2011-29987. Draft Interim Staff Guidance: Evaluations of Uranium Recovery Facility Surveys of Radon and Radon Progeny in Air and Demonstrations of Compliance

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Notice of availability of draft staff interim guidance for public comment.

SUMMARY:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment draft Interim Staff Guidance, “Evaluations of Uranium Recovery Facility Surveys of Radon and Radon Progeny in Air and Demonstrations of Compliance with 10 CFR 20.1301.” This Interim Staff Guidance provides guidance to the NRC staff for evaluating uranium recovery licensee demonstrations of compliance with the public dose limits of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 20.1301.

DATES:

Submit comments by January 20, 2012. 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.

ADDRESSES:

Please include Docket ID NRC-2011-0266 in the subject line of your comments. For additional instructions on submitting comments and instructions on accessing documents related to this action, see “Submitting Comments and Accessing Information” in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document. 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-2011-0266. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher, telephone: [phone]; email: [e-mail].
• 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 [phone].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Duane Schmidt, Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: [phone], email: [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Submitting Comments and Accessing Information

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 can access publicly available documents related to this document 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-[phone], [phone], or by email to [e-mail]. The draft Staff Interim Guidance is available electronically under ADAMS Accession Number ML112720481.
• 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-2011-0266.

Discussion

Uranium recovery facility licensees, including in-situ recovery facilities and conventional uranium mills, are required to perform surveys of radiation levels in unrestricted and controlled areas, and to perform surveys of radioactive materials in effluents released to unrestricted and controlled areas to demonstrate compliance with the dose limits for individual members of the public provided in 10 CFR 20.1301. NRC regulations in 10 CFR 20.1302 permit alternative approaches in surveys and assessments used to demonstrate compliance with the public dose limits.

The NRC has recognized that existing guidance does not sufficiently detail how the NRC staff reviews surveys of radon and demonstrations of dose to members of the public due to releases of radon from operations of licensed uranium recovery facilities. This draft guidance is intended to document the criteria to be used by NRC staff to review radon surveys and demonstrations of dose to members of the public submitted by licensees under 10 CFR 20.1302 to demonstrate compliance with the public dose limits of 10 CFR 20.1301. Specifically, this document provides guidance to the NRC staff for reviewing licensee determinations of doses to members of the public from radon-222 and radon-222 progeny from UR facilities including: (1) Surveys of environmental and effluent radon and radon progeny in air; and (2) radon-related aspects of demonstrations of compliance with the NRC's public dose limits of 10 CFR 20.1301. This guidance may also be used by NRC staff in evaluating portions of license applications, renewals, or amendments dealing with radon and radon progeny surveys and compliance.

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of November, 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.