25760 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 84 / Tuesday, May 1, 2012 / Notices 

supplement provided additional 

information that clarified the 

application, did not expand the scope of 

the application as originally noticed, 

and did not change the staff’s original 

proposed finding of no significant 

hazards consideration determination. 

The Commission’s related evaluation 

of the amendment is contained in a 

Safety Evaluation dated April 18, 2012. 

No significant hazards consideration 

comments received: No. 

Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, LLC, 

Docket No. 50–410, Nine Mile Point 

Nuclear Station (NMP2), Unit 2, Oswego 

County, New York 

Date of application for amendment: 

December 30, 2011, as supplemented on 

March 20, 2012. 

Brief description of amendment: The 

proposed amendment changes the 

NMP2 Updated Safety Analysis Report 

allowing the use of Modified Alloy 718 

material for fabrication of the NMP2 

reactor recirculation system jet pump 

holddown beams. 

Date of issuance: April 13, 2012. 

Effective date: As of the date of 

issuance to be implemented within 30 

days. 

Amendment No.: 141. 

Renewed Facility Operating License 

No. NPF–069: The amendment revises 

the License and Updated Safety 

Analysis Report. 

Date of initial notice in Federal 

Register: February 8, 2012 (77 FR 

6601). The supplemental letter dated 

March 20, 2012, provided additional 

information that clarified the 

application and did not expand the 

scope of the application as originally 

noticed, and did not change the Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission staff’s initial 

proposed no significant hazards 

consideration determination. 

The Commission’s related evaluation 

of the amendment is contained in a 

Safety Evaluation dated April 13, 2012. 

No significant hazards consideration 

comments received: No. 

Virginia Electric and Power Company, et 

al., Docket Nos. 50–280 and 50–281, 

Surry Power Station, Units 1 and 2, 

Surry County, Virginia 

Date of application for amendments: 

July 28, 2011, as supplemented on 

February 14 and March 14, 2012. 

Brief Description of amendments: 

These amendments permanently revise 

the Technical Specifications (TS) 6.4.Q, 

‘‘Steam Generator (SG) Program,’’ to 

exclude portions of the SG tube below 

the top of the SG tubesheet from 

periodic inspections. In addition, this 

amendment request proposes to revise 

TS 6.6.A.3, ‘‘Steam Generator Tube 

Inspection Report,’’ to remove 

references to the previous Unit 1 onetime and Unit 2 temporary alternate 

repair criteria and provides reporting 

requirements specific to the permanent 

alternate repair criteria. This 

amendment also addressed minor 

administrative revisions to reinstate the 

superscript number 1 as the end of the 

TS 4.13.B. 

Date of issuance: April 17, 2012. 

Effective date: As of the date of 

issuance and shall be implemented 

within 30 days. 

Amendment Nos.: Unit 1—277 and 

Unit 2—277. 

Renewed Facility Operating License 

Nos. DPR–32 and DPR–37: Amendments 

change the licenses and the technical 

specifications. 

Date of initial notice in Federal 

Register: October 25, 2011 (76 FR 

66090). The supplements dated 

February 14, 2012 and March 14, 2012, 

provided additional information that 

clarified the application, did not expand 

the scope of the application as originally 

noticed, and did not change the staff’s 

original proposed no significant hazards 

consideration determination. The 

Commission’s related evaluation of the 

amendments is contained in a Safety 

Evaluation dated April 17, 2012. 

No significant hazards consideration 

comments received: No. 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 20th day 

of April 2012. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Michele G. Evans, 

Director, Division of Operating Reactor 

Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor 

Regulation. 

[FR Doc. 2012–10195 Filed 4–30–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[NRC–2011–0183] 

Low-Level Radioactive Waste 

Management and Volume Reduction 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Policy statement; issuance. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC or the Commission) 

is revising its 1981 Policy Statement on 

Low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW) 

Volume Reduction (Policy Statement). 

