This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains notices to the public of the proposed

issuance of rules and regulations. The

purpose of these notices is to give interested

persons an opportunity to participate in the

rule making prior to the adoption of the final

rules.

Proposed Rules Federal Register

12352 

Vol. 80, No. 45 

Monday, March 9, 2015 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

10 CFR Part 951 

[Docket Number DOE–HQ–2014–0021] 

RIN 1990–AA39 

Convention on Supplementary 

Compensation for Nuclear Damage 

Contingent Cost Allocation 

AGENCY: Office of the General Counsel, 

Department of Energy. 

ACTION: Extension of public comment 

period. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of 

Energy (DOE) has published a notice of 

proposed rulemaking (NOPR), which 

proposes regulations under section 934 

of the Energy Independence and 

Security Act of 2007 (EISA). The 

proposed regulations would establish a 

retrospective risk pooling program 

whereby nuclear suppliers would pay 

for any contribution made by the United 

States government to an international 

supplementary fund created under the 

Convention for Supplementary 

Compensation for Nuclear Damage 

(CSC) in the event of certain nuclear 

incidents not covered by the PriceAnderson Act. The NOPR provided a 

deadline of March 17, 2015 for 

comments. In response to requests for 

an extension, this document announces 

an extension of the comment period to 

April 17, 2015. This document also 

requests comment by April 17, 2015 on 

specific questions to inform a process 

for DOE to obtain additional data and 

information. 

DATES: DOE will accept comments and 

information regarding the NOPR and 

development of regulations under 

section 934 published on December 17, 

2014 (79 FR 75076), and the specific 

questions identified in this document 

no later than April 17, 2015. DOE will 

consider any comments received by 

midnight of April 17, 2015, and deems 

any comments received by that time to 

be timely submitted. 

ADDRESSES: Interested persons may 

submit comments identified by RIN 

1990–AA39 by any of the following 

methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Email: Section934Rulemaking@

Hq.Doe.gov. Include Section 934 in the 

subject line of the message. 

• Mail: Ms. Sophia Angelini, U.S. 

Department of Energy, Office of General 

Counsel, Mailstop GC–72, 1000 

Independence Avenue SW., 

Washington, DC 20585. Please submit 

one signed original and three copies of 

all comments. 

• Instructions: All submissions 

received must include the agency name, 

docket number [DOE–HQ–2014–0021], 

and the RIN for this rulemaking. Note 

that all comments received will be 

posted, without change, including 

personal information. 

• Docket: For access to the docket to 

read background documents or 

comments received, go to the Federal 

eRulemaking Portal at http://

www.regulations.gov, or the Web site 

specifically established for this 

proceeding at http://www.energy.gov/gc/ 

convention-supplementarycompensation-rulemaking. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Sophia Angelini, Attorney-Advisor, 

Office of the General Counsel for 

Civilian Nuclear Programs, GC–72, U.S. 

Department of Energy, 1000 

Independence Avenue SW., 

Washington, DC 20585; telephone: (202) 

586–0319. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On 

December 17, 2014, DOE published a 

NOPR in the Federal Register (79 FR 

75076) in which it proposed regulations 

under section 934 of EISA to establish 

a retrospective risk pooling program 

whereby, in the event of certain nuclear 

incidents, nuclear suppliers would pay 

for any contribution by the United 

States government to the international 

supplementary fund created by the CSC. 

The NOPR provided that written public 

comments were to be received by DOE 

no later than March 17, 2015. By letter 

dated January 28, 2015, DOE received a 

request from the Nuclear Energy 

Institute (NEI) for an extension of the 

public comment period to May 19, 2015, 

stating that the complexity of the NOPR 

requires extensive analysis on a number 

of issues such as the proposed reporting 

requirements, the potential impact of 

the two alternative methods of 

calculating the risk premium payment 

to a particular nuclear supplier and the 

nuclear industry as a whole, and 

clarification of key terms in the 

proposed rule. 

