24742 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 80 / Wednesday, April 25, 2012 / Notices 

Dated: April 18, 2012. 

Nancy Weiss, 

General Counsel. 

[FR Doc. 2012–9883 Filed 4–24–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7536–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[NRC–2012–0094; EA–11–254] 

In the Matter of ABSG Consulting Inc. 

Confirmatory Order (Effective 

Immediately) 

I 

ABSG Consulting Inc. (ABSG) is an 

independently owned and operated risk, 

safety, and integrity management 

company serving various industries in 

the United States and overseas; some of 

which are regulated by the U.S. Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission (NRC). ABSG’s 

main office is located in Houston, TX. 

This Confirmatory Order (referenced 

as CO, Confirmatory Order or Order) is 

the result of an agreement reached 

during an alternative dispute resolution 

(ADR) mediation session conducted on 

March 12, 2012, in Arlington VA. 

II 

On October 5, 2011, the NRC’s Office 

of Investigations (OI) issued its report of 

investigation (OI Report No. 1–2010– 

050). Based upon evidence developed 

during its investigation, the NRC 

identified an apparent violation of Title 

10 of the Code of Federal Regulations 

(10 CFR) 50.7, ‘‘Employee protection,’’ 

involving a former ABSG employee who 

was terminated, in part, for participating 

in a Commission proceeding before the 

NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board 

Panel prior to his employment with 

ABSG. 

By letter dated January 17, 2012, the 

NRC identified to ABSG the apparent 

violation of 10 CFR 50.7 and offered 

ABSG the opportunity to provide a 

response in writing, attend a predecisional enforcement conference, or to 

request alternative dispute resolution 

(ADR) in which a neutral mediator with 

no decision-making authority would 

facilitate discussions between the NRC 

and ABSG, and if possible, assist the 

NRC and the parties in reaching an 

agreement on resolving the concerns. 

ABSG chose to participate in ADR in an 

effort to resolve this matter. 

On March 12, 2012, the NRC and 

ABSG met at ABSG’s facility in 

Arlington, Virginia in an ADR session 

mediated by a professional mediator, 

arranged through Cornell University’s 

Institute on Conflict Resolution. This 

Confirmatory Order is issued pursuant 

to the agreement reached during the 

ADR process. 

III 

The NRC acknowledges that ABSG on 

its own initiative undertook several 

actions. These actions included: 

1. Issuance of a letter to the manager 

involved with the termination of the 

employment of the individual 

reiterating ABSG’s commitment to its 

non-retaliation policies; 

2. Directing ABSG’s HR Manager of 

Employee Relations to draft an 

expanded anti-retaliation policy for 

inclusion in the Company’s Policies and 

Benefits Guide; and 

3. Directing ABSG’s Director of 

Compliance to draft an expanded antiretaliation policy for inclusion in the 

Company’s Code of Ethics. 

During the ADR mediation session, an 

agreement in principle was reached in 

which ABSG agreed to take the 

following additional actions: 

1. The President of ABSG shall issue 

a communication in writing to those 

employees involved in its U.S. Nuclear 

Utilities Market Sector informing them 

of the Company’s policy and their right 

and avenues for raising nuclear safety 

concerns without fear of retaliation. 

This communication shall also be 

provided to all new hire employees 

within thirty days of their assumption of 

duties. All employees to whom this 

communication is given shall confirm 

their receipt in writing. 

2. ABSG shall hire an outside 

consultant with expertise in NRC 

employee protection regulations to 

develop anti-retaliation training for all 

ABSG U.S. Nuclear Utilities Market 

Sector employees which shall include 

those items identified in 10 CFR 50.7, 

‘‘Employee protection.’’ Training shall: 

a. Inform managers that it is the 

position of the NRC that ABSG is 

subject to 10 CFR 50.7. 

b. Define key terms and include 

examples of discriminatory practices 

that address all categories of protected 

activities listed in 10 CFR 50.7. 

c. Inform employees of their rights 

and avenues for raising nuclear safety 

concerns (including to the NRC) without 

fear of retaliation. 

