[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 240 (Wednesday, December 14, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Page 77855]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-32065]



[[Page 77855]]

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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2010-0294]


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

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of Availability.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is announcing the 
completion and availability of the new criteria for identifying nuclear 
material licensees for discussion at the Agency Action Review Meeting 
(AARM). The criteria may be found in SECY-11-0132 (NRC's Agencywide 
Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession Number: 
ML112280111) or in the supplementary information below.
    The AARM is an agency meeting that allows senior NRC managers (1) 
to review the appropriateness of agency actions that have been taken 
for those nuclear power plants with significant performance problems as 
determined by the reactor oversight process (ROP) action matrix, (2) to 
review the appropriateness of agency actions for those nuclear material 
licensees, including fuel cycle facilities, with significant safety or 
security issues, (3) to ensure that coordinated courses of action have 
been developed and implemented for licensees of concern, (4) to review 
results of the staff's assessment of ROP effectiveness, including a 
review of approved deviations from the action matrix, and (5) to ensure 
that trends in industry and licensee performance are recognized and 
appropriately addressed.

ADDRESSES: A copy of SECY-11-0132 is available for inspection and/or 
copying for a fee in the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20874. Publicly available documents 
created or received at the NRC are accessible electronically through 
ADAMS 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 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 email to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Duane White, Division of Materials 
Safety and State Agreements, Office of Federal and State Materials and 
Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone (301) 415-6272, email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Background

    In 2002, the 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 NRC 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 and to 
incorporate NRC's most recent policies and procedures.
    The agency currently identifies nuclear material licensees, 
including fuel cycle and Agreement State licensees, for AARM discussion 
based on operating performance, inspection results, and the severity of 
problems related to safety performance. The agency will continue to 
identify material licensees based on these same principles; however, 
one additional element (i.e., criterion), has been added that focuses 
on those material licensees previously discussed at the AARM who did 
not address or were ineffective in correcting their underlying issues.

Discussion

Criteria for Identifying Nuclear Material Licensees for Discussion at 
the AARM

    The new criteria for identifying nuclear material licensees for 
discussion at the AARM may be found in SECY-11-0132 (ADAMS Accession 
Number: ML112280111) and is provided below.
    (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 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). Also, 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.
    The NRC's strategic plan (NUREG-1614) and the referenced management 
directives and enforcement policy are available on NRC's public 
document collections Web page at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/.

Public Comments on the Proposed Criteria

    The proposed criteria for identifying nuclear material licensees 
with significant performance issues were published for comment on 
September 9, 2010 (75 FR 54917). The comment period ended on October 
25, 2010. The NRC received no public comments on the proposed criteria.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 5th day of December 2011.
Mark A. Satorius,
Director, Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental 
Management Programs.
[FR Doc. 2011-32065 Filed 12-13-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P