[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 3 (Friday, January 4, 2013)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 663]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-31705]
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Rules and Regulations
Federal Register
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Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 3 / Friday, January 4, 2013 / Rules
and Regulations
[[Page 663]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Parts 20, 30, 40, 50, 70, and 72
RIN 3150-AI55
[NRC-2011-0286]
Decommissioning Planning During Operations
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Regulatory guide; issuance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a new
regulatory guide (RG) 4.22, ``Decommissioning Planning During
Operations.'' The guide describes a method that the NRC staff considers
acceptable for use by holders of licenses in complying with the NRC's
Decommissioning Planning Rule (DPR) (76 FR 35512; June 17, 2011). The
DPR went into effect on December 17, 2012, and is intended to minimize
the likelihood of new ``legacy sites,'' which are NRC-licensed
facilities with insufficient resources to complete decommissioning
activities and termination of a license at the end of operations.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2011-0286 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may submit access information related to this document, which the NRC
possesses and is publicly available, using the following methods:
Federal rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2011-0286. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-492-
3668; email: [email protected].
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may access publicly available documents online in the NRC
Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the
search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and then select ``Begin Web-
based ADAMS Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's
Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-
4737, or by email to [email protected]. The regulatory guide is
available electronically under ADAMS Accession Number ML12158A361. The
regulatory analysis may be found in ADAMS under Accession No.
ML12158A375.
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Regulatory guides are not
copyrighted, and NRC approval is not required to reproduce them.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Edward O'Donnell, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-251-
7455, email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The NRC is issuing a new guide in the NRC's Regulatory Guide
series. This series was developed to describe and make available to the
public information such as methods that are acceptable to the NRC staff
for implementing specific parts of the agency's regulations, techniques
that the staff uses in evaluating specific problems or postulated
accidents, and data that the staff needs in its review of applications
for permits and licenses.
II. Further Information
RG 4.22 describes a method that the NRC staff considers acceptable
for use by holders of licenses in complying with the DPR. On December
13, 2011 (76 FR 77431), the NRC issued Draft Regulatory Guide, DG-4014,
``Decommissioning Planning During Operations,'' in the Federal Register
with a public comment period ending on February 10, 2012. Subsequently,
the public comment period was extended from February 10, 2012 to March
30, 2012 (77 FR 8751; February 15, 2012) to allow more time for
comment. In addition, the NRC staff conducted a workshop at NRC
headquarters and a concurrent webinar on July 12, 2012, and the
comments received at the workshop were considered in the revision of
DG-4014. The written and oral public comments suggested areas that
needed clarification, and the NRC revised the draft guide to address
these areas. The public comments and NRC staff response to them may be
found in ADAMS under Accession No. ML12278A021.
III. Backfitting and Issue Finality
The statement of considerations for the DPR discussed that rule's
compliance with applicable backfitting provisions (76 FR 35511, at
35562-63). This regulatory guide presents the NRC staff's first
guidance addressing compliance with Sec. 20.1501(a) and (b) of Title
10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) and the newly-added
paragraph (c) of 10 CFR 20.1406. The first issuance of guidance on a
newly-changed or newly-added rule provision does not constitute
backfitting or raise issue finality concerns, inasmuch as the guidance
must be consistent with the regulatory requirements in the newly-
changed or newly-added rule provisions and the backfitting and issue
finality considerations applicable to the newly-changed or newly-added
rule provisions must logically apply to this guidance. Therefore,
issuance of guidance addressing the newly-changed and newly-added
provisions of the amended rule does not constitute issuance of
``changed'' or ``new'' guidance within the meaning of the definition of
``backfitting'' in 10 CFR 50.109(a)(1). Similarly, the issuance of the
guidance addressing the newly-changed or newly-added provisions of the
amended rule, by itself, does not constitute an action inconsistent
with any of the issue finality provisions in 10 CFR part 52.
Accordingly, no further consideration of backfitting or issue finality
is needed as part of the issuance of this guidance addressing
compliance with the newly-changed provisions of Sec. 20.1501 and
newly-added paragraph (c) of Sec. 20.1406.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 27th day of December, 2012.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Jazel D. Parks,
Acting Chief, Regulatory Guide Development Branch, Division of
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2012-31705 Filed 1-3-13; 8:45 am]
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