74070 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 208 / Monday, October 30, 2023 / Proposed Rules 

The NRC may post materials related 

to this document, including public 

comments, on the Federal rulemaking 

website at https://www.regulations.gov 

under Docket ID NRC–2022–0188. In 

addition, the Federal rulemaking 

website allows members of the public to 

receive alerts when changes or additions 

occur in a docket folder. To subscribe: 

(1) navigate to the docket folder (NRC– 

2022–0188); (2) click the ‘‘Subscribe’’ 

link; and (3) enter an email address and 

click on the ‘‘Subscribe’’ link. 

Dated: October 11, 2023. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Catherine Haney, 

Acting Executive Director for Operations. 

[FR Doc. 2023–23452 Filed 10–27–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

10 CFR Part 73 

[NRC–2023–0172] 

Draft Regulatory Guide: Preemption 

Authority, Enhanced Weapons 

Authority, and Firearms Background 

Checks 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Draft guide; request for 

comment. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is issuing for public 

comment a draft Regulatory Guide (DG), 

DG–5081, ‘‘Preemption Authority, 

Enhanced Weapons Authority, and 

Firearms Background Checks.’’ This 

DG–5081 is proposed Revision 1 of 

Regulatory Guide (RG) 5.86 of the same 

name. This DG provides an approach 

acceptable to the NRC staff for use by 

licensees under NRC regulations, 

‘‘Physical Protection of Plants and 

Materials,’’ regarding stand-alone 

preemption authority, combined 

preemption authority and enhanced 

weapons authority, and firearms 

background checks. 

DATES: Submit comments by December 

14, 2023. Comments received after this 

date will be considered if it is practical 

to do so, but the NRC 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: 

• Federal rulemaking website: Go to 

https://www.regulations.gov and search 

for Docket ID NRC–2023–0172. Address 

questions about Docket IDs in 

Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; 

telephone: 301–415–0624; email: 

Stacy.Schumann@nrc.gov. For technical 

questions, contact the individuals listed 

in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT section of this document. 

• 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: Phil 

Brochman, Office of Nuclear Security 

and Incident Response, telephone: 301– 

287–3691; email: Phil.Brochman@

nrc.gov, or Stanley Gardocki, Office of 

Nuclear Regulatory Research, telephone: 

301–415–1067; email: 

Stanley.Gardocki@nrc.gov. Both are staff 

of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission, Washington, DC 20555– 

0001. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Obtaining Information and 

Submitting Comments 

A. Obtaining Information 

Please refer to Docket ID NRC–2023– 

0172 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: 

• Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to 

https://www.regulations.gov and search 

for Docket ID NRC–2023–0172. 

• 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, at 

301–415–4737, or by email to 

PDR.Resource@nrc.gov. DG–5081, 

‘‘Preemption Authority, Enhanced 

Weapons Authority, and Firearms 

Background Checks,’’ and its associated 

regulatory analysis are available in 

ADAMS under Accession No. 

ML23198A185 and ML23200A284, 

respectively. 

• NRC’s PDR: The PDR, where you 

may examine and order copies of 

publicly available documents, is open 

by appointment. To make an 

appointment to visit the PDR, please 

send an email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov 

or call 1–800–397–4209 or 301–415– 

4737, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern 

time (ET), 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–2023–0172 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. Additional Information 

The NRC is issuing for public 

comment a DG in the NRC’s ‘‘Regulatory 

Guide’’ series. This series was 

developed to describe methods that are 

acceptable to the NRC staff for 

implementing specific parts of the 

agency’s regulations, to explain 

techniques that the staff uses in 

evaluating specific issues or postulated 

events, and to describe information that 

the staff needs in its review of 

applications for permits and licenses. 

The DG, entitled ‘‘Preemption 

Authority, Enhanced Weapons 

Authority, and Firearms Background 

Checks,’’ is temporarily identified by its 

task number, DG–5081. 

Proposed Revision 1 to RG 5.86 is 

being revised on a limited-scope basis to 

provide additional guidance on 

preemption authority, enhanced 

weapons authority, and firearms 

background checks. These new 

requirements are part of the NRC’s final 

rule, titled ‘‘Enhanced Weapons, 

Firearms Background Checks, and 

Security Event Notifications’’ (hereafter 

the Enhanced Weapons rule), that was 

published in the Federal Register on 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 208 / Monday, October 30, 2023 / Proposed Rules 74071 

March 14, 2023 (88 FR 15864). These 

provisions are found in the NRC’s 

regulations under section 73.15 of title 

10 of the Code of Federal Regulations 

(10 CFR) and 10 CFR 73.17. 

Proposed Revision 1 to RG 5.86 

provides acceptable methods that 

eligible applicants and licensees 

(collectively referred to as licensees in 

this DG) may use to request and use 

either stand-alone preemption authority 

or combined preemption authority and 

enhanced weapons authority and to 

conduct related firearms background 

checks. DG–5081 also includes 

examples, considerations, and guidance 

to assist licensees and their security 

personnel in understanding their 

responsibilities in implementing the 

provisions of 10 CFR 73.15 and 10 CFR 

73.17. 

Following the publication of the final 

rule and RG 5.86, the NRC staff 

conducted several pre-implementation 

workshops with licensees. The NRC 

staff also participated in industry-led 

forums and symposiums in May and 

June 2023. In these meetings industry 

raised questions about RG 5.86 and 

identified potential inconsistencies and 

areas where additional clarification 

would be beneficial to licensees to 

implement the Enhanced Weapons rule 

effectively and efficiently. The NRC staff 

has reviewed the issues raised by 

industry and agrees that further 

clarification, revision, and 

supplementation of the guidance 

contained in RG 5.86 will be of value. 

