SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2026-3334 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 www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2026-3334.
• NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at www.nrc.gov/​reading-rm/​adams.html. To begin the search, select “Begin ADAMS Public Search.” For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at 301-415-4737, or by email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov. DG-1444, proposed RG 1.264, titled, “Assessing Public Health Risk Associated with Chemical Hazards of Licensed Material Under 10 CFR part 53,” is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML25043A094.
• NRC's PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. To make an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov 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 ( www.regulations.gov). Please include Docket ID NRC-2026-3334 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 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. Additional Information

The NRC is issuing for public comment a DG in the NRC's “Regulatory Guide” series. This series was developed to describe methods that are acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the agency's regulations, to explain techniques that the staff uses in evaluating specific issues or postulated events, and to describe information that the staff needs in its review of applications for permits and licenses.

Proposed RG 1.264 entitled “Assessing Public Health Risk Associated with Chemical Hazards of Licensed Material Under 10 CFR part 53,” is temporarily identified by its task number, DG-1444.

This DG is being issued to provide guidance on an acceptable approach for meeting the regulation under paragraph 53.440(k) of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), which requires defining design features and related functional design criteria such that analyses demonstrate a low risk of permanent injury to public health due to the health effects of chemical hazards of licensed material.

The staff is also issuing for public comment a draft regulatory analysis (ADAMS Accession No. ML26091A264). The staff developed a regulatory analysis to assess the value of issuing or revising an RG as well as alternative courses of action.

III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality

Issuance of DG-1444, if finalized, would not constitute backfitting as defined in 10 CFR 50.109, “Backfitting,” and as described in NRC Management Directive (MD) 8.4, “Management of Backfitting, Forward Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information Requests”; affect issue finality of any approval issued under 10 CFR part 52, “Licenses, Certificates, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants”; or constitute forward fitting as defined in MD 8.4, because, as explained in this DG, licensees would not be required to comply with the positions set forth in this DG.

IV. Submitting Suggestions for Improvement of Regulatory Guides

A member of the public may, at any time, submit suggestions to the NRC for improvement of existing RGs or for the development of new RGs. Suggestions can be submitted on the NRC's public website at www.nrc.gov/​reading-rm/​doc-collections/​reg-guides/​contactus.html. Suggestions will be considered in future updates and enhancements to the “Regulatory Guide” series.

V. Executive Order (E.O.) 12866

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs determined that this DG is not a significant regulatory action under E.O. 12866.

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.

91 FR 54406