[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 208 (Thursday, October 28, 2004)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 62831-62832]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-24097]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 35

[Docket No. PRM-35-17]


Organization of Agreement States; Receipt of Petition for 
Rulemaking

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; notice of receipt.

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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is publishing a notice 
of receipt of a petition for rulemaking, dated September 3, 2004, which 
was filed with the Commission by Stanley Fitch, on behalf of the 
Organization of Agreement States (OAS). The petition was docketed by 
the NRC on October 1, 2004, and has been assigned Docket No. PRM-35-17. 
The petitioner requests that the NRC amend its regulations to specify 
the minimum number of didactic (classroom and laboratory) training 
hours required to meet the requirement for training and experience to 
qualify as an authorized nuclear pharmacist and an authorized user 
identified in the NRC's regulations on training for uptake, dilution, 
and excretion studies; imaging and localization studies; and use of 
unsealed byproduct material for which a written directive is required. 
This notice of receipt is being published for information only, not for 
public comment.

DATES: This petition for rulemaking was docketed on October 1, 2004.

ADDRESSES: The notice of receipt and any publicly available documents 
related to this petition may be viewed electronically on the public 
computers located at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), O1 F21, One 
White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The PDR 
reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Selected 
documents, including this notice of receipt, may be viewed and 
downloaded electronically via the NRC rulemaking Web site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov. Address questions about our rulemaking Web site to 
Carol

[[Page 62832]]

Gallagher (301) 415-5905; e-mail [email protected].
    Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC after 
November 1, 1999, are available electronically at the NRC's Electronic 
Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this 
site, the public can gain entry into the NRC's Agencywide Document 
Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image 
files of NRC's public documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or 
if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, 
contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-
397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rules and 
Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of 
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001, Telephone: 301-415-7163 or Toll Free 800-368-5642, or e-
mail [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Petitioner

    The OAS is a nonprofit, voluntary, scientific and professional 
society incorporated in the District of Columbia. The membership of OAS 
consists of state radiation control directors and staff from the 33 
Agreement States who are responsible for implementation of their 
respective radioactive materials programs. The purpose of the OAS is to 
provide a mechanism for these Agreement States to work with each other 
and with the NRC on regulatory issues associated with their respective 
agreements. Agreement States are those states that have entered into an 
effective regulatory discontinuance agreement with the NRC under 
subsection 274b. of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA). The role of the 
Agreement State is to regulate most types of radioactive material in 
accordance with the compatibility requirements of the AEA.

Discussion

    The petitioner requests that the NRC amend its regulations in 10 
CFR 35.55, 10 CFR 35.190, 10 CFR 35.290, and 10 CFR 35.390, specify the 
minimum number of didactic (classroom and laboratory) training hours 
for the authorized nuclear pharmacists and the authorized users 
identified in these sections. The NRC revised 10 CFR Part 35, Medical 
Use of Byproduct Material, on April 24, 2002. The revised training and 
experience requirements in 10 CFR 35.55, 35.190, 35.290 and 35.390 
require training and experience to include both classroom and 
laboratory training and supervised work experience, but there is no 
specified breakdown in these sections of these hours. The petitioner 
states that, in the current regulations, minimum numbers of didactic 
training hours for radiation safety training are not specified or 
separated from the total training hours. Part 35, Subpart J (which was 
reinserted into the current rule but will expire in October 2005), does 
specify a minimum number of classroom and laboratory training hours and 
supervised work experience.
    The petitioner believes that the lack of clearly defined didactic 
(i.e., classroom and laboratory) training hours for this rule weakens 
the rule's consistency and uniformity. The petitioner further believes 
that need for specified didactic training hours is a radiation safety 
issue rather than a ``practice of medicine'' issue. The petitioner also 
believes that radiation safety for the patient and the occupational 
radiation workers may be compromised. The petitioner states that a 
majority of radiation safety principles and procedures are learned 
during this classroom and laboratory training. The petitioner also 
asserts that the inclusion of a specification for a minimum number of 
hours of classroom and laboratory training (`didactic' training), in 
Sec. Sec.  35.55, 35.190, 35.290, and 35.390, will increase consistency 
and uniformity of requirements between States and make it easier to 
maintain regulations that are consistent with the NRC's designation of 
requirements for training and experiences as compatibility category B.

Conclusion

    The NRC is currently revising the training and experience 
requirements of Part 35. Among the issues being addressed in the 
current rulemaking is whether a minimum number of didactic training 
hours should be defined and specified in Sec. Sec.  35.55, 35.190, 
35.290 and 35.390. Therefore the NRC will address the issues raised in 
this petition as part of the ongoing rulemaking, ``Medical Use of 
Byproduct Material--Recognition of Speciality Boards (RIN No. AH19).'' 
A proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on December 9, 
2003 (68 FR 68549). Because the issues raised by this petition are 
being considered in a current rulemaking, NRC is not instituting a 
separate public comment period for this action.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 22nd day of October 2004.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 04-24097 Filed 10-27-04; 8:45 am]
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