[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 133 (Thursday, July 11, 2013)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 41720-41721]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-16652]
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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. 133 / Thursday, July 11, 2013 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 41720]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 32
[PRM-32-8; NRC-2013-0078]
CampCo Petition to Allow Commercial Distribution of Tritium
Markers
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; receipt and request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is publishing for
comment a petition for rulemaking (PRM) filed with the Commission by
CampCo (the petitioner) on December 2, 2011, and supplemented on
September 18, 2012. The petitioner requests that the NRC amend its
regulations to allow the commercial distribution of tritium markers for
use under exemption from licensing requirements.
DATES: Submit comments by September 24, 2013. Comments received after
this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC
is able to assure consideration only for comments received on or before
this date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any 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 Docket ID NRC-2013-0078. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-492-
3668; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact
the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of
this document.
Email comments to: [email protected]. If you do
not receive an automatic email reply confirming receipt, then contact
us at 301-415-1677.
Fax comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission at 301-415-1101.
Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and
Adjudications Staff.
Hand deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville,
Maryland 20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. (Eastern Time) Federal
workdays; telephone: 301-415-1677.
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: Vanessa Cox, Office of Federal and
State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-
8342, email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Accessing Information and Submitting Comments
A. Accessing Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2013-0078 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information for this petition for rulemaking.
You may access information related to this petition for rulemaking that
the NRC possesses and is publicly available, by the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2013-0078. The full
text of the incoming petition and supplemental information is available
in the docket at www.regulations.gov.
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 incoming petition and
supplemental information is available in ADAMS under Accession Nos.
ML12132A332 and ML13112B010.
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-2013-0078 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. 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.
II. The Petition
The NRC received a PRM (ADAMS Accession No. ML12132A332) requesting
that the NRC amend its regulations concerning exemptions from licensing
requirements to include illumination markers containing tritium.
On July 5, 2012 (ADAMS Accession No. ML121580046), the NRC
requested supplemental information to further clarify the request. On
September 18, 2012 (ADAMS Accession No. ML13112B010), the petitioner
responded to our request and submitted supplemental information, which
clarified that the request is for the NRC to amend its regulations at
Sec. Sec. 30.15, 30.19(c), and 32.22(b) of Title 10 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (10 CFR) in order to allow the commercial
distribution of tritium markers for use under exemption from licensing
requirements. The petitioner also provided a dose assessment for the
purpose of showing that the tritium markers would result in acceptably
low doses.
[[Page 41721]]
III. The Petitioner
CampCo is an established wholesale stocking master distributor of
tritium watches, knives, flashlights, binoculars, law enforcement and
outdoor gear, located in Los Angeles, California.
IV. Background
Section 30.15, ``Certain items containing byproduct material,'' is
a list of exemptions from licensing requirements for specific products
with specific radionuclide quantity limits and, in some cases, other
limits. Section 30.19, ``Self-luminous products containing tritium,
krypton-85, or promethium-147,'' is a class exemption for self-luminous
products containing certain radionuclides that can be used to create
light. A class exemption covers a class of products for which a
specific product must be approved through the licensing process, which
involves providing safety information about the product and
demonstrating that the product meets a number of safety criteria.
Paragraph (c) in 10 CFR 30.19 restricts the use of the exemption in
paragraph 30.19(a), indicating that the exemption does not apply to
tritium, krypton-85, or promethium-147 used in products primarily for
frivolous purposes or in toys or adornments. Section 32.22, ``Self-
luminous products containing tritium, krypton-85 or promethium-147:
Requirements for license to manufacture, process, produce, or initially
transfer.'' contains the requirements for an applicant who wishes to
obtain a license to distribute a product for use under the exemption in
10 CFR 30.19. Paragraph (b) of that section indicates that the
Commission may deny an application for a specific license if the end
uses of the product cannot be reasonably foreseen. The petitioner notes
that the NRC has previously denied approval of products because end
uses of the product could not be reasonably foreseen.
V. Proposed Actions
The specific actions requested by the petitioner are:
(1) To amend 10 CFR 30.15 to add a specific exemption for tritium
markers with maximum activity of 25 millicuries (925 mBq) of tritium;
(2) To amend 10 CFR 30.19(c) to add that tritium markers used to
label equipment are not considered to be toys or adornments and shall
not be sold as such; and
(3) To amend 10 CFR 32.22(b) to include a statement that an
applicant cannot be denied a device registration or license if they
have adequately demonstrated that the criteria in the applicable
regulations have been met.
The petitioner contends that the statement in 10 CFR 32.22(b),
allowing denial of an application if the end use of the product cannot
be reasonably foreseen, is a subjective statement without specific
criteria and that it is unfair to deny applications based upon
subjective statements where the criteria are not codified in the
regulations. The petitioner also states that the term ``frivolous use''
is not clearly defined in the NRC's policy statement on consumer
products (March 16, 1965, 30 FR 3462; proposed revision October 14,
2011, 76 FR 63957) or in NRC's guidance and that there are no detailed
criteria used to make determinations.
VI. Request for Comment
The NRC has determined that the petition meets the threshold
sufficiency requirements for a petition for rulemaking under Sec.
2.802, ``Petition for rulemaking,'' and the petition has been docketed
as PRM-32-8. The NRC is requesting public comments on the petition for
rulemaking.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 5th day of July 2013.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Rochelle C. Bavol,
Acting Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2013-16652 Filed 7-10-13; 8:45 am]
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