[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 236 (Tuesday, December 8, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 79042-79044]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-26864]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2020-0262]
Proposed Evaluation Policy Statement
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting
public comment on this proposed Evaluation Policy Statement that
presents the standards that will govern the NRC's planning, conduct,
and use of program evaluations. The policy statement is intended to
provide agency personnel and stakeholders with a clear understanding of
the expectations related to the NRC's evaluation standards that include
rigor, relevance and utility, transparency, collaboration, independence
and objectivity, and ethics.
DATES: Submit comments by January 7, 2021. 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-2020-0262. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Dawn Forder; telephone: 301-415-3407;
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: Matthew Meyer, Office of the Executive
Director for Operations, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington
DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-6198, email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2020-0262 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-2020-0262.
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, at 301-415-4737,
or by email to [email protected]. The proposed Evaluation Policy
Statement is available in ADAMS under Accession number ML20268A811.
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-2020-0262 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, 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.
[[Page 79043]]
II. Background
The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018
(``Evidence Act'') became law on January 14, 2019 (Pub. L. 115-435), to
enhance evidence-building activities, make data more accessible, and
strengthen privacy protections.\1\ The Evidence Act requires each
agency to name an Evaluation Officer. At the NRC the Director of the
Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research holds this position and must
``establish and implement an agency evaluation policy'' to fulfill a
primary function of this position.\2\ The agency evaluation policy
``should guide the agency's activities throughout the evaluation
lifecycle.'' \3\ Evaluation activities include ``developing and
coordinating multi-year Learning Agendas, establishing Annual
Evaluation Plans, planning and managing or conducting specific
evaluations, summarizing evaluation findings for particular programs or
policies, supporting other offices within an agency to interpret
evaluation findings, and bringing evaluation-related evidence to bear
in decision-making.'' \4\ In directing these activities, ``the Evidence
Act creates a new paradigm by calling on agencies to significantly
rethink how they currently plan and organize evidence building, data
management, and data access functions to ensure an integrated and
direct connection to data and evidence needs.'' \5\
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\1\ Public Law 115-435, 132 Stat 5529 (2019).
\2\ 5 U.S.C. 313(d)(3).
\3\ Office of Management and Budget, M-20-12, ``Phase 4
Implementation of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking
Act of 2018: Program Evaluation Standards and Practices,'' Appendix
C (March 10, 2020) (M-20-12).
\4\ Id. at Appendix A.
\5\ Office of Management and Budget, M-19-23, ``Phase 1
Implementation of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking
Act of 2018: Learning Agendas, Personnel, and Planning Guidance,'' 2
(July 10, 2019).
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The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has provided guidance to
agencies on establishing an agency evaluation policy based on
``approaches that Federal agencies have found useful.'' \6\ This
guidance includes ``[e]nsuring that the agency evaluation policy
incorporates the evaluation standards'' recommended by OMB.\7\ OMB
developed these evaluation standards through an interagency council
that ``reviewed an extensive list of source documents to identify
widely accepted standards for evaluation.'' \8\ The interagency council
identified the following evaluation standards: relevance and utility,
rigor, independence and objectivity, transparency, and ethics.\9\
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\6\ M-20-12, Appendix C.
\7\ Id.
\8\ Id. at 2.
\9\ Id. at 3-5.
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Historically, the NRC has relied on high-quality evidence for its
environmental and safety evaluations of civilian applications to
utilize nuclear technologies.\10\ Frequently, the agency has obtained
such evidence from external entities or through its own capacity,
largely centered in the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.\11\ In
undertaking these activities, the NRC has been guided by its own
Principles of Good Regulation: Independence, efficiency, clarity,
reliability, and openness.\12\
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\10\ Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NUREG-1350, 2019-2020
Information Digest, at 4-5 (August, 2019).
\11\ Id. at 10.
\12\ Id. at 3.
