[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 146 (Tuesday, July 29, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43960-43962]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-17324]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2008-0413]
Possible Improvements to the Level of Openness and Transparency
of Information Associated With NRC Security Inspection and Security
Performance Assessment of NRC Licensees
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is seeking comment
from all interested persons on options for improving the level of
openness and transparency associated with security-related information
obtained from the conduct of NRC inspection and licensee performance
assessments.
DATES: Submit comments by September 5, 2008. Comments received after
this date will be considered only if it is practical to do so.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted electronically through http://www.regulations.gov or mailed to Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rulemaking,
Directives and Editing Branch, Office of Administration (Mail Stop: T6-
D59), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
Comments may also be hand delivered to Mr. Lesar at 11545 Rockville
Pike, Rockville, Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal
workdays.
Publicly-available documents referenced for this action are
available electronically through the NRC's Electronic Reading Room on
the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html. From this site the
public can also access the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and
Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of the
NRC's public documents. For more information, contact the NRC's Public
Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 301-415-4737 or 800-397-4209, or
by e-mail at [email protected].
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul W. Harris, Senior Program
Manager, Reactor Security Oversight Branch, Division of Security
Operations, Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Telephone:
(301) 415-1169; fax number (301) 415-6077; e-mail: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The NRC views nuclear regulation as the public's business and, as
such, believes it should be transacted as openly and candidly as
possible to maintain and enhance the public's confidence in the
regulatory process. Ensuring appropriate openness explicitly recognizes
that the public must be informed about, and have a reasonable
opportunity to participate meaningfully in the NRC's regulatory
processes. At the same time, the NRC must also control sensitive
information so that security goals are met. This vision is described in
the NRC's Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2008-
[[Page 43961]]
2013, NUREG-1614, Volume 4, February 2008 (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1614/v4/).
The NRC has traditionally given the public access to a significant
amount of information about facilities and materials the agency
regulates. This information has included, but has not been limited to,
licensee performance assessments, inspection findings, and details
regarding escalated enforcement actions. To help ensure openness, the
agency provides accurate and timely information to the public about the
risks associated with radioactive material and the safety performance
of the licensees regulated by the NRC. This strategy enables a fair,
timely, and meaningful stakeholder involvement in NRC regulated
activities without disclosing classified, safeguards, proprietary, and
sensitive unclassified information, and results in early communications
with stakeholders on issues of substantial interest.
Recent Changes to the Publicly-Available Security-Related Information
Prior to the terrorist events of September 11, 2001, almost all
information regarding the inspection and assessment of security
activities at NRC licensees was publicly available. Only information
specifically requiring protection, such as that described in the
background information under ``Security Inspection and Licensee
Performance Assessment Openness Initiative'' located at http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment.html#3, was withheld from the
public. Therefore, most security-related licensee performance
information was documented in NRC inspection reports, reviews of
licensee performance, and enforcement determinations. Most of these
documents (that were designated as non-sensitive or non-safeguards
information) were made available for public inspection at the NRC's PDR
accessible locally in Rockville, Maryland or through the Internet via
the NRC's electronic reading room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html. Furthermore, specific commercial power reactor licensee
performance information, such as descriptions of violations, inspection
findings, NRC annual assessments of licensee performance, and
performance indicators for individual power facilities was publicly
accessible at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/ql-reactors.html#over.
At the preceding NRC Web site, non-safeguards information,
summaries of all security and non-security inspection findings, and
performance assessments for nuclear power plants used to be available
for public review. This allowed a member of the public to ascertain
specific licensee performance information and compare that performance
to other similar facilities. The inspection process also made available
NRC inspection schedules and its meetings with licensees involving NRC-
regulated activities. Although some security-related information was
publicly available, the preponderance of all information that the NRC
made available to the public dealt with the design and operation of
NRC-regulated facilities, and not with the physical security of these
facilities or radioactive materials.
In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the NRC assessed and
revised controls on withholding from public disclosure security-related
NRC inspection and licensee performance information that might be
useful to persons planning hostile acts against licensees. As a result,
the amount of publicly-available security-related information was
reduced. Currently, the cover letters to security inspection reports
are publicly available providing general information without revealing
any specifics regarding any particular inspection finding. This
information includes, but is not limited to: the dates of the
inspection, whether there was a finding, and whether the finding
involved a cross cutting aspect (human performance, problem
identification and resolution, and safety conscious working
environment). The security-related inspection information that is
currently available for public review can be viewed at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/ql-reactors.html#over.
Staff Options To Enhance Openness and Transparency of Security
Inspection Information
To improve stakeholder satisfaction with the way NRC communicates
security inspection information, the staff is considering a number of
approaches that would increase the public awareness and openness of the
NRC's security inspection findings and licensee performance assessment,
such as adding additional detail to: (1) The annual public report to
Congress on security oversight of operating power reactors and fuel
cycle facilities by providing a brief description and significance of
security inspection findings; (2) the public cover letters for security
inspection reports by providing more details, including significance of
security inspection findings; and, (3) the NRC public Web site by
making more information available, such as some security inspection
procedures and inspection manual chapters. Further, similar to that
done for NRC safety assessments of licensee performance, the staff is
considering whether to conduct public meetings in the vicinity of
commercial power reactors, fuel facilities, and any NRC-regulated
facility that had a significant \1\ security-related performance
problem during the performance review period. These meetings would be
held to present NRC's assessment of that particular licensee's security
performance (without divulging sensitive information) and respond to
public questions regarding licensee performance and regulatory
oversight. In other words, the NRC is assessing whether to conduct
public meetings on a periodicity commensurate with licensee
performance.
