[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 9 (Tuesday, January 16, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1708-1709]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 07-118]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[Docket No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2006-0957]


NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
ï¿½MDBUï¿½*ERR01*ï¿½MDNMï¿½
Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Assessment 
of Materials and Equipment Manual

AGENCY: Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Environmental 
Protection Agency, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability with request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Energy (DOE), 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission (NRC) are announcing for public comment the 
availability of a draft document, entitled the ``Multi-Agency Radiation 
Survey and Assessment of Materials and Equipment Manual'' (MARSAME). 
MARSAME provides information on planning, conducting, evaluating, and 
documenting radiological surveys for demonstrating compliance with 
measurable action levels. MARSAME, when finalized, will be a multi-
agency consensus document. The agencies are 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 received. The agencies will review public comments received on the 
draft MARSAME as well as comments from a concurrent, independent, 
scientific peer review. Suggested changes will be incorporated, where 
appropriate, in response to those comments.

DATES: The comment period closes on April 16, 2007. Comments received 
after that date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but no 
assurance can be given for consideration of late comments.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments by one of the methods:
     http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line 
instructions for submitting comments.
     http://www.marsame.org: Follow the on-line instructions 
for submitting comments.
     Mail: Air and Radiation Docket and Information Center, 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code 6102T, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460 or Chief, Rulemaking, 
Directives and Editing Branch, Division of Administrative Services, 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
     Hand Delivery: Air and Radiation Docket and Information 
Center, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA West Building, Room 
3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. Such deliveries are 
only accepted during the Docket's normal hours of operation, and 
special arrangements must be made for deliveries of boxed information.
    Copies of all comments received by one agency will be periodically 
copied and sent to the others. Copies of the draft MARSAME and all 
comments received may be examined or copied for a fee electronically in 
http://www.regulations.gov, or in hard copy at the HQ EPA Docket Public 
Reading Room, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Room 3334, Docket 
ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2006-0957, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, 
DC 20460, and the NRC Public Document Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, 
Rockville, Maryland 20852-2747. The HQ EPA Docket Public Reading Room 
is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding 
legal holidays. The telephone number for the EPA HQ Docket Public 
Reading Room is (202) 566-1744. DOE, EPA, and NRC each have a 
publication number for MARSAME. They are: for DOE, DOE/EH-707; for EPA, 
EPA 402-R-06-002; for NRC, NUREG-1575, Sup. 1. A free single copy of 
the draft MARSAME may be requested by writing to: the Distribution and 
Mail Services Section, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, 
DC 20555-0001 or by fax to (301) 415-2289. The document is also 
available through the Internet at: http://www.epa.gov/radiation/marssim.
    Instructions for Using the EPA Docket: Direct your comments to 
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2006-0957. EPA's policy is that all comments 
received will be included in the public docket without change and may 
be made available online at www.regulations.gov, including any personal 
information provided, unless the comment includes information claimed 
to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information 
that you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through 
www.regulations.gov. The www.regulations.gov Web site is an ``anonymous 
access'' system, which means EPA will not know your identity or contact 
information unless you provide it in the body of your comment.
    If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you 
include your name and other contact information in the body of your 
comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your 
comment due to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for 
clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic 
files should avoid the use of special characters, any form of 
encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses. All documents in the 
docket are listed in the www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in 
the index, some information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or 
other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain 
other material, such as copyrighted material, will be publicly 
available only in hard copy.
    Instructions for Using the MARSAME comment Web site: Alternatively, 
you may submit a comment via the http://www.marsame.org comment system 
without going through www.regulations.gov. Users of the MARSAME comment 
Web site will be asked for their name and e-mail address, and then will 
receive a username and password at the e-mail address that was 
submitted. User's names and e-mail address will not appear in any 
public document or database.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Any of the following points of contact 
for each agency for technical information (See ADDRESSES section above 
for directions on obtaining a copy of the draft MARSAME.): DoD: Steven 
Doremus, Phone: (757) 887-7745, U.S. Navy, NAVSEADET RASO, NWS, PO 
Drawer 260, Yorktown, VA 23691-0260; DOE: W. Alexander Williams, Phone: 
(301) 903-8149, U.S. Department of Energy (EM-23), 1000 Independence 
Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585; EPA: Kathryn Snead; Phone: (202) 
343-9228, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Stop 6608J, 1200 
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460-1000; NRC: Robert A. 
Meck, Phone: (301) 415-6205, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail 
Stop T9-C39, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Questions concerning the multi-
agency document development

