[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 141 (Tuesday, July 23, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44165-44167]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-17641]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2013-0159]
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Enforcement Policy
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Enforcement policy; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is conducting an
assessment and seeking stakeholder views on issues relating to a
potential revision to the Enforcement Policy regarding issuance of
orders banning individuals from NRC-licensed activities for less than 1
year and expanding the use of civil penalties in cases involving
deliberate misconduct by individuals.
DATES: Submit comments by September 23, 2013. Comments received after
this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC
staff is able to ensure 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-2013-0159. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-287-
3422; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact
the individual 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: 3WFN-6A44MP, 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: John R. Wray, Office of Enforcement,
U.S.
[[Page 44166]]
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone:
301-415-1288; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Accessing Information and Submitting Comments
A. Accessing Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2013-0159 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-2013-0159.
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 notice (if that document is
available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that a document is
referenced. The Enforcement Policy is available in ADAMS under
Accession No. ML12340A295.
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.
NRC's Public Web site: Go to http://www.nrc.gov and select
``Public Meetings and Involvement,'' then ``Enforcement,'' and then
``Enforcement Policy.''
B. Submitting Comments
Please include Docket ID NRC-2013-0159 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 your
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. Background
In SECY-12-0047, ``Revisions to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Enforcement Policy,'' dated March 28, 2012 (ADAMS Accession No.
ML12045A025), the staff recommended that the Commission approve the
staff's plan to revise the Enforcement Policy with specific
modifications which addressed items from Staff Requirements Memorandum
(SRM), ``Staff Requirements--SECY-09-0190--Major Revision to NRC
Enforcement Policy,'' dated August 27, 2010 (ADAMS Accession No.
ML102390327). The staff also indicated in SECY-12-0047 that it was
considering the merits and potential implications of expanding the use
of civil penalties in cases involving deliberate misconduct by
individuals (licensed or unlicensed) and of issuing orders banning
individuals (licensed or unlicensed) for less than 1 year, and that,
based on its evaluation, the staff might propose to the Commission
future changes to the Enforcement Policy. In SRM-SECY-12-0047,
``Revisions to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Enforcement Policy,''
dated November 28, 2012 (ADAMS Accession No. ML12333A301), the
Commission approved the staff's proposed Enforcement Policy changes
and, in addition, directed the staff to evaluate potential future
revisions of the Enforcement Policy regarding issuance of orders
banning individuals from NRC-licensed activities for periods of less
than 1 year and expanding the use of civil penalties in cases involving
deliberate misconduct by individuals. The Commission stated that the
staff should carefully consider the potential implications and
potential benefits of such revisions to the NRC Enforcement program,
including:
The risk of diminishing the impact of imposing a ban, or
imposing civil penalties so small that they downplay the seriousness of
a violation;
The difficulty in maintaining the clarity, consistency,
and certainty of the process while attempting to weigh different sets
of circumstances to determine appropriate periods of time for such
bans; and
The fact that a ban of any length of time may have serious
consequences for the individual who is banned.
III. Discussion
The NRC staff is considering the merits and potential implications
associated with revising the Enforcement Policy to endorse expanding
the use of civil penalties in cases involving deliberate misconduct by
individuals and issuance of orders banning individuals from NRC-
licensed activities for less than 1 year. As described in Section 4.0
of the Enforcement Policy, the NRC considers taking enforcement action
against individuals who engage in deliberate misconduct that causes a
licensee to be in violation of the regulations, an order, or the terms
and conditions of an NRC license. In addition, the NRC considers taking
enforcement action against individuals (licensed or unlicensed) to whom
the NRC has issued an order that the individual subsequently violated.
If enforcement action is taken against an individual, the staff
normally issues either a notice of violation (NOV) or an order
prohibiting involvement in NRC-licensed activities (i.e., a ban).
Except in cases involving violations of Section 206 of the Energy
Reorganization Act of 1974, the NRC normally does not impose civil
penalties against individuals, consistent with a basic tenet in Section
4.0 of the Enforcement Policy that licensees are held responsible for
acts of their employees. However, under section 234 of the Atomic
Energy Act of 1954, as amended, the NRC has the authority to impose
civil penalties on individuals who violate the NRC's deliberate
misconduct rule.
The initial determination of the duration of a ban is normally
based on the significance of the underlying violation and the
individual's level of responsibility in the organization. When the NRC
has, in the past, deemed that banning an individual was warranted, the
length of the ban has typically been for 1, 3, or 5 years, although
longer bans have been used in particularly egregious cases. However,
the Enforcement Policy does not provide that level of specificity but,
instead, merely states that normally the period of suspension would not
exceed 5 years.
The staff acknowledges that a ban of a year or more can have a
significant effect on the responsible individual's livelihood, and that
there is a significant disparity between the impacts of an
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NOV and a 1-year ban. Therefore, the staff believes that, depending on
the significance of an individual's actions, the use of other sanctions
in individual enforcement actions warrants further review. For example,
two possible alternatives whose impacts would fall between those of an
NOV and a 1-year ban could be issuing a civil penalty or a ban of 6
months.
Therefore, the staff intends to evaluate advantages and
disadvantages of expanding the use of civil penalties in cases
involving deliberate misconduct by individuals and of issuing bans for
less than 1 year. In considering these options, the staff is soliciting
public comment on both the concept and possible specifics related to a
potential revision to the Enforcement Policy and other program
documents describing these alternatives. Specifically, the staff is
seeking stakeholder input including but, not limited to, the following:
Given that an individual who has engaged in deliberate
misconduct is offered the opportunity to participate in the NRC's
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, in which modifications to
an individual sanction can include a ban for less than 1 year or a
civil penalty, is there a benefit to modifying the Enforcement Policy?
When individual action is deemed necessary, how should the
NRC determine whether that action should be an NOV, a civil penalty, or
a ban?
What is the risk of an employer simply ``reimbursing'' an
individual for a civil penalty if production is put ahead of safety?
Should the NRC be concerned with such a potential and, if so, how would
it be mitigated?
Regarding the amount of a civil penalty issued to
individuals, how can the NRC assure that the Enforcement Policy would
be applied in a fair and consistent manner? Specifically, how should
the amount of a civil penalty be determined? Should a set individual
civil penalty amount be used, or should the individual civil penalty
amount be calculated based on specific factors:
[cir] If a set individual civil penalty amount should be used, what
would be the appropriate amount? Would it be fair to propose the same
civil penalty amount on individuals regardless of salaries?
[cir] If a variable individual civil penalty amount should be used,
what factors (e.g. salary level of individual, safety significance of
violation, benefit or hardship to the individual, etc.) should be
considered, and how should they be included in the calculation?
With respect to the use of either civil penalties or bans
for less than 1 year, would there be any unintended consequences the
NRC should consider? If so, provide examples.
Based on the written comments received from stakeholders, the staff
may conduct a public meeting to provide for further discussions. The
NRC will use any public input received as part of its evaluation to
determine the merits and potential implications of expanding the use of
civil penalties in cases involving deliberate misconduct by individuals
and of issuing bans for less than 1 year, including the feasibility of
developing criteria to ensure their fair and consistent application.
Following its evaluation, the staff may propose changes to the
Enforcement Policy to the Commission for its consideration.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 16th day of July 2013.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Roy P. Zimmerman,
Director, Office of Enforcement.
[FR Doc. 2013-17641 Filed 7-22-13; 8:45 am]
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