2019-06899. Leakage Tests on Packages for Shipment of Radioactive Material

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Draft regulatory guide; request for comment.

SUMMARY:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-7010, “Leakage Tests on Packages for Shipment of Radioactive Material.” This proposed revision, Revision 2 to Regulatory Guide (RG) 7.4, endorses the methods and procedures developed by the Standards Committee on Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive and Nonnuclear Hazardous Materials (N14), Subcommittee of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in ANSI N14.5-2014, “American National Standard for Radioactive Materials—Leakage Tests on Packages for Shipment.”

DATES:

Submit comments by June 7, 2019. 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. Although a time limit is given, comments and suggestions in connection with items for inclusion in guides currently being developed or improvements in all published guides are encouraged at any time.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments by any of the following methods:

• Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0091. Address questions about NRC dockets to Jennifer Borges: Telephone: [phone]; email: [e-mail]. For technical questions, contact the individuals listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.
• Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

For additional direction on accessing information and submitting comments, see “Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments” in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

JoAnn Ireland, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, telephone: [phone], email: [e-mail] and Harriet Karagiannis, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, telephone: [phone], email: [e-mail]. Both are of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2019-0091 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 http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0091.
• NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at http://www.nrc.gov/​reading-rm/​adams.html. To begin the search, select “Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.” For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to [e-mail]. The DG is electronically available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML19042A172.
• NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.

B. Submitting Comments

Please include Docket ID NRC-2019-0091 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 http://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 and make available to the public information regarding methods that are acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the NRC's regulations, techniques that the staff uses in evaluating specific issues or postulated events, and data that the staff needs in its review of applications for permits and licenses.

The DG, entitled, “Leakage Tests on Packages for Shipment of Radioactive Material” is temporarily identified by its task number, DG-7010. DG-7010 is proposed Revision 2 to RG 7.4, dated March 2012.

Revision 2 endorses an update to ANSI N14.5 that has new information, corrections, and clarifications, to ensure integrity of containers for radioactive materials, and minimize the distribution of contamination to the environment.

III. Backfitting and Issue Finality

As discussed in the “Implementation” section of DG-7010, the NRC does not intend or approve any imposition or backfitting of the guidance in this draft regulatory guide. Backfitting and issue finality considerations do not apply to licensees, CoC holders, and applicants when performing activities under part 71 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR). Therefore, the NRC has determined that its backfitting and issue finality regulations would not apply to this draft regulatory guide, if ultimately issued as Revision 2 to RG 7.4, because the draft regulatory guide does not include any provisions within the scope of matters covered by the backfitting provisions in 10 CFR parts 50, 70, 72, or 76, or the issue finality provisions of 10 CFR part 52.

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 3rd day of April 2019.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Thomas H. Boyce,

Chief, Regulatory Guidance and Generic Issues Branch, Division of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.