[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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