Independent Assessment of Nuclear Material Control and Accounting Systems

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-5049, “Independent Assessment of Nuclear Material Control and Accounting Systems.” This DG provides guidance from experience gained since the regulatory guide was initially published in June 1975. In particular, the guidance for performing independent assessments has been expanded to include process monitoring and item monitoring for Category I fuel cycle facilities, and to include guidance for uranium enrichment facilities. In addition, this revision addresses changes in Material Control & Accounting (MC&A) terminology; for example, the term “management review” has been replaced by “independent assessment,” and “material unaccounted for” by “inventory difference.”

DATES:

Submit comments by November 16, 2015. 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 (unless this document describes a different method for submitting comments on a specified subject):

Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0214. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-3463; email: Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact the individuals listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.

• Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: OWFN-12H08, 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:

Glenn Tuttle, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301-415-7230, email: Glenn.Tuttle@nrc.gov, or Mekonen Bayssie, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, telephone: 301-415-1699, email: Mekonen.Bayssie@nrc.gov; 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-2014-0214 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information regarding this action. You may obtain publicly-available information related to this action by any of the following methods:

• Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2015-0214.
• 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 “ADAMS Public Documents” and then 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. The DG is electronically available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML14310A339.
• 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-2015-0214 in the subject line of your comment submission, in order to ensure that the NRC is able to make your comment submission available to the public in this docket.

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 posts all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as enters 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 submissions 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 “Independent Assessment of Nuclear Material Control and Accounting Systems” is a proposed revision temporarily identified by its task number, DG-5049. This DG is proposed Revision 1 of Regulatory Guide (RG) 5.51, “Management Review of Nuclear Material Control and Accounting Systems.”

This DG provides guidance that conforms with revisions to 10 CFR part 74, “Material Control and Accounting of Special Nuclear Material,” as well as incorporates experience gained since the RG was initially published in June 1975. In particular, the guidance for performing independent assessments has been expanded to include process monitoring and item monitoring for Category I fuel cycle facilities, and to include guidance for uranium enrichment facilities. In addition, this revision addresses changes in MC&A terminology since the RG was published in 1975; for example, the term “management review” has been replaced by “independent assessment,” and “material unaccounted for” by “inventory difference.”

III. Backfitting

This DG provides guidance on recordkeeping and reporting requirements with respect to material control and accounting, as set forth in 10 CFR part 74. The regulatory position held in this guidance demonstrates the method that the NRC staff finds acceptable for an applicant or licensee to meet the requirements of the underlying NRC regulations. The issuance of the guidance in this DG is not backfitting, as that term is defined in 10 CFR 70.76, 72.62, or 76.76, because information collection and reporting requirements with respect to material control and accounting are not included within the scope of the NRC's backfitting protections.