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

72737 

Vol. 75, No. 227 

Friday, November 26, 2010 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

10 CFR Part 50 

[NRC–2010–0366] 

Proposed Generic Communications 

Reporting for Decommissioning 

Funding Status Reports 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Notice of opportunity for public 

comment. 

SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is proposing to issue 

a regulatory issue summary (RIS) to 

clarify for licensees and external 

stakeholders the information that they 

should use and present to the NRC in 

the Decommissioning Funding Status 

(DFS) reports to ensure that the NRC 

staff, licensees, and stakeholders are 

using the same, correct figures and to 

prevent potential issues resulting from 

shortfalls in the licensee’s 

decommissioning fund. 

DATES: Comment period expires 

December 27, 2010. Comments 

submitted after this date will be 

considered if it is practical to do so, but 

assurance of consideration cannot be 

given except for comments received on 

or before this date. 

ADDRESSES: Submit written comments 

to the Chief, Rules, Directives and 

Announcements Branch, Division of 

Administrative Services, Office of 

Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission, Mail Stop TWB–05–B01M, 

Washington, DC 20555–0001, and cite 

the publication date and page number of 

this Federal Register Notice. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: 

Aaron L. Szabo, at 301–415–1985 or by 

e-mail at aaron.szabo@nrc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

NRC Regulatory Issue Summary 2010– 

XXX 

10 CFR 50.75 Reporting for 

Decommissioning Funding Status 

Reports 

Addressees 

All holders of and applicants for a 

power reactor operating license or 

construction permit under Title 10 of 

the Code of Federal Regulations (10 

CFR) Part 50, ‘‘Domestic Licensing of 

Production and Utilization Facilities,’’ 

except those that have permanently 

ceased operations and have certified 

that fuel has been permanently removed 

from the reactor vessel. 

All holders of and applicants for a 

power reactor early site permit, 

combined license, standard design 

certification, standard design approval, 

or manufacturing license under 10 CFR 

Part 52, ‘‘Licenses, Certifications, and 

Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.’’ 

Intent 

The NRC is issuing this RIS to clarify 

the reporting requirements of 10 CFR 

50.75(f)(1) and 10 CFR 50.75(f)(2) 

regarding the status of decommissioning 

funding assurance. 

In 2009, the NRC received the DFS 

reports for all the NRC licensed power 

reactors, including those undergoing 

decommissioning, as required by 10 

CFR 50.75(f)(1) and (2). During the 

evaluation process for the DFS reports, 

the NRC staff determined that 

communication between the NRC and 

licensees could be enhanced. Therefore, 

the staff decided to provide this RIS to 

clarify the information that licensees 

should report to the NRC in the DFS 

reports to ensure standardization and 

consistency. This RIS does not replace 

any information provided in RIS 2001– 

07, Revision 1, ‘‘10 CFR 50.75 Reporting 

and Recordkeeping for 

Decommissioning Planning,’’ dated 

January 8, 2009, and should be 

considered a supplement to it. 

Background 

SECY–07–0197, ‘‘Reactor 

Decommissioning Trust Fund Oversight 

by Other Agencies and 

Recommendations Regarding Further 

Commission Action,’’ issued November 

2007, recommended to the Commission 

that the NRC staff begin to perform 

periodic spot-checks at the licensee’s 

offices of the original statements and 

other related documents sent to a 

licensee from its trustee that disclose 

the trust fund balance to ensure that the 

amounts reported to the NRC in the DFS 

reports are equivalent to the amount 

stated in the licensee’s year-end bank 

statement. 

The NRC has completed over half of 

the required spot-checks, ensuring in 

each case that the DFS report matched 

the licensee’s submission and that the 

information provided to the NRC was 

correct. 

In 2009, during the NRC staff’s review 

of the DFS reports, the staff held 

conference calls and issued requests for 

additional information to ensure 

compliance with reporting regulations 

under 10 CFR 50.75(f). Also during the 

review, the NRC staff determined that 

stakeholders needed to be informed 

about the NRC’s evaluation process for 

decommissioning funding assurance 

(DFA), as well as about the information 

that licensees should provide to the 

NRC when they submit their DFS 

reports. The current guidance that the 

NRC staff uses to evaluate the DFS 

reports appears in Office of Nuclear 

Reactor Regulation (NRR) Instruction 

LIC–205, Revision 3 (Agencywide 

Documents Access and Management 

System (ADAMS) Accession No. 

ML100550465). 