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\1\ As used in this document, the term ``significant'' means a
deficiency or a combination of deficiencies that results in a
programmatic increase in NRC regulatory oversight of a facility.
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Regarding material licensees \2\, Agreement States and the
Commission cooperated in the development of enhanced security measures
and the adoption of a policy in which these licensees would protect
certain sensitive information. Agreement States and the Commission have
also agreed to withhold the names of the licensees that are
implementing these enhanced security requirements--publishing a
licensee name could potentially make that entity a target for hostile
action. Furthermore, some security inspection results, licensee
performance assessments, inspection procedures, and inspection manual
chapters will not be available to the public because of special
considerations associated with the particular facility; however, the
staff endeavors to apply a consistent level of openness to these
inspection results as well.
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\2\ Material licensees are, for examples, large panoramic
irradiators, manufacturer and distributor licensees, licensees that
transfer large quantities of radioactive material, and materials
licensees that possess risk-significant quantities of radioactive
material (i.e., hospitals, universities, radiographers, and well
loggers).
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Availability of Inspection-Related Information on NRC Web Site
The NRC places a large amount of inspection and licensee
performance information on its external Web site to inform stakeholders
and to enable public participation in the regulatory process. Program
descriptions detailing how the NRC staff implements its inspection
programs are described at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/insp-manual/manual-chapter/index.html. For power reactors,
inspection-related information is posted
[[Page 43962]]
at http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/pim_summary.html, with
cover letters for security inspection reports found at http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/listofrpts_body_security.html. The
information on these web links is updated every quarter, however, the
actual safety report or security cover letter is publicly available in
ADAMS shortly after the reports are approved and signed. For NRC
inspection and licensee performance assessment of fuel cycle facilities
see http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html. Lastly, the NRC continues to
enable public access to various reports produced by the NRC staff,
public meeting and workshop summaries, and media-type information in
ADAMS and may release other information to the public in response to
formal or informal requests.
Summary
Considering the various reviews, legislation, and other changes
since September 11, 2001, the NRC staff believes that enhancement of
its current procedures and policies regarding publicly-available
information summarizing security inspection, enforcement results, and
licensee performance assessment could serve in the public interest.
Therefore, the NRC seeks public comments on ways to improve regulatory
openness and transparency of its security oversight activities.
Improving openness and transparency will enhance public satisfaction
by: (1) Enhancing public awareness of the NRC's independent role in
protecting public health and safety, the environment, and the common
defense and security; (2) providing accurate and timely information to
the public about regulatory activities at NRC licensees; (3) providing
fair, timely, and meaningful stakeholder involvement in NRC regulated
activities without disclosing classified, safeguards, proprietary, or
sensitive information; and (4) initiating early communication with
stakeholders on issues of substantial interest. To support this
endeavor and to better understand public satisfaction in how the NRC
communicates security-related information, comments are requested on,
but need not be limited to, the topics below:
(1) In addition to the information currently in publicly-available
cover letters for the majority of NRC security inspections, what
additional information would be effective in informing the public about
licensee security performance? For example, what specific details would
increase the public's level of satisfaction in NRC regulatory oversight
of licensed facilities?
(2)(a) At what stage in the inspection process is interaction with
the public most effective and beneficial? For example, immediately upon
closure of an inspection when a finding is identified, but may be
withheld from public disclosure or some time after licensee correction
of the finding, when it may be possible to release additional security-
related inspection information?
(b) At what stage in the NRC's licensee performance assessment
process is interaction with the public most effective and beneficial?
For example, upon NRC determination that licensee performance changed
from one Action Matrix column\3\ to another or during NRC's mid-cycle
or end-of-cycle licensee performance reviews.
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\3\ See NRC Inspection Manual Chapter 0320, ``Operating Reactor
Security Assessment Program,'' page E2-1, located at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/insp-manual/.
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(3) What method of public interaction is most preferred? For
example, is the conduct of a public meeting, a redacted inspection
report, additional information in NRC's annual report to Congress
regarding security inspections, or additional information posted on the
NRC Web site the most beneficial (efficient, effective, or informative)
method of informing the public?
(4) How useful are the above methods for communicating NRC
security-related inspection and licensee performance information to all
stakeholders?
(5) What are the reasons why various stakeholders desire security-
related information? For example, is this information necessary to
build confidence in NRC regulatory oversight or understand current
licensee performance?
(6) What level of public participation in any substantial and
future revision of the security oversight process (e.g., changes made
to performance indicators, significance determination process, etc.)
would be beneficial? What constraints and considerations on such
participation would be necessary to protect the details of sensitive
security information?
The public may view background information, express additional
thought, comment, and describe other means and methods to enhance
openness and transparency at ``Security Inspection and Licensee
Performance Assessment Openness Initiative'' located at http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment.html#3.
Dated this 22nd day of July 2008, at Rockville, Maryland.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Roy P. Zimmerman,
Director, Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response.
[FR Doc. E8-17324 Filed 7-28-08; 8:45 am]
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