[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 174 (Thursday, September 9, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54917-54918]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-22481]
[[Page 54917]]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2010-0294]
Criteria for Nominating Materials Licensees for the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission's Agency Action Review Meeting
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Request for comment.
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SUMMARY: It is the policy of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) to have its senior managers conduct an annual Agency Action
Review Meeting (AARM). The AARM is an integral part of the evaluative
process used by the agency to ensure the operational safety performance
of licensees. As a part of the AARM process, the NRC reviews the
agency's actions concerning fuel cycle facilities and other materials
licensees (including Agreement State licensees) with significant
performance concerns. In 2002, the NRC developed criteria for
determining materials licensees that would be discussed at the AARM.
The NRC revised the criteria to incorporate NRC's current policies and
procedures in 2008. The criteria that is currently used to determine
materials licensees that will be discussed at the AARM may be found in
Enclosure 2 of SECY-08-0135, ``Revision of the Criteria for Identifying
Nuclear Materials Licensees for Discussion at the Agency Action Review
Meeting,'' dated September 16, 2008 (ADAMS Accession Number:
ML082480564).
Currently, the NRC is considering revisions to this criteria for
Identifying Materials Licensees for Discussion at the AARM. A draft
revised criterion found in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION below provides
an additional criterion to address licensees previously discussed at
the AARM. The reason this additional criterion has been added is to
allow NRC's senior management to address why the previously identified
issues are not being resolved. The NRC is seeking public comment on
this revised criterion.
DATES: Please submit comments regarding the proposed criteria, by
October 25, 2010. Comments received after this date will be considered
if practical to do so, but the NRC staff is able to ensure
consideration only for those comments received on or before this date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods.
Please include Docket ID NRC-2010-0294 in the subject line of your
comments. Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be
posted on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site,
http://www.regulations.gov. Because your comments will not be edited to
remove any identifying or contact information, the NRC cautions you
against including any information in your submission that you do not
want to be publicly disclosed.
The NRC requests that any party soliciting or aggregating comments
received from other persons for submission to the NRC inform those
persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to remove any
identifying or contact information, and therefore, they should not
include any information in their comments that they do not want
publicly disclosed.
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and
search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-2010-0294. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher 301-492-3668; e-mail
[email protected].
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements and
Directives Branch (RADB), Division of Administrative Services, Office
of Administration, Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax to RADB at (301) 492-
3446.
You can access publicly available documents related to this notice
using the following methods:
NRC's Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine and have
copied, for a fee, publicly available documents at the NRC's PDR,
Public File Area O1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS):
Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC are
available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this page, the public can gain
entry into ADAMS, which provides text and image files of NRC's public
documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems
in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC's PDR
reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to
[email protected]. The Proposed Criteria for Identifying Materials
Licensees for Discussion at the AARM is also available electronically
under ADAMS Accession Number ML101900346.
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Public comments and supporting
materials related to this notice can be found at http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID: NRC-2010-0294.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Duane White by telephone at 301-415-
6272, E-mail: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
In 2002, NRC developed a process for providing information to the
Commission on significant nuclear materials issues and adverse licensee
performance. This process was discussed in SECY-02-0216, ``Proposed
Process for Providing Information on Significant Nuclear Materials
Issues and Adverse Licensee Performance,'' dated December 11, 2002. As
part of this process, the staff developed criteria to determine nuclear
material licensees with significant performance problems that would be
discussed at the AARM. In 2008, the NRC revised the criteria to provide
additional clarification regarding the criteria requirements and to
incorporate NRC's current policy and procedures.
Discussion
NRC is preparing to revise the current criteria used to determine
material licensees that will be discussed at the AARM. The agency
currently identifies material licensees, including fuel cycle and
Agreement State licensees, for AARM discussion based on operating
performance, inspection results, and judgment of the severity of
problems of safety performance. Although the revised AARM criteria will
continue to be based upon the same principles as the existing criteria,
the staff is proposing to include one additional element (i.e.,
criterion). This criterion focuses on those licensees previously
discussed at the AARM who did not address or were ineffective in
correcting their underlying issues.
Current Criteria for Determining Materials Licensees for the AARM
The current criteria for determining materials licensees for the
AARM, as described in Enclosure 2 of SECY-08-0135, is as follows: (1)
Strategic Plan--Licensee has an event that results in the failure to
meet a strategic outcome for safety and security in the NRC Strategic
Plan (NUREG-1614); (2) Significant Issue or Event--Licensee has an
issue or event that results in an abnormal occurrence report to
Congress (per NRC Management Directive 8.1), or a severity level I or
II violation, as described in the NRC Enforcement Policy (including
equivalent violations dispositioned by Alternative Dispute Resolution),
or a level 3 or higher International Nuclear
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Event Scale Report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (per NRC
Management Directive 5.12), and there are unique or unusual aspects of
the licensee's performance that warrant additional NRC oversight (e.g.,
a significant event, which requires an incident investigation team
(IIT) or augmented inspection team (AIT)); or (3) Performance Trend--
Licensee has multiple and/or repetitive significant program issues
identified over more than one inspection, or inspection period, and the
issues are supported by severity level I, II, or III violation, as
described in the NRC Enforcement Policy (including equivalent
violations dispositioned by Alternative Dispute Resolution). And, there
are unique or unusual aspects of the licensee's performance that
warrant additional NRC oversight (e.g., oversight panel formed for
order implementation).
Proposed Criteria for Determining Materials Licensees for the AARM
The NRC is proposing the following revision to the existing
criteria for determining materials licensees with significant
performance issues: (1) Strategic Plan--Licensee has an event that
results in the failure to meet a strategic outcome for safety and
security in the NRC Strategic Plan (NUREG-1614); (2) Significant Issue
or Event--Licensee has an issue or event that results in an abnormal
occurrence report to Congress (per NRC Management Directive 8.1), or a
severity level I or II violation, as described in the NRC Enforcement
Policy (including equivalent violations dispositioned by Alternative
Dispute Resolution), or a level 3 or higher International Nuclear Event
Scale Report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (per NRC
Management Directive 5.12), and there are unique or unusual aspects of
the licensee's performance that warrant additional NRC oversight (e.g.,
a significant event, which requires an IIT or AIT); or (3) Performance
Trend--Licensee has multiple and/or repetitive significant program
issues identified over more than one inspection, or inspection period,
and the issues are supported by severity level I, II, or III violation,
as described in the NRC Enforcement Policy (including equivalent
violations dispositioned by Alternative Dispute Resolution). And, there
are unique or unusual aspects of the licensee's performance that
warrant additional NRC oversight (e.g., oversight panel formed for
order implementation); or (4) Identified for Discussion at Previous
AARM--Licensee corrective actions did not address or were ineffective
in correcting the underlying issues that were previously discussed at
the AARM.
You can find NRC's strategic plan (NUREG-1614) and the referenced
management directives and enforcement policy on NRC's public document
collections Web page at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 25th day of August 2010.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Cynthia A. Carpenter,
Deputy Director, Office of Federal and State Materials and
Environmental Management Programs.
[FR Doc. 2010-22481 Filed 9-8-10; 8:45 am]
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