[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 80 (Thursday, April 25, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Page 20555]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-10183]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION


Solicitation of Comments on Draft NRC Inspection Manual Chapter 
2604, ``Licensee Performance Review''

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

ACTION: Notice of opportunity for comment.

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SUMMARY: The Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards of the NRC 
has issued a draft revision to Inspection Manual Chapter (MC) 2604, 
``Licensee Performance Review'' for stakeholder review and comment. The 
Licensee Performance Review (LPR) process is part of the NRC's 
oversight program for commercial nuclear fuel cycle facilities 
regulated under 10 CFR parts 40, 70, and 76. These facilities currently 
include gaseous diffusion plants, uranium fuel fabrication facilities, 
and a uranium hexafluoride (UF6) production facility.
    Through the proposed revision to MC 2604, the staff intends to make 
the LPR process more risk informed by: focusing the periodic 
performance reviews on safety- and safeguards-significant issues; 
discontinuing the practice of aggregating non-significant issues; 
eliminating the use of ``strengths'' and ``challenges to performance'' 
in characterizing facility performance, and; replacing the term 
``weaknesses'' with ``areas needing improvement.'' In addition to 
enhancing the safety focus of facility performance assessment, the 
staff believes that these changes should make the LPR process more 
efficient. Accordingly, the staff has shortened the time span to 
produce an LPR report by several weeks, which will result in the 
reports being more timely. The staff intends to continue holding public 
meetings in the vicinity of facilities to present LPR results to 
licensees and interested stakeholders.
    The availability of this document is the latest step in an NRC 
effort to improve its oversight program for nuclear fuel cycle 
facilities. The staff has recently revised its approach to this project 
to revise first the LPR process, then the inspection program, pending 
the implementation of changes resulting from the recent revision to 10 
CFR part 70. The staff's revised approach is described more fully in a 
March 18, 2002, memorandum from the Executive Director for Operations 
to the Commission. This memorandum is available in the Public Document 
Room, in ADAMS (accession number ML012770063), and on the NRC technical 
conference Web site at 
http://techconf.llnl.gov/cgi-bin/topics.
    Opportunity To Comment: To provide NRC with stakeholder views on 
proposed changes to the process used to assess the safety and 
safeguards performance of fuel facilities, interested parties are 
invited to comment on the draft revision to MC 2604.

DATES: Written comments must be received prior to May 28, 2002.

ADDRESSES: A copy of the draft revision to MC 2604 may be obtained by 
writing to the Inspection Section, Special Projects and Inspection 
Branch (M/S T8H7), Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards, Office 
of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Comments on this document should 
be sent to this same address.
    The draft revision to MC 2604 is also available on the NRC 
technical conference Web site at http://techconf.llnl.gov/cgi-bin/topics.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Patrick Castleman, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, M/S T8H7, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555, telephone (301) 415-8118, e-mail 
[email protected].

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 18th day of April, 2002.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Melvyn N. Leach,
Chief, Special Projects and Inspection Branch, Division of Fuel Cycle 
Safety and Safeguards, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and 
Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 02-10183 Filed 4-24-02; 8:45 am]
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