[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 199 (Tuesday, October 17, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48283-48285]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-22459]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2011-0012]
RIN 3150-AI92


Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Regulatory analysis; request for comment and public meeting.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting 
comment on the draft regulatory analysis, ``Draft Regulatory Analysis 
for Final Rule: Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal,'' and seeking 
specific cost and benefit information to better inform the updated 
draft regulatory analysis.

DATES: Submit comments by November 16, 2017. Comments received after 
this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC 
is able to assure consideration only for comments received on or before 
this date.

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-2011-0012. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: [email protected]. For technical questions contact 
the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of 
this document.
     Email comments to: [email protected]. If you do 
not receive an automatic email reply confirming receipt, then contact 
us at 301-415-1677.
     Fax comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission at 301-415-1101.
     Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and 
Adjudications Staff.
     Hand deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland 20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. (Eastern Time) Federal 
workdays; telephone: 301-415-1677.
    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: Gregory Trussell, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-6445; email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2011-0012 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-2011-0012.
     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 the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
     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-2011-0012 in your 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 and 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

[[Page 48284]]

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

    The NRC's licensing requirements for the disposal of commercial 
low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) in near-surface disposal facilities 
can be found in part 61 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations 
(10 CFR), ``Licensing Requirements for Land Disposal of Radioactive 
Waste.'' The NRC originally adopted 10 CFR part 61 on December 27, 1982 
(47 FR 57446). The existing LLRW disposal facilities are located in and 
licensed by Agreement States, and those Agreement States have 
incorporated many of the requirements in 10 CFR part 61 into their 
corresponding regulations and as license conditions for their 
licensees.
    On March 26, 2015, the NRC published a proposed rule, ``Low-level 
Radioactive Waste Disposal,'' for an initial 120-day comment period in 
the Federal Register (80 FR 16082). The 2015 proposed rule would have 
implemented changes to require new and revised site specific technical 
analyses and other requirements that would have permitted the 
development of site-specific waste acceptance criteria (WAC) based on 
the results of these analyses. In the 2015 proposed rule, the NRC 
explained that the changes would better align the requirements with 
current health and safety standards (i.e., 10 CFR part 20) and identify 
any additional measures that would be prudent to implement for 
continued disposal of radioactive LLRW at a particular land disposal 
facility. In summary, the 2015 proposed rule would have specified 
requirements for:
     Technical analyses for demonstrating compliance with the 
public dose limits;
     Technical analyses for demonstrating compliance with dose 
limits for protection of inadvertent intruders;
     Identification and description of defense-in-depth 
protections that, taken together with the technical analyses, 
constitute the safety case;
     Development of site-specific WAC; and
     Implementation of current dosimetry in the technical 
analyses.
    As a result of the comments received on the proposed rule, the NRC 
staff drafted a final rule package for Commission review, ``SECY-16-
0106, FINAL RULE: Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal (10 CFR part 61) 
(RIN 3150-AI92),'' dated September 15, 2016. The draft final rule 
package is available for review under ADAMS Accession No. ML16188A290 
and includes a draft Federal Register notice (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML16188A371) and a draft final regulatory analysis (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML16189A050).
    In response to SECY-16-0106, the Commission issued a staff 
requirements memorandum (SRM), SRM-SECY-16-0106 (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML17251B147), dated September 8, 2017, which directed the NRC staff to 
publish a supplemental proposed rule for public comment that is revised 
to include Commission-directed rule changes. The Commission directed 
changes that are pertinent to this public comment request are stated in 
table 1.

                          Table 1--Rule Changes
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            Draft final rule                      SRM direction
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Compliance period of:                    Compliance period of 1,000
 1,000 years or                   years, independent of
 10,000 years (if significant     radionuclide content.
 quantities of long-lived radionuclides
 are present)
New requirements applicable to all        New requirements
 currently operating and future LLRW      applicable to all future LLRW
 disposal facilities.                     disposal facilities.
                                          The regulator may use
                                          a case-by-case basis (i.e.,
                                          ``grandfather provision'') for
                                          applying new requirements to
                                          only those sites that plan to
                                          accept large quantities of
                                          depleted uranium for disposal.
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III. Discussion