3. The anti-retaliation training, 

developed in paragraph 2 above, shall 

be conducted by an outside consultant 

with expertise in NRC employee 

protection regulations. 

a. The training shall be provided 

every two years commencing within two 

months after development. 

b. The training, after its first offering 

may be provided by ABSG training staff. 

c. Training records shall be retained 

consistent with applicable ABSG record 

retention policies. 

4. ABSG shall establish a process to 

conduct a secondary review of all 

proposed adverse actions (including 

written reprimand or above, but 

excluding reductions-in-force and other 

ordinary layoffs) for any of its U.S. 

Nuclear Utilities Market Sector 

employees who have engaged in 

protected activities to ensure that these 

actions comport with applicable 

employee-protection requirements and 

assess and mitigate the potential for any 

chilling effect on such protected 

activities. 

a. ABSG shall establish requirements 

for this process in an ABSG procedure 

that shall become effective thereafter. 

b. This review shall be conducted by 

management personnel, including legal 

and/or human resources. 

5. ABSG shall publish, as part of its 

on-line newsletter, an article concerning 

the protections afforded by 10 CFR 50.7. 

On April 17, 2012, ABSG consented 

to the NRC issuing this Confirmatory 

Order with the commitments, as 

described in Section IV below. ABSG 

further agreed in its April 17, 2012, 

letter that this Order is to be effective 

upon issuance and that it has waived its 

right to a hearing. 

The NRC has concluded that its 

concerns can be resolved through 

effective implementation of ABSG’s 

commitments. I find that ABSG’s 

commitments as set forth in Section IV 

are acceptable and necessary and 

conclude that with these commitments 

the public health and safety are 

reasonably assured. In view of the 

foregoing, I have determined that the 

public health and safety require that 

ABSG’s commitments be confirmed by 

this Order. Based on the above and 

ABSG’s consent, this Order is 

immediately effective upon issuance. 

Accordingly, the staff is exercising its 

enforcement discretion and will not 

issue a Notice of Violation or civil 

penalty in this matter. 

IV 

Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 

103, 161b, 161i, 161o, 182, and 186 of 

the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as 

amended, and the Commission’s 

regulations in 10 CFR 2.202 and 10 CFR 

Part 50, it is hereby ordered, effective 

immediately, that: 

1. By no later than three months after 

issuance of the Confirmatory Order, the 

President of ABSG shall issue a 

communication in writing to those 

employees involved in its U.S. Nuclear 

Utilities Market Sector informing them 

of the Company’s policy and their right 


pmangrum on DSK3VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 80 / Wednesday, April 25, 2012 / Notices 24743 

and avenues for raising nuclear safety 

concerns without fear of retaliation. A 

copy of this communication shall be 

provided to the NRC shortly after 

issuance. This communication shall also 

be provided to all new hire employees 

within thirty days of their assumption of 

duties. All employees to whom this 

communication is given shall confirm 

their receipt in writing. 

2. Within one year of the date of the 

Confirmatory Order, ABSG shall hire an 

outside consultant with expertise in 

NRC employee protection regulations to 

develop anti-retaliation training for all 

ABSG U.S. Nuclear Utilities Market 

Sector employees which shall include 

those items identified in 10 CFR 50.7, 

‘‘Employee protection.’’ Training shall: 

a. Inform managers that it is the 

position of the NRC that ABSG is 

subject to 10 CFR 50.7. 

b. Define key terms and include 

examples of discriminatory practices 

that address all categories of protected 

activities listed in 10 CFR 50.7. 

c. Inform employees of their rights 

and avenues for raising nuclear safety 

concerns (including to the NRC) without 

fear of retaliation. 

