[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 231 (Tuesday, December 1, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 77280-77281]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-26460]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2020-0227]


Operator Licensing Examination Standards for Power Reactors

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft NUREG; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment a draft NUREG, NUREG-1021, Revision 12, ``Operator 
Licensing Examination Standards for Power Reactors.'' NUREG-1021 
establishes the policies, procedures, and guidance for the development, 
administration, and grading of written examinations and operating tests 
used for examining licensees and applicants for reactor operator and 
senior reactor operator licenses at power reactor facilities. It also 
provides procedures and guidance for maintaining operators' licenses 
and for the NRC to conduct requalification examinations when necessary. 
The draft NUREG streamlines the examination standards by organizing 
them in topic-based sections for ease of use, clarifies existing 
instructions, and introduces new instructions.

DATES: Submit comments by February 16, 2021. Comments received after 
this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC 
staff 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:
    <bullet> Federal Rulemaking website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2020-0227. Address 
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Jennifer Borges; 
telephone: 301-287-9127; email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e0aa858e8e89868592cea28f92878593a08e9283ce878f96"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a3e9c6cdcdcac5c6d18de1ccd1c4c6d0e3cdd1c08dc4ccd5">[email protected]</span></a>. For technical 
questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT section of this document.
    <bullet> 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: Maurin Scheetz, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-2758, email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#c7aaa6b2b5aea9e9b4a4afa2a2b3bd87a9b5a4e9a0a8b1"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="f4999581869d9ada87979c9191808eb49a8697da939b82">[email protected]</span></a>.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2020-0227 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:
    <bullet> Federal Rulemaking website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2020-0227.
    <bullet> 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 <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#acdcc8de82dec9dfc3d9decfc9ecc2decf82cbc3da"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="700014025e0215031f05021315301e02135e171f06">[email protected]</span></a>. Draft Revision 12 of NUREG-1021 is 
available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML20329A326. A supporting 
document that captures changes from Revision 11 to draft Revision 12 is 
available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML20325A254.
    <bullet> Attention: The PDR, where you may examine and purchase 
copies of public documents, is currently closed. You may submit your 
request to the PDR by email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="f6a6b2a4d8a493859983849593b6988495d8919980">[email protected]</a> or call 1-800-397-
4209 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-2020-0227 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

    The draft NUREG-1021, Revision 12, provides policies, procedures, 
and guidance for the development, administration, and grading of 
examinations used for licensing operators at nuclear power plants under 
the Commission's regulations in part 55 of title 10 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations, ``Operators' Licenses.'' This draft NUREG also 
provides guidance for maintaining operators' licenses and for the NRC 
to conduct requalification examinations when necessary. The NRC is 
issuing the draft NUREG to (1) streamline information into topic-based 
sections for ease of use, (2) clarify instructions for the 
identification and grading of performance deficiencies on the operating 
test, (3) introduce new instructions for the treatment of critical

[[Page 77281]]

tasks and critical and significant performance deficiencies, and (4) 
implement changes to support the reintegration of the generic 
fundamentals examination with the site-specific initial licensing 
examination. To assist in understanding the changes in the draft NUREG, 
a supporting document that captures changes from Revision 11 to draft 
Revision 12 is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML20325A254.

    Dated: November 25, 2020.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Christian B. Cowdrey,
Chief, Operator Licensing and Human Factors Branch, Division of Reactor 
Oversight, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2020-26460 Filed 11-30-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P


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