80 FR 27709 - Selection of Material Balance Areas and Item Control Areas

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Federal Register Volume 80, Issue 93 (May 14, 2015)

Page Range		27709-27710
FR Document		2015-11618

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-5057, ``Special Nuclear Material Control and Accounting System for Non-Fuel Cycle Facilities.'' This DG provides guidance to licensees and applicants on the NRC's regulations concerning the material control and accounting of special nuclear material. The need for this guidance arises from an ongoing NRC rulemaking to revise these regulations, as discussed further in Section II below. The scope of DG-5057 covers nuclear power plants and all non- fuel cycle facilities.

Federal Register, Volume 80 Issue 93 (Thursday, May 14, 2015)

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 93 (Thursday, May 14, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27709-27710]
From the Federal Register Online [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2015-11618]

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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2015-0120]
RIN-3150-AI61

Selection of Material Balance Areas and Item Control Areas

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft regulatory guide; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for
public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-5057, ``Special Nuclear
Material Control and Accounting System for Non-Fuel Cycle Facilities.''
This DG provides guidance to licensees and applicants on the NRC's
regulations concerning the material control and accounting of special
nuclear material. The need for this guidance arises from an ongoing NRC
rulemaking to revise these regulations, as discussed further in Section
II below. The scope of DG-5057 covers nuclear power plants and all non-
fuel cycle facilities.

DATES: Submit comments by June 15, 2015. Comments received after this
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is
able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before
this date. Although a time limit is given, comments and suggestions in
connection with items for inclusion in guides currently being developed
or improvements in all published guides are encouraged at any time.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods
(unless this document describes a different method for submitting
comments on a speficied subject):
Federal rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0120. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact
the individuals listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section
of this document.
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration,
Mail Stop: OWFN-12-H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
For additional direction on accessing information and submitting
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom Pham, Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards, 301-287-9132, email: Tom.Pham@nrc.gov, or,
Mekonen Bayssie, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, 301-251-7489,
email: mekonen.bayssie@nrc.gov. 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-2015-0120 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information regarding this document. You may
obtain publically-available information related to this document, by
the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0120.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/

[[Page 27710]]

adams.html. To begin the search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and
then 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 pdr.resource@nrc.gov. The
ADAMS accession number for each document referenced (if available in
ADAMS) is provided the first time that a document is references. The
draft regulatory guide is available electronically under ADAMS
accession number ML15015A271. The regulatory analysis may be found in
ADAMS under Accession No. ML15015A294.
Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and NRC approval is not
required to reproduce them.
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.

B. Submitting Comments

Please include Docket ID NRC-2015-0120 in the subject line of your
comment submission, in order to ensure that the NRC is able to make
your comment submission available to the public in this docket.
The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact that you
do not want to be publicly disclosed in your comment submission. The
NRC will post all comment submissions at http://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 submissions into ADAMS.

II. Additional Information

The NRC is conducting a rulemaking to revise part 74 of Title 10 of
the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Material Control and
Accounting of Special Nuclear Material,'' and in this regard published
on November 8, 2013 (78 FR 67225) a proposed rule for comment. The
rulemaking to revise the material control and accounting (MC&A)
regulations was initially authorized by a 2009 staff requirements
memorandum (SRM) to SECY-08-0059, ``Rulemaking Plan: Part 74--Material
Control and Accounting of Special Nuclear Material.'' The SRM and SECY-
08-0059 may be found in ADAMS under Accession Nos. ML090360473 and
ML080580307, respectively. The SRM directed the NRC staff to revise
existing MC&A guidance documents to reflect any new and revised
requirements.
The draft guidance that the NRC is issuing for public comment is a
DG in the NRC's ``Regulatory Guide'' series. This series was developed
to describe and make available to the public technical information,
such as methods that are acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing
specific parts of the NRC's regulations, techniques that the staff uses
in evaluating specific issues or postulated events, and data that the
staff needs in its review of applications for permits and licenses.
The DG, entitled ``Special Nuclear Material Control and Accounting
System for Non-Fuel Cycle Facilities,'' is temporarily identified by
its task number, DG-5057. This DG-5057 is proposed revision 3 of RG
5.29. Revision 3 of RG 5.29 considers conformance with the provisions
of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) N15.8 2009, ``Methods
of Nuclear Material Control--Material Control Systems--Special Nuclear
Material Control and Accounting Systems for Nuclear Power Plants,'' to
be an acceptable approach to meet the MC&A requirements in subpart B of
10 CFR part 74 at nuclear power plants. DG-5057 expands the scope of
the guidance to cover the proposed new requirements in subpart A of 10
CFR part 74 and to cover all non-fuel cycle facilities.

III. Backfitting and Issue Finality

Draft Guide-5057 provides guidance on MC&A recordkeeping and
reporting requirements, as set forth in 10 CFR part 74. The regulatory
guidance held in this guidance provides methods that the NRC staff
finds acceptable for an applicant or licensee to meet the requirements
of the underlying NRC regulations. The issuance of the guidance in DG-
5057 is not backfitting, as that term is defined in 10 CFR 50.109,
70.76, or 72.62, or inconsistent with the issue finality provisions in
10 CFR part 52, because information collection and reporting
requirements with respect to material control and accounting are not
included within the scope of the NRC's backfitting protections or part
52 issue finality provisions.
Applicants and potential applicants are not, with certain
exceptions, protected by any issue finality provisions under part 52.
This is because the issue finality provisions under part 52, with
certain exclusions discussed below, were not intended to apply to every
NRC action which substantially changes the expectations of current and
future applicants. The exceptions to the general principle are whenever
an applicant references a part 52 license (e.g., an early site permit)
and/or NRC regulatory approval (e.g., a design certification rule, a
standard design approval) with specified issue finality provisions.
However, the scope of issue finality provided extends only to the
matters resolved in the license or regulatory approval. Early site
permits, design certification rules, and standard design approvals do
not address or resolve compliance with material control and accounting
requirements in 10 CFR part 74. Therefore, no applicant referencing an
early site permit, design certification rule, or standard design
approval is protected by relevant issue finality provisions with
respect to the material control and accounting matters addressed in DG-
5057.

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 8th day of May, 2015.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Harriet Karagiannis,
Acting Chief, Regulatory Guidance and Generic Issues Branch, Division
of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2015-11618 Filed 5-13-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

Document Created: 2015-12-15 15:33:13
Document Modified: 2015-12-15 15:33:13

Category		Regulatory Information
Collection		Federal Register
sudoc Class		AE 2.7: GS 4.107: AE 2.106:
Publisher		Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration
Section		Notices
Action		Draft regulatory guide; request for comment.
Dates		Submit comments by June 15, 2015. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before this date. Although a time limit is given, comments and suggestions in connection with items for inclusion in guides currently being developed or improvements in all published guides are encouraged at any time.
Contact		Tom Pham, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, 301-287-9132, email: [email protected], or, Mekonen Bayssie, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, 301-251-7489, email: [email protected] U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
FR Citation		80 FR 27709