[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 207 (Friday, October 25, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64030-64031]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-25258]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

 [NRC-2013-0234]


Monitoring Criteria and Methods To Calculate Occupational 
Radiation Doses

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft regulatory guide; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-8031, ``Monitoring 
Criteria and Methods to Calculate Occupational Radiation Doses.'' This 
guide describes methods that the NRC staff considers acceptable for 
licensees to use to determine monitoring criteria and calculate 
occupational radiation doses.

DATES: Submit comments by December 24, 2013. Comments received after 
this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC 
is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before 
this date. Although a time limit is given, comments and suggestions in 
connection with items for inclusion in guides currently being developed 
or improvements in all published guides are encouraged at any time.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comment 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-2013-0234. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-287-
3422; 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: 3WFN, 06-44M, 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: Harriet Karagiannis, telephone: 301-
251-7477, email: [email protected], or Doris Lewis, 
telephone: 301-251-7559, email: [email protected]. Both of the Office 
of Nuclear Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Accessing Information and Submitting Comments

A. Accessing Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2013-0234 when contacting the NRC 
about the availability of information regarding this document. You may 
access publicly-available information related to this action by the 
following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2013-0234.
     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 draft regulatory guide 
is available electronically in ADAMS under Accession No. ML13168A095. 
The regulatory analysis may be found in ADAMS under Accession No. 
ML13168A096.
    Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and NRC approval is not 
required to reproduce them.
     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-2013-0234 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 posts all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as entering 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. Additional Information

    The NRC is issuing for public comment a draft guide in the NRC's 
``Regulatory Guide'' series. This series was developed to describe and 
make available to the public such information as methods that are 
acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the 
NRC's regulations, techniques that the staff uses in

[[Page 64031]]

evaluating specific problems or postulated accidents, and data that the 
staff needs in its review of applications for permits and licenses.
    This draft regulatory guide, entitled, ``Monitoring Criteria and 
Methods to Calculate Occupational Radiation Doses,'' is temporarily 
identified by its task number, DG-8031. The DG-8031 is proposed 
revision 1 of Regulatory Guide (RG) 8.34, dated July 1992.
    The NRC issued RG 8.34 in 1992, to provide guidance on acceptable 
methods of monitoring and calculating occupational radiation doses. On 
December 4, 2007 (72 FR 68043), the NRC revised the definition of total 
effective dose equivalent (TEDE) in part 20 of Title 10 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Standards for Protection Against 
Radiation,'' and in 10 CFR part 50, ``Domestic Licensing of Production 
and Utilization Facilities.'' Previously, the definition of the TEDE 
was the sum of the deep dose equivalent (DDE) and the committed 
effective dose equivalent (CEDE), DDE to account for external exposure 
and CEDE to account for internal exposure. In the revised definition of 
TEDE, DDE was replaced with the effective dose equivalent for external 
exposure (EDEX).
    As a result of the changed definition of TEDE, RG 8.34 is 
inconsistent with the current regulatory rule. Therefore, RG 8.34 needs 
to be revised to reflect the rule change. In addition, the NRC staff 
has incorporated guidance on how to calculate occupational radiation 
doses for wound contamination to the extremities into this draft 
revision of RG 8.34.

III. Backfitting and Issue Finality

    This draft regulatory guide, if finalized, would not constitute 
backfitting as defined in 10 CFR 50.109 (the Backfit Rule) and would 
not be otherwise inconsistent with the issue finality provisions in 10 
CFR part 52, ``Licenses, Certifications and Approvals for Nuclear Power 
Plants.'' As discussed in the ``Implementation'' section of this draft 
regulatory guide, the NRC has no current intention to impose this draft 
regulatory guide on holders of current operating licenses, early site 
permits or combined licenses, unless this draft regulatory guide 
becomes part of the licensing basis for the facility.
    If this draft regulatory guide is finalized, the NRC may apply the 
revised regulatory guide to applications for operating licenses, early 
site permits and combined licenses docketed by the NRC as of the date 
of issuance of the revised regulatory guide, as well as to future 
applications for operating licenses, early site permits and combined 
licenses submitted after the issuance of the revised regulatory guide. 
Such action would not constitute backfitting as defined in 10 CFR 
50.109(a)(1) nor be otherwise inconsistent with the applicable issue 
finality provision in 10 CFR Part 52, because such applicants or 
potential applicants are not within the scope of entities protected by 
the Backfit Rule or the relevant issue finality provisions in part 52.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 3rd day of October 2013.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Thomas H. Boyce,
Chief, Regulatory Guide Development Branch, Division of Engineering, 
Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2013-25258 Filed 10-24-13; 8:45 am]
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