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In recent years the agency has begun evidence-building activities
to support licensing new or novel nuclear technologies, including
advanced, non-light water reactor designs; accident tolerant nuclear
fuel; and digital instrumentation and controls.\13\ Additionally, the
NRC has increasingly sought to rely on evidence-based metrics to
improve internal agency performance including budgeting and financial
management.\14\ To develop the following evaluation policy statement,
the NRC sought to enhance its existing evidence-building activities
through the activities directed in the Evidence Act. The NRC envisions
that this approach will strengthen the agency's oversight of existing
uses of nuclear technology, enhance the agency's readiness to license
and regulate new and novel nuclear technologies, and further the NRC's
ongoing efforts to improve its internal processes.
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\13\ Id. at 4.
\14\ Id. at 7.
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III. Proposed Evaluation Policy Statement
The purpose of this Evaluation Policy Statement is to present the
standards that will govern the NRC's planning and conduct of program
evaluations \15\ (evaluations). This policy statement is required by
the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 and is a
commitment to using evidence and scientific methods when conducting
evaluations to make informed decisions. The NRC is a learning and
evidence-based organization, with a culture of continuous improvement.
The NRC's evaluations are used to make informed decisions, are based on
objective, technical assessments of available information and
documented with an explicitly stated rationale. Furthermore, the NRC
commits to implementing evaluation standards of rigor; relevance and
utility; transparency; collaboration; independence and objectivity; and
ethics in the conduct of its evaluations. This policy statement
presents the NRC's evaluation standards.
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\15\ The Evidence Act defines ``evaluation'' as ``an assessment
using systematic data collection and analysis of one or more
programs, policies, and organizations intended to assess their
effectiveness and efficiency'' (5 U.S.C. 311(3)). Evaluation can
look beyond the program, policy, or organizational level to include
assessment of projects or interventions within a program.
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The Commission, as a collegial body, formulates policies, develops
regulations governing nuclear reactor and nuclear material safety,
issues orders to licensees, and adjudicates legal matters. The
collegial decision-making process results in actions reflecting the
collective judgment of a group rather than an individual, aided by
professional and administrative staff and advisory committees, such as
the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. Strict requirements
govern the admission and consideration of ``evidence'' when the
Commission acts in its adjudicatory capacity. This policy is intended
to apply to the NRC's non-adjudicatory functions.\16\
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\16\ This policy does not apply to the admission and
consideration of evidence when the Commission acts in its
adjudicatory capacity. The NRC's rules of practice and procedure in
10 CFR part 2 govern that process.
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The NRC's Principles of Good Regulation, which include
independence, efficiency, clarity, reliability, and openness, have
guided the agency's regulatory activities and decisions using evidence
and scientific methods. The principles focus on meeting the agency's
important safety and security mission while appropriately considering
the interests of stakeholders, including licensees; State, local, and
Tribal governments; nongovernmental organizations; and the public. The
agency's openness principle explicitly recognizes that the public must
be informed about and have an opportunity to participate in the
regulatory process.
Evidence building and evaluation are used to inform agency
activities and actions, such as licensing, oversight, budgeting,
program improvement, accountability, management, rulemaking, guidance
development, and policy development. The emphasis on evidence is meant
to support innovation, improvement, and learning. The NRC uses many
types of evidence, including evaluations. Other evidence types include,
but are not limited to, descriptive studies, performance
[[Page 79044]]
measurements, financial and cost data, and program administrative data.
The NRC carries out evidence-building and evaluation activities to (1)
identify, evaluate, and resolve safety issues; (2) ensure that an
independent technical basis exists to review licensee submittals; (3)
evaluate operating experience and results of risk assessments for
safety implications; and (4) support the development and use of risk-
informed regulatory approaches.
Evaluation Standards
The NRC staff will use the following evaluation standards when
conducting evaluations.
1. Rigor--The NRC is committed to using rigorous evaluation methods
by qualified evaluators with relevant education, skills, and experience
to ensure evaluations are appropriate and feasible within statutory,
budgetary, and other constraints.
Rigorous evaluations require inferences about cause and effect to
be well founded (internal validity); clarity about the populations,
settings, or circumstances to which results can be generalized
(external validity); and the use of measures that accurately capture
the intended information (measurement reliability and validity). The
NRC's evaluations are conducted by qualified staff with relevant
education, skills, and experience for the methods undertaken. The NRC's
evaluations use appropriate designs and methods that adhere to widely
accepted scientific principles to answer key questions while balancing
goals, scale, timeline, feasibility, and available resources.
