[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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