10 CFR Part 71, Subpart C - General Licenses

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering a potential amendment to its regulations that would revise the regulations on packaging and transporting radioactive material. The NRC is gathering information about potential changes that may be proposed in a subsequent rulemaking activity. The NRC is requesting public comment on the issues paper about potential changes that is referenced in this document. The NRC plans to hold a public meeting to promote full understanding of the issues paper and to facilitate public comment.

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) published a final rule in the Federal Register on June 12, 2015, in consultation with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), amending its regulations for the packaging and transportation of radioactive material. These amendments made conforming changes to the NRC's regulations based on the International Atomic Energy Agency's 2009 standards for the international transportation of radioactive material and maintain consistency with the DOT's regulations. The final rule contained minor editorial errors in a calculation, outdated contact information, and outdated information for examining the materials that are incorporated by reference. This document corrects the final rule by revising the definition that contains these errors, and updates the contact and examination information.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), in consultation with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), is amending its regulations for the packaging and transportation of radioactive material. These amendments make conforming changes to the NRC's regulations based on the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 2009 standards for the international transportation of radioactive material and maintain consistency with the DOT's regulations. In addition, these amendments re-establish restrictions on materials that qualify for the fissile material exemption, clarify requirements, update administrative procedures, and make editorial changes.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will consider in the rulemaking process the issues raised in a petition for rulemaking (PRM), PRM-50-107, submitted by James Lieberman (the petitioner). The petitioner requested that the NRC amend its regulations to require that all persons seeking NRC approvals provide the NRC with complete and accurate information. Current NRC regulations pertaining to completeness and accuracy of information apply only to NRC licensees and license applicants. The NRC has determined that the issues raised in the PRM have merit and are appropriate for consideration in the rulemaking process.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations to reflect internal organizational changes and conforming amendments. These changes include adding the address for a new NRC building at headquarters, removing references to several committees that no longer exist, adding the Computer Security Office, removing all references to the Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs because that office has merged with the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, and making conforming amendments throughout the regulations to reflect this office merger.

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.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to amend its regulations concerning deliberate misconduct by licensees and other persons otherwise subject to the NRC's jurisdiction (known as the “Deliberate Misconduct Rule”) and its regulations concerning challenges to immediately effective orders issued by the NRC. This proposed rule would incorporate the concept of “deliberate ignorance” as an additional basis on which to take enforcement action against persons who violate any of the NRC's Deliberate Misconduct Rule provisions. The NRC is also proposing to amend its regulations regarding challenges to the immediate effectiveness of NRC enforcement orders to clarify that the NRC staff has the burden of persuasion in showing that adequate evidence supports the grounds for the order and that immediate effectiveness is warranted and to clarify the authority of the NRC's presiding officer to order live testimony in resolving these challenges.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received a supplement to a petition for rulemaking (PRM) previously filed with the NRC by Mr. James Lieberman (the petitioner) (PRM-50-107). The petitioner originally requested that the NRC expand its regulatory framework for nuclear power reactors to make it a legal obligation for those non-licensees who seek NRC regulatory approvals to be held to the same legal standards for the submittal of complete and accurate information as would a licensee or an applicant for a license. The petitioner requests that the scope of his petition be expanded to encompass the NRC's regulations for radioactive materials, waste disposal, transportation, and spent fuel storage licensees. The NRC requests public comments on the supplement to the petition.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensees are currently required to provide advance notice to participating Federally-recognized Tribal governments regarding shipments of irradiated reactor fuel and certain nuclear wastes that pass within or across their reservations. Agreement State licensees will be required to provide advance notifications for certain shipments of radioactive material at the time the applicable Agreement State implements its requirements. The NRC is maintaining and providing a list of Tribal contacts and an interactive map of Tribal boundaries of participating Federally-recognized Tribes that is available on the NRC's public Web site. The list will be published annually in the Federal Register .

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations to establish security requirements for the use and transport of category 1 and category 2 quantities of radioactive material. The NRC considers these quantities to be risk significant and, therefore, to warrant additional protection. Category 1 and category 2 thresholds are based on the quantities established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in its Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources, which the NRC endorses. The objective of this final rule is to provide reasonable assurance of preventing the theft or diversion of category 1 and category 2 quantities of radioactive material. The regulations also include security requirements for the transportation of irradiated reactor fuel that weighs 100 grams or less in net weight of irradiated fuel. The final rule affects any licensee that possesses an aggregated category 1 or category 2 quantity of radioactive material, any licensee that transports these materials using ground transportation, and any licensee that transports small quantities of irradiated reactor fuel. The rule also considers a petition for rulemaking (PRM-71-13) submitted by the State of Washington that requested that the NRC adopt the use of global positioning satellite tracking as a national requirement for vehicles transporting highly radioactive mobile or portable radioactive devices.

The regulations for packaging and transport of spent nuclear fuel are separate from requirements for storage of spent nuclear fuel. Because these regulatory schemes are separate, there is no requirement that loaded storage casks also meet transportation requirements. Integration of storage and transport regulations could enable a more predictable transition from storage to transport by potentially minimizing future handling of spent fuel and uncertainty as to whether loaded storage casks may be transported from the storage location. As part of its evaluation of integration and compatibility between storage and transportation regulations, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff is reviewing its policies, regulations, guidance, and technical needs in several key areas, such as: retrievability, cladding integrity, and safe handling of spent fuel; criticality safety features and requirements for spent fuel transportation; and aging management and qualification of dual-purpose canisters and components after long-term storage. The NRC staff is reviewing the potential policy issues and requirements related to retrievability, cladding integrity, and safe handling of spent fuel as the lead issue for evaluating compatibility of storage and transportation regulations. As part of its evaluation of integration and compatibility between NRC's storage regulations and transportation regulations, the NRC is issuing this request for comment (available in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under Accession No. ML12293A434) as the staff begins its review of NRC policies, guidance, and technical needs related to retrievability, cladding integrity, and safe handling of spent fuel.