Control of Heavy Loads at Nuclear Facilities

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Draft regulatory guide; extension of comment period.

SUMMARY:

On May 4, 2021, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) solicited comments on draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-1381, “Control of Heavy Loads at Nuclear Facilities.” The public comment period was originally scheduled to close on June 3, 2021. 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.

DATES:

The due date for comments requested in the document published on May 4, 2021 (86 FR 23750) is extended another 30 days. Comments should be filed no later than July 5, 2021. Comments received after this date will be considered, if it is practical to do so, but the Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before this date.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments by any of the following methods; however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal Rulemaking website:

• Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2021-0096. Address questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; telephone: 301-415-0624; email: Stacy.Schumann@nrc.gov. 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, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.

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

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Steven R. Jones, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, telephone: 301-415-2712, email: Steve.Jones@nrc.gov; or Stanley Gardocki, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, telephone: 301-415-1067, email: Stanley.Gardocki@nrc.gov. Both are staff 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-2021-0096 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 https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2021-0096.
• NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://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 pdr.resource@nrc.gov.
• Attention: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of public documents, is currently closed. You may submit your request to the PDR via email at pdr.resource@nrc.gov or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (EST), Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

B. Submitting Comments

The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal Rulemaking website ( https://www.regulations.gov ). Please include Docket ID NRC-2021-0096 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 https://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. Discussion

On May 4, 2021, the NRC published a document in the Federal Register (86 FR 23750) requesting comments on DG-1381, “Control of Heavy Loads at Nuclear Facilities.” This DG is a proposed new regulatory guide to endorse selected national consensus standards related to heavy load handling that replace NRC technical reports. The national consensus standards provide greater flexibility in the selection of lifting equipment and have incorporated recent operating experience to provide a more accurate risk-informed perspective of heavy load handling activities. This is a new regulatory guide incorporating guidance for risk-informing heavy load handling activities. The public comment period was originally scheduled to close on June 3, 2021. Upon the request of industry, specifically Nuclear Energy Institute, the NRC has decided to extend the public comment period on this document until July 5, 2021, to allow more time for members of the public to submit their comments.