10 CFR Part 26 - FITNESS FOR DUTY PROGRAMS

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is publishing a regulatory basis to support a rulemaking that would amend the NRC's regulations for the decommissioning of nuclear power reactors. The NRC's goals in amending these regulations would be to provide for an efficient decommissioning process; reduce the need for exemptions from existing regulations; address other decommissioning issues deemed relevant by the NRC staff; and support the principles of good regulation, including openness, clarity, and reliability.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting comment on the preliminary draft regulatory analysis to support a rulemaking that would amend the NRC's regulations for the decommissioning of nuclear power reactors. The NRC's goals in amending the regulations would be to provide for an efficient decommissioning process; reduce the need for exemptions from existing regulations; address other decommissioning issues deemed relevant by the NRC; and support the principles of good regulation, including openness, clarity, and reliability. The NRC plans to hold a public meeting in spring 2017 to discuss the draft regulatory basis that was previously published in the Federal Registe r and the preliminary draft regulatory analysis to facilitate the development of public comments on those documents.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting comments on a draft regulatory basis to support a rulemaking that would amend NRC's regulations for the decommissioning of nuclear power reactors. The NRC's goals in amending these regulations would be to provide for an efficient decommissioning process; reduce the need for exemptions from existing regulations; address other decommissioning issues deemed relevant by the NRC staff; and support the principles of good regulation, including openness, clarity, and reliability. The NRC plans to hold a public meeting to discuss the draft regulatory basis and facilitate public comment.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations to make miscellaneous corrections. The amendments include correcting a senior NRC management position title; correcting terminology for consistency in NRC regulations; and correcting contact information, references, typographical errors, and misspellings. This document is necessary to inform the public of these non-substantive amendments to the NRC's regulations.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is discontinuing eight rulemaking activities. The purpose of this action is to inform members of the public that these rulemaking activities are being discontinued and to provide a brief discussion of the NRC's decision to discontinue them. These rulemaking activities will no longer be reported in the NRC's portion of the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (the Unified Agenda).

On November 19, 2015, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requested comments on an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) on regulatory improvements for decommissioning power reactors. The public comment period was originally scheduled to close on January 4, 2016. The NRC has decided to extend the public comment period to allow more time for members of the public to develop and submit their comments.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is discontinuing a rulemaking activity that would have amended its regulations governing fatigue management programs for nuclear power plant workers. The purpose of this action is to inform members of the public that this rulemaking activity is being discontinued and to provide a discussion of the NRC's decision to discontinue it.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations to make miscellaneous corrections. These changes include renaming the Office of Information Services, renaming the Computer Security Office and removing it as a standalone office, capitalizing the words Tribe, Tribes, and Tribal, correcting a Web site address, correcting a misspelling, removing a submission requirement, correcting an email address, correcting a room number, removing a Federal Register notice requirement, and adding missing information collection references. This document is necessary to inform the public of these non-substantive changes to the NRC's regulations.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing this advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) to obtain input from stakeholders on the development of a draft regulatory basis. The draft regulatory basis would support potential changes to the NRC's regulations for the decommissioning of nuclear power reactors. The NRC's goals in amending these regulations would be to provide an efficient decommissioning process, reduce the need for exemptions from existing regulations, and support the principles of good regulation, including openness, clarity, and reliability. The NRC is soliciting public comments on the contemplated action and invites stakeholders and interested persons to participate. The NRC plans to hold a public meeting to promote full understanding of the questions contained in this ANPR and facilitate public comment.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations to make miscellaneous corrections. These changes include updating the address for the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), updating a footnote, correcting mathematical errors, correcting references, correcting typographical and grammatical errors, and revising language for clarity and consistency. This final rule also makes changes to the time period by which a Federal agency must refer a debt for collection through offset, and makes conforming changes to the regulations to reflect the transfer of Mississippi to NRC Region IV.

On June 18, 2014, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a request for public comment on a draft regulatory basis to support the potential amendments to revise a number of existing security related regulations relating to physical protection of special nuclear material (SNM) at NRC-licensed facilities and in transit, as well as the fitness-for-duty programs for security officers at certain fuel cycle facilities. The public comment period originally was scheduled to close on August 4, 2014. The NRC has decided to extend the public comment period on this document to allow more time for members of the public to develop and submit their comments.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting comments on a draft regulatory basis to support the potential amendments to revise a number of existing security-related regulations relating to physical protection of special nuclear material (SNM) at NRC-licensed facilities and in transit, as well as the fitness for duty programs for security officers at certain fuel cycle facilities. Potentially affected licensees include fuel cycle facilities, non-power reactors, research and development facilities, industrial facilities, and certain medical isotope production facilities.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is making available the regulatory basis for the ongoing proposed rulemaking effort to amend its regulations regarding drug testing requirements in NRC licensees' fitness for duty programs. The regulatory basis documents the reasoning upon which the NRC determined rulemaking was the appropriate course of action. In this regulatory basis, the NRC recommends developing a proposed rule that would enhance the ability of NRC licensees to detect and deter drug use and the alignment of the NRC's regulations with select drug testing provisions in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' “Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs” issued in 2008.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will consider the issues raised in a petition for rulemaking (PRM), PRM-26-8, submitted by Mr. Thomas King (the petitioner) in the NRC's rulemaking process. The petitioner requested that the NRC amend its Fitness for Duty program regulations to amend drug testing requirements to test for additional synthetic drugs currently not included in the regulations. The NRC determined that the issues raised in the PRM are appropriate for consideration in an ongoing rulemaking on Drug and Alcohol Testing. The NRC is not instituting a public comment period at this time.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) will periodically make publicly available a series of documents related to the ongoing proposed rulemaking effort to amend its regulations regarding Fitness-for-Duty Programs. The NRC does not plan to institute a public comment period for these materials when making them publicly available. This document announces the availability of two rulemaking documents: The regulatory basis and preliminary proposed rule language for requiring personnel performing certain quality control and quality verification (QC/QV) duties to comply with the work hour provisions. The availability of these documents provides increased awareness to interested stakeholders and provides preparatory material for future public meetings.