Because of these issues, the NRC staff 

is clarifying for licensees and external 

stakeholders the information that they 

should use and present to the NRC in 

the DFS reports to ensure that the NRC 

staff, licensees, and stakeholders are 

using the same, correct figures and to 

prevent potential issues resulting from 

shortfalls in the licensee’s 

decommissioning fund. 

Summary of the Issue 

On the basis of a review of recent DFS 

reports submitted to the NRC, the staff 

has identified two general categories in 

which DFS report submittals could be 

improved: 

(1) Format and content of submittal. 

(2) Site-specific proposals. 

Format and Content of Submittal 

Under 10 CFR 50.75(c)(2), the licensee 

must provide the most recent applicable 

regional data from the U.S. Department 

of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 

when submitting the DFS report. The 

licensee should provide the month of 

December of the calendar year 

preceding the date of the report BLS 


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72738 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2010 / Proposed Rules 

regional data, if available, for labor, and 

fourth quarter of the calendar year 

preceding the date of the report BLS 

regional data, if available, for energy; if 

either or both of those numbers are not 

available, then the licensee should use 

the latest available numbers and specify 

which month or quarter. 

Under 10 CFR 50.75(f), the licensee 

must submit the amount of 

decommissioning funds accumulated at 

the end of the calendar year. In some 

cases, licensees who recover their costs 

in rates are authorized to accumulate 

funds outside the decommissioning 

account until a determination is made 

by their rate regulator regarding whether 

the funds will be deposited into the 

account. Funds held outside the 

decommissioning trust using a method 

not listed in 10 CFR 50.75(e) should not 

be included in the amount of funds 

reported as accumulated. In some cases, 

the licensee has accumulated funds in 

its decommissioning trust greater than 

needed to satisfy the minimum amount 

required by NRC regulations or has 

commingled funds set aside to satisfy 

the NRC requirement with other 

decommissioning-related funds; if so, 

the licensee must report the total 

accumulated amount in its 

decommissioning trust for radiological 

decommissioning, pursuant to NRC 

regulations, and may, separately report 

the amount accumulated for State costs, 

spent fuel management costs, or other 

purposes. The licensee needs to 

preserve the distinction between NRCdetermined cost estimate and all other 

decommissioning cost estimates in their 

reports. 

The licensee should report the actual 

amount accumulated for 

decommissioning, as defined by the 

NRC’s regulations. When performing 

spot-checks of decommissioning fund 

accounts, the NRC staff discovered that 

some licensees provided the book value 

of their Decommissioning Trust Fund 

(DTF) balance instead of the market 

value. Although the book value has 

usually been a lower amount than the 

market value, the market value is a more 

accurate measure of the worth of the 

DTF, because it is the value of the DTF 

if liquidated on the date reported. 

Licensees should avoid providing the 

book value and consider providing the 

market value for their DTF balance. The 

DFS reports will allow the NRC staff to 

track the amounts in all licensees’ DTFs 

to determine financial market trends 

and ensure that licensees are following 

all NRC regulations. 

When submitting the DFS report, if 

the licensee provides a schedule of the 

annual amounts remaining to be 

collected, the licensee should avoid 

providing an aggregated amount and 

instead provide the amounts in a yearby-year breakdown that gives the source 

of the annual amounts remaining to be 

collected (i.e., rate-recovery or nonbypassable charges, as allowed under 10 

CFR 50.75(e)(ii)(A) or (B)). If a licensee 

is relying on any contracts under 10 

CFR 50.75(e)(i)(v) as the source of the 

annual amounts remaining to be 

collected, the licensee should identify 

the contracts and provide the amounts 

to be collected on an annual basis. The 

licensee may also provide the NRC with 

the regulatory order stating the amounts 

and length of the schedule. 

If the licensee claims a greater than 2 

percent real rate of return, in accordance 

with 10 CFR 50.75(e)(1)(i), the licensee 

should provide the rate-setting authority 

order permitting a greater real rate of 

return or other documentation granting 

the higher rate, including inflation and 

other escalation factors. The licensee 

should also indicate whether the higher 

real rate of return has been allowed 

during the decommissioning period. 

Under 10 CFR 50.75(f), the DFS report 

must state the modifications to the 

method of providing DFA. This 

includes, but is not limited to, adding or 

eliminating funding methods, changing 

existing methods (for example, changing 

the terms of contractual obligations or 

the face amount of a surety, insurance, 

or other guarantee method), and 

changing the commingling of funds 

(creating subaccounts, moving funds 

from one unit to another within the 

same site). Any material changes to the 

trust agreement must also be reported in 

the DFS report (Note: under 10 CFR 

50.75(h)(1)(iii), material changes to the 

trust agreement require prior written 

notification to the NRC). 

