[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 58 (Thursday, March 26, 2015)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 15930-15931]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-06536]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 61
[NRC-2015-0003; NRC-2011-0012]
RIN-3150-AI92
Guidance for Conducting Technical Analyses for Low-Level
Radioactive Waste Disposal
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft NUREG; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for
public comment a draft NUREG, NUREG-2175, ``Guidance for Conducting
Technical Analyses for 10 CFR part 61.'' The NRC is proposing to amend
its regulations that govern low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) disposal
facilities to require new and revised site-specific technical analyses,
to permit the development of site-specific criteria for LLRW acceptance
based on the results of these analyses, and to facilitate
implementation and better align the requirements with current health
and safety standards. The NRC has prepared draft guidance to address
the implementation of the proposed regulations. This notice is
announcing the availability of the draft guidance for public comment.
DATES: Submit comments by July 24, 2015. Comments received after this
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission
is able to ensure consideration only for comments received 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-2015-0003. The
proposed amendments to the NRC LLRW regulations are issued in a
separate notice, under Docket ID NRC-2011-0012. Address questions about
NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-287-3422; email:
[email protected]. For technical questions, contact the
individuals listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of
this document.
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration,
Mail Stop: 3WFN-06-A44M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001.
For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Priya Yadav, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301-415-6667, email:
[email protected]; or Stephen Dembek, Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301-415-2342, email:
[email protected]; U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
[[Page 15931]]
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2015-0003 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-2015-0003.
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
guidance for conducting technical analyses for 10 CFR part 61, Draft
NUREG-2175, is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML15056A516.
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-2015-0003 in the subject line of your
comment submission.
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 will post all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as enter 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 into ADAMS.
II. Discussion
The guidance for conducting technical analyses for part 61 of Title
10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), NUREG-2175, provides
guidance on conducting technical analyses (i.e., performance
assessment, inadvertent intruder assessment, assessment of the
stability of a LLRW disposal site, defense-in-depth analyses,
protective assurance period analyses, and performance period analyses)
to demonstrate compliance with the performance objectives in the
proposed 10 CFR part 61, ``Licensing Requirements for Land Disposal of
Radioactive Waste.'' This guidance should facilitate licensees'
implementation of the proposed amendments as well as assist regulatory
authorities in reviewing the technical analyses. This guidance applies
to all waste streams disposed of at a 10 CFR part 61 LLRW disposal
facility, including large quantities of depleted uranium and blended
waste.
NUREG-2175 provides detailed guidance in new areas, such as the
inadvertent intruder analysis, defense-in-depth analyses, and analyses
for the three phases of the analysis timeframe (compliance period,
protective assurance period, and performance period). This guidance
discusses the use of a graded level of effort needed to risk-inform the
analyses for the compliance period (1,000 years), the protective
assurance period (from 1,000 years to 10,000 years after disposal site
closure), and also covers the performance period analyses that should
be performed for analysis of long-lived waste beyond 10,000 years.
Additional topics covered in this document include: (1) Demonstration
that radiation doses are minimized to the extent reasonably achievable;
(2) identification and screening of the features, events, and processes
to develop scenarios for technical analyses; (3) use of the waste
classification tables or the results of the technical analyses to
develop site-specific waste acceptance criteria; and (4) use of
performance confirmation to evaluate and verify the accuracy of
information used to demonstrate compliance prior to site closure.
III. Proposed Rulemaking
On May 3, 2011, the NRC published preliminary proposed rule
language (76 FR 24831), ``Part 61: Site Specific Analyses for
Demonstrating Compliance with Subpart C Performance Objectives'' (ADAMS
Accession No. ML111150205). As a result of additional direction from
the Commission in staff requirement memoranda (SRM)-COMWDM-11-0002/
COMGEA-11-0002, ``Revisions to Part 61,'' dated January 19, 2012 (ADAMS
Accession No. ML120190360), the NRC staff published a second version of
the preliminary proposed rule language (77 FR 72997; December 7, 2012),
``November 2012 Preliminary Rule Language for Proposed Revisions to
Low-Level Waste Disposal Requirements (10 CFR part 61)''
(ADAMS Accession No. ML12311A444). Based on comments received, the
NRC published in the Proposed Rules section of this issue of the
Federal Register a third version of the proposed rule language.
Documents related to the proposed rule, including public comments, are
available on the Federal rulemaking Web site at http://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2011-0012.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 5th day of February 2015.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Andrew Persinko,
Deputy Director, Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and
Waste Programs, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2015-06536 Filed 3-25-15; 8:45 am]
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