Additionally, the NRC's Information Quality Program \17\ ensures that
all information relied on by the NRC is subject to rigorous quality
standards.
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\17\ Management Directive 3.17, ``Information Quality Program,''
ensures that peer review is conducted on all influential scientific
information and highly influential scientific assessment that the
agency intends to disseminate.
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2. Relevance and Utility--The NRC will ensure that evaluations are
relevant and provide useful findings to inform agency activities and
actions and stakeholders.
The NRC performs evaluations to examine questions of importance and
serve the information needs of stakeholders. The NRC's evaluations
present findings that are clear, concise, actionable, and available
within a timeline that is appropriate to the questions under
consideration. The NRC's evaluation priorities consider legislative
requirements; the NRC's strategic safety and security goals,
objectives, and strategies; and the interests and views of
stakeholders.
3. Transparency--The NRC is committed to conducting evaluations in
an open and transparent manner, which keeps stakeholders informed of
the agency's evaluation activities.
NRC activities will be conducted openly and the public must be
informed about and have an opportunity to participate in the NRC's
regulatory process. As a regulator, the NRC will listen to, respect,
and analyze different views from stakeholders. The NRC will also ensure
open channels of communication are maintained between the NRC and
stakeholders, including Congress, other government agencies, licensees,
nongovernmental organizations, individual members of the public, and
international and domestic nuclear communities. The NRC takes
reasonable efforts to make all information, including information about
the NRC's evaluations (including their purpose, objectives, design,
findings, and evaluation methods), broadly available and accessible.
The NRC releases public evaluation findings in a timely manner and
archives the evaluation data for secondary use by stakeholders, as
appropriate.
4. Collaboration--The NRC is committed to working collaboratively
when conducting evaluations and draws on the expertise of subject
matter experts to ensure diversity in perspectives.
The NRC fosters a collaborative work environment that encourages
diverse views, alternative approaches, critical thinking, creative
problem solving, unbiased evaluations, and honest feedback. The NRC
emphasizes trust, respect, and open communication to promote a positive
work environment that maximizes the potential of all individuals, which
improves evidence building and evaluation activities. A collaborative
environment leverages expertise from subject matter experts and enables
peer reviews to ensure rigorous evaluations. The NRC also conducts
research and collaborates with organizations that develop consensus
standards to improve data and methods used in risk analysis. The NRC
collaborates with national laboratories, other Federal agencies,
universities, and international organizations.
5. Independence and Objectivity--As an independent Federal agency,
the NRC is committed to conducting evaluations that are independent and
based on objective assessments of all relevant information.
The NRC was established as an independent agency to regulate
civilian uses of radioactive material. The NRC's evaluations will be
independent and objective to maintain credibility. The implementation
of evaluation activities, including the selection and function of the
evaluators, should be appropriately insulated from factors that may
affect their objectivity, impartiality, and professional judgment.
Evaluations are inclusive and seek diverse participation from
stakeholders in setting evaluation priorities, identifying evaluation
questions, and assessing the implications of findings. The NRC strives
for objectivity in the planning and conduct of evaluations.
6. Ethics--The NRC is committed to conducting evaluations that
adhere to Government-wide ethics standards to protect the public and
maintain public trust.
The NRC's evaluations comply with relevant legal requirements and
are conducted in a manner that is free from conflicts of interest,
undue influence, and the appearance of bias and that safeguards the
dignity, rights, safety, and privacy of participants. The NRC complies
with Governmentwide ethics standards contained in Federal statutes and
regulations, which are intended to ensure that every citizen can have
confidence in the integrity of the Federal Government.
IV. Specific Request for Comments
The NRC is interested in obtaining feedback from stakeholders on
the proposed Evaluation Policy Statement. The focus of this request is
to gather information that will permit the NRC staff to develop the
final Evaluation Policy Statement. The NRC is particularly interested
in comments that address the extent to which the proposed Evaluation
Policy Statement will facilitate the agency's review of new and novel
technologies and the agency's efforts to improve internal performance.
Dated: December 2, 2020.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2020-26864 Filed 12-7-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P