[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 174 (Thursday, September 9, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54917-54918]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-22481]



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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2010-0294]


Criteria for Nominating Materials Licensees for the U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission's Agency Action Review Meeting

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Request for comment.

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SUMMARY: It is the policy of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
(NRC) to have its senior managers conduct an annual Agency Action 
Review Meeting (AARM). The AARM is an integral part of the evaluative 
process used by the agency to ensure the operational safety performance 
of licensees. As a part of the AARM process, the NRC reviews the 
agency's actions concerning fuel cycle facilities and other materials 
licensees (including Agreement State licensees) with significant 
performance concerns. In 2002, the NRC developed criteria for 
determining materials licensees that would be discussed at the AARM. 
The NRC revised the criteria to incorporate NRC's current policies and 
procedures in 2008. The criteria that is currently used to determine 
materials licensees that will be discussed at the AARM may be found in 
Enclosure 2 of SECY-08-0135, ``Revision of the Criteria for Identifying 
Nuclear Materials Licensees for Discussion at the Agency Action Review 
Meeting,'' dated September 16, 2008 (ADAMS Accession Number: 
ML082480564).
    Currently, the NRC is considering revisions to this criteria for 
Identifying Materials Licensees for Discussion at the AARM. A draft 
revised criterion found in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION below provides 
an additional criterion to address licensees previously discussed at 
the AARM. The reason this additional criterion has been added is to 
allow NRC's senior management to address why the previously identified 
issues are not being resolved. The NRC is seeking public comment on 
this revised criterion.

DATES: Please submit comments regarding the proposed criteria, by 
October 25, 2010. Comments received after this date will be considered 
if practical to do so, but the NRC staff is able to ensure 
consideration only for those comments received on or before this date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods. 
Please include Docket ID NRC-2010-0294 in the subject line of your 
comments. Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be 
posted on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site, 
http://www.regulations.gov. Because your comments will not be edited to 
remove any identifying or contact information, the NRC cautions you 
against including any information in your submission that you do not 
want to be publicly disclosed.
    The NRC requests that any party soliciting or aggregating comments 
received from other persons for submission to the NRC inform those 
persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to remove any 
identifying or contact information, and therefore, they should not 
include any information in their comments that they do not want 
publicly disclosed.
    Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and 
search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-2010-0294. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher 301-492-3668; e-mail 
[email protected].
    Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements and 
Directives Branch (RADB), Division of Administrative Services, Office 
of Administration, Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax to RADB at (301) 492-
3446.
    You can access publicly available documents related to this notice 
using the following methods:
    NRC's Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine and have 
copied, for a fee, publicly available documents at the NRC's PDR, 
Public File Area O1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, 
Rockville, Maryland.
    NRC's Agencywide Documents 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 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's PDR 
reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to 
[email protected]. The Proposed Criteria for Identifying Materials 
Licensees for Discussion at the AARM is also available electronically 
under ADAMS Accession Number ML101900346.
    Federal Rulemaking Web site: Public comments and supporting 
materials related to this notice can be found at http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID: NRC-2010-0294.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Duane White by telephone at 301-415-
6272, E-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    In 2002, NRC developed a process for providing information to the 
Commission on significant nuclear materials issues and adverse licensee 
performance. This process was discussed in SECY-02-0216, ``Proposed 
Process for Providing Information on Significant Nuclear Materials 
Issues and Adverse Licensee Performance,'' dated December 11, 2002. As 
part of this process, the staff developed criteria to determine nuclear 
material licensees with significant performance problems that would be 
discussed at the AARM. In 2008, the NRC revised the criteria to provide 
additional clarification regarding the criteria requirements and to 
incorporate NRC's current policy and procedures.

Discussion

    NRC is preparing to revise the current criteria used to determine 
material licensees that will be discussed at the AARM. The agency 
currently identifies material licensees, including fuel cycle and 
Agreement State licensees, for AARM discussion based on operating 
performance, inspection results, and judgment of the severity of 
problems of safety performance. Although the revised AARM criteria will 
continue to be based upon the same principles as the existing criteria, 
the staff is proposing to include one additional element (i.e., 
criterion). This criterion focuses on those licensees previously 
discussed at the AARM who did not address or were ineffective in 
correcting their underlying issues.

Current Criteria for Determining Materials Licensees for the AARM

    The current criteria for determining materials licensees for the 
AARM, as described in Enclosure 2 of SECY-08-0135, is as follows: (1) 
Strategic Plan--Licensee has an event that results in the failure to 
meet a strategic outcome for safety and security in the NRC Strategic 
Plan (NUREG-1614); (2) Significant Issue or Event--Licensee has an 
issue or event that results in an abnormal occurrence report to 
Congress (per NRC Management Directive 8.1), or a severity level I or 
II violation, as described in the NRC Enforcement Policy (including 
equivalent violations dispositioned by Alternative Dispute Resolution), 
or a level 3 or higher International Nuclear

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Event Scale Report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (per NRC 
Management Directive 5.12), and there are unique or unusual aspects of 
the licensee's performance that warrant additional NRC oversight (e.g., 
a significant event, which requires an incident investigation team 
(IIT) or augmented inspection team (AIT)); or (3) Performance Trend--
Licensee has multiple and/or repetitive significant program issues 
identified over more than one inspection, or inspection period, and the 
issues are supported by severity level I, II, or III violation, as 
described in the NRC Enforcement Policy (including equivalent 
violations dispositioned by Alternative Dispute Resolution). And, there 
are unique or unusual aspects of the licensee's performance that 
warrant additional NRC oversight (e.g., oversight panel formed for 
order implementation).

Proposed Criteria for Determining Materials Licensees for the AARM

    The NRC is proposing the following revision to the existing 
criteria for determining materials licensees with significant 
performance issues: (1) Strategic Plan--Licensee has an event that 
results in the failure to meet a strategic outcome for safety and 
security in the NRC Strategic Plan (NUREG-1614); (2) Significant Issue 
or Event--Licensee has an issue or event that results in an abnormal 
occurrence report to Congress (per NRC Management Directive 8.1), or a 
severity level I or II violation, as described in the NRC Enforcement 
Policy (including equivalent violations dispositioned by Alternative 
Dispute Resolution), or a level 3 or higher International Nuclear Event 
Scale Report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (per NRC 
Management Directive 5.12), and there are unique or unusual aspects of 
the licensee's performance that warrant additional NRC oversight (e.g., 
a significant event, which requires an IIT or AIT); or (3) Performance 
Trend--Licensee has multiple and/or repetitive significant program 
issues identified over more than one inspection, or inspection period, 
and the issues are supported by severity level I, II, or III violation, 
as described in the NRC Enforcement Policy (including equivalent 
violations dispositioned by Alternative Dispute Resolution). And, there 
are unique or unusual aspects of the licensee's performance that 
warrant additional NRC oversight (e.g., oversight panel formed for 
order implementation); or (4) Identified for Discussion at Previous 
AARM--Licensee corrective actions did not address or were ineffective 
in correcting the underlying issues that were previously discussed at 
the AARM.
    You can find NRC's strategic plan (NUREG-1614) and the referenced 
management directives and enforcement policy on NRC's public document 
collections Web page at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 25th day of August 2010.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Cynthia A. Carpenter,
Deputy Director, Office of Federal and State Materials and 
Environmental Management Programs.
[FR Doc. 2010-22481 Filed 9-8-10; 8:45 am]
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