ideas for the working group's consideration as it finalizes the options 
it is considering.

[[Page 10538]]


DATES: The meeting will be held on February 21, 2001 from 8:30 am-5 pm; 
February 22, 2001 from 8:30 am-12 noon. Registration will begin at 8 am 
each day. To facilitate maximum participation and information sharing, 
the meeting will be open to the public.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at the NRC's Region IV Office, 611 
Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington, Texas 76011-8064.
    Members of the public who are unable to attend the meeting can send 
comments to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: National Materials 
Program Working Group.
    A notice about this meeting is also published at the NRC web site, 
News and Information, Public Meetings, Other Meetings (http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/PUBLIC/meet.html#OTHER).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Myers, Project Manager, Office 
of State and Tribal Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555; Telephone: 301-415-2328; E-mail: [email protected]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 32 Agreement States (AS) regulate about 
70 percent of the total number of radioactive materials licensees. NRC 
is forecasting three more AS by FY 2003. This will bring the percentage 
of licensees regulated by AS to more than 80 percent. With a declining 
number of licensees, NRC believes that its activities that support the 
national program infrastructure (rulemaking, guidance development, 
information technology systems, technical support, event follow up and 
the Integrated Materials Performance Evaluation Program) will have a 
significant impact on an increasingly smaller number of NRC licensees.
    The NRC staff determined that the following issues were key to 
defining and implementing State and Federal roles under a national 
program: delineate the scope of activities to be covered by the program 
and need for statutory changes at the State and Federal levels; 
establish formal program coordination mechanisms; establish performance 
indicators, a program assessment process to measure performance and 
ensure program evolution; and provisioning and budgeting of both State 
and Federal resources for the program. Additionally, it was directed 
that the project be completed by May 1, 2001.
    To assure adequate coordination and sharing of information with 
OAS, CRCPD and the public, it is the intention of the working group to 
place information at the Office of State and Tribal Programs web site 
http://www.hsrd.ornl.gov/nrc/home.html. Notices of future meetings will 
be posted at the NRC web site's Public Meeting Notice area: http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/PUBLIC/meet.html#OTHER. To facilitate maximum 
participation and information sharing, the working group's meetings 
will be open to the public. Future meeting notices will be published at 
the NRC web site, News and Information, Public Meetings, Other 
Meetings.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 8th day of February, 2001.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Frederick C. Combs,
Deputy Director, Office of State and Tribal Programs.
[FR Doc. 01-3826 Filed 2-14-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P