[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 7 (Friday, January 10, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1487-1488]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-495]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards Consolidated
Decommissioning Guidance: Financial Assurance, Recordkeeping, and
Timeliness; Notice of Availability
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of availability and request for public comment.
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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) is announcing the availability of
a draft document ``Consolidated NMSS Decommissioning Guidance:
Financial Assurance, Recordkeeping, and Timeliness'' (NUREG-1757, Vol.
3), for public comment. This document provides guidance for compliance
with the financial assurance, recordkeeping, and timeliness criteria
for decommissioning of 10 CFR parts 30, 40, 70, and 72. The guidance is
intended for NRC staff, licensees, and the public. The guidance is
being developed in response to the NMSS performance goals, in the NRC's
Strategic Plan, of: (1) Making NRC activities and decisions more
effective, efficient, and realistic; and (2) reducing unnecessary
regulatory burden on stakeholders. NRC is seeking public comment in
order to receive feedback from the widest range of interested parties
and to ensure that all information relevant to developing the document
is available to the NRC staff. This draft document is being issued for
comment only and is not intended for interim use. The NRC will review
public comments received on the draft document. In response to those
comments, suggested changes will be incorporated, where appropriate,
and a final document will be issued for use.
DATES: Comments on this draft document should be submitted by March 11,
2003. Comments received after that date will be considered to the
extent practicable.
ADDRESSES: NUREG-1757, Volume 3, is available for inspection and
copying for a fee at the Commission's Public Document Room, U.S. NRC's
Headquarters Building, 11555 Rockville Pike (First Floor), Rockville,
Maryland. NUREG-1757, Volume 3, is also available electronically from
the ADAMS Electronic Reading Room on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html, and on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff.
A free single copy of NUREG-1757, Volume 3, will be available to
interested parties until the supply is exhausted. Such copies may be
requested by writing to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Distribution Services, Washington, DC 20555-0001 or submitting e-mail
to [email protected].
Members of the public are invited and encouraged to submit written
comments
[[Page 1488]]
to: Duane W. Schmidt, Project Manager, Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards, Mail Stop T-7F27, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Hand-deliver comments to: 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., Federal
workdays. Comments may also be sent electronically to
[email protected]. Copies of comments received may be examined at
the ADAMS Electronic Reading Room on the NRC web site, and in the NRC
Public Document Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1F21, Rockville, MD
20852. The NRC Public Document Room is open from 7:45 a.m. to 4:15
p.m., Monday through Friday, except on Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Duane W. Schmidt, Mail Stop T-7F27,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
Telephone: (301) 415-6919; Internet: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: As part of its redesign of the materials
license program, NMSS is consolidating and updating numerous
decommissioning guidance documents into a three-volume NUREG report.
The three volumes are as follows: (1) Decommissioning Process for
Materials Licensees; (2) Characterization, Survey, and Determination of
Radiological Criteria; and (3) Financial Assurance, Recordkeeping, and
Timeliness. Volume 3 of this NUREG series, entitled ``Consolidated NMSS
Decommissioning Guidance: Financial Assurance, Recordkeeping, and
Timeliness,'' is the third of these three volumes and, when finalized,
is intended for use by applicants, licensees, NRC license reviewers,
other NRC personnel, and Agreement State staff.
The approaches to compliance with the financial assurance,
recordkeeping, and timeliness requirements described in Volume 3 of
NUREG-1757 will help to identify the information (subject matter and
level of detail) needed for a wide range of radioactive materials users
licensed by NRC. Volume 3 of the NUREG provides guidance for compliance
with the requirements for (1) financial assurance for decommissioning,
(2) recordkeeping for decommissioning, and (3) timeliness in
decommissioning of materials facilities. Specifically, Volume 3
provides guidance relevant to demonstrating compliance with 10 CFR
30.35, 30.36, 40.36, 40.42, 70.25, 70.38, and 72.54. Volume 3 updates
and builds upon the risk-informed approach used in the NMSS
Decommissioning Standard Review Plan (NUREG-1727, September 2000), and,
in whole or in part, incorporates the parts of NUREG-1727 that provide
guidance for demonstrating compliance with the financial assurance,
recordkeeping, and timeliness requirements. This draft Volume 3
describes and makes available to the public (1) issues related to
demonstrating compliance with financial assurance and decommissioning
recordkeeping and timeliness requirements that licensees may wish to
consider, (2) guidance on addressing these issues, and (3) methods and
approaches that are acceptable to NRC staff.
When published as a final report, the guidance in draft NUREG-1757,
Volume 3, should be used by fuel cycle, fuel storage, and materials
licensees in preparing financial assurance plans and instruments,
recordkeeping plans, decommissioning license amendment requests,
decommissioning plans, and related compliance documents. Other NRC
licensees may find this information useful, but they are not the
subject of this NUREG. When finalized, NRC staff will use the policies
and procedures discussed in Volume 3 to evaluate a licensee's financial
assurance for decommissioning, recordkeeping for decommissioning, and
timeliness in decommissioning. This NUREG will not substitute for
regulations, and compliance with it will not be required. Methods and
solutions different from those in this NUREG will be acceptable, if
they provide a basis for concluding that the decommissioning actions
are in compliance with the Commission's regulations.
Further information on the overall decommissioning guidance
consolidation and updating project can be found in the Federal Register
notice publishing the plan for the project (66 FR 21793).
Commentors are encouraged to submit their written comments on
NUREG-1757, Volume 3, to the addresses listed above. In particular, the
NRC staff requests input on the application of decommissioning
timeliness requirements to onsite disposals (burial grounds), discussed
in Section 2.4 of the draft Volume 3. To ensure efficient and complete
comment resolution, commentors are requested to reference the section,
page, and line numbers of the document to which the comment applies, if
possible.
Dated at Rockville, MD, this 2nd day of January, 2003.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Claudia Craig,
Acting Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Waste Management,
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 03-495 Filed 1-9-03; 8:45 am]
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