[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 137 (Monday, July 18, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 42074-42076]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-17913]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 20
[NRC-2011-0162]
Consideration of Rulemaking To Address Prompt Remediation of
Residual Radioactivity During Operations
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of public Webinar and request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Commission or NRC) is
seeking input from the public, licensees, Agreement States, non-
Agreement States, and other stakeholders on a potential rulemaking to
address prompt remediation of residual radioactivity during the
operational phase of licensed material sites and nuclear reactors. The
NRC has not initiated a rulemaking, but is in the process of gathering
information and seeking stakeholder input on this subject for
developing a technical basis document. To aid in this process, the NRC
is requesting comments on the issues discussed in Section III,
``Specific Questions,'' in the Supplementary Information Section of
this document. Additionally, the NRC will hold a public Webinar to
facilitate the public's and other stakeholders'
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understanding of these issues and the submission of comments.
DATES: The public Webinar will be held in Rockville, Maryland on July
25, 2011, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. (EDT). Submit comments on the issues
discussed in this document by September 16, 2011. Comments received
after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so.
ADDRESSES: Please include Docket ID NRC-2011-0162 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. You may submit comments by any one of the following
methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-
2011-0162. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher,
telephone: 301-492-3668, e-mail: [email protected].
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules,
Announcements, and Directives Branch (RADB), Office of Administration,
Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
Fax comments 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, O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville,
Maryland 20852.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC
are available online in the NRC Library 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's PDR reference staff
at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to [email protected].
The Draft Proposed Technical Basis is available electronically under
ADAMS Accession Number ML111580353.
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-2011-0162.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Chad Glenn, Office of Federal and
State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-
6722; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The NRC recently published the Decommissioning Planning Rule (DPR)
(76 FR 33512; June 17, 2011). The DPR applies to the operational phase
of a licensed facility, and requires licensees to operate in a way to
minimize spills, leaks, and other unplanned releases of radioactive
contaminants into the environment. It also requires licensees to check
periodically for radiological contamination throughout the site,
including subsurface soil and groundwater. The DPR does not have a
mandatory requirement for licensees to conduct radiological remediation
during operations. Within the Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM), SRM-
SECY-07-0177 (ADAMS Accession No. ML073440549), that approved the
proposed DPR, the Commission directed the staff to ``make further
improvements to the decommissioning planning process by addressing
remediation of residual radioactivity during the operational phase with
the objective of avoiding complex decommissioning challenges that can
lead to legacy sites.'' Therefore, the NRC staff is considering a
potential rulemaking requiring prompt remediation during operations,
and has begun gathering information pertinent to its considerations.
II. Discussion
Currently, there are no NRC regulations that require licensees to
promptly remediate radiological contamination. To enhance stakeholder
engagement in developing a technical basis as a precursor to a proposed
rule, the NRC staff developed a Draft Proposed Technical Basis to
facilitate discussion with, and to solicit input from, interested
stakeholders. The Draft Proposed Technical Basis describes the NRC's
preferred approach as a rulemaking to require licensees to promptly
remediate radioactive spills and leaks when certain threshold limits
are met. NRC's preferred approach contemplates using the NRC screening
values for soil and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
maximum contamination levels for groundwater as the threshold limits.
The preferred approach would also include a provision allowing
licensees to delay remediation when certain conditions are met. To
justify a delayed remediation, licensees would be required to perform
analyses such as dose assessment, risk-assessments and/or cost-benefit
analyses for the NRC's review.
In addition to the preferred approach, the NRC staff considered the
following as alternative frameworks for requiring prompt remediation
during operations:
(1) Issuing a regulation that would require licensees to conduct
prompt remediation of a spill or leak when certain contaminant
thresholds, such as the restricted release limits in Title 10 of the
Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), Sec. 20.1403, are exceeded.
Unlike the preferred approach, this alternative would not provide the
licensee with the opportunity to conduct an analysis to justify delayed
remediation.
(2) Issuing site-specific license conditions requiring timely
remediation following identification of contamination above some
specified volume or concentration.
(3) Issuing new guidance in the form of a NUREG.
(4) No action (i.e., the NRC staff would rely on existing
regulations and guidance documents to encourage licensees to consider
prompt remediation after spills or leaks).
For more information on the preferred approach and alternatives,
please refer to the Draft Proposed Technical Basis (ML111580353).
III. Specific Questions
To assist the NRC in developing a comprehensive technical basis
document for a potential rulemaking requiring prompt remediation, the
NRC is seeking stakeholder input on the following questions:
1. Should the NRC conduct rulemaking to address remediation of
residual radioactivity during the operational phase? Why or why not?
2. If the NRC implements a rule that requires prompt remediation of
radioactive spills and leaks, what
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concentration, dose limits, or other threshold limits should trigger
prompt remediation? Should the thresholds differ for soil versus
groundwater contamination? For example, should the NRC screening
criteria be used to establish threshold levels for soil contamination?
Should the EPA's maximum contaminant levels be used for drinking water?
3. Should the NRC allow licensees to justify delaying remediation
under certain conditions when the contaminant level exceeds the
threshold limit? If yes, then what conditions should be used to justify
a delayed remediation?
4. Should factors such as safety, operational impact, and cost be a
basis for delaying remediation?
5. If the NRC implements a rule that allows licensees to analyze
residual radioactivity to justify delaying remediation, then what
should the licensee's analysis cover? For example, what kind of dose
assessment, risk-assessments and/or cost-benefit analyses should be
performed to justify delayed remediation? What other types of analyses
are relevant?
6. If the NRC implements a rule that allows licensees to analyze
residual radioactivity to justify delaying remediation, what role
should the cost of prompt remediation versus remediation at the time of
decommissioning play in the analysis?
7. If the NRC implements a rule that allows licensees to analyze
residual radioactivity to justify delaying remediation, what standards
or criteria should a licensee use to demonstrate to the NRC that a
sufficient justification to delay remediation has been met?
8. Are there any other alternatives beyond those discussed in the
Draft Proposed Technical Basis document that the NRC should have
considered to address prompt remediation?
9. What other issues should the NRC staff consider in developing a
technical basis for a rulemaking to address prompt remediation of
residual radioactivity during site operations?
IV. Public Webinar
To facilitate the understanding of the public and other
stakeholders of these issues and the submission of comments, the NRC
staff has scheduled a public Webinar, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. (EDT).
Webinar participants will be able to view the presentation slides
prepared by the NRC and electronically submit comments over the
Internet. Participants must register to participate in the Webinar.
Registration information may be found in the meeting notice
(ML111780802). The meeting notice can also be accessed through the
NRC's public Web site under the headings Public Meetings & Involvement
> Public Meeting Schedule; see Web page http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm. Additionally, the final agenda for
the public Webinar and the Draft Proposed Technical Basis document will
be posted no fewer than 10 days prior to the Webinar at this Web site.
Those who are unable to participate via Webinar may also participate
via teleconference. For details on how to participate via
teleconference, please contact Sarah Achten; telephone: 301-415-6009;
email: [email protected] or T.R. Rowe; telephone: 301-415-8008;
email: [email protected].
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 8th day of July 2011.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Keith I. McConnell,
Deputy Director, Decommissioning and Uranium Recovery, Licensing
Directorate, Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection,
Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management
Programs.
[FR Doc. 2011-17913 Filed 7-15-11; 8:45 am]
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