[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 152 (Wednesday, August 7, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38675-38676]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-16876]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2019-0155]


Reactor Oversight Process Enhancement Initiative

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: In an effort to revise and improve the Reactor Oversight 
Process (ROP), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff 
recently proposed targeted, near-term ROP enhancements to the 
Commission, described in SECY-19-0067, ``Recommendations for Enhancing 
the Reactor Oversight Process,'' dated June 28, 2019. The NRC staff is 
currently evaluating possible long-term ROP enhancements in the 
following areas: the problem identification and resolution inspection 
program, the cross-cutting issues process, radiation protection 
inspection procedures, the inspection program for Independent Spent 
Fuel Storage Installations (ISFSI), and the Significance Determination 
Process (SDP), particularly for the emergency preparedness cornerstone. 
The NRC is soliciting comments from the public on potential 
improvements in these areas, along with other areas of the ROP. Any 
comments received on SECY-19-0067 will be forwarded to the Commission 
for its consideration.

DATES: Comments should be filed no later than October 7, 2019. 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 on or before this date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov/ and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0155. Address 
questions about NRC docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Jennifer Borges; 
telephone: 301-287-9127; email: [email protected]. For technical 
questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT section of this document.
     Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop: 
TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.
    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: Russell Gibbs, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-8578, email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to docket ID NRC-2019-0155 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 Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov/ and search for docket ID NRC-2019-0155.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System

[[Page 38676]]

(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the 
ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, 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.
     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.
     ROP Enhancement Website: Go to https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/oversight/rop-enhancement.html.

B. Submitting Comments

    Please include ROP Enhancement and docket ID NRC-2019-0155 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 will enter the comment submissions at 
https://www.regulations.gov as well as enter 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 into ADAMS.

II. Discussion

    The ROP is the program that provides oversight and assessment of 
operating U.S. nuclear power plants. In 2018, the NRC staff solicited 
input from both NRC staff and external stakeholders on ways to improve 
the ROP. The NRC held numerous public meetings to discuss the 
disposition of this stakeholder feedback, resulting in several staff 
recommendations for Commission approval, described in SECY-19-0067, 
``Recommendations for Enhancing the Reactor Oversight Process,'' dated 
June 28, 2019 ADAMS Package Accession No. ML19070A036. Documents, 
presentations, and meeting summaries associated with the development of 
this paper are listed on the ROP Enhancement public web page.
    As described in SECY-19-0067, the NRC staff completed a 
comprehensive review of every core safety inspection procedure to 
determine if current sample requirements and resource estimates were 
appropriate. Of the 16 reactor safety inspection procedures, the staff 
recommended reducing minimum sample sizes in five inspection 
procedures, increasing the minimum sample size in one inspection 
procedure, consolidating two different inspection procedures into one 
procedure, and revising the frequency of one inspection from biennial 
to triennial. The NRC staff also initially considered an industry 
recommendation to credit licensee self-assessments in lieu of some 
safety inspections; however, the NRC is no longer considering this 
recommendation.
    The NRC is currently working on long-term recommendations to 
enhance the ROP in the following areas: The problem identification and 
resolution inspection program, the cross-cutting issues process, 
radiation protection inspection procedures, ISFSI inspections, and the 
SDP, particularly for the emergency preparedness cornerstone.
    The NRC is soliciting public comment on these long-term ROP 
enhancement efforts, the broad range of ROP topics described in SECY-
19-0067, and any other areas of the ROP that the staff should consider 
under this initiative. Specifically, the NRC staff is seeking public 
comment on the following questions:
    1. What areas of the ROP are working well?
    2. What areas of the ROP are not working well?
    3. How can the NRC improve the ROP in the following areas: The 
problem identification and resolution inspection program, the cross-
cutting issues process, radiation protection inspections, ISFSI 
inspections, and the SDP?
    The public comment period is scheduled to close on October 7, 2019. 
Any comments received on SECY-19-0067 will be forwarded to the 
Commission for its consideration.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 2nd day of August, 2019.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Christopher G. Miller,
Director, Division of Inspection and Regional Support, Office of 
Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2019-16876 Filed 8-6-19; 8:45 am]
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