Site-Specific Proposals 

Licensees are required to provide a 

site-specific cost estimate five years 

prior to cessation of operations. 

However, if a licensee chooses to submit 

a site-specific cost estimate prior to that 

time, it must be equal to or greater than 

the NRC minimum, as calculated in 10 

CFR 50.75(c), and be accompanied by 

the same information required for the 

site-specific study required under 10 

CFR 50.75(f)(3). It should be consistent 

with the cost assessments made in the 

most recently submitted site-specific 

cost estimate to the NRC, Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission, state public 

utilities commission, or other regulatory 

body. The licensee should provide a 

reference and citation to any sitespecific cost estimate submitted to 

another regulatory body. If the licensee 

does not provide this information, the 

NRC staff may determine the sitespecific method to be insufficient as 

submitted and only allow the licensee to 

use the regulatory formula, with no 

credit for safe store, unless more 

information is provided. 

The detailed site-specific study 

should have a year-by-year cost 

breakdown combined with the 

overnight cost (cost without inflation or 

cost escalation) of decommissioning the 

plant using constant dollars for the year 

reported. The NRC staff evaluates the 

site-specific method using the following 

steps: (1) Applying the current revision 

of NRR OI LIC–205 to calculate the 

growth of the fund during operations, 

(2) for each year during 

decommissioning, (a) subtracting the 

annual cost to be incurred and then (b) 

providing a 2 percent real rate of return, 

unless a higher rate has been allowed, 

and (3) repeating step (2) for each year 

of the decommissioning period until 

either the decommissioning period is 

completed or the DTF is depleted. 

Backfit Discussion 

This RIS provides regulatory 

clarification and does not represent a 

new or different staff position regarding 

the implementation of 10 CFR 50.75, 

‘‘Reporting and Recordkeeping for 

Decommissioning Planning.’’ It requires 

no action or written response beyond 

that required in 10 CFR 50.75. Any 

action by addressees to implement 

changes to their reporting procedures in 

accordance with the clarifications in 

this RIS is strictly voluntary, ensures 

compliance with current regulations, 

and therefore is not a backfit under 10 

CFR 50.109, ‘‘Backfitting.’’ 

Consequently, the NRC staff did not 

perform a backfit analysis. 

Federal Register Notification 

To be done after the public comment 

period. 

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement 

This RIS contains and references 

information collection requirements that 

are subject to the Paperwork Reduction 

Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). 

Existing requirements were approved by 

the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB), approval number 3150–0011. 

Public Protection Notification 

The NRC may not conduct or sponsor, 

and a person is not required to respond 

to, a request for information or an 

information collection requirement 

unless the requesting document 

displays a currently valid OMB control 

number. 

If you have any questions about this 

regulatory issue summary, please 

contact the person listed below or the 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2010 / Proposed Rules 72739 

NRR project manager for your specific 

nuclear power plant. 

Contact 

Please direct any questions about this 

matter to Aaron L. Szabo at 301–415– 

1985 or by e-mail at 

aaron.szabo@nrc.gov. 

End of Draft Regulatory Issue Summary 

Documents may be examined, and/or 

copied for a fee, at the NRC’s Public 

Document Room at One White Flint 

North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), 

Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available 

records will be accessible electronically 

from the Agencywide Documents 

Access and Management System 

(ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading 

Room on the Internet at the NRC Web 

site, http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/ 

index.html. If you do not have access to 

ADAMS or if you have problems in 

accessing the documents in ADAMS, 

contact the NRC Public Document Room 

(PDR) reference staff at 1–800–397–4209 

or 301–415–4737 or by e-mail to 

pdr@nrc.gov. 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 19th day 

of November 2010. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Theodore R. Quay, 

Deputy Director, Division of Policy and 

Rulemaking, Office of Nuclear Reactor 

Regulation. 

[FR Doc. 2010–29738 Filed 11–24–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

10 CFR Part 430 

[EERE–2008–BT–TP–0010] 

Compliance Testing Procedures: 

Correction Factor for Room Air 

Conditioners 

AGENCY: Office of the General Counsel, 

Department of Energy (DOE). 

ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; request 

for comment. 

SUMMARY: On November 15, 2010, the 

Department of Energy received a 

petition for rulemaking from the 

Association of Home Appliance 

Manufacturers (AHAM). The petition, 

requests the initiation of a rulemaking 

regarding compliance testing procedures 

for room air conditioners. The petition 

seeks temporary enforcement 

forbearance, or in the alternative, a 

temporary industry-wide waiver or 

guidance, to allow use of a data 

correction factor in compliance testing 

procedures for room air conditioners. 

