[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 193 (Monday, October 6, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60197-60199]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-23717]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2014-0093]
Medical Evaluation of Licensed Personnel for Nuclear Power Plants
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Regulatory guide; issuance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing
revision 4 to Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.134, ``Medical Assessment of
Licensed
[[Page 60198]]
Operators or Applicants for Operator Licenses at Nuclear Power
Plants.'' The NRC is updating RG 1.134 based upon the regulatory
experience gained since the previous revision was issued and to endorse
the 2013 revision to the underlying consensus standard, American
National Standard Institute/American Nuclear Society (ANSI/ANS)
Standard 3.4, ``Medical Certification and Monitoring of Personnel
Requiring Licenses for Nuclear Power Plants.'' The guide helps to
ensure that medical certifications (and related medical evidence) are
sufficient to meet the NRC's nuclear power reactor operator licensing
requirements.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2014-0093 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may obtain publicly-available information related to this document
using any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2014-0093. 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.
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. Revision 4 of Regulatory Guide 1.134 is available in ADAMS
under Accession No. ML14189A385. The regulatory analysis may be found
in ADAMS under Accession No. ML13352A279.
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.
Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and NRC approval is not
required to reproduce them.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lawrence Vick, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation, telephone: 301-415-3181, email:
[email protected], or Richard Jervey, Office of Nuclear Regulatory
Research, telephone: 301-251-7404, email: [email protected]. Both
are staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The NRC is issuing a revision to an existing guide in the NRC's
``Regulatory Guide'' series. This series was developed to describe and
make available to the public information such as methods that are
acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the
agency's regulations, techniques that the staff uses in evaluating
specific problems or postulated accidents, and data that the staff
needs in its review of applications for permits and licenses.
Revision 4 of RG 1.134 was issued with a temporary identification
as draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-1310. The guidance is intended for
use by nuclear power plant license holders under part 50 of Title 10 of
the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Domestic Licensing of
Production and Utilization Facilities,'' and 10 CFR Part 52,
``Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.''
Licensees of these facilities are required under 10 CFR 50.54,
``Conditions of Licensees,'' to use qualified licensed operators as
described in 10 CFR Part 55, ``Operators' Licenses.''
Regulatory Guide 1.134, Revision 3, ``Medical Evaluation of
Licensed Personnel for Nuclear Power Plants,'' was issued in 1998 to
identify that consensus standard ANSI/ANS 3.4 (1996), ``Medical
Certification and Monitoring of Personnel Requiring Operator Licenses
for Nuclear Power Plants,'' was a method acceptable to the staff for
complying with those portions of the NRC's regulations associated with
approval or acceptance of medical examination certifications at nuclear
power plants.
The consensus standard ANSI/ANS 3.4 was issued in 2013 to provide
clarification and comprehensive medical guidance to improve industry's
consistent implementation of the standard. This included clarification
of specific minimum requirements, disqualifying conditions, conditional
restrictions, examination methods, and monitoring methods for each
medical area. The 2013 issue also included consideration of other
industry medical standards, including those of the U.S. Department of
Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration as well as medical
criteria that reflected progressions in medical science including
updated terminology, current medical practices, criteria for normality,
and risk assessments.
Regulatory Guide 1.134 was revised to identify to licensees that
ANSI/ANS 3.4-2013 is acceptable for their use. The guide helps to
ensure that medical certifications (and related medical evidence) used
to meet the operator licensing requirements of 10 CFR part 55 are
sufficient with respect to (1) an applicant's or operator licensee's
medical examination, as described in 10 CFR 55.21, ``Medical
Examination''; (2) a facility licensee's medical certification, as
described in 10 CFR 55.23, ``Certification''; (3) an operator
licensee's incapacitation because of disability or illness, as
described in 10 CFR 55.25, ``Incapacitation Because of Disability or
Illness''; and (4) a facility licensee's medical documentation, as
described in 10 CFR 55.27, ``Documentation.''
II. Additional Information
The DG-1310 was published in the Federal Register on April 25, 2014
(79 FR 23017), for a 30-day public comment period. The public comment
period closed on May 27, 2014. There were no public comments received
III. Congressional Review Act
This RG is a rule as defined in the Congressional Review Act (5
U.S.C. 801-808). However, the Office of Management and Budget has not
found it to be a major rule as defined in the Congressional Review Act.
IV. Backfitting and Issue Finality
Regulatory Guide 1.134, Revision 4, provides updated guidance on
the methods acceptable to the NRC staff for complying with the NRC's
regulations associated with approval or acceptance of the medical
assessment of an applicant for, or holder of, an operator or senior
operator license at a nuclear power plant. The guide applies to current
and future applicants for, and holders of, power reactor licenses under
10 CFR parts 50 and 52 and power reactor operating licenses under 10
CFR part 55. Issuance of RG 1.134, revision 4, does not constitute
backfitting under 10 CFR part 50 and is not otherwise inconsistent with
the issue finality provisions in 10 CFR Part 52. As discussed in the
``Implementation'' section of RG 1.134, revision 4, the NRC has no
current intention to impose the RG on current holders of 10 CFR part 50
operating licenses or 10 CFR part 52 combined licenses. Part 55 does
not
[[Page 60199]]
contain backfitting or issue finality regulations, and power reactor
operating licensees are not protected by the backfitting provisions in
10 CFR 50.109 or the 10 CFR part 52 issue finality provisions because
neither 10 CFR 50.109 nor 10 CFR part 52 applies to 10 CFR part 55
power reactor operating licensees.
This RG could be applied to applications for 10 CFR part 50
operating licenses, 10 CFR part 52 combined licenses, or 10 CFR part 55
operator licenses. Such action would not constitute backfitting as
defined in 10 CFR 50.109 or be otherwise inconsistent with the
applicable issue finality provision in 10 CFR part 52, inasmuch as such
applicants are not within the scope of entities protected by 10 CFR
50.109 or the relevant issue finality provisions in 10 CFR part 52.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 30th day of September, 2014.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Harriet Karagiannis,
Acting Chief, Regulatory Guidance and Generic Issues Branch, Division
of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2014-23717 Filed 10-3-14; 8:45 am]
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