    In addition to specified rule language changes, the Commission, in 
SRM-SECY-16-0106, also directed the NRC staff to ``be informed by 
broader and more fully integrated, but reasonably foreseeable costs and 
benefits to the U.S. waste disposal system resulting from the proposed 
rule changes, including pass-through costs to waste generators and 
processors.'' To support development of the new supplemental proposed 
rule as directed by the Commission in SRM-SECY-16-0106, the NRC staff 
is seeking comment on how to improve the approach/methodology and 
actual cost data currently used in the draft final rule regulatory 
analysis to provide more accurate cost and benefit data in the final 
regulatory analysis. In particular, the NRC is seeking information on 
any cost changes that should be incorporated into the regulatory 
analysis in light of the Commission's changes to the draft final rule 
identified in table 1.
    All comments provided will be considered in improving the 
regulatory analysis to ensure that it is sufficiently informed by 
broader and more fully integrated, but reasonably foreseeable, costs 
and benefits to the U.S. waste disposal system; however, the NRC staff 
does not plan to provide responses to these comments. In addition, the 
NRC staff is requesting that comments be limited to focus on the 
regulatory analysis itself--the NRC plans to issue a separate notice 
and comment period on the changes being proposed in the supplemental 
proposed rule in 2018. At that time, members of the public will also be 
provided another opportunity to provide comments on the revised 
regulatory analysis, which will be updated based on comments from this 
action.
    During the comment period for this action, the NRC will conduct a 
public meeting at the NRC's Headquarters that will explain the cost and 
benefit information it is seeking in this notice and to address 
questions. Information regarding the public meeting is posted on the 
NRC's public meeting Web site. The NRC's public meeting Web site is 
located at https://www.nrc.gov/public-involve.html.
    The NRC has also posted the meeting notice on the Federal 
rulemaking Web site at http://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-
2011-0012. The NRC will post additional materials related to this 
document, including any public comments received, on the Federal 
rulemaking Web site. The Federal rulemaking Web site allows you to 
receive alerts when changes or additions occur in a docket folder. To 
subscribe: (1) Navigate to the docket folder (NRC-

[[Page 48285]]

2011-0012); (2) click the ``Sign up for Email Alerts'' link; and (3) 
enter your email address and select how frequently you would like to 
receive emails (daily, weekly, or monthly).

IV. Requested Information and Comments

    This section provides specific questions associated with the draft 
regulatory analysis (ADAMS Accession No. ML16189A050). These questions 
will also be discussed at the public meeting. The NRC staff will 
consider the responses to these questions as it revises the regulatory 
analysis.
    Question 1: Is the NRC considering appropriate alternatives for the 
regulatory action described in the draft regulatory analysis?
    Question 2: Are there additional factors that the NRC should 
consider in the regulatory action? What are these factors?
    Question 3: Is there additional information concerning regulatory 
impacts that the NRC should include in its regulatory analysis for this 
rulemaking?
    Question 4: Are all costs and benefits properly addressed to 
determine the economic impact of the rulemaking alternatives? What cost 
differences would be expected from moving from the discussed 1,000 year 
and 10,000 year compliance periods to a single 1,000 year compliance 
period? Are there any unintended consequences of making this revision?
    Question 5: Are there any costs that should be assigned to those 
sites not planning to accept large quantities of depleted uranium for 
disposal in the future?
    Question 6: Is NRC's assumption that only two existing LLRW sites 
(i.e., EnergySolutions' Clive Utah disposal facility and Waste Control 
Specialists' Texas disposal facility) plan to accept large quantities 
of depleted uranium for disposal in the future reasonable?
    Question 7: What additional costs or cost savings, not already 
considered in the draft regulatory analysis, will the supplemental 
proposed rulemaking or alternatives cause to society, industry, and 
government? What are the potential transfer (``pass-through'') costs to 
the waste generators and processors?

V. Availability of Documents

    The documents identified in the following table are available to 
interested persons through one or more of the following methods, as 
indicated.

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                                                               ADAMS
                                                          Accession No./
                        Document                              Federal
                                                             Register
                                                             Citation
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December 27, 1982 10 CFR part 61 Statement of                47 FR 57446
 Considerations.........................................
March 26, 2015, 10 CFR part 61 proposed rule............     80 FR 16081
SECY-16-0106, FINAL RULE: Low-Level Radioactive Waste        ML16188A290
 Disposal (10 CFR part 61) (RIN 3150-AI92)..............
SECY-16-0106 draft Federal Register notice..............     ML16188A371
SECY-16-0106 draft regulatory analysis..................     ML16189A050
SRM-SECY-0106...........................................     ML17251B147
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    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 12th day of October 2017.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Daniel S. Collins,
Director, Division of Material Safety, State, Tribal and Rulemaking 
Programs, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2017-22459 Filed 10-16-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P