[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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