[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 102 (Wednesday, May 27, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 31709-31710]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-10599]


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 Proposed Rules
                                                 Federal Register
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of 
 the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these 
 notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in 
 the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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  Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 102 / Wednesday, May 27, 2020 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 31709]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 50

[Docket No. PRM-50-121; NRC-2020-0055]


Voluntary Adoption of Revised Design Basis Accident Dose Criteria

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; notice of docketing, and request for 
comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received a 
petition for rulemaking from John G. Parillo dated November 23, 2019, 
requesting that the NRC develop a voluntary rule allowing licensees to 
adopt revised design basis accident dose acceptance criteria that 
reflect modern health physics recommendations and modern plant designs, 
that better balance the protection of the control room operator and of 
the public, and that relieve the regulatory burden associated with 
meeting the current control room dose criterion. The petition was 
docketed by the NRC on February 19, 2020, and has been assigned Docket 
No. PRM-50-121. The NRC is examining the issues raised in PRM-50-121 to 
determine whether they should be considered in rulemaking. The NRC is 
requesting public comment on this petition at this time.

DATES: Submit comments by August 10, 2020. 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 Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2020-0055. 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.
     Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and 
Adjudications 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 Lintz, Office of Nuclear Material 
Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, 
DC 20555-001; telephone: 301-415-4051.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2020-0055 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-2020-0055.
     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 petition is available in ADAMS 
under Accession No. ML20050M894.
     Attention: The Public Document Room (PDR), where you may 
examine and order copies of public documents, is currently closed. You 
may submit your request to the PDR via email at [email protected] or 
call 1-800-397-4209 between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (EST), Monday 
through Friday, except Federal holidays.

B. Submitting Comments

    Please include Docket ID NRC-2020-0055 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 http://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. The Petitioner and Petition

    The petition for rulemaking was filed by John Parillo, a private 
citizen. The petition requests the NRC revise its regulations to allow 
power reactor licensees to adopt revised accident dose acceptance 
criteria as an alternative to the accident dose criteria specified in 
Sec.  50.67, ``Accident source term.'' The revised accident dose 
criteria would be described in a separate voluntary rule Sec.  50.67(a) 
specifying a uniform value of 100 milli-Sieverts (10 rem) for offsite 
locations and for the control room. The petition may be found in ADAMS 
at Accession No. ML20050M894.

III. Discussion of the Petition

    The petition states that the NRC design basis accident dose 
criteria and the resulting design of accident mitigation systems could 
be perceived to emphasize protection of the control room operator over 
protection of the public. The control room criterion restricts the 
calculated 30-day accident dose to the annual occupational limit of 5 
rem while the offsite dose criteria allows for a calculated dose of 25 
rem in 2 hours. The petition states that the offsite dose criteria were 
derived from the siting practices of the earliest reactors and do not 
reflect current health physics knowledge or modern

[[Page 31710]]

plant construction. As a result, the petition argues that the design of 
accident mitigation systems may not be optimized for protecting public 
health and safety, and that the control room accident dose criterion 
has proven to be challenging to demonstrate with most plants having 
very little margin to meet the regulation.
    The petition proposes an alternative, voluntary rule that would 
allow licensees to adopt revised accident dose criteria that the 
petition asserts resolve the concerns identified above.

IV. Conclusion

    The NRC has determined that the petition meets the threshold 
sufficiency requirements for docketing a petition for rulemaking under 
10 CFR 2.803, ``2.803 Petition for rulemaking--NRC action.'' The NRC is 
examining the merits of the issues raised in PRM-50-121 to determine 
whether these issues should be considered in rulemaking.

    Dated this 12th day of May, 2020.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2020-10599 Filed 5-26-20; 8:45 am]
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