[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 86 (Thursday, May 4, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28618-28619]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-09513]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2023-0067]


Modern Approaches for Radiological Measurement, Data Collection, 
and Data Analysis of Surface and Subsurface Residual Radioactivity To 
Support NRC License Termination

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting 
information aimed at understanding the current state-of-art in 
approaches to radiological survey (i.e., radiation instrumentation and 
data collection) to support decommissioning and license termination.

DATES: Submit comments by June 5, 2023. 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 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-2023-0067. Address 
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; 
telephone: 301-415-0624; 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 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: Cynthia Barr, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-4015; email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2023-0067 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-2023-0067.
     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.
     NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public 
documents, by appointment, at the NRC's PDR, Room P1 B35, One White 
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. To make 
an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to 
[email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 8 
a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (ET), 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-2023-0067 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 evaluating its readiness to evaluate new forms of data 
being submitted by licensees to demonstrate compliance with license 
termination rule (LTR) criteria promulgated in subpart E of part 20 of 
title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR). Owing to 
significant technological advancements over the past two decades, NRC 
licensees have increasingly used, or plan to use, more modern and 
updated survey instrumentation and data capture tools, including use of 
global positioning system, light detection and ranging, and geographic 
information system technologies.\1\ Data capture technologies are used 
to record detector response, the date and time of measurements, and the 
location (i.e., coordinates) of each measurement. Newer scanning 
radiation survey instruments and mobile systems represent attractive 
options for radiological assessment that can be used by NRC licensees. 
In addition to radiological surveys being performed with a human 
surveyor using a backpack to hold instrumentation while scanning at a 
constant speed, various platforms and delivery methods have also been 
used to perform radiological surveys including autonomous or semi-
autonomous air and ground vehicles (e.g., all-terrain vehicles, push 
carts, remote controlled ground vehicles, and drones).
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    \1\ Note the conventional approach for radiological surveys 
includes a surveyor listening to the audible output of a radiation 
detector and pausing to count longer upon hearing an increase in 
counts as described in NUREG-1507, Revision 1, ``Minimum Detectable 
Concentrations with Typical Radiation Survey for Instruments for 
Various Contaminants and Field Conditions'' (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML20233A507) and NUREG/CR-6364, ``Human Performance in Radiological 
Survey Scanning.'' Use of more modern systems with continuous data 
logging and without a surveyor listening to the audible output is 
increasingly being used. While NUREG-1507, Revision 1, provides some 
guidance on post-processing of continuously collected data in 
Chapter 6, Sections 6.3 through 6.5, additional guidance is needed 
on how to calculate a priori scan minimum detectable concentrations, 
as well as acceptable approaches for post-processing of the data.
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    Comments received on draft NUREG-1575, Revision 2, ``Multi-Agency 
Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual'' (MARSSIM) (ADAMS 
Accession No. ML21008A573), indicated the need for development of 
statistical and uncertainty

[[Page 28619]]

methodologies appropriate for these sorts of modern detection systems 
with data logging. Other comments received on draft MARSSIM, Revision 
2, included the need for additional guidance on the use of radiation 
data mapping generated by continuous data-logging systems.
    Because MARSSIM only addresses radiological surveys for surface 
residual radioactivity, additional guidance is also needed on surveys 
of radiologically contaminated subsurface materials. The MARSSIM 
methodology relies heavily on scan surveys to evaluate the presence of 
elevated areas between discrete sample locations. Subsurface soils 
cannot be effectively scanned due to attenuation of residual 
radioactivity in the soil column and, therefore, scanning is only 
effective for surface or excavated materials. Thus, NRC licensees could 
benefit from additional information regarding acceptable methods for 
collecting and analyzing data in the subsurface to support 
decommissioning sites and license termination. Proposed NRC guidance 
topics include approaches to optimizing subsurface survey design given 
access difficulties and costly sampling, and data analysis methods to 
support remedial and compliance decision-making.

