[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 10 (Friday, January 14, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2662-2664]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-887]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NUREG-1600]


NRC Enforcement Policy; Extension of Enforcement Discretion of 
Interim Policy

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Policy statement: revision.

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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is revising its 
General Statement of Policy and Procedure for NRC Enforcement Actions 
(NUREG-1600) (Enforcement Policy or Policy) to extend the interim 
enforcement policy regarding enforcement discretion for certain issues 
involving fire protection programs at operating nuclear power plants.

DATES: This revision is effective January 14, 2005. Comments on this 
revision to the Enforcement Policy may be submitted on or before 
February 14, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Submit written comments to: Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rules 
and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of 
Administration, Mail Stop: T6D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001. Hand deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville 
Pike, Rockville, Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., Federal 
workdays. Copies of comments received may be examined at the NRC Public 
Document Room, Room O1F21, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD. You may 
also e-mail comments to [email protected].
    The NRC maintains the current Enforcement Policy on its Web site at

[[Page 2663]]

http://www.nrc.gov, select ``What We Do, Enforcement,'' then 
``Enforcement Policy.''

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sunil Weerakkody, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001, (301) 415-2870, e-mail ([email protected]) or Ren[eacute]e 
Pedersen, Office of Enforcement, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001, (301) 415-2742, e-mail ([email protected]).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June 16, 2004, the NRC published in the 
Federal Register a final rule amending 10 CFR 50.48 (69 FR 33536). This 
rule became effective on July 16, 2004, and allows licensees to adopt 
10 CFR 50.48(c), a voluntary risk-informed, performance-based 
alternative to current fire protection requirements. The NRC 
concurrently revised its Enforcement Policy (69 FR 33684) to provide 
interim enforcement discretion during a ``transition'' period. The 
interim enforcement discretion policy includes provisions to address 
(1) noncompliances identified during the licensee's transition process 
and, (2) existing identified noncompliances.
    In accordance with the current Enforcement Policy, for 
noncompliances identified as part of the transition to 10 CFR 50.48(c), 
the enforcement discretion period begins upon the receipt of a letter 
of intent from the licensee stating its intention to adopt 10 CFR 
50.48(c) and it would remain in effect for up to two years. 
Furthermore, when the licensee submits a license amendment request to 
complete the transition to 10 CFR 50.48(c), the enforcement discretion 
will continue until the NRC completes its review of the license 
amendment request.
    The second element of the interim enforcement discretion policy 
provides enforcement discretion for licensees who wish to take 
advantage of the new rule to resolve existing noncompliances. One of 
the criteria that must be met to exercise this discretion is that the 
licensee must submit a letter of intent to adopt 10 CFR 50.48(c) within 
6 months of the effective date of the final rule. Therefore, the 
current deadline for the letter of intent to allow discretion for 
existing noncompliances is January 16, 2005.
    As a result, if a licensee submits a letter of intent on or before 
January 16, 2005, (in order to meet the second discretion element) the 
enforcement discretion for noncompliances identified during the 
licensee's transition process (the first discretion element) would 
remain in effect until January 15, 2007.
    By letter dated July 7, 2004, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) 
(ADAMS Accession ML042010132) requested that NRC extend the deadline 
for the letter of intent from January 16, 2005, to December 31, 2005. 
According to the NEI letter, the primary basis for this request is to 
accommodate the licensee planning and budgeting for transition to 10 
CFR 50.48(c).
    The NRC considered NEI's request in light of possible safety 
implications, the NRC's regulatory philosophy to provide incentives for 
licensees to move to risk-informed, performance-based fire protection 
requirements, and the NRC's need to put long standing fire protection 
issues on a closure path.
    When the NRC issued the interim enforcement discretion policy, the 
NRC chose to limit the time allowed to submit a letter of intent to 6 
months for existing noncompliances because the NRC wanted to prevent 
undue delays in either restoring compliance to 10 CFR 50.48(b) or 
establishing compliance to 10 CFR 50.48(c). The NRC did not consider 
the challenges imposed on the licensees in budgeting and planning. 
After receiving NEI's request to extend the time allowed for the letter 
of intent by one year, the NRC reevaluated potential safety concerns 
associated with a one year extension to existing noncompliances. The 
NRC concludes that granting NEI's request does not adversely affect 
public health and safety because:
     Enforcement discretion does not apply to the risk-
significant issues, which under the Reactor Oversight Process would be 
evaluated as Red;
     Enforcement discretion does not apply to issues that would 
be categorized as Severity Level I;
     The licensee is required to adopt compensatory measures 
until compliance is either restored to 10 CFR 50.48(b) or achieved per 
10 CFR 50.48(c), and
     Licensees potentially would be identifying and addressing 
improvements to existing programs.
    In addition to allowing licensees time for budgeting and planning 
to adopt 10 CFR 50.48(c), this extension will also allow licensees to 
consider the draft Regulatory Guide (RG) and the probabilistic risk 
assessment (PRA) and fire modeling tools in their decision. This RG and 
the PRA were issued for public comment in October 2004. The fire 
modeling tools will be issued for public comment in Summer 2005.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    This policy statement does not contain new or amended information 
collection requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) Existing requirements were approved by the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB), approval number 3150-0136. The 
approved information collection requirements contained in this policy 
statement appear in Section VII.C.

Public Protection Notification

    The NRC may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to 
respond to, collection of information unless it displays a currently 
valid OMB control number.

Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act

    In accordance with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement 
Fairness Act of 1996, the NRC had determined that this action is not a 
major rule and has verified this determination with the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs of OMB.
    Accordingly, the proposed revision to the NRC Enforcement Policy 
reads as follows:

General Statement of Policy and Procedure for NRC Enforcement Actions

* * * * *

Interim Enforcement Policies

* * * * *

Interim Enforcement Policy Regarding Enforcement Discretion for Certain 
Fire Protection Issues (10 CFR 50.48)

* * * * *
B. Existing Identified Noncompliances
* * * * *
    In addition, licensees may have existing identified noncompliances 
that could reasonably be corrected under 10 CFR 50.48(c). For these 
noncompliances, the NRC is providing enforcement discretion for the 
implementation of corrective actions until the licensee has 
transitioned to 10 CFR 50.48(c) provided that the noncompliances meet 
all of the following criteria:
    (1) The licensee has entered the noncompliance into its corrective 
action program and implemented appropriate compensatory measures,
    (2) The noncompliance is not associated with a finding that the 
Reactor Oversight Process Significance Determination Process would 
evaluate

[[Page 2664]]

as Red, or it would not be categorized at Severity Level I,
    (3) The licensee submits a letter of intent by December 31, 2005, 
stating its intent to transition to 10 CFR 50.48(c).
    After December 31, 2005, as addressed in (3) above, this 
enforcement discretion for implementation of corrective actions for 
existing identified noncompliances will not be available and the 
requirements of 10 CFR 50.48(b) (and any other requirements in fire 
protection license conditions) will be enforced in accordance with 
normal enforcement practices.

    Dated at Rockville, MD, this 11th day of January, 2005.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 05-887 Filed 1-13-05; 8:45 am]
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