This statement encouraged licensees to 

take steps to reduce the amount of waste 

generated and to reduce the volume of 

waste once generated. The purpose of 

this revised statement is to recognize 

that progress in reducing waste volume 

has been achieved since the 1981 Policy 

Statement was published, and to 

acknowledge that factors other than 

volume reduction may be considered by 

licensees to determine how best to 

manage their LLRW. 

DATES: This Policy Statement is effective 

on May 1, 2012. 

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID 

NRC–2011–0183 when contacting the 

NRC about the availability of 

information for this policy statement. 

You may access information and 

comment submissions related to this 

policy statement, which the NRC 

possesses and are publicly available, by 

the following methods: 

• Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov and search 

for Docket ID NRC–2011–0183. Address 

questions about NRC dockets to Carol 

Gallagher; telephone: 301–492–3668; 

email: Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. 

• NRC’s Agencywide Documents 

Access and Management System 

(ADAMS): You may access publicly 

available documents online in the NRC 

Library at http://www.nrc.gov/readingrm/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 

ADAMS accession number for each 

document referenced in this notice (if 

that document is available in ADAMS) 

is provided the first time that a 

document is referenced. 

• 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. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Donald Lowman, Office of Federal and 

State Materials and Environmental 

Management Programs, U.S. Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission, Washington, 

DC 20555–0001; telephone: 301–415– 

5452, email: Donald.Lowman@nrc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

In 1981, the NRC published a Policy 

Statement (46 FR 51100; October 16, 

1981) regarding the volume reduction of 

LLRW. The Policy Statement addressed: 

• The need for a volume reduction 

policy; and 

• The need for waste generators to 

minimize the quantity of waste 

produced. 

For 30 years, this Policy Statement 

has conveyed the Commission’s 

expectations that generators of LLRW 

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Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 84 / Tuesday, May 1, 2012 / Notices 25761 

should reduce the volume of waste 

shipped for disposal at licensed 

commercial waste disposal facilities. 

The Commission uses policy statements 

to communicate expectations about 

matters relating to activities that are 

within NRC jurisdiction and of 

importance to the Commission. Policy 

statements help to guide the activities of 

the NRC staff and licensees. However, 

they are not regulations and are not 

accorded the status of a regulation 

within the meaning of the 

Administrative Procedure Act. The 

Agreement States, which are responsible 

for overseeing their material licensees, 

cannot be required to implement the 

elements of a policy statement because 

such statements, unlike NRC 

regulations, are not a matter of 

compatibility. Additionally, policy 

statements cannot be considered 

binding upon, or enforceable against, 

NRC or Agreement State licensees or 

certificate holders. 

On April 7, 2010, the NRC staff issued 

SECY–10–0043, ‘‘Blending of Low-Level 

Radioactive Waste’’ (ADAMS Accession 

No. ML090410531), and referenced the 

Policy Statement in response to 

stakeholder comments that large-scale 

blending might not be consistent with 

the Policy Statement goal of achieving 

reduced waste volumes and might 

actually increase waste volumes. 

Although the Commission disagreed 

that blending would necessarily 

increase the volume of waste, it 

recognized the need to clarify the Policy 

Statement to better explain the role of 

volume reduction in the context of 

LLRW management. Therefore, the 

Commission directed the staff to update 

the Policy Statement to recognize the 

progress that has been achieved in waste 

reduction since 1981, and to 

acknowledge that volume reduction 

continues to be important, and that 

other risk-informed, performance-based 

approaches to managing waste are also 

appropriate for managing LLRW safely. 

A revised draft of the Policy 

Statement, ‘‘Volume Reduction and 

Low-Level Radioactive Waste 

Management,’’ was published in the 

Federal Register for comment on 

August 15, 2011 (76 FR 50500), with the 

comment period ending on October 14, 

2011. 

The NRC received written comments 

on the draft Policy Statement and 

considered these comments when 

finalizing the Policy Statement. None of 

the comments resulted in changes to the 

basic principles of the Policy Statement 

and the changes made to the draft Policy 

Statement were limited. Responses to 

these comments can be found in 

ADAMS (Accession No. ML120090117). 