3. The anti-retaliation training, 

developed in paragraph 2 above, shall 

be conducted by an outside consultant 

with expertise in NRC employee 

protection regulations. 

a. The training shall be provided 

every two years commencing within two 

months after development. 

b. The training, after its first offering 

may be provided by ABSG training staff. 

c. Training records shall be retained 

consistent with applicable ABSG record 

retention policies and made available to 

the NRC upon request. 

4. ABSG shall establish a process to 

conduct a secondary review of all 

proposed adverse actions (including 

written reprimand or above, but 

excluding reductions-in-force and other 

ordinary layoffs) for any of its U.S. 

Nuclear Utilities Market Sector 

employees who have engaged in 

protected activities to ensure these 

actions comport with applicable 

employee-protection requirements and 

assess and mitigate the potential for any 

chilling effect on such protected 

activities. 

a. Within 3 months after issuance of 

this Confirmatory Order, ABSG shall 

establish requirements for this process 

in an ABSG procedure that shall become 

effective thereafter. 

b. This review shall be conducted by 

management personnel, including legal 

and/or human resources. 

5. Within 6 months of the issuance of 

the Confirmatory Order, ABSG shall 

publish, as part of its on-line newsletter, 

an article concerning the protections 

afforded by 10 CFR 50.7 and provide a 

copy to the NRC shortly after 

publication. 

V 

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.202, any 

person adversely affected by this 

Confirmatory Order, other than ABSG, 

may request a hearing within 20 days of 

its publication in the Federal Register. 

Where good cause is shown, 

consideration will be given to extending 

the time to request a hearing. A request 

for extension of time must be made in 

writing to the Director, Office of 

Enforcement, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission, Washington, DC 20555, 

and include a statement of good cause 

for the extension. 

All documents filed in the NRC’s 

adjudicatory proceedings, including a 

request for hearing, a petition for leave 

to intervene, any motion or other 

document filed in the proceeding prior 

to the submission of a request for 

hearing or petition to intervene, and 

documents filed by interested 

governmental entities participating 

under 10 CFR 2.315(c), must be filed in 

accordance with the NRC E-Filing rule 

(72 FR 49139, August 28, 2007). The EFiling process requires participants to 

submit and serve all adjudicatory 

documents over the internet, or in some 

cases to mail copies on electronic 

storage media. Participants may not 

submit paper copies of their filings 

unless they seek an exemption in 

accordance with the procedures 

described below. 

To comply with the procedural 

requirements of E-Filing, at least ten 

days prior to the filing deadline, the 

participant should contact the Office of 

the Secretary by email at 

hearing.docket@nrc.gov, or by telephone 

at (301) 415–1677, to request: (1) A 

digital identification (ID) certificate, 

which allows the participant (or its 

counsel or representative) to digitally 

sign documents and access the ESubmittal server for any proceeding in 

which it is participating; and (2) advise 

the Secretary that the participant will be 

submitting a request or petition for 

hearing (even in instances in which the 

participant, or its counsel or 

representative, already holds an NRCissued digital ID certificate). Based upon 

this information, the Secretary will 

establish an electronic docket for the 

hearing in this proceeding if the 

Secretary has not already established an 

electronic docket. 

Information about applying for a 

digital ID certificate is available on the 

NRC’s public Web site at http:// 

www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/ 

apply-certificates.html. System 

requirements for accessing the ESubmittal server are detailed in NRC’s 

‘‘Guidance for Electronic Submission,’’ 

which is available on the agency’s 

public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/ 

site-help/e-submittals.html. Participants 

may attempt to use other software not 

listed on the Web site, but should note 

that the NRC’s E-Filing system does not 

support unlisted software, and the NRC 

Meta System Help Desk will not be able 

to offer assistance in using unlisted 

software. 

If a participant is electronically 

submitting a document to the NRC in 

accordance with the E-Filing rule, the 

participant must file the document 

using the NRC’s online, Web-based 

submission form. In order to serve 

documents through the Electronic 

Information Exchange System, users 

will be required to install a Web 

browser plug-in from the NRC’s Web 

site. Further information on the Webbased submission form, including the 

installation of the Web browser plug-in, 

is available on the NRC’s public Web 

site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/esubmittals.html. 

