[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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