II. Congressional Review Act 

In accordance with the Congressional 

Review Act of 1996, the NRC has 

determined that this action is not a 

major rule and has verified this 

determination with the Office of 

Information and Regulatory Affairs of 

the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB). 

III. Policy Statement of the U.S. Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission on Low-Level 

Radioactive Waste Management and 

Volume Reduction 

Summary 

In 1981, the Commission published a 

Policy Statement (46 FR 51100; October 

16, 1981) regarding the volume 

reduction of LLRW. In October 2010, the 

Commission directed the NRC staff to 

revise the Policy Statement (ADAMS 

Accession No. ML102861764) including 

updating to acknowledge that volume 

reduction continues to be important and 

adding that risk-informed, performancebased approaches to managing waste are 

also needed to safely manage LLRW. 

Policy Statement 

The focus of any LLRW management 

program should be public health and 

safety. Such programs often include 

waste minimization efforts and the 

Commission recognizes the substantial 

progress made by licensees in reducing 

volumes of LLRW shipped for disposal 

since the publication of the 1981 Policy 

Statement. The Congress, States, LLRW 

Compacts and nuclear industry groups 

have also played a central part in this 

effort by encouraging waste 

minimization and volume reduction 

practices. Widespread use of these 

practices has resulted in a significant 

reduction in the amount of LLRW 

generated by licensees and the volume 

shipped for disposal. The Commission 

recognizes that the high cost of LLRW 

disposal has also been a factor, along 

with limitations on LLRW disposal 

access, which has resulted in increased 

use of volume reduction and waste 

minimization techniques. 

The Commission continues to believe 

that volume reduction is important to 

the management of LLRW. A continued 

focus on volume reduction will extend 

the operational lifetime of the existing 

commercial LLRW disposal sites and 

will reduce the number of waste 

shipments to disposal facilities. 

Therefore, the Commission encourages 

licensees to continue to adopt 

procedures that will minimize the 

volume of waste being transferred to 

disposal facilities. 

The Commission also recognizes that 

volume reduction is only one aspect of 

an effective LLRW management 

program. Although the Commission 

continues to favor the disposal of LLRW 

over storage, it recognizes that licensees 

may safely manage waste in a variety of 

ways, consistent with NRC regulations 

and guidance. As part of ensuring 

public health and safety, licensees 

should consider reductions in 

occupational exposures and security in 

determining how best to manage LLRW. 

As part of their LLRW management 

strategies, licensees may consider 

operational efficiency and cost. 

Although the Commission continues to 

favor disposal in a licensed disposal 

facility, licensees should consider 

additional means available to manage 

waste in a manner that is secure and 

protects public health and safety, such 

as (in no particular order and thus not 

indicating any NRC preference): 

• Waste minimization; 

• Short-term storage and decay; 

• Long-term storage; 

• Use of the alternate disposal 

provision in Title 10 of the Code of 

Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 20.2002, 

‘‘Method for obtaining approval of 

proposed disposal procedures;’’ and 

• Use of waste processing 

technologies. 

The Commission understands that 

limited LLRW disposal access means 

that many licensees will need to store at 

least some of their LLRW. Agreement 

States and NRC licensees must continue 

to ensure that waste is safely and 

securely managed. However, waste 

disposal is still considered the safest 

and most secure long-term LLRW 

management approach. 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 25th day 

of April 2012. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Annette L. Vietti-Cook, 

Secretary of the Commission. 

[FR Doc. 2012–10433 Filed 4–30–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[NRC–2012–0002] 

Sunshine Act Meetings 

AGENCY HOLDING THE MEETINGS: Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission. 

DATES: Weeks of April 30, May 7, 14, 21, 

28, June 4, 2012. 

PLACE: Commissioners’ Conference 

Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 

Maryland. 

STATUS: Public and Closed. 

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