Once a participant has obtained a 

digital ID certificate and a docket has 

been created, the participant can then 

submit a request for hearing or petition 

for leave to intervene. Submissions 

should be in Portable Document Format 

(PDF) in accordance with the NRC 

guidance available on the NRC’s public 

Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/sitehelp/e-submittals.html. A filing is 

considered complete at the time the 

documents are submitted through the 

NRC’s E-Filing system. To be timely, an 

electronic filing must be submitted to 

the E-Filing system no later than 11:59 

p.m. Eastern Time on the due date. 

Upon receipt of a transmission, the EFiling system time-stamps the document 

and sends the submitter an email notice 

confirming receipt of the document. The 

E-Filing system also distributes an email 

notice that provides access to the 

document to the NRC’s Office of the 

General Counsel and any others who 

have advised the Office of the Secretary 

that they wish to participate in the 

proceeding, so that the filer need not 

serve the documents on those 

participants separately. Therefore, 

applicants and other participants (or 

their counsel or representative) must 

apply for and receive a digital ID 

certificate before a hearing request/ 

petition to intervene is filed so that they 

can obtain access to the document via 

the E-Filing system. 

A person filing electronically using 

the agency’s adjudicatory E-Filing 

system may seek assistance by 


pmangrum on DSK3VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
24744 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 80 / Wednesday, April 25, 2012 / Notices 

contacting the NRC Meta System Help 

Desk through the ‘‘Contact Us’’ link 

located on the NRC Web site at http:// 

www.nrc.gov/site-help/esubmittals.html, by email at 

MSHD.Resource@nrc.gov, or by a tollfree call at 1 (866) 672–7640. The NRC 

Meta System Help Desk is available 

between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern 

Time, Monday through Friday, 

excluding government holidays. 

Participants who believe that they 

have a good cause for not submitting 

documents electronically must file an 

exemption request, in accordance with 

10 CFR 2.302(g), with their initial paper 

filing requesting authorization to 

continue to submit documents in paper 

format. Such filings must be submitted 

by: (1) First class mail addressed to the 

Office of the Secretary of the 

Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission, Washington, DC 20555– 

0001, Attention: Rulemaking and 

Adjudications Staff; or (2) courier, 

express mail, or expedited delivery 

service to the Office of the Secretary, 

Sixteenth Floor, One White Flint North, 

11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 

Maryland 20852, Attention: Rulemaking 

and Adjudications Staff. Participants 

filing a document in this manner are 

responsible for serving the document on 

all other participants. Filing is 

considered complete by first-class mail 

as of the time of deposit in the mail, or 

by courier, express mail, or expedited 

delivery service upon depositing the 

document with the provider of the 

service. A presiding officer, having 

granted an exemption request from 

using E-Filing, may require a participant 

or party to use E-Filing if the presiding 

officer subsequently determines that the 

reason for granting the exemption from 

use of E-Filing no longer exists. 

Documents submitted in adjudicatory 

proceedings will appear in the NRC’s 

electronic hearing docket which is 

available to the public at http:// 

ehd1.nrc.gov/ehd/, unless excluded 

pursuant to an order of the Commission, 

or the presiding officer. Participants are 

requested not to include personal 

privacy information, such as social 

security numbers, home addresses, or 

home phone numbers in their filings, 

unless an NRC regulation or other law 

requires submission of such 

information. With respect to 

copyrighted works, except for limited 

excerpts that serve the purpose of the 

adjudicatory filings and would 

constitute a Fair Use application, 

participants are requested not to include 

copyrighted materials in their 

submission. 

If a person (other than ABSG) requests 

a hearing, that person shall set forth 

with particularity the manner in which 

his interest is adversely affected by this 

Confirmatory Order and shall address 

the criteria set forth in 10 CFR 2.309(d) 

and (f). 