Accordingly, the NRC staff is proposing 

to conduct limited-scope revisions to 

RG 5.86 to address these issues, 

including providing notice and 

opportunity for public comment on the 

proposed revisions. 

To assist with stakeholder review of 

the limited scope changes to DG–5081, 

staff notes the following changes have 

been proposed: 

Section B, ‘‘Discussion’’ Topics: 

• ‘‘Reason for Issuance’’—updated to 

reflect rationale for changes to the RG. 

• ‘‘Standalone Preemption Authority 

and Combined Preemption Authority 

and Enhanced Weapons’’—updated to 

clarify the three potential pathways by 

which a licensee could obtain combined 

preemption authority and enhanced 

weapons authority. 

• ‘‘Firearms Background Check, 

paragraph 1’’—clarified background 

check requirements for licensee security 

personnel who are not assigned duties 

requiring access to covered weapons. 

• ‘‘Firearms Background Check, 

paragraphs 10–12’’—clarified 

requirements for licensee security 

personnel’s access to covered weapons 

during and after the 10 CFR 73.15 

approval process. 

Section C, ‘‘Staff Regulatory 

Guidance’’: 

• Position 5, ‘‘Completion of Training 

and Qualification before Use of 

Enhanced Weapons,’’ paragraph 1— 

modified language in first sentence to 

say ‘‘using.’’ 

• Position 5, paragraph 2—clarified 

training requirements for staff with 

access to enhanced weapons who are 

not assigned duties that would require 

them to use enhanced weapons. 

• Position 6.1, ‘‘General 

Requirements for Fingerprints and 

Firearms Background Checks,’’ example 

19—clarified the conditions that must 

be met in order to exempt licensees 

from the requirement to perform a new 

firearms background check for security 

personnel transferring from one licensed 

facility to another licensed facility. 

The staff is also issuing for public 

comment a regulatory analysis (ADAMS 

Accession No. ML23200A284). The staff 

developed a regulatory analysis to 

assess the value of issuing or revising an 

RG, as well as alternative courses of 

action. 

As noted in the Federal Register on 

December 9, 2022 (87 FR 75671), this 

document is being published in the 

‘‘Proposed Rules’’ section of the Federal 

Register to comply with publication 

requirements under 1 CFR chapter I. 

III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and 

Issue Finality 

Issuance of DG–5081 as a final RG 

would not constitute backfitting as that 

term is defined in 10 CFR 50.109, 

‘‘Backfitting,’’ 10 CFR 70.76, 

‘‘Backfitting,’’ or 10 CFR 72.62, 

‘‘Backfitting,’’ and as described in NRC 

Management Directive (MD) 8.4, 

‘‘Management of Backfitting, Forward 

Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information 

Requests,’’ to affect the issue finality of 

an approval issued under 10 CFR part 

52, ‘‘Licenses, Certifications, and 

Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants;’’ or 

constitutes forward fitting as that term 

is defined and described in MD 8.4. The 

staff also does not intend to use the 

guidance to support NRC staff actions in 

a manner that constitutes forward fitting 

as that term is defined and described in 

MD 8.4. If a licensee believes that the 

NRC is using this proposed revision to 

RG 5.86 in a manner inconsistent with 

the discussion in the Implementation 

section of DG–5081, then the licensee 

may file a backfitting or forward fitting 

appeal with the NRC in accordance with 

the process in MD 8.4. 

IV. Submitting Suggestions for 

Improvement of Regulatory Guides 

A member of the public may, at any 

time, submit suggestions to the NRC for 

improvement of existing RGs or for the 

development of new RGs. Suggestions 

can be submitted on the NRC’s public 

website at https://www.nrc.gov/readingrm/doc-collections/reg-guides/ 

contactus.html. Suggestions will be 

considered in future updates and 

enhancements to the ‘‘Regulatory 

Guide’’ series. 

Dated: October 24, 2023. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Stephen M. Wyman, 

Acting Chief, Regulatory Guide and Programs 

Management Branch, Division of Engineering, 

Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. 

[FR Doc. 2023–23795 Filed 10–27–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

22 CFR Part 62 

[Public Notice: 11121] 

RIN 1400–AF12 

Exchange Visitor Program—Au Pairs 

AGENCY: U.S. Department of State. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking; 

request for comment. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of State 

(‘‘Department of State’’) proposes to 

amend existing Exchange Visitor 

Program regulations governing the Au 

pair category to clarify and modernize 

the au pair program, by, among other 

things, restructuring the child care and 

educational components, replacing the 

EduCare program with the part-time 

option, enhancing au pair and host 

family orientation requirements, 

formalizing standard operating 

procedures for rematching au pairs with 

new host families, and proposing new 

requirements to strengthen au pair 

protections. The Department of State 

encourages public comment on the 

proposed rule, particularly the 

restructuring of the au pair program and 

the calculation of the weekly 

compensation. 

DATES: The Department of State will 

accept public comments on the 

proposed regulation until December 29, 

2023. 

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may 

submit comments to the Department of 

State by any of the following methods: 

• Visit the Regulations.gov website at: 

https://www.regulations.gov and search 

for the docket number DOS–2023–0025. 


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