III. Specific Request for Comment

    The NRC requests comments from stakeholders, including nuclear 
licensees, professional organizations, nuclear industry consultants, 
vendors, academic researchers, and interested individuals. The focus of 
this request is to obtain responses aimed at gathering information that 
will permit the NRC staff to better understand trends in radiological 
survey instrumentation development and data analysis approaches, 
including those for survey of both surface and subsurface residual 
radioactivity.

IV. Requested Information and Comments

    Additional guidance is needed to provide NRC licensees with 
increased transparency on acceptable approaches to collection and 
analysis of data collected using more modern data logging systems and 
associated instrumentation. Additionally, guidance is needed on 
acceptable approaches for radiological survey of subsurface residual 
radioactivity to demonstrate compliance with radiological criteria for 
license termination.
    The NRC requests responses to a set of general questions. The 
following questions are focused on providing the NRC with an 
understanding of the state-of-art in approaches used to collect and 
process radiological survey and other data (surface and subsurface) to 
support decommissioning and license termination. Responses to these 
questions are expected to assist the NRC with obtaining information 
that it needs to develop guidance in the areas of (i) design and 
analysis of continuously collected radiological survey data without a 
surveyor listening to the audible output, and (ii) subsurface survey 
design optimization and data analysis to support decommissioning 
decision-making. Respondents can respond to any subset of the questions 
posed (i.e., responses do not need to address every question). Please 
consider providing information to allow NRC staff to contact 
organizations or individuals directly to clarify submitted responses.

    Note:  When answering these questions, consider providing 
details on when multiple systems are used for redundancy and/or 
variety and how that influences your response.

Questions Related to Continuously Collected Data Surveys Without a 
Surveyor Listening to the Audible Output

    1. What types of system(s) or equipment (i.e., instrumentation, 
including radiation detectors, and software) do you use or plan to use 
to record radiation detector location and raw instrument response?
    2. What methods do you use to calculate scan minimum detectable 
concentrations to ensure sufficient sensitivity to detect risk-
significant levels of residual radioactivity or to better understand 
measurement uncertainty?
    3. What methods have you used to post-process data to identify 
areas for follow-up investigation (e.g., use of radiation surveys maps, 
and statistical tests and measures to identify anomalous radioactivity 
to be targeted for follow-up investigation)?
    4. Have you experienced technical issues with data collection and 
analysis during previous surveys and what methods did you use to 
troubleshoot those issues? Do you have any lessons learned you could 
share related to the technical issues?
    5. What areas do you see as challenges or gaps to radiological 
survey design and data analysis that could be addressed in future 
guidance (e.g., a priori scan minimum detectable concentrations 
calculation) or tool development (e.g., data integration and post-
processing)?

Questions Related to Subsurface Survey Design and Data Analysis

    6. What types of instrumentation and approaches do you use to 
collect subsurface radiological survey data in the field? Specifically, 
what types of instrumentation and approaches has your organization used 
to perform surveys of hard to access locations in the subsurface 
(embedded piping, sumps, soils located at depth or underneath 
buildings, and bedrock)?
    7. What types of methods and software (e.g., geophysical methods 
and related software) have been used and subsurface data (e.g., hard 
and soft data) have been collected, and what novel approaches have been 
used to combine or condition data to develop site conceptual models or 
mathematical models, or to show release criteria have been met?
    8. What statistical approaches have you used to show subsurface 
residual radioactivity meets release standards including consideration 
of uncertainty (e.g., number and depth of samples, type of data and 
statistical approaches used to demonstrate compliance)?
    9. What approaches have you used to optimize subsurface survey 
designs including initial scoping to final status survey designs (e.g., 
geometrical or geostatistical techniques)?
    10. What areas do you see as challenges or gaps with respect to 
subsurface surveys and data analysis that could be addressed in future 
guidance or tool development?

    Dated: May 1, 2023.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Christepher A. McKenney,
Chief, Risk and Technical Analysis Branch, Division of Decommissioning, 
Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs, Office of Nuclear Material Safety 
and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2023-09513 Filed 5-3-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P