[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]
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