[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 198 (Thursday, October 13, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 63565-63566]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-26419]


 ========================================================================
 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. 76, No. 198 / Thursday, October 13, 2011 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 63565]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 50

[NRC-2011-0237]


Event Reporting Guidelines

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft NUREG; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) 
is requesting comments on Draft NUREG-1022, Revision 3, ``Event 
Reporting Guidelines: 10 CFR 50.72 and 50.73''. The NUREG-1022 contains 
guidelines that the NRC staff considers acceptable for use in meeting 
the event reporting requirements for operating nuclear power reactors. 
Revision 3 to NUREG-1022 incorporates revisions to the guidelines for 
the purpose of clarification.

DATES: Submit comments by December 12, 2011. Comments received after 
this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the 
Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments received 
on or before this date.

ADDRESSES: Please include Docket ID NRC-2011-0237 in the subject line 
of your comments. For additional instructions on submitting comments 
and instructions on accessing documents related to this action, see 
``Submitting Comments and Accessing Information'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION section of this document. 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-
2011-0237. 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.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Submitting Comments and Accessing Information

    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 can access publicly available documents related to this 
document 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, Room 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]. 
Draft NUREG-1022, Revision 3 may be found in the Agencywide Documents 
Access and Management System (ADAMS) under Accession No. ML11273A065. 
The NRC staff has also prepared an accompanying ``Discussion of 
Changes'' document that may be found in ADAMS under Accession No. 
ML11068A030.
     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-2011-0237.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Timothy Kobetz, Reactor Inspection 
Branch, Division of Inspections and Regional Support, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-1932, e-mail: [email protected].

Background

    The NUREG-1022 contains guidelines that the NRC staff considers 
acceptable for use in meeting the reporting requirements of Title 10 of 
the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 50.72 and 10 CFR 50.73. 
Revision 3 to NUREG-1022 incorporates revisions to the guidelines for 
the purpose of clarification. The NRC held a public meeting on June 8 
and 9, 2010, with internal and external stakeholders to solicit 
comments on identified issues with NUREG-1022, Revision 2, as well as 
to identify new issues (see ADAMS Accession Nos. ML101241083 and 
ML101720219 for additional information). A teleconference meeting with 
external stakeholders was held on July 19, 2010, to clarify some items 
listed in the June public meeting summary (see ADAMS Accession No. 
ML102170301 for additional information). The NRC held another public 
meeting on October 14, 2010, with internal and external stakeholders to 
discuss the NRC's disposition of the previously identified items (see 
ADAMS Accession Nos. ML102630270 and ML102940281 for additional 
information). In addition, external stakeholders submitted documents to 
the NRC for consideration. Documents were submitted on July 20, 2010 
(ADAMS Accession No. ML101930338), August 8, 2010 (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML102230269), August 21, 2010 (ADAMS Accession No. ML102360197), and 
October 29 and November 10, 2010 (ADAMS Accession No. ML103190310). A 
discussion of the changes in Draft NUREG-1022, Revision 3, may be found 
in the ``Discussion of Changes'' document (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML11068A030). Items in Draft NUREG-

[[Page 63566]]

1022, Revision 3, that are underlined are new and not found in Revision 
2, and items that have a strikethrough are being deleted from Revision 
2. Although the underlines and strikethroughs are included in the draft 
document, the staff's intention is to remove them upon final 
publication of NUREG-1022, Revision 3. Any changes in the draft that 
are not discussed in the ``Discussion of Changes'' document are to be 
considered editorial in nature and should not be construed to have any 
regulatory or technical significance.

Backfit Analysis

    The NRC has determined that the Backfit Rule, 10 CFR 50.109, 
``Backfitting,'' does not apply to the issuance of the revised guidance 
in NUREG-1022, Revision 3. The revised guidance in NUREG-1022, Revision 
3, addresses compliance with the information collection and reporting 
requirements in 10 CFR 50.72 and 10 CFR 50.73. The Backfit Rule does 
not apply to information collection and reporting requirements. 
Therefore, the NRC has not prepared a backfit analysis for the issuance 
of Revision 3 to NUREG-1022.
    In addition, the NRC has determined that issuance of the revised 
guidance in NUREG-1022, Revision 3, is not inconsistent with any of the 
issue finality provisions in 10 CFR part 52, ``Licenses, 
certifications, and approvals for nuclear power plants.'' Those issue 
finality provisions do not apply to information collection and 
reporting obligations imposed on operators of nuclear power plants. In 
addition, the issue finality provisions in 10 CFR part 52 do not apply 
to prospective applicants. As of the issuance of this revised guidance, 
there are no holders of combined licenses under 10 CFR part 52. Hence, 
there are no entities currently protected by 10 CFR part 52 issue 
finality provisions relevant to operation (i.e., the period after the 
Commission has made the finding under 10 CFR 52.103(g)). Therefore, the 
NRC is not precluded from issuing NUREG-1022, Revision 3, by any of the 
10 CFR Part 52 issue finality provisions.

Regulatory Analysis

    The NRC performs regulatory analyses to support many NRC actions 
that affect nuclear power reactor and nonpower reactor licensees. The 
regulatory analysis process is intended to be an integral part of the 
NRC's decisionmaking that systematically provides complete disclosure 
of the relevant information supporting a regulatory decision. The 
NUREG/BR-0058, Revision 4, ``Regulatory Analysis Guidelines of the U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission,'' issued September 2004 (ADAMS Accession 
No. ML042820192) sets forth the NRC's policy for the preparation and 
the contents of regulatory analyses. As discussed in Section 2.2 of 
NUREG/BR-0058, Revision 4, mechanisms used by the NRC staff to 
establish or communicate generic requirements, guidance, requests, or 
staff positions that would affect a change in the use of resources by 
its licensees should include an accompanying regulatory analysis. The 
changes found in Draft NUREG-1022, Revision 3, can be construed as 
offering new positions or possibly affecting licensee resources. As a 
result, the staff determined that it should perform a regulatory 
analysis in order to provide complete disclosure of the relevant 
information supporting decisions associated with changes found in Draft 
NUREG-1022, Revision 3. The regulatory analysis can be found in ADAMS 
under Accession No. ML11116A168.

Public Comments

    This document requests comments from interested members of the 
public by December 12, 2011. After evaluating the comments received, 
the staff will either reconsider the proposed change or announce the 
availability of the change in a subsequent document published in the 
Federal Register (perhaps with some changes as a result of public 
comments).

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 30th day of September 2011.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Timothy Kobetz,
Branch Chief, Reactor Inspection Branch, Division of Inspections and 
Regional Support, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2011-26419 Filed 10-12-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P