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

74787 

Vol. 77, No. 243 

Tuesday, December 18, 2012 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service 

9 CFR Part 94 

[Docket No. APHIS–2012–0094] 

Notice of Availability of an Evaluation 

of the Swine Vesicular Disease Status 

of Certain Regions in Italy 

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of Availability. 

SUMMARY: We are advising the public 

that we have determined that the Italian 

Regions of Lombardia, Emilio-Romagna, 

Veneto, and Piemonte and the 

autonomous provinces of Trento and 

Bolzano are free of swine vesicular 

disease. This determination is based on 

our review of the documentation 

submitted by the Government of Italy in 

support of its request and the findings 

of our own animal health risk 

evaluation. We are making our 

determination, as well as the evaluation 

we have prepared in connection with 

this action, available for review and 

comment. 

DATES: We will consider all comments 

that we receive on or before February 

19, 2013. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

by either of the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov/ 

#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2012-0094- 

0001. 

• Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: 

Send your comment to Docket No. 

APHIS–2012–0094, Regulatory Analysis 

and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 

3A–03.8, 4700 River Road Unit 118, 

Riverdale, MD 20737–1238. 

Supporting documents and any 

comments we receive on this docket 

may be viewed at http:// 

www.regulations.gov/ 

#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2012-0094 or 

in our reading room, which is located in 

room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 

14th Street and Independence Avenue 

SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading 

room hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 

Monday through Friday, except 

holidays. To be sure someone is there to 

help you, please call (202) 799–7039 

before coming. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. 

Chip Wells, Senior Staff Veterinarian, 

Regionalization Evaluation Services, 

Sanitary Trade Issues Team, National 

Center for Import and Export, VS, 

APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 38, 

Riverdale, MD 20737–1231; (301) 851– 

3089. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The regulations in 9 CFR part 94 

(referred to below as the regulations) 

govern the importation of certain 

animals and animal products into the 

United States in order to prevent the 

introduction of various communicable 

diseases, including swine vesicular 

disease (SVD). These are dangerous and 

destructive communicable diseases of 

ruminants and swine. 

Sections 94.12 and 94.14 of the 

regulations contain requirements 

governing the importation of pork and 

pork products and swine, respectively, 

from regions where SVD exists in order 

to prevent the introduction of the 

disease into the United States. We 

consider SVD to exist in all regions 

except those listed in accordance with 

§ 94.12(a)(2) as being free of SVD. 

Section 94.13 of the regulations 

contains requirements governing the 

importation of pork or pork products 

from regions that have been determined 

to be free of SVD, but that are subject 

to certain restrictions because of their 

proximity to or trading relationships 

with SVD-affected regions. Such regions 

are listed in accordance with paragraph 

(a)(2) of that section. 

The regulations in 9 CFR 92.2 contain 

requirements for requesting the 

recognition of the animal health status 

of a region or for the approval of the 

export of a particular type of animal or 

animal product to the United States 

from a foreign region. If, after review 

and evaluation of the information 

submitted in support of the request, the 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service (APHIS) believes the request can 

be safely granted, APHIS will make its 

evaluation available for public comment 

through a notice published in the 

Federal Register. Following the close of 

the comment period, APHIS will review 

all comments received and will make a 

final determination regarding the 

request that will be detailed in another 

notice published in the Federal 

Register. 

In July 1997, the European 

Commission and the Government of 

Italy submitted a request to APHIS 

seeking the recognition of certain 

Regions in northern Italy (in Italy, a 

‘‘Region’’ is a type of political 

jurisdiction) as being free of SVD. We 

conducted a qualitative risk assessment, 

and on June 25, 1999, we published in 

the Federal Register (64 FR 34155– 

34168, Docket No. 98–090–1) a proposal 

to amend the regulations in order to 

recognize eight regions in northern Italy 

as free of SVD. However, before that rule 

was made final, SVD outbreaks occurred 

in four of the eight Regions. Therefore, 

in the final rule published April 7, 2003, 

in the Federal Register (68 FR 16922– 

16941, Docket No. 98–090–5), APHIS 

recognized only those four Regions that 

remained free of SVD (Friuli, Liguria, 

Marche, and Valle d’Aosta). In the 

intervening years, we have continued 

our evaluation of the SVD status of Italy, 

as is our standard procedure in cases 

where the requesting country does not 

withdraw its request for recognition of 

disease freedom. Based on information 

provided by the Italian government as 

well as multiple site visits, we have now 

found four Regions within north-central 

Italy (Lombardia, Emilio-Romagna, 

Veneto, and Piemonte) and two 

autonomous provinces (Trento and 

Bolzano) to be free of SVD. 

APHIS has evaluated the risk of 

introducing SVD into the United States 

via the importation of SVD-susceptible 

species or products from these areas of 

Italy in accordance with 9 CFR part 92. 

Based on this evaluation, APHIS has 

found that that the surveillance, 

prevention, and control measures 

implemented by Italy in the four 

Regions and two autonomous provinces 

under consideration as being free of 

SVD are sufficient to minimize the 

likelihood of introducing SVD into the 

United States via imports of SVDsusceptible species or products. 

However, because of its proximity to or 

trading relationships with SVD-affected 

regions, we have found that it is 

necessary to impose additional 

restrictions in accordance with § 94.13 


emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with 
74788 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 243 / Tuesday, December 18, 2012 / Proposed Rules 

on the importation of pork or pork 

products from the areas of Italy under 

consideration for being declared free of 

SVD. 

