[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 117 (Wednesday, June 18, 2014)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 34641-34642]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-14135]
========================================================================
Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
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.
========================================================================
Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 117 / Wednesday, June 18, 2014 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 34641]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Parts 26 and 73
[NRC-2014-0118]
RIN 3150-AJ41
Enhanced Security at Fuel Cycle Facilities; Special Nuclear
Material Transportation
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft regulatory basis; request for comment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting
comments on a draft regulatory basis to support the potential
amendments to revise a number of existing security-related regulations
relating to physical protection of special nuclear material (SNM) at
NRC-licensed facilities and in transit, as well as the fitness for duty
programs for security officers at certain fuel cycle facilities.
Potentially affected licensees include fuel cycle facilities, non-power
reactors, research and development facilities, industrial facilities,
and certain medical isotope production facilities.
DATES: Submit comments by August 4, 2014. Comments received after this
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is
only able to ensure consideration of 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-2014-0118. 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.
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
obtaining information and submitting comments, see ``Obtaining
Information and Submitting Comments'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
section of this document.
Comments that contain proprietary or sensitive
information: Please contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document to determine the most
appropriate method for submitting these comments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alex Sapountzis, Office of Nuclear
Security and Incident Response, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-287-3660, email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2014-0118 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain
publicly-available information related to this action by any of the
following methods:
Federal rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2014-0118.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection 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 basis document is available in ADAMS under Accession
No. ML14113A468.
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-2014-0118 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 in comment submissions 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, and 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 into ADAMS.
II. Discussion
The NRC is requesting comment on a draft regulatory basis to
support rulemaking to amend portions of Parts 26 and 73 of Title 10 of
the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) to strengthen physical
protection of SNM at NRC-licensed facilities and in transit, as well as
strengthen fatigue programs for security officers at certain fuel cycle
facilities. The draft regulatory basis supports potential rulemaking
efforts related to: (1) Enhanced security at fuel cycle facilities; (2)
special nuclear material transportation security; and (3) security-
force fatigue at certain nuclear facilities.
[[Page 34642]]
The specific objectives of these rulemaking efforts are to update
SNM physical protection requirements to: (1) Improve consistency and
clarity; (2) make generically applicable security requirements similar
to those imposed by security orders issued after the terrorist attacks
of September 11, 2001; (3) consider risk insights from new National
Laboratory studies, operational oversight and inspection activities,
and international guidance; and (4) use a risk-informed and
performance-based structure. The scope of the regulatory basis includes
physical protection of SNM at fuel cycle facilities and other
facilities that possess and use SNM, and the physical protection of SNM
in transit. Potentially affected licensees include fuel cycle
facilities, non-power reactors, research and development facilities,
industrial facilities, and certain medical isotope production
facilities. The regulatory basis, in part, explains why the NRC
believes the existing regulations should be updated, revised and
enhanced, presents alternatives to rulemaking, and discusses cost and
other impacts of the potential changes.
III. Specific Requests for Comments
The NRC requests that stakeholders consider answering the following
questions when commenting on the draft regulatory basis:
Is the NRC considering an appropriate approach for each
objective described in the draft regulatory basis? Should implementing
material attractiveness and its associated physical protection measures
be ``voluntary'' or should it be ``mandatory?'' Given that the
potentially revised regulations would be material-based rather than
facility-based, are the potential regulatory changes sufficiently
performance-based to allow licensees of different facility types to
effectively implement the potential physical protection performance
objectives and strategies for the various categories of special nuclear
material?
Section 3 of the draft regulatory basis discusses the
regulatory problems the NRC expects to address through rulemaking.
Section 4 presents the desired regulatory changes to address those
regulatory problems and Section 5 discusses alternatives to rulemaking
considered by the NRC staff. Are there other regulatory problems within
or related to the scope of the rulemaking efforts (see Section 1) that
the NRC should consider? Are there other approaches or alternatives the
NRC should consider to resolve those regulatory problems?
Section 8 of the draft regulatory basis presents the NRC
staff's initial assessment of cost and other impacts for a number of
key aspects of the potential regulatory changes (i.e., fixed site
physical protection, transportation physical protection, safety-
safeguards interface and fitness-for-duty impacts). The NRC staff
recognizes that this initial assessment is based on limited data. As
such, staff is seeking additional data and input relative to expected
and/or unintentional impacts from the desired regulatory changes. What
would be the potential impacts to stakeholders/licensees from
implementing any of the desired regulatory changes described in this
draft regulatory basis (e.g., what would be a reasonable cost estimate
for implementation of fatigue requirements for security officers at
Category I facilities in accordance to 10 CFR Part 26, Subpart I,
including startup and annual costs)?
The NRC staff recognizes that the security officer work
hour data provided voluntarily by licensees in the past and summarized
in Attachment 2 of the draft regulatory basis is limited. As such, are
there additional data or information (e.g., procedures that demonstrate
the licensee has fatigue measures in place for security officers at
their site, updated security officer work hour data from the most
recent 2-month period and so forth) that would inform the NRC staff's
assessment or analysis?
IV. Publicly Available Documents
The NRC may post additional materials related to this rulemaking
activity to the Federal rulemaking Web site at www.regulations.gov,
under Docket ID NRC-2014-0118. By making these documents publicly
available, the NRC seeks to inform stakeholders of the current status
of the NRC's rulemaking development activities and to provide
preparatory material for future public meetings.
The Federal rulemaking Web site allows you to receive alerts when
changes or additions occur in a docket folder. To subscribe: (1)
Navigate to the docket folder (NRC-2014-0118); (2) click the ``Sign up
for Email Alerts'' link; and (3) enter your email address and select
how frequently you would like to receive emails (daily, weekly, or
monthly).
V. Plain Writing
The Plain Writing Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-274) requires Federal
agencies to write documents in a clear, concise, well-organized manner.
The NRC has written this document to be consistent with the Plain
Writing Act as well as the Presidential Memorandum, ``Plain Language in
Government Writing,'' published June 10, 1998 (63 FR 31883). The NRC
requests comment on this document with respect to the clarity and
effectiveness of the language used.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of June, 2014.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Christopher G. Miller,
Director, Division of Intergovernmental Liaison and Rulemaking, Office
of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs.
[FR Doc. 2014-14135 Filed 6-17-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P