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

a]., 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 Doe. 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, orby

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 01-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:

e The need for a volume reduction

policy; and

e 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

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 Doe. 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.

25761