[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 137 (Monday, July 18, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 42074-42076]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-17913]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 20

[NRC-2011-0162]


Consideration of Rulemaking To Address Prompt Remediation of 
Residual Radioactivity During Operations

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of public Webinar and request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Commission or NRC) is 
seeking input from the public, licensees, Agreement States, non-
Agreement States, and other stakeholders on a potential rulemaking to 
address prompt remediation of residual radioactivity during the 
operational phase of licensed material sites and nuclear reactors. The 
NRC has not initiated a rulemaking, but is in the process of gathering 
information and seeking stakeholder input on this subject for 
developing a technical basis document. To aid in this process, the NRC 
is requesting comments on the issues discussed in Section III, 
``Specific Questions,'' in the Supplementary Information Section of 
this document. Additionally, the NRC will hold a public Webinar to 
facilitate the public's and other stakeholders'

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understanding of these issues and the submission of comments.

DATES: The public Webinar will be held in Rockville, Maryland on July 
25, 2011, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. (EDT). Submit comments on the issues 
discussed in this document by September 16, 2011. Comments received 
after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so.

ADDRESSES: Please include Docket ID NRC-2011-0162 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. You may submit comments by any one of the following 
methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-
2011-0162. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher, 
telephone: 301-492-3668, e-mail: [email protected].
     Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, 
Announcements, and Directives Branch (RADB), Office of Administration, 
Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, 
DC 20555-0001.
     Fax comments 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, O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland 20852.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC 
are available online in the NRC Library 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 the 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 Draft Proposed Technical Basis is available electronically under 
ADAMS Accession Number ML111580353.
     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-2011-0162.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Chad Glenn, Office of Federal and 
State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-
6722; email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    The NRC recently published the Decommissioning Planning Rule (DPR) 
(76 FR 33512; June 17, 2011). The DPR applies to the operational phase 
of a licensed facility, and requires licensees to operate in a way to 
minimize spills, leaks, and other unplanned releases of radioactive 
contaminants into the environment. It also requires licensees to check 
periodically for radiological contamination throughout the site, 
including subsurface soil and groundwater. The DPR does not have a 
mandatory requirement for licensees to conduct radiological remediation 
during operations. Within the Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM), SRM-
SECY-07-0177 (ADAMS Accession No. ML073440549), that approved the 
proposed DPR, the Commission directed the staff to ``make further 
improvements to the decommissioning planning process by addressing 
remediation of residual radioactivity during the operational phase with 
the objective of avoiding complex decommissioning challenges that can 
lead to legacy sites.'' Therefore, the NRC staff is considering a 
potential rulemaking requiring prompt remediation during operations, 
and has begun gathering information pertinent to its considerations.

II. Discussion

    Currently, there are no NRC regulations that require licensees to 
promptly remediate radiological contamination. To enhance stakeholder 
engagement in developing a technical basis as a precursor to a proposed 
rule, the NRC staff developed a Draft Proposed Technical Basis to 
facilitate discussion with, and to solicit input from, interested 
stakeholders. The Draft Proposed Technical Basis describes the NRC's 
preferred approach as a rulemaking to require licensees to promptly 
remediate radioactive spills and leaks when certain threshold limits 
are met. NRC's preferred approach contemplates using the NRC screening 
values for soil and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 
maximum contamination levels for groundwater as the threshold limits. 
The preferred approach would also include a provision allowing 
licensees to delay remediation when certain conditions are met. To 
justify a delayed remediation, licensees would be required to perform 
analyses such as dose assessment, risk-assessments and/or cost-benefit 
analyses for the NRC's review.
    In addition to the preferred approach, the NRC staff considered the 
following as alternative frameworks for requiring prompt remediation 
during operations:
    (1) Issuing a regulation that would require licensees to conduct 
prompt remediation of a spill or leak when certain contaminant 
thresholds, such as the restricted release limits in Title 10 of the 
Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), Sec.  20.1403, are exceeded. 
Unlike the preferred approach, this alternative would not provide the 
licensee with the opportunity to conduct an analysis to justify delayed 
remediation.
    (2) Issuing site-specific license conditions requiring timely 
remediation following identification of contamination above some 
specified volume or concentration.
    (3) Issuing new guidance in the form of a NUREG.
    (4) No action (i.e., the NRC staff would rely on existing 
regulations and guidance documents to encourage licensees to consider 
prompt remediation after spills or leaks).
    For more information on the preferred approach and alternatives, 
please refer to the Draft Proposed Technical Basis (ML111580353).

III. Specific Questions

    To assist the NRC in developing a comprehensive technical basis 
document for a potential rulemaking requiring prompt remediation, the 
NRC is seeking stakeholder input on the following questions:
    1. Should the NRC conduct rulemaking to address remediation of 
residual radioactivity during the operational phase? Why or why not?
    2. If the NRC implements a rule that requires prompt remediation of 
radioactive spills and leaks, what

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concentration, dose limits, or other threshold limits should trigger 
prompt remediation? Should the thresholds differ for soil versus 
groundwater contamination? For example, should the NRC screening 
criteria be used to establish threshold levels for soil contamination? 
Should the EPA's maximum contaminant levels be used for drinking water?
    3. Should the NRC allow licensees to justify delaying remediation 
under certain conditions when the contaminant level exceeds the 
threshold limit? If yes, then what conditions should be used to justify 
a delayed remediation?
    4. Should factors such as safety, operational impact, and cost be a 
basis for delaying remediation?
    5. If the NRC implements a rule that allows licensees to analyze 
residual radioactivity to justify delaying remediation, then what 
should the licensee's analysis cover? For example, what kind of dose 
assessment, risk-assessments and/or cost-benefit analyses should be 
performed to justify delayed remediation? What other types of analyses 
are relevant?
    6. If the NRC implements a rule that allows licensees to analyze 
residual radioactivity to justify delaying remediation, what role 
should the cost of prompt remediation versus remediation at the time of 
decommissioning play in the analysis?
    7. If the NRC implements a rule that allows licensees to analyze 
residual radioactivity to justify delaying remediation, what standards 
or criteria should a licensee use to demonstrate to the NRC that a 
sufficient justification to delay remediation has been met?
    8. Are there any other alternatives beyond those discussed in the 
Draft Proposed Technical Basis document that the NRC should have 
considered to address prompt remediation?
    9. What other issues should the NRC staff consider in developing a 
technical basis for a rulemaking to address prompt remediation of 
residual radioactivity during site operations?

IV. Public Webinar

    To facilitate the understanding of the public and other 
stakeholders of these issues and the submission of comments, the NRC 
staff has scheduled a public Webinar, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. (EDT). 
Webinar participants will be able to view the presentation slides 
prepared by the NRC and electronically submit comments over the 
Internet. Participants must register to participate in the Webinar. 
Registration information may be found in the meeting notice 
(ML111780802). The meeting notice can also be accessed through the 
NRC's public Web site under the headings Public Meetings & Involvement 
> Public Meeting Schedule; see Web page http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm. Additionally, the final agenda for 
the public Webinar and the Draft Proposed Technical Basis document will 
be posted no fewer than 10 days prior to the Webinar at this Web site. 
Those who are unable to participate via Webinar may also participate 
via teleconference. For details on how to participate via 
teleconference, please contact Sarah Achten; telephone: 301-415-6009; 
email: [email protected] or T.R. Rowe; telephone: 301-415-8008; 
email: [email protected].

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 8th day of July 2011.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Keith I. McConnell,
Deputy Director, Decommissioning and Uranium Recovery, Licensing 
Directorate, Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection, 
Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management 
Programs.
[FR Doc. 2011-17913 Filed 7-15-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P