[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 66 (Wednesday, April 6, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19998-19999]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-07907]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2016-0006]


Operator Licensing Examination Standards for Power Reactors

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft NUREG; additional changes and reopen comment period.

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SUMMARY: On February 5, 2016, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
(NRC) published draft NUREG-1021, Revision 11, ``Operator Licensing 
Examination Standards for Power Reactors'' for public comment. The 
public comment period was originally scheduled to close on March 21, 
2016. On March 3, 2016, the comment period was extended to April 5, 
2016. On March 18, 2016, the NRC posted three updated sections of 
Examination Standards (ES) in NUREG-1021 that reflect three additional 
changes that the NRC proposes to incorporate into Revision 11. The 
public comment period closed on April 5, 2016. The NRC has decided to 
reopen the public comment period to allow more time for members of the 
public to develop and submit comments on Revision 11.

DATES: The extended public comment period that ended on April 5, 2016 
has been reopened for comments requested in the document published on 
March 3, 2016 (81 FR 11302), including comments on the additional 
sections of NUREG-1021 posted on March 18, 2016. Comments should be 
filed no later than May 6, 2016. Comments received after this date will 
be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC staff is able to 
ensure consideration only for 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-2016-0006. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; 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: OWFN-12-H08, 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: Maurin Scheetz, telephone: 301-415-
2758; email: [email protected]; or Timothy Kolb, telephone: 301-
415-0783; email: [email protected]. Both are staff of the Office of 
Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2016-0006 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-2016-0006.
     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 NUREG is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML16028A409. The 
updated sections are available in ADAMS under Accession Nos. 
ML16077A223, ML16077A225, and ML16077A227 for ES-205, ES-501, and ES-
502, respectively.
     NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public 
documents at the NRC's PDR, O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.

B. Submitting Comments

    Please include Docket ID NRC-2016-0006 in 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 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. Discussion

    On February 5, 2016 (81 FR 6301), the NRC published draft NUREG-
1021, Revision 11, ``Operator Licensing Examination Standards for Power 
Reactors'' for public comment. The comment period was extended on March 
3, 2016 (81 FR 11302). The extended public comment period closed on 
April 5, 2016. The NRC has decided

[[Page 19999]]

to reopen the public comment period until May 6, 2016 because three 
additional changes are proposed for incorporation into the NUREG: (1) 
Reducing the number of times per year the NRC offers the Generic 
Fundamentals Examination; (2) eliminating the informal review process; 
and (3) extending the post-exam comment period. These changes are 
reflected in updated sections ES-205, Procedures for Administering the 
Generic Fundamentals Examination Program; ES-501, Initial Post 
Examination Activities; and ES-502, Denials of Applications. These 
sections are available for review in the supporting documents section 
of Docket ID NRC-2016-0006. Specifically, starting in 2017, the NRC 
proposes to reduce the number of times per year that it offers the 
Generic Fundamentals Examination from four times per year to two times 
per year. The NRC proposes to discontinue the informal review process, 
the practice of performing informal staff reviews of proposed license 
denials at the request of an applicant. Applicants whose license 
applications are denied will retain hearing rights under Title 10 of 
the Code of Federal Regulations 2.103(b)(2). Finally, the NRC proposes 
to extend the post exam comment period to allow the NRC and the 
facility licensee sufficient time to consider all post exam comments 
for both the written examination and the operating test. These changes 
are currently before the Commission for vote as part of the Project AIM 
re-baselining effort (SECY-16-0009) (ADAMS Accession No. ML16028A189). 
The NRC presented these changes to the nuclear industry at the Nuclear 
Energy Institute's National Operator Licensing Workshop on February 9, 
2016 and during a panel session at the NRC's Regulatory Information 
Conference on March 9, 2016. Furthermore, a public meeting was held on 
March 31, 2016 in Rockville, Maryland, to discuss the scope of these 
additional changes.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 31 day of March, 2016.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Maurin Scheetz,
Acting Chief, Operator Licensing and Training Branch, Division of 
Inspection and Regional Support, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2016-07907 Filed 4-5-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P