[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 161 (Tuesday, August 22, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39915-39916]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-17678]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2017-0181]


Identifying and Reporting Human Performance Incidents

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft regulatory issue summary; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is seeking public 
comment on a draft regulatory issue

[[Page 39916]]

summary (RIS), RIS 2017-XX, ``Identifying and Reporting Human 
Performance Incidents.'' This RIS informs licensees of the requirements 
regarding reporting human performance incidents and how to properly 
report those matters.

DATES: Submit comments by September 21, 2017. 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-2017-0181. 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: TWFN-8-D36M, 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: Carmen Franklin, Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research, telephone: 301-415-2386, email: 
[email protected] and Alexander Schwab, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation, telephone: 301-415-8539, email: [email protected]. 
Both are staff of the 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-2017-0181 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-2017-0181.
     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 RIS, ``Identifying and Reporting Human Performance Incidents'' is 
available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML16029A010.
     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-2017-0181 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. Background

    Humans are integral to the safe operation of nuclear power plants. 
In the late 1970s, the NRC began to focus on ensuring adequate training 
of plant staff to perform their assigned tasks. The NRC studied the 
effects of shift work on health, and whether control room simulators 
would improve training, both factors affecting performance. The agency 
uses human factors information provided by licensees, as required by 
Sec.  50.73(b)(2)(ii)(J) of title 10 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations, as a means to monitor and track human performance by 
highlighting concerns in the areas of training, procedures, fitness for 
duty, oversight, problem identification and resolution, communication, 
human system interface environments, and work planning and practice. 
The information is used to assist in programmatic oversight of 
training, procedures, safety culture, human system interface, 
communication, and inspections. Specifically, the information is used 
to support the Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) by tracking and trending 
various levels of human performance-related causes of safety-
significant events, identifying precursors, and providing either plant-
specific or generic insights into ROP cross cutting areas, which 
include human performance, problem identification and resolution, and 
safety conscious work environment.
    The NRC issues RISs to communicate with stakeholders on a broad 
range of regulatory matters. This may include communicating and 
clarifying the NRC's technical or policy positions on regulatory 
matters that have not been communicated to, or are not broadly 
understood by, the nuclear industry.

III. Proposed Action

    The NRC is requesting public comments on the draft RIS 2017-XX. The 
NRC staff will make a final determination regarding issuance of the RIS 
after it considers any public comments received in response to this 
request.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 16th day of August, 2017.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Alexander D. Garmoe,
Acting Chief, Generic Communications Branch, Division of Policy and 
Rulemaking, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2017-17678 Filed 8-21-17; 8:45 am]
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