[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]


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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. 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.

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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]
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