[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 62 (Tuesday, March 31, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 17770-17771]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-06473]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Chapter I

[NRC-2020-0073]


Clarification of Personnel Access Authorization Requirements for 
Non-Immigrant Foreign Nationals Working at Nuclear Power Plants

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 summary (RIS) to reinforce the 
existing requirement that prior to granting or reinstating unescorted 
access (UA), or certifying unescorted access authorization (UAA) to 
non-immigrant foreign nationals for the purpose of performing work, 
licensees shall take reasonable steps to access reliable, independent 
sources of information, in addition to the information provided by the 
applicant, to verify the applicant's claimed non-immigration status.

DATES: Submit comments by April 30, 2020. 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:
     Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2020-0073. Address 
questions about NRC dockets 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: Mark Resner, Office of Nuclear 
Security and Incident Response, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-287-3680, email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2020-0073 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-2020-0073.

[[Page 17771]]

     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(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 Regulatory Issue Summary 2020-XX, 
Clarification of Personnel Access Authorization Requirements for Non-
Immigrant Foreign Nationals Working at Nuclear Power Plants is 
available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML20008D562.
     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-2020-0073 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 post all 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. Background

    The NRC, in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, 
has identified several instances where a licensee has failed to 
appropriately verify, in the case of foreign nationals seeking UA and/
or UAA, that the claimed non-immigration status that the individual has 
provided is correct. Consequently, foreign nationals have been granted 
UA and UAA at United States nuclear power plants for the purpose of 
work using visa categories that do not permit foreign nationals to work 
in the United States.
    The NRC issues RISs to communicate with stakeholders on a broad 
range of matters. This may include communication and clarification of 
NRC technical or policy positions on regulatory matters that have not 
been communicated to or are not broadly understood by the nuclear 
industry.
    As noted in 83 FR 20858 (May 8, 2018), this document is being 
published in the Proposed Rules section of the Federal Register to 
comply with publication requirements under 1 CFR chapter I.

Proposed Action

    The NRC is requesting public comments on the draft RIS. 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 24th day of March 2020.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Lisa M. Regner,
Branch Chief, Operating Experience Branch, Division of Reactor 
Oversight, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2020-06473 Filed 3-30-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P