If a hearing is requested by a person 

whose interest is adversely affected, the 

Commission will issue an order 

designating the time and place of any 

hearing. If a hearing is held, the issue to 

be considered at such hearing shall be 

whether this Confirmatory Order should 

be sustained. 

In the absence of any request for 

hearing, or written approval of an 

extension of time in which to request a 

hearing, the provisions specified in 

Section IV above, shall be final 20 days 

from the date this Confirmatory Order is 

published in the Federal Register, 

without further order or proceedings. If 

an extension of time for requesting a 

hearing has been approved, the 

provisions specified in Section IV shall 

be final when the extension expires if a 

hearing request has not been received. 

A REQUEST FOR HEARING SHALL 

NOT STAY THE IMMEDIATE 

EFFECTIVENESS OF THIS ORDER. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Dated at Rockville, MD, this 17 day of 

April 2012. 

Roy P. Zimmerman, 

Director, Office of Enforcement. 

[FR Doc. 2012–10002 Filed 4–24–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

Advisory Committee on Reactor 

Safeguards (ACRS), Meeting of the 

ACRS Subcommittee on Planning and 

Procedures; Notice of Meeting 

The ACRS Subcommittee on Planning 

and Procedures will hold a meeting on 

May 9, 2012, Room T–2B3, 11545 

Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. 

The entire meeting will be open to 

public attendance, with the exception of 

a portion that may be closed pursuant 

to 5 U.S.C. 552b (c)(2) and (6) to discuss 

organizational and personnel matters 

that relate solely to the internal 

personnel rules and practices of the 

ACRS, and information the release of 

which would constitute a clearly 

unwarranted invasion of personal 

privacy. 

The agenda for the subject meeting 

shall be as follows: 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012—12 p.m. 

Until 1 p.m. 

The Subcommittee will discuss 

proposed ACRS activities and related 

matters. The Subcommittee will gather 

information, analyze relevant issues and 

facts, and formulate proposed positions 

and actions, as appropriate, for 

deliberation by the Full Committee. 

Members of the public desiring to 

provide oral statements and/or written 

comments should notify the Designated 

Federal Official (DFO), Antonio Dias 

(Telephone 301–415–6805 or Email: 

Antonio.Dias@nrc.gov) five days prior to 

the meeting, if possible, so that 

arrangements can be made. Thirty-five 

hard copies of each presentation or 

handout should be provided to the DFO 

thirty minutes before the meeting. In 

addition, one electronic copy of each 

presentation should be emailed to the 

DFO one day before the meeting. If an 

electronic copy cannot be provided 

within this timeframe, presenters 

should provide the DFO with a CD 

containing each presentation at least 

thirty minutes before the meeting. 

Electronic recordings will be permitted 

only during those portions of the 

meeting that are open to the public. 

Detailed procedures for the conduct of 

and participation in ACRS meetings 

were published in the Federal Register 

on October 17, 2011, (76 FR 64126– 

64127). 

Information regarding changes to the 

agenda, whether the meeting has been 

canceled or rescheduled, and the time 

allotted to present oral statements can 

be obtained by contacting the identified 

DFO. Moreover, in view of the 

possibility that the schedule for ACRS 

meetings may be adjusted by the 

Chairman as necessary to facilitate the 

conduct of the meeting, persons 

planning to attend should check with 

the DFO if such rescheduling would 

result in a major inconvenience. 

If attending this meeting, please enter 

through the One White Flint North 

building, 11555 Rockville Pike, 

Rockville, MD. After registering with 

security, please contact Mr. Theron 

Brown (240–888–9835) to be escorted to 

the meeting room. 

Dated: April 18, 2012. 

Cayetano Santos, 

Chief, Reactor Safety Branch, Advisory 

Committee on Reactor Safeguards. 

[FR Doc. 2012–9992 Filed 4–24–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 


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