[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 177 (Friday, September 11, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56275-56277]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-20048]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2020-0194]
Development of NRC's Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2022 Through
2026
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Request for comment; public meeting.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting
comments on its update of the NRC's Fiscal Years (FYs) 2022-2026
Strategic Plan. Specifically, the NRC would like input on the agency's
strategic goals, actions to realize those goals, and how to address key
challenges and external factors as described in the current agency's
Strategic Plan, NUREG 1614, Volume 7, ``Strategic Plan Fiscal Years
2018-2022.'' The information will be used to inform the development of
the NRC's FYs 2022-2026 Strategic Plan framework and evidence building
and evaluation activities.
DATES: Submit comments by October 13, 2020. Comments received after
this date
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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. Furthermore, the NRC staff will hold a public webinar on
September 22, 2020, to receive comments on the upcoming update of the
NRC's FYs 2022-2026 Strategic Plan.
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-2020-0194. 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 Branch.
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: Carla Roque-Cruz, Office of the
Executive Director for Operations, telephone: 301-415-1455, email:
[email protected], U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2020-0194, when contacting the NRC
about the 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-2020-0194.
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 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.
B. Submitting Comments
Please include Docket ID NRC-2020-0194 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. Discussion
The NRC is an independent agency established by the Energy
Reorganization Act of 1974 that began operations in 1975 as a successor
to the licensing and regulatory activities of the Atomic Energy
Commission. The NRC's mission is to license and regulate the Nation's
civilian use of radioactive materials to provide reasonable assurance
of adequate protection of public health and safety and to promote the
common defense and security and to protect the environment. In
accordance with the Government Performance and Results (GPRA)
Modernization Act of 2010, the NRC is required to submit its Strategic
Plan to Congress the year following the start of a presidential term.
The Strategic Plan describes how the agency intends to achieve its
two strategic goals: (1) Ensure the safe use of radioactive materials,
and (2) ensure the secure use of radioactive materials. The plan
provides an overview of the NRC's responsibilities and lays out the
objectives, strategies, and key activities that will be used to achieve
the agency's strategic goals. Moreover, with enactment of the
Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (``Evidence
Act'') (5 U.S.C. 312), agency strategic plans are to be supported by
the inclusion of a Learning Agenda (i.e., Evidence-Building Plan),
which describes the activities agencies will undertake to answer
important short-and-long term strategic and operational questions
important to achieving the agency's mission. The Evidence Act also
requires agencies to conduct and include in their strategic plan's a
capacity assessment that will help agencies to assess their ability and
infrastructure to carry out evidence building activities like
foundational fact finding, performance measurement, policy analysis,
and program evaluation, and identifying the data needed to answer those
questions.
During the last few years, the NRC has been transforming in order
to realize its vision of becoming a modern, risk-informed regulator and
be in the best position to continue meeting its important safety and
security mission well into the future. Transformation activities will
help the NRC keep pace with the highly dynamic, interconnected
environment in which it operates, and be prepared to regulate an
industry that is innovative and pursuing technologies.
III. Specific Request for Comment
The NRC is interested in obtaining input from stakeholders,
including professional organizations and interested individuals. The
focus of this request is to gather information that will permit the NRC
staff to develop the FYs 2022-2026 Strategic Plan framework.
The NRC does not intend to provide any responses to comments
received during the public meeting. The public meeting will be noticed
on the NRC's public meeting website at least 10 calendar days before
the meeting. Members of the public should monitor the NRC's public
meeting website at http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm.
The NRC will also post the meeting notice on the Federal Rulemaking
website at http://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2020-0194.
IV. Requested Information and Comments
The NRC is asking the public to comment on potential changes to the
NRC's goals, objectives, strategies contributing activities as
described in the current FYs 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, and the
requirements of the Evidence Act as discussed in Section II of this
document. The NRC welcomes comments from the public on any areas that
they believe are relevant to these topics, and is particularly
interested in receiving input on the following questions:
1. Do you have any specific recommendations or improvements to
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consider in the development of the FYs 2022-2026 Strategic Plan?
2. What goals, objectives, or strategies within the NRC's current
strategic plan should be added, enhanced, or modified in the FYs 2022-
2026 Strategic Plan?
3. What contributing activities should be considered to support the
safety and security goals, strategies, and objectives?
4. What external factors, opportunities and challenges should be
considered during the development of the FYs 2022-2026 Strategic Plan?
5. As part of the Evidence Act, the NRC will include a learning
agenda in the FYs 2022-2026 Strategic Plan. A learning agenda is a
systematic plan for identifying and addressing policy questions
relevant to the NRC's programs, policies, operations, and regulations.
The learning agenda will describe the plan for building evidence to
address agency priority questions. What priority question(s) (short- or
long-term) do you believe the NRC should be asking within the learning
agenda?
6. What improvements can the NRC make in regard to evidence
building (e.g., data, analysis, evaluations) to inform strategy,
policymaking, program decisions, and regulations?
V. Public Meeting Information
The NRC staff will hold a public webinar on September 22, 2020, to
receive comments on the update of the NRC's FYs 2022-2026 Strategic
Plan. Additionally, the NRC will discuss the Agency's transformation
activities for public input and comment on these activities and
continue to seek the views of stakeholders in identifying opportunities
to improve the agency's processes, procedures, and products. The
webinar will be held online and will offer a telephone line for members
of the public to submit comments. A court reporter will be recording
all comments received during the webinar. The date and time for the
webinar is as follows:
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Date Time Location
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9/22/2020..................... 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 Webinar Information:
p.m. (EDT). Webinar address:
https://usnrc.webex.com/usnrc/onstage/g.php?MTID=edb8d9854a356d1c13bfc4f1339244bd1 4bd1.
Telephone Access:
Bridgeline: 800-369-
1713 Participant
Passcode: 5805934.
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Persons interested in attending this meeting should monitor the
NRC's Public Meeting Schedule website at https://www.nrc.gov/pmns/mtg
for additional information, the meeting agenda, information on how to
provide verbal comments, and access information for the meeting.
Participants should register in advance of the meeting by visiting
https://usnrc.webex.com and using the event number provided above. A
confirmation email will be generated providing additional details and a
link to the meeting. Those wishing to make verbal comments at the
meeting should follow instructions listed on the NRC's Public Meeting
Schedule website.
The NRC may post additional materials related to this document,
including public comments, on the Federal Rulemaking website. The
Federal Rulemaking website allows you to receive alerts when changes or
additions occur in a docket folder. To subscribe: (1) Navigate to the
docket folder (NRC-2020-0194); (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).
Dated: September 4, 2020.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Margaret M. Doane,
Executive Director for Operations.
[FR Doc. 2020-20048 Filed 9-10-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P