[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 106 (Monday, June 3, 2013)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 33008-33010]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-13079]
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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. 78, No. 106 / Monday, June 3, 2013 / Proposed
Rules
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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 (NRC) is seeking
additional 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 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, as well as comments
on the draft Regulatory Basis (ML13109A281). Additionally, the NRC will
hold a public Webinar to facilitate the public's and other
stakeholders' understanding of these issues and the submission of
comments.
DATES: The public Webinar will be held in Rockville, Maryland on June
4, 2013, from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (EDT). Submit comments on the
issues discussed in this document by August 2, 2013. Comments received
after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods
(unless this document describes a different method for submitting
comments on a specific subject):
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, email: [email protected]. For technical
questions, contact the individual(s) listed in the FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.
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.
For additional direction on accessing information and submitting
comments, see ``Accessing Information and Submitting Comments'' in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. James Shepherd, Office of Federal
and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-
6712; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The NRC published the Decommissioning Planning Rule (DPR) in 2011
(76 FR 33512; June 17, 2011) with an effective date of December 17,
2012. 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. In the
Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM), SRM-SECY-07-0177--Proposed Rule:
Decommissioning Planning (10 CFR Parts 20, 30, 40, 50, 70, and 72; RIN:
3150-AH45) (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.'' To assist in this process, the NRC staff held a public Webinar
on July 25, 2011, during which time input on a draft regulatory basis
and a set of defined questions concerning a potential rulemaking was
obtained from members of the public, licensees, Agreement States, non-
Agreement States, and other interested persons. Additionally,
interested persons were also afforded an opportunity to provide written
comments on the same issues. (See 76 FR 42074; July 18, 2011.) Based
upon this input, the NRC staff revised its draft regulatory basis.
Subsequently, in SRM-SECY-12-0046--Options for Revising the
Regulatory Approach to Groundwater Protection (ADAMS Accession No.
ML121450704), the Commission directed the staff to continue with its
development of a regulatory basis for a rulemaking on remediation of
residual radioactivity during the operational phase and to obtain
public input on the draft regulatory basis. Therefore, the NRC staff is
collecting supplementary input on a revised draft regulatory basis for
a potential rulemaking requiring prompt remediation during operations.
II. Discussion
Currently, there are no NRC regulations that require licensees to
promptly remediate radiological contamination. To enhance stakeholder
engagement in finalizing a regulatory basis as a precursor to a
proposed rule, the NRC staff developed a revised Draft Regulatory Basis
(ML13109A281) to facilitate discussion with, and to solicit input from,
interested stakeholders. The revised Draft Regulatory Basis describes
the NRC's preferred approach to require licensees to promptly remediate
radioactive spills, leaks and other areas of radioactive concentrations
when certain threshold limits are met. NRC's preferred approach
contemplates using the NRC effluent discharge concentrations as the
threshold for action. The preferred approach would also include a
provision allowing licensees to delay remediation when certain
conditions are met. To justify delaying remediation, licensees would be
required to perform analyses such as dose assessment, risk-assessments
and/or cost-benefit analyses for the NRC's
[[Page 33009]]
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, leak, or other release when certain
contaminant thresholds, such as the restricted release limits in
Section 20.1403 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10
CFR), 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 publication.
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 revised Draft Regulatory Basis (ML13109A281).
III. Specific Questions
The NRC asked the following questions before, and received some
public input. Several commenters stated that an additional rule is not
necessary; and that issues can be addressed either by existing rule or
by site-specific action. Others stated the proposed thresholds are not
appropriate and that interim remediation is not cost effective. Those
who supported the rule pointed to cases where there is significant
contamination, and drew parallels to other regulations that require
early cleanup, such as RCRA. As a result, the staff revised the
previous draft document. The NRC is now seeking further stakeholder
input on those questions and the staff's revisions to the document
based on earlier comments:
1. Should the NRC proceed with rulemaking to address remediation of
residual radioactivity during the operational phase? Why or why not?
2. If the NRC does implement a rule that requires prompt
remediation of radioactive spills and leaks, what concentration, dose
limits, or other threshold limits should trigger prompt remediation?
Should the thresholds differ for soil versus groundwater contamination?
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 Regulatory 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 for June 4, 2013, from 12:00 p.m.
to 3:00 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 (ML13143A149). 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 revised Draft Regulatory 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].
V. Accessing Information and Submitting Comments
A. Accessing Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2011-0162 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information regarding this document. You may
access information related to this document, which the NRC possesses
and is publicly available, by any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2011-0162.
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 ADAMS accession number
for each document referenced in this document (if that document is
available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that a document is
referenced.
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.
B. Submitting Comments
Please include Docket ID NRC-2011-0162 in the subject line of your
comment submission, in order to ensure that the NRC is able to make
your comment submission available to the public in this docket.
The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact
information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in you
comment submission. The NRC will post all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as enter the comment submissions into
ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove
identifying or contact information.
If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons
for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to
include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be
publicly disclosed in their comment submission.
[[Page 33010]]
Your request should state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment
submissions to remove such information before making the comment
submissions available to the public or entering the comment submissions
into ADAMS.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 28th day of May 2013.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Andrew Persinko, 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. 2013-13079 Filed 5-31-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P