Public comment is requested on 

whether DOE should grant the petition 

and proceed with a rulemaking 

procedure on this matter. 

DATES: Comments must be postmarked 

no later than December 27, 2010. 

ADDRESSES: Any comments submitted 

must reference ‘‘Petition for Rulemaking: 

Correction Factor for Room Air 

Conditioners.’’ Comments may be 

submitted using any of the following 

methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• E-mail: AHAM2-2008-TP0010@ee.doe.gov. Include ‘‘Petition for 

Rulemaking’’ in the subject line of the 

message. 

• Postal Mail: Subid Wagley, U.S. 

Department of Energy, Office of Energy 

Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 

Building Technologies Program, EE–2J, 

1000 Independence Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20585–0121. Please 

submit one signed original paper copy. 

• Hand Delivery/Courier: Subid 

Wagley, U.S. Department of Energy, 

Office of Energy Efficiency and 

Renewable Energy, Building 

Technologies Program, EE–2J, 1000 

Independence Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20585–0121. Please 

submit one signed original paper copy. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Subid Wagley, U.S. Department of 

Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and 

Renewable Energy, Building 

Technologies Program, EE–2J, 1000 

Independence Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20585–0121, (202) 287– 

1414, e-mail: subid.wagley@ee.doe.gov. 

Betsy Kohl, U.S. Department of Energy, 

Office of General Counsel, Mail Stop 

GC–71, 1000 Independence Avenue, 

SW., Washington, DC 20585–0121, (202) 

586–7796, e-mail: 

elizabeth.kohl@hq.doe.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 

U.S.C. 551 et seq., provides among other 

things, that ‘‘[e]ach agency shall give an 

interested person the right to petition 

for the issuance, amendment, or repeal 

of a rule.’’ (5 U.S.C. 553(e)). Pursuant to 

this provision of the APA, AHAM 

petitioned the Department of Energy for 

the issuance of a new rule, as set forth 

below. In publishing this petition for 

public comment, the Department of 

Energy is seeking views on whether it 

should grant the petition and undertake 

a rulemaking to consider the proposal 

contained in the petition. By seeking 

comment on whether to grant this 

petition, the Department of Energy takes 

no position at this time regarding the 

merits of the suggested rulemaking. 

The proposed rulemaking sought by 

AHAM would allow manufacturers of 

room air conditioners to use a correction 

factor that is not currently included in 

the regulations governing DOE’s 

compliance testing procedures. The 

petition seeks temporary enforcement 

forbearance, or a temporary industrywide waiver or guidance, to allow use 

of this methodology. The Department of 

Energy seeks public comment on 

whether DOE should grant the petition 

and proceed with a rulemaking 

procedure on this issue. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on November 

18, 2010. 

Scott Blake Harris, 

General Counsel. 

Set forth below is the full text of the 

Association of Home Appliance 

Manufacturers’ petition: 

Before the U.S. Department of Energy 

November 15, 2010 

Petition for Rulemaking 

Petition of the Association of the Home 

Appliance Manufacturers for 

Temporary Enforcement Forbearance, a 

Temporary Industry-Wide Waiver Or 

Guidance To Allow Use of DOE— 

Proposed Correction Factor for Room 

Air Conditioner Testing 

Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(e), the 

Association of Home Appliance 

Manufacturers (AHAM) files this 

petition. 

AHAM represents manufacturers of 

major, portable and floor care home 

appliances, and suppliers to the 

industry. AHAM’s more than 150 

members employ tens of thousands of 

people in the U.S. and produce more 

than 95% of the household appliances 

shipped for sale within the U.S. The 

factory shipment value of these 

products is more than $30 billion 

annually. The home appliance industry, 

through its products and innovation, is 

essential to U.S. consumer lifestyle, 

health, safety and convenience. Through 

its technology, employees and 

productivity, the industry contributes 

significantly to U.S. jobs and economic 

security. Home appliances also are a 

success story in terms of energy 

efficiency and environmental 

protection. New appliances often 

represent the most effective choice a 

consumer can make to reduce home 

energy use and costs. AHAM, relevant 

to this petition, represents the 

manufacturers of the vast majority of 

room air conditioners. 

This petition requests temporary 

enforcement forbearance, or in the 

alternative, a temporary industry-wide 

waiver or guidance, to allow use of a 

data correction factor for room air 

conditioners that DOE currently 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with PROPOSALS