On February 20, 2015, DOE held a 

public workshop on the proposed 

rulemaking (80 FR 4227). In advance of 

the public workshop, DOE solicited 

from the public questions or suggestions 

for topics to be addressed at the 

workshop in order to structure the 

discussion and enhance participation 

(80 FR 4228). DOE received extensive 

questions and topic suggestions from 

the Contractors International Group on 

Nuclear Liability (CIGNL) and NEI. The 

day-long workshop was attended by 

representatives of various nuclear 

industry organizations and other 

entities. The participants at the 

workshop raised a number of questions 

and expressed concerns regarding, 

among other things, the level of 

information and data available to DOE 

on the cost and burden of reporting 

requirements under the proposed rule, 

the nature and quantity of nuclear 

exports and the nuclear suppliers that 

export, and the allocation of risk and 

premium payments across and among 

nuclear suppliers. Thereafter, DOE 

received written requests from other 

participants at the public workshop 

echoing the NEI request for an extension 

of time for public comment given the 

complexity of the issues raised in the 

proposed rule and further described at 

the public meeting. All these entities 

requested an extension of the comment 

period to May 19, 2015, to allow 

sufficient time to review the proposed 

rule and formulate comments to the 

extent possible given available 

information. 

DOE has considered the written 

extension requests noted above, along 

with the comments and information 

provided prior to and at the public 

meeting, and determined that the 

comment period on the NOPR should be 

extended to April 17, 2015, which 

provides, in total, a 120 day comment 

period. 

DOE is especially interested in 

potential modifications to the proposals 

set forth in the NOPR, in light of the 

issues discussed at the workshop. These 

issues include: (1) The extent, if any, to 

which transactions prior to the effective 

date of the rule should be considered in 

the allocation formula; (2) the 


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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 45 / Monday, March 9, 2015 / Proposed Rules 12353 

justification for capping the allocation 

assigned to a single entity; (3) the 

possibility of different caps for different 

types of suppliers; (4) the criteria for 

classifying a supplier as a small entity 

exempt from the allocation formula; (5) 

goods and services that pose no or de 

minimis risk of triggering the 

international supplementary fund; (6) 

alternative methodologies for evaluating 

risk, including examples of existing risk 

allocation mechanisms in the nuclear 

industry; and (7) potential modification 

to simplify, minimize and/or clarify the 

burden on industry. 

In addition, DOE intends to conduct 

additional data and information 

gathering in response to and in 

consideration of statements in the 

written comments and at the public 

workshop. These statements suggest 

certain additional information should be 

obtained by DOE and is necessary for 

the public to comment on the NOPR. In 

response to these statements, DOE is 

requesting any entity that believes 

additional information is needed to 

provide detailed comments as to the 

specific information it believes is 

needed. 

DOE is enumerating several general 

questions to assist DOE in its additional 

data gathering effort. The general 

questions for which DOE seeks 

comment are: (1) What data and 

information should be gathered on U.S. 

nuclear suppliers and their exports (for 

example, what entity should be 

considered the exporter (especially in 

situations where a supplier employs an 

entity to facilitate the export), should 

quantity, value and/or another factor be 

used to measure exports, and what time 

period should be used); (2) what data 

and information should be gathered on 

nuclear suppliers to inform reporting 

requirements (for example, what are the 

recordkeeping methods employed in the 

nuclear industry and what is currently 

reported to other government agencies); 

and (3) what data and information 

should be gathered on the allocation of 

risk across and among nuclear suppliers 

and nuclear supplier groups. Comments 

concerning additional information to be 

gathered will facilitate DOE’s effort to 

obtain additional data and information 

to inform the proposed rulemaking and 

should be provided to DOE by April 17, 

2015. DOE intends to make the 

additional data and information it 

obtains available for public review and 

comment, the date and timing of which 

will be announced in a subsequent 

Federal Register notice. 

