[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 198 (Monday, October 16, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48125-48126]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-22289]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2017-0205]


Instructions for Recording and Reporting Occupational Radiation 
Dose Data

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft regulatory guide; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-8056, ``Instructions for 
Recording and Reporting Occupational Radiation Dose Data.'' This DG is 
a proposed Revision 4 to Regulatory Guide (RG) 8.7 of the same name. 
The DG addresses issues that were identified after Revision 3 was 
issued in December 2016. The DG reinstates the long-standing staff 
position concerning a licensee's consideration of prior occupational 
dose when making prospective occupational dose monitoring 
determinations. The DG retains the guidance from Revision 3 on 
completing NRC Form 4, ``Cumulative Occupational Dose History,'' and 
NRC Form 5, ``Occupational Dose Record for a Monitoring Period.''

DATES: Submit comments by December 15, 2017. Comments received after 
this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC 
is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before 
this date. Although a time limit is given, comments and suggestions in 
connection with items for inclusion in guides currently being developed 
or improvements in all published guides are encouraged at any time.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2017-0205. 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: May Ma, Office of Administration, Mail 
Stop: OWFN-2-A13, 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: Terry Brock, telephone: 301-415-1793; 
email: [email protected] or Harriet Karagiannis, telephone: 301-415-
2493; email: [email protected]. Both are staff of the Office 
of Nuclear Regulatory Research, 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-2017-0205 when contacting the NRC 
about the availability of information regarding this action. You may 
obtain publically-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-2017-0205.
     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 
ADAMS accession number for each document referenced (if it is available 
in ADAMS) is provided the first time that it is mentioned in this 
document. DG-8056 is electronically available in ADAMS under Accession 
No. ML17144A182.
     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-2017-0205 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 enters 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. Additional Information

    The NRC is issuing for public comment a DG in the NRC's 
``Regulatory Guide'' series. This series was developed to describe and 
make available to the public information regarding methods that are 
acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the 
NRC's regulations, techniques that the staff uses in evaluating 
specific issues or postulated events, and data that the staff needs in 
its review of applications for permits and licenses.
    The NRC staff is issuing DG-8056 for public comment to address 
issues identified by the NRC staff and other stakeholders subsequent to 
the issuance of RG 8.7, Revision 3 in December 2016. Revision 3 was 
issued as a draft (with a temporary identification of DG-8030) for 
public comment on August 28, 2015 (80 FR 52345) under ADAMS Accession 
No. ML15169A218. The public comment period for Revision 3 closed on 
October 27, 2015. The NRC received one set of comments from an industry 
association. Those comments and the NRC staff's responses are available 
under ADAMS Accession No. ML16060A392. The NRC issued Revision 3 in its 
final form on December 8, 2016 (81 FR 88710). The final version of 
Revision 3, however, modified a staff position regarding the 
consideration of prior occupational dose, and whether that should be a 
factor in licensee occupational monitoring determinations in accordance 
with 10 CFR 20.1502.

[[Page 48126]]

    After issuing Revision 3, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) 
submitted a letter to NRC stating that Revision 3 requires licensees to 
consider exposures received by employees during prior employment at a 
different facility when determining whether monitoring is required 
pursuant to section 10 CFR 20.1502, which was a change in agency 
position from: (1) The staff position that was in both Revisions 1 and 
2 of Regulatory Guide 8.7, (2) the staff position that is in Regulatory 
Guide 8.34, and (3) over two decades of industry practice developed in 
accordance with these staff positions.
    In response, the NRC staff reassessed the requirements in 10 CFR 
part 20 and concluded that another revision to RG 8.7 was warranted. 
This revision contains essentially the staff position as set forth in 
Revisions 1 and 2 of RG 8.7. However, the staff is not rescinding 
Revision 3 because it allows a more conservative option for those 
licensees who want to consider prior occupational dose when making 10 
CFR 20.1502 determinations. DG-8056 retains clarifying changes made in 
Revision 3.

III. Use of NRC Forms 4 and 5

    DG-8056 references NRC Form 4, ``Cumulative Occupational Dose 
History (04-2015),'' or its electronic equivalent, which is available 
for use by NRC licensees to record an individual's cumulative 
occupational dose history.
    DG-8056 also references NRC Form 5, ``Occupational Dose Record for 
a Monitoring Period (04-2015),'' or its electronic equivalent, which is 
available for use by NRC licensees to record the occupational dose for 
any monitoring period beginning on or after January 1, 2016. As noted 
in the December 8, 2016 Federal Register notice for Revision 3, all NRC 
licensees should have begun using the updated NRC Form 5, 
``Occupational Dose Record for a Monitoring Period (04-2015),'' or its 
equivalent, for any monitoring period beginning on or after January 1, 
2017. Both forms are available online through the NRC Library on the 
NRC's public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections.

IV. Backfitting

    This DG addresses compliance with the NRC's requirements in 10 CFR 
part 20 to record and report an individual's cumulative occupational 
dose history and the occupational dose received by an individual for a 
specific monitoring period. The NRC regards these requirements as 
constituting information collection and reporting requirements. The NRC 
has long taken the position that information collection and reporting 
requirements are not subject to the NRC's backfitting and issue 
finality regulations in 10 CFR 50.109, 10 CFR 70.76, 10 CFR 72.62, 10 
CFR 76.76, and 10 CFR part 52 (e.g., ``Material Control and Accounting 
Methods,'' December 23, 2002 (67 FR 78130); and ``Regulatory 
Improvements to the Nuclear Materials Management and Safeguards 
System,'' June 9, 2008 (73 FR 32453)). Therefore, the NRC has 
determined that its backfitting and issue finality regulations would 
not apply to this DG, if ultimately issued as a RG, because the DG does 
not include any provisions within the scope of matters covered by the 
backfitting provisions in 10 CFR parts 50, 70, 72, or 76, or the issue 
finality provisions of 10 CFR part 52.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of October 2017.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Thomas H. Boyce,
Chief, Regulatory Guidance and Generic Issues Branch, Division of 
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2017-22289 Filed 10-13-17; 8:45 am]
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