[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 174 (Thursday, September 10, 2009)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 46512-46513]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-21860]


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 Proposed Rules
                                                 Federal Register
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of 
 the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these 
 notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in 
 the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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  Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 174 / Thursday, September 10, 2009 / 
Proposed Rules  

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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 40

[PRM-40-27; NRC-2008-0453]


State of Colorado and the Organization of Agreement States; 
Consideration of Petition in the Rulemaking Process

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Petition for rulemaking: Resolution and closure of petition 
docket.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) received a 
petition for rulemaking dated May 10, 1999, filed by the State of 
Colorado and the Organization of Agreement States. The petition was 
docketed by the NRC and was assigned as PRM-40-27. The petitioners 
requested that the NRC regulations governing small quantities of source 
material be amended to eliminate the exemption for source material 
general licensees from the requirements that specify standards of 
protection against radiation, and require notification and instruction 
of individuals who participate in licensed activities. The petitioners 
believe that no basis exists for the existing exemption for these 
licensees from these requirements and that the licensee could exceed 
dose limits, in certain situations, that would normally apply to 
licensed operations. The NRC reviewed the petition and determined that 
this petition merits further consideration. Therefore, the concerns and 
issues raised in the petition will continue to be considered through an 
ongoing rulemaking.

DATES: The docket for the petition for rulemaking, PRM-40-27, is closed 
on September 10, 2009.

ADDRESSES: Public comments and NRC actions on the issues raised by this 
petition are accessible at the Federal rulemaking Web site, http://www.regulations.gov, by searching on Docket ID NRC-2008-0453. 
Rulemaking documents that will further consider the issues related to 
PRM-40-27 may be located by searching on Docket ID NRC-2009-0084 at the 
Federal rulemaking Web site. The NRC also tracks all rulemaking actions 
in the ``NRC Regulatory Agenda: Semiannual Report (NUREG-0936).'' The 
Regulatory Agenda is a semiannual compilation of all rules on which the 
NRC has recently completed action, has proposed action, or is 
considering action, and of all petitions for rulemaking that the NRC is 
working to resolve.
    You can access publically available documents related to this 
petition for rulemaking using the following methods:
    Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and 
search for documents filed under the following Docket ID: NRC-2008-
0453.
    NRC'S Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine, and have 
copied for a fee, publicly available documents at the NRC's Public 
Document Room, Public File Area, Room O-1F21, One White Flint North, 
11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD.
    NRC's Agency-wide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS): 
Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC are 
available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this page, the public can gain 
entry into ADAMS, which provides text and image files of the 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: Kimyata Morgan Butler, Office of 
Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone 
(301) 415-0733, e-mail: [email protected] or Gary Comfort, 
Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management 
Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, telephone (301) 415-8106, e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

The Petition

    On July 7, 1999 (64 FR 36615), the NRC published a notice of 
receipt of a petition for rulemaking filed by the State of Colorado and 
the Organization of Agreement States. The petitioners requested that 
the NRC amend its regulations to eliminate an exemption from the 
requirements of 10 CFR Parts 19 and 20 that currently applies under the 
general license for small quantities of source material found in 10 CFR 
40.22(b) and require notification and instruction of individuals who 
participate in licensed activities. The petitioners believe that 
generally licensed quantities of source material may not have been 
regarded as a health and safety hazard when the exemption was enacted. 
However, the petitioners contend that industry experience has revealed 
that source material general licensees:
    (1) Can expose workers to levels of radiation that would normally 
require monitoring;
    (2) Dispose of radioactive materials in a manner that would not be 
acceptable for other licensees;
    (3) Produce contamination that exceeds release limits; and
    (4) Potentially exceed public dose limits to individuals other than 
those working at their facilities.

The petitioners support their claims with examples of two cases that 
they believe illustrate the problem of the blanket exemption in 10 CFR 
40.22(b).

Public Comments on the Petition

    The notice of receipt of the petition for rulemaking invited 
interested persons to submit comments. The comment period closed on 
September 20, 1999. The NRC received ten comment letters. Comment 
letters were submitted by two members of the public, one private 
company, and seven Agreement States. All of the commenters supported 
the petition. In addition, one comment letter was also considered as a 
separate petition for rulemaking (PRM-40-28) on depleted uranium 
counterweights and subsequently resolved separately from this petition.
    Most of the commenters reiterated the claims presented in the 
original petition. One commenter suggested that persons distributing 
source material should notify the recipients of the hazards of the 
material and the

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distributor should report shipments of ``larger'' quantities to 
appropriate regulatory agencies. The same commenter also suggested that 
the 15-pound limit should potentially be reduced to a lower limit that 
was more appropriate for use under a general license. Two commenters 
provided additional examples of cases when the use of source material 
under the general license could have resulted in exposures in excess of 
the limits specified in 10 CFR Part 20.

Reasons for Closure of the Petition

    Although the NRC is not aware of widespread issues with the current 
general license requirements in 10 CFR 40.22, the NRC has collected and 
evaluated data on practices allowed under the general license which 
indicate that it may be possible in certain situations for exposures to 
occur when the requirements in 10 CFR Parts 19 and 20 would normally 
apply. The NRC concluded that the underlying issue of re-evaluating the 
safety significance of granting exemption for source material general 
licenses from 10 CFR Parts 19 and 20 is an important one and merits 
further consideration through rulemaking. The NRC will continue 
consideration of this issue as part of a proposed rulemaking on 
``Distribution of Source Material to Exempt Persons and General 
Licensees and Revision of 10 CFR 40.22 General License (Part 40),'' RIN 
3150-AH15. Further information on the rulemaking may be tracked through 
http://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2009-0084.
    Although the NRC will continue to consider the issues raised by the 
petition in the rulemaking process, the petitioners' concerns may not 
be addressed exactly as the petitioners have requested. During the 
rulemaking process, the NRC will solicit comments from the public and 
will consider all comments before finalizing the rule.
    For the reasons cited in this document, the NRC closes the docket 
for PRM-40-27.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 20th day of August 2009.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Bruce S. Mallett,
Acting Executive Director for Operations.
[FR Doc. E9-21860 Filed 9-9-09; 8:45 am]
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