DOE will consider any comments 

received by midnight of April 17, 2015, 

and deems any comments received by 

that time to be timely submitted. To the 

extent commenters provide confidential 

business information, pursuant to 10 

CFR 1004.11, any person submitting 

information he or she believes to be 

confidential and exempt by law from 

public disclosure should submit via 

email, postal mail, or hand delivery/

courier two well-marked copies: One 

copy of the document marked 

‘‘confidential’’ including all the 

information believed to be confidential, 

and one copy of the document marked 

‘‘non-confidential’’ with the information 

believed to be confidential deleted. 

Submit these documents via email or on 

a CD, if feasible. DOE will make its own 

determination about the confidential 

status of the information and treat it 

according to its determination. Factors 

of interest to DOE when evaluating 

requests to treat submitted information 

as confidential include: (1) A 

description of the items; (2) whether 

and why such items are customarily 

treated as confidential within the 

industry; (3) whether the information is 

generally known by or available from 

other sources; (4) whether the 

information has previously been made 

available to others without obligation 

concerning its confidentiality; (5) an 

explanation of the competitive injury to 

the submitting person which would 

result from public disclosure; (6) when 

such information might lose its 

confidential character due to the 

passage of time; and (7) why disclosure 

of the information would be contrary to 

the public interest. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on March 4, 

2015. 

Samuel T. Walsh, 

Deputy General Counsel for Energy Policy. 

[FR Doc. 2015–05405 Filed 3–6–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 

13 CFR Parts 121, 124, 125, 126 and 

127 

[Docket No. SBA–2014–0006] 

RIN 3245–AG58 

Small Business Government 

Contracting and National Defense 

Authorization Act of 2013 Amendments 

AGENCY: U.S. Small Business 

Administration. 

ACTION: Proposed rule; reopening of 

comment period. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Small Business 

Administration (SBA) is reopening the 

comment period for the proposed rule 

published in the Federal Register on 

December 29, 2014 at 79 FR 77955. In 

that rule SBA proposed to implement 

provisions of the National Defense 

Authorization Act of 2013, which 

pertain to performance requirements 

applicable to small business and 

socioeconomic program set aside 

contracts and small business 

subcontracting. SBA also proposed to 

make changes to its regulations 

concerning the nonmanufacturer rule 

and affiliation rules. Further, SBA 

proposed to allow a joint venture to 

qualify as small for any government 

procurement as long as each partner to 

the joint venture qualifies individually 

as small under the size standard 

corresponding to the NAICS code 

assigned in the solicitation. Finally, 

SBA requested comments on the 

timeline and procedures for North 

American Industry Classification 

System code appeals. The comment 

period closed on February 27, 2015. 

SBA is reopening the comment period 

in response to the significant level of 

interest generated by the proposed rule 

and due to the request of multiple 

stakeholders. Given the scope of the 

proposed rule and the nature of the 

issues raised by the comments received 

to date, SBA believes that affected 

businesses need more time to review the 

proposal and fully prepare their 

comments. 

DATES: The comment period for the 

proposed rule published on December 

29, 2014 (79 FR 77955) is extended 

through April 6, 2015. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by Docket Number: SBA– 

2014–0006, by any of the following 

methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• For mail, paper, disk, or CD/ROM 

submissions: Brenda Fernandez, U.S. 

Small Business Administration, Office 

of Policy, Planning and Liaison, 409 

Third Street SW., 8th Floor, 

Washington, DC 20416. 

• Hand Delivery/Courier: Brenda 

Fernandez, U.S. Small Business 

Administration, Office of Policy, 

Planning and Liaison, 409 Third Street 

SW., 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20416. 

SBA will post all comments on 

www.regulations.gov. If you wish to 

submit confidential business 

information (CBI) as defined in the User 

Notice at www.regulations.gov, please 

submit the information to Brenda 

Fernandez, U.S. Small Business 

Administration, Office of Policy, 

Planning and Liaison, 409 Third Street 

SW., 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20416, 

or send an email to brenda.fernandez@

sba.gov. Highlight the information that 


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