[[Page 1709]]

project should be addressed to CAPT Colleen Petullo, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency/U.S. Public Health Service, OSWER/ERT, PO Box 93478, 
Las Vegas, NV 89193-3478, (702) 784-8004.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: MARSAME provides information on planning, 
conducting, evaluating, and documenting environmental radiological 
surveys for demonstrating compliance with measurable action levels 
applied to materials and equipment. MARSAME, when finalized, will be a 
multi-agency consensus document and a supplement to the Multi-Agency 
Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual (MARSSIM).
    MARSAME was developed collaboratively over the past five years by 
the technical staffs of the four Federal agencies having authority for 
control of radioactive materials: DoD, DOE, EPA, and NRC (60 FR 12555; 
March 7, 1995). For a time, staff from the Department of Homeland 
Security participated in the development of MARSAME. Contractors to the 
DOE, EPA, and NRC, and members of the public have been present during 
the open meetings of the MARSAME work group. MARSAME's objective is to 
describe standardized and consistent approaches for surveys, which 
provide a high degree of assurance that established action levels can 
be measured and an appropriate disposition of materials or equipment 
can be technically defended. The techniques, methodologies, and 
philosophies that form the bases of this manual were developed to be 
consistent with current Federal limits, guidelines, and procedures.
    Although Federal agency personnel are involved in the preparation 
of this document, the manual does not represent the official position 
of any participating agency at this time. An earlier draft of the 
document has been reviewed within the Federal agencies. Comments were 
received and comments from the review that reflected a technical error 
or flaw in logic or information flow were addressed. The other comments 
from the Federal agencies will be addressed along with the public 
comments. The public review is a necessary step in the development of a 
final multi-agency consensus document. The document will also receive 
formal technical peer review. The draft has not been approved by the 
participating agencies for use in part or in whole and should not be 
used, cited, or quoted except for the purposes of providing comments as 
requested.
    Reviewers are requested to focus on technical accuracy, and 
understandability. Reviewers are also requested to address five 
questions while reviewing MARSAME:
    (1) Does MARSAME provide a practical and implementable approach to 
performing radiation measurements of materials and equipment? Are there 
any major drawbacks to the proposed methods?
    (2) Is MARSAME technically accurate?
    (3) Does MARSAME provide benefits that are not available using 
current methods? What is the value of MARSAME in comparison with other 
currently available alternatives?
    (4) What are the costs associated with MARSAME in comparison with 
other currently available alternatives?
    (5) Is the information in MARSAME understandable and presented in a 
logical sequence? How can the presentation of material be modified to 
improve the understandability of the manual?
    Comments may be submitted as proposed modified text, or as a 
discussion. Comments should be accompanied by supporting bases, 
rationale, or data. To ensure efficient and complete comment 
resolution, commenters are requested to reference the page number and 
the line number of MARSAME to which the comment applies. Enter only the 
beginning page and line number, even if your comment applies to a 
number of pages or lines to follow.
    Comments corresponding to an entire chapter, an entire section, or 
an entire table should be referenced to the line number for the title 
of the chapter (always line number 1), section, or table. Comments on 
footnotes should be referenced to the line in the main text where the 
footnote is indicated. Comments on figures should be referenced to the 
page on which the figure appears. Figures do not have line numbers. The 
figure number should be included in the text of the comment. Comments 
on the entire manual should be referenced to the title page.
    Title: Draft Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Assessment of 
Materials and Equipment Manual.

    For the Department of Defense, dated this 19th day of December, 
2006.
Alex Beehler,
Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Environment, Safety and 
Occupational Health).

    For the U.S. Department of Energy, dated this 1st day of January 
2007.
Andrew C. Lawrence,
Director, Office of Nuclear Safety and Environment, Office of Health, 
Safety and Security.

    For the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, dated this 19th 
day of December 2006.
Elizabeth Cotsworth,
Director, Office of Radiation and Indoor Air.

    For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, dated this 28th day 
of December 2006.
James T. Wiggins,
Acting Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 07-118 Filed 1-12-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P