Therefore, in accordance with 

§ 92.2(e), we are announcing the 

availability, for public review and 

comment, of our evaluation of the SVD 

status of the Regions and autonomous 

provinces under consideration. The 

evaluation may be viewed on the 

Regulations.gov Web site or in our 

reading room. (Instructions for accessing 

Regulations.gov and information on the 

location and hours of the reading room 

are provided under the heading 

ADDRESSES at the beginning of this 

document.) The evaluation, as well as 

the information evaluated, may also be 

viewed at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ 

import_export/animals/ 

reg_request.shtml by following the link 

for ‘‘Previous regionalization requests 

and supporting documentation.’’ 

After reviewing any comments we 

receive, we will announce our decision 

regarding the disease status of the 

Italian Regions of Lombardia, EmilioRomagna, Veneto, and Piemonte and the 

autonomous provinces of Trento and 

Bolzano with respect to SVD and the 

import status of susceptible animals and 

products of such animals in a 

subsequent notice. 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 450, 7701–7772, 7781– 

7786, and 8301–8317; 21 U.S.C. 136 and 

136a; 31 U.S.C. 9701; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and 

371.4. 

Done in Washington, DC, this 11th day of 

December 2012. 

Kevin Shea, 

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2012–30257 Filed 12–17–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

10 CFR Part 50 

[Docket No. PRM–50–96; NRC–2011–0069] 

Long-Term Cooling and Unattended 

Water Makeup of Spent Fuel Pools 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; 

consideration in the rulemaking 

process. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) will consider in the 

NRC rulemaking process the issues 

raised in a petition for rulemaking 

(PRM) submitted by Thomas Popik (the 

petitioner) on behalf of the Foundation 

for Resilient Societies. The petition was 

dated March 14, 2011, and was 

docketed as PRM–50–96. The petitioner 

requests that the NRC amend its 

regulations to require facilities licensed 

by the NRC to assure long-term cooling 

and unattended water makeup of spent 

fuel pools (SFP). 

DATES: The docket for the petition for 

rulemaking, PRM–50–96, is closed on 

December 18, 2012. 

ADDRESSES: Further NRC action on the 

issues raised by this petition can be 

found on the Federal Rulemaking Web 

site at http://www.regulations.gov by 

searching on Docket ID NRC–2011– 

0069. 

You can access publicly available 

documents related to the petition, 

which the NRC possesses and are 

publicly available, using any one of the 

following methods: 

• Federal Rulemaking Web site: 

Public comments and supporting 

materials related to this petition can be 

found at http://www.regulations.gov by 

searching on the petition Docket ID 

NRC–2011–0069. 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, or by 

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, O1–F21, One White 

Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, 

Rockville, Maryland 20852. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Manash Bagchi or Richard Dudley, 

Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, 

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 

Washington, DC 20555–0001; telephone 

301–415–2905 or 301–415–1116, email: 

Manash.Bagchi@nrc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. The Petition 

II. Regulatory Oversight of Electric Power 

Systems 

III. Analysis of Public Comments 

IV. NRC Evaluation 

A. NRC Requirements for Governing Spent 

Fuel Pool Cooling and Provision of 

Electric Power for Accidents 

B. Geomagnetic Storms and Effects on the 

Earth 

C. Frequency of Geomagnetic Storms With 

Potential Adverse Effects on the 

Electrical Grid 

D. Experience With Geomagnetic Storms’ 

Effects on the Electrical Grid 

E. Federal Government Coordination and 

Emergency Response 

V. Conclusion 

VI. Resolution of the Petition 

I. The Petition 

The petitioner submitted a PRM 

(ADAMS Accession No. ML110750145), 

dated March 14, 2011, to the NRC. The 

petitioner requests that the NRC amend 

its regulations to require facilities 

licensed by the NRC under part 50 of 

Title 10 of the Code of Federal 

Regulations (10 CFR) to assure longterm cooling and unattended water 

makeup of SFPs. The petitioner asserts 

that the North American commercial 

electric power grids are vulnerable to 

prolonged outage caused by extreme 

space weather, such as coronal mass 

ejections and associated geomagnetic 

disturbances and therefore cannot be 

relied on to provide continual power for 

active cooling and/or water makeup of 

SFPs. Moreover, existing means for 

providing onsite backup power are 

designed to operate for only a few days, 

while spent fuel requires active cooling 

for several years after removal of the 

fuel rods from the reactor core. The 

petitioner suggested rule language with 

the following requirements: 

Licensees shall provide reliable emergency 

systems to provide long-term cooling and 

water makeup for spent fuel pools using only 

on-site power sources. These emergency 

systems shall be able to operate for a period 

of two years without human operator 

intervention and without offsite fuel 

resupply. Backup power systems for spent 

fuel pools shall be electrically isolated from 

other plant electrical systems during normal 

and emergency operation. If weatherdependent power sources are to be used, 

sufficient water or power storage must be 

provided to maintain continual cooling 

during weather conditions which may 

temporarily constrict power generation. 

On May 6, 2011 (76 FR 26223), the 

NRC published a notice of receipt and 

request for public comment for this 

petition in the Federal Register (FR). 

The public comment period closed on 

July 20, 2011, and the NRC received 97 

public comments. After reviewing 

public comments and evaluating other 

ongoing activities, the NRC performed a 

preliminary review and analysis to 

ascertain the validity, accuracy, and 

efficacy of the petitioner’s technical 


emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with