[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 127 (Tuesday, July 5, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39874-39876]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-14239]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2022-0095]


NRC's Fiscal Years 2023-2027 Artificial Intelligence Strategic 
Plan

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft NUREG; request for comment; public meeting.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting 
comments on the NRC's Fiscal Years (FY) 2023-2027 Artificial 
Intelligence (AI) Strategic Plan. Specifically, the NRC would like 
input on the overall strategy as well as the agency's strategic goals 
presented in draft NUREG-2261 ``Artificial Intelligence Strategic Plan: 
Fiscal Year 2023-2027,'' actions to realize those strategic goals, 
potential challenges in achieving the outlined goals, and how to 
address key challenges and external factors. The information gathered 
will be used to inform the development of the NRC's FY 2023-2027 AI 
Strategic Plan. The NRC is also announcing a virtual public meeting to 
receive comments on this document. The meeting will allow

[[Page 39875]]

interested members of the public to submit their comments.

DATES: Submit comments by August 19, 2022. The NRC staff will hold a 
virtual public meeting through