[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 67 (Friday, April 9, 2021)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 18477-18478]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-07281]


 ========================================================================
 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. 86, No. 67 / Friday, April 9, 2021 / Proposed 
Rules  

[[Page 18477]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 37

[Docket No. PRM-37-2; NRC-2021-0051]


Advance Tribal Notification of Certain Radioactive Material 
Shipments

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 Richard Arnold and Ron Johnson on behalf 
of the Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee, dated 
December 4, 2020, requesting that the NRC revise its regulations to 
ensure consistency regarding advance Tribal notification of certain 
radioactive material shipments with similar regulations for State 
notification. The petition was docketed by the NRC on February 11, 
2021, and has been assigned Docket No. PRM-37-2. The NRC is examining 
the issues raised in PRM-37-2 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 June 23, 2021. 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; 
however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the 
Federal Rulemaking website:
     Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2021-0051. Address 
questions about NRC Docket IDs to Dawn Forder; telephone: 301-415-3407; 
email: [email protected]. For technical questions contact the 
individuals 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: David Drucker, telephone: 301-415-
6223, email: [email protected], and Anita Gray, telephone: 301-415-
7036, email: [email protected]. Both are staff of the Office of 
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, 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-2021-0051 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-2021-0051.
     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 the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
     Attention: The 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

    The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the 
Federal Rulemaking website (https://www.regulations.gov). Please 
include Docket ID NRC-2021-0051 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. The Petitioner and the Petition

    The petition for rulemaking (PRM) was filed by Richard Arnold and 
Ron Johnson on behalf of the Tribal Radioactive Materials 
Transportation Committee (TRMTC). The PRM requests that the NRC revise 
its regulations at part 37 of title 10 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations (10 CFR), ``Physical protection of category 1 and category 
2 quantities of radioactive material,'' to ensure consistency with 10 
CFR part 71, ``Packaging and transportation of radioactive material,'' 
and 10 CFR part 73, ``Physical protection of plants and materials,'' 
regarding advance Tribal notification of certain radioactive material 
shipments. The petition may be found in ADAMS at Accession ML21042B011.

III. Discussion of the Petition

    The letter from the petitioner states, ``TRMTC believes consistent 
notification standards must be applied to states and tribal 
governments. . .''.

[[Page 18478]]

This letter identifies a discrepancy between 10 CFR part 37 and 10 CFR 
parts 71 and 73 regarding advance notification of Tribal Governments 
for certain radioactive material shipments. The NRC regulations in 
Sec.  71.79, ``Advance notification of shipment of irradiated reactor 
fuel and nuclear waste,'' require licensees provide advance 
notification to the NRC, States, and participating Tribes for 
irradiated fuel and for the shipment of licensed material, other than 
irradiated fuel, meeting the certain conditions. The NRC regulations in 
Sec.  73.37, ``Requirements for physical protection of irradiated 
reactor fuel in transit,'' require licensees provide advance 
notification to the NRC, States and participating Tribes for spent 
nuclear fuel. While Sec.  37.77 requires licensees provide advance 
notice to the NRC and States for the shipment of licensed material in a 
category 1 quality, there is no requirement for licensees to provide 
advance notification to Tribes for such shipments.

IV. Conclusion

    The NRC has determined that the petition meets the sufficiency 
requirements for docketing a PRM under Sec.  2.803, ``Petition for 
rulemaking-NRC action.'' The NRC will examine the issues raised in PRM-
37-2 and any comments received in response to this comment request to 
determine whether these issues should be considered in rulemaking.

    Dated: April 5, 2021.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2021-07281 Filed 4-8-21; 8:45 am]
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