[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 73 (Friday, April 16, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20009-20010]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-8746]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2009-0485]


Development of NRC's Safety Culture Policy Statement: 
Cancellation of Public Workshops Scheduled for April 13-15, 2010, and 
October 27-28, 2010

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

ACTION: Cancellation of public workshops tentatively scheduled for 
April 13-15, 2010, and October 27-28, 2010.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: On December 15, 2009, the NRC announced in a Federal Register 
Notice (FRN) (74 FR 66387) (ADAMS Number: ML100150141) its plans for 
holding a series of workshops to support an overarching goal of forging 
a consensus around the objectives, strategies, activities and measures 
that enhance safety culture for NRC-regulated activities. Specific 
plans for the workshops included the development of the safety culture 
common terminology effort comprised of: (1) Development of a common 
safety culture definition; and (2) development of high-level 
description/traits of areas important to safety culture. The series of 
workshops were designed to build upon each other, and to be used to 
develop these concepts for incorporation into the NRC's draft final 
policy statement. In addition, the information gathered at the workshop 
was to be considered when revising the NRC's oversight programs for 
NRC-regulated nuclear industries. The tentative dates planned for the 
public workshops were February 2-4, 2010, April 13-15, 2010, and 
October 27-28, 2010, at or near NRC headquarters in Rockville, MD. At 
the time the NRC issued the FRN (74 FR 66387), it was anticipated that 
three workshops would be needed to reach alignment on the safety 
culture common terminology effort.
    The NRC held the first workshop on February 2-4, 2010. The goal of 
the workshop was to: (1) Obtain input regarding a high-level safety 
culture definition that could apply to all licensees/certificate 
holders; (2) obtain input regarding description/traits of safety 
culture that could apply to all licensees/certificate holders; and (3) 
receive comments on the draft safety culture policy statement that was 
published in the FRN for public comment until March 1, 2010 (74 FR 
57525; 75 FR 1656;) (ADAMS Numbers: ML093240408 and ML100050288). The 
structure of this workshop was unique in that the NRC sought 
nominations of individuals (74 FR 66387) to represent interests from a 
large spectrum of licensees/certificate holders regulated by the NRC to 
participate in panel discussions on safety culture. Additionally, the 
NRC utilized an external steering committee (made up of various 
stakeholders) to help plan for the first workshop as well as encourage 
stakeholders to nominate individuals to be panel members and to 
participate in this effort. From those nominated, the NRC selected 
sixteen stakeholders to serve as panel members at the workshop. At the 
February 2-4, 2010, safety culture workshop, panel members, through 
discussions and frequent input provided by workshop attendees, 
developed and aligned on a single safety culture definition and a group 
of traits.
    While the NRC anticipated that it might take three workshops for 
stakeholder representatives to develop and align on a common safety 
culture definition and a set of high-level description/traits of areas 
important to safety, this was accomplished during the February 2-4, 
2010, workshop. Post-workshop discussions with the panel members and 
the external steering committee concluded that another workshop of this 
kind was not needed since the panel had reached alignment on a single 
safety culture definition and a set of high-level description/traits 
(see meeting summary ADAMS Number: ML100700065). Based on this 
feedback, the NRC has decided to cancel the remaining two workshops 
tentatively scheduled for April 13-15, 2010, and October 27-28, 2010.
    In lieu of the originally planned workshops, for the remainder of 
calendar year 2010, the NRC now plans to perform more tailored, 
outreach activities addressing safety culture. This will include the 
NRC staff and stakeholders continuing a dialogue at NRC and industry-
sponsored conferences to obtain a broad spectrum of views regarding the 
draft policy statement and the products developed from the February 2-
4, 2010, workshop. Examples of planned outreach activities will be 
largely aimed at gatherings of individual industry groups, such as,

[[Page 20010]]

medical users of licensed, radioactive materials; industrial users of 
licensed, radioactive materials; fuel facility operators; vendors and 
suppliers; power and non-power reactors and members of the public. 
Based on the insights gained from these additional outreach activities 
a need to revise the products from the February workshop could be 
identified. Notice of additional meetings/workshops, will be available 
on the NRC Public Meeting Schedule Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm at least ten days prior to 
each meeting/workshop. Additionally, any pertinent information 
regarding this effort will be made available at the NRC's safety 
culture Web site http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/regulatory/enforcement/safety-culture.html). The NRC may issue another FRN for additional 
stakeholder input on this initiative if the staff determines that the 
safety culture definition and traits it has drafted for the final 
Commission policy statement (due March 2011) differ substantially from 
the original draft policy statement and/or the products developed at 
the February 2-4, 2010, workshop.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Publicly Available Documents: Publicly available documents related 
to this safety culture initiative can be accessed using the following 
methods: NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), where the public may 
examine, and have copied for a fee, publicly available documents. The 
address is U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Document Room, 
Public File Area 0-1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, 
Rockville, MD 20852; or NRC's Agency wide Documents Access and 
Management System (ADAMS), which can be accessed at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, the public can gain entry into 
ADAMS which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. If 
you do not have access to ADAMS or if you encounter problems in 
accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the PDR Reference 
staff at 1-800-397-4209, or (301) 415-4737 or by e-mail to 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alex Sapountzis, telephone (301) 415-
7822 or by e-mail to [email protected]; or Maria Schwartz, 
telephone (301) 415-1888 or by e-mail to [email protected]. Both 
of these individuals can also be contacted by mail at the U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Office of Enforcement, Concerns Resolution 
Branch, Mail Stop O-4 A15A, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 9th day of April 2010.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Roy P. Zimmerman,
Director, Office of Enforcement.
[FR Doc. 2010-8746 Filed 4-15-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P