[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 118 (Wednesday, June 23, 2021)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 32817-32818]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-13466]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Chapter I

[NRC-2017-0214]


Retrospective Review of Administrative Requirements

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Availability of comment evaluation summary; public meeting and 
status of rulemaking activities.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), on February 4, 
2020, requested input from its licensees and members of the public on 
any administrative requirements that may be modified or eliminated 
without an adverse effect on public health or safety, common defense 
and security, protection of the environment, or regulatory efficiency 
and effectiveness. The public comment period ended on May 6, 2020, and 
the NRC evaluated the comments. This document announces the 
availability of the comment evaluation summary and provides the status 
of the NRC's Retrospective Review of Administrative Requirements 
initiative. The NRC plans to hold a public meeting to discuss the 
comment evaluation process and answer stakeholder questions.

DATES: The comment evaluation summary is available on June 23, 2021. A 
public meeting will be held on June 30, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2017-0214 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-2017-0214. 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.
     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.
     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 or 
301-415-4737, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. (EST), Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Andrew G. Carrera, telephone: 301-415-
1078, email: [email protected]; or Solomon Sahle, telephone: 301-
415-3781, 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. Background

    On February 4, 2020, the NRC published a document in the Federal 
Register (85 FR 6103) requesting input from its licensees and members 
of the public on any administrative requirements that may be modified 
or eliminated without an adverse effect on

[[Page 32818]]

public health or safety, common defense and security, protection of the 
environment, or regulatory efficiency and effectiveness. The public 
comment period was originally scheduled to close on April 6, 2020. On 
April 2, 2020, the NRC published a document in the Federal Register (85 
FR 18477) extending the deadline to May 6, 2020. During the comment 
period, on March 5, 2020 (ADAMS Accession No. ML20069A022), and March 
24, 2020 (ADAMS Accession No. ML20085H593), the NRC held public 
meetings to discuss the NRC's request for public input. In addition, 
the NRC requested input from agency staff through various methods of 
internal outreach. The NRC received comment submissions from the 
Nuclear Energy Institute, agency staff, and a member of the public, for 
a total of 100 individual comments. The evaluation summary of these 
comments is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML21012A439.

II. Discussion

    For this Retrospective Review of Administrative Requirements 
(RROAR) initiative, the NRC developed criteria with which to evaluate 
potential regulatory changes. In addition to the following five 
criteria, the NRC considered programmatic experience, intent of the 
requirement, impact to the NRC's mission, and overall impact to 
resources when determining whether to pursue a change to the 
regulations.
    1. Submittals resulting from routine and periodic recordkeeping and 
reporting requirements, such as directives to submit recurring reports 
that the NRC has not consulted or referenced in programmatic operations 
or policy development in the last 3 years.
    2. Requirements for reports or records that contain information 
reasonably accessible to the agency from alternative resources that, as 
a result, may be candidates for elimination.
    3. Requirements for reports or records that could be modified to 
result in reduced burden without impacting programmatic needs, 
regulatory efficiency, or transparency, through: (a) Less frequent 
reporting, (b) shortened record retention periods, (c) requiring 
entities to maintain a record rather than submit a report, or (d) 
implementing another mechanism that reduces burden for collecting or 
retaining information.
    4. Recordkeeping and reporting requirements that result in 
significant burden.
    5. Reports or records that contain information used by other 
Federal agencies, State and local governments, or Federally recognized 
Tribes will be dropped from the review provided the information 
collected is necessary to support the NRC's mission or to fulfill a 
binding NRC obligation.
    To be screened in for rulemaking consideration, comments had to 
meet at least one of Criteria 1 through 4 and not meet Criterion 5.
    Once screened in for rulemaking consideration, the staff organized 
the comments into three categories of action: (1) To be further 
evaluated in a new RROAR-related rulemaking (44 comments), (2) to be 
incorporated in an annual administrative corrections rulemaking (5 
comments), or (3) to be considered in an ongoing rulemaking activity 
outside the RROAR initiative (5 comments). For comments that need 
further evaluation within the context of a new RROAR rulemaking effort, 
the NRC will consider the comments, in combination with its preliminary 
evaluation of the comments, in the rulemaking process. However, this is 
not a final determination and could change as NRC proceeds through 
rulemaking activities.
    The NRC's evaluation identified 46 comments that did not meet the 
criteria. The staff plans no further action on 44 of these comments, 
and identified two comments to be reviewed for potential non-rulemaking 
solutions under the agency's innovation and transformation efforts.

III. Public Meeting

    The NRC will conduct a public meeting to discuss the comment 
evaluation process and answer stakeholder questions.
    The meeting will be held on June 30, 2021, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 
p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Interested members of the public can 
participate in this meeting via WebEx at: https://usnrc.webex.com/usnrc/onstage/g.php?MTID=e01dcfc6971f79f394a24d902b4e0e9b3, or by phone 
conference at (888) 390-2141, passcode 8801623.
    This is an Information Public Meeting with a question and answer 
session. The purpose of this meeting is for the NRC staff to meet 
directly with individuals to discuss regulatory and technical issues. 
Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions of the NRC staff or 
make comments about the issues discussed throughout the meeting; 
however, the NRC is not actively soliciting comments towards regulatory 
decisions at this meeting. For additional information or to request 
reasonable accommodations, please contact Andrew Carrera, phone: 301-
415-1078, email: [email protected], or Solomon Sahle, phone: 301-
415-3781, email: [email protected]. Stakeholders should monitor the 
NRC's public meeting website for information about the public meeting; 
https://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm.

    Dated: June 14, 2021.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Kevin A. Coyne,
Deputy Director, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental Review and 
Financial Support, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2021-13466 Filed 6-22-21; 8:45 am]
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