[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 131 (Wednesday, July 8, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41072-41073]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-14621]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2019-0091]


Leakage Tests on Packages for Shipment of Radioactive Material

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Regulatory guide; issuance.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing 
Revision 2 to Regulatory Guide (RG) 7.4, ``Leakage Tests on Packages 
for Shipment of Radioactive Material.'' This RG (Revision 2) endorses 
the methods and procedures developed by the Standards Committee on 
Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive and Nonnuclear Hazardous 
Materials, N14 Subcommittee of the American National Standards 
Institute (ANSI) in ANSI N14.5-2014, ``American National Standard for 
Radioactive Materials--Leakage Tests on Packages for Shipment,'' dated 
June 19, 2014.

DATES: Revision 2 to RG 7.4 is available on July 8, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2019-0091 when contacting the 
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You 
may obtain publicly-available information related to this document 
using any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0091. 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.
     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 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.
    Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and NRC approval is not 
required to reproduce them.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: JoAnn Ireland, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301-415-6950, email: 
[email protected] and Harriet Karagiannis, Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research, telephone: 301-415-2493, email: 
[email protected], U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Discussion

    The NRC issues RGs to describe methods that are acceptable to the 
staff for implementing specific parts of the agency's regulations, to 
explain techniques that the staff uses in evaluating specific issues or 
postulated events, and to describe information that the staff needs in 
its review of applications for permits and licenses. Regulatory guides 
are not NRC regulations and compliance with them is not required. 
Methods and solutions that differ from those set forth in RGs are 
acceptable if supported by a basis for the issuance or continuance of a 
permit or license by the Commission.
    Revision 2 of RG 7.4 was issued with a temporary identification of 
Draft Regulatory Guide, DG-7010. RG 7.4 (Revision 2) endorses an update 
to ANSI N14.5-2014, ``American National Standard for Radioactive 
Materials--Leakage Tests on Packages for Shipment,'' that has new 
information, corrections, and clarifications, to ensure integrity of 
radioactive material containers and to minimize the distribution of 
contamination to the environment.

II. Additional Information

    The NRC published a notice of the availability of DG-7010 in the 
Federal Register on April 8, 2019 (84 FR 13969) for a 60-day public 
comment period. The public comment period closed on June 7, 2019, and 
the NRC received four comment documents. Public comments on DG-7010 and 
the staff responses to the public comments are available in ADAMS under 
Accession No. ML19240B379. Revision 2 to RG 7.4 and the regulatory 
analysis may be found in ADAMS under Accession Nos. ML19240B383 and 
ML20034F254, respectively.

III. Congressional Review Act

    This RG is a rule as defined in the Congressional Review Act (5 
U.S.C. 801-808). However, the Office of Management and Budget has not 
found it to be a major rule as defined in the Congressional Review Act.

IV. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality

    As discussed in Section D, ``Implementation,'' of RG 7.4, the NRC 
staff does not intend to use the guidance in this regulatory guide to 
support NRC staff actions in a manner that would constitute backfitting 
as that term is defined in section 50.109 of title 10 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Backfitting,'' and as described in NRC 
Management Directive 8.4, ``Management of Backfitting, Forward Fitting, 
Issue Finality, and Information Requests,'' nor does the NRC staff 
intend to use the guidance to affect the issue finality of an approval 
under 10 CFR part 52, ``Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for 
Nuclear Power Plants.'' The staff also does not intend to use the 
guidance to support NRC staff

[[Page 41073]]

actions in a manner that constitutes forward fitting as that term is 
defined and described in Management Directive 8.4.

    Dated: July 1, 2020.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Meraj Rahimi,
Chief, Regulatory Guidance and Generic Issues Branch, Division of 
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2020-14621 Filed 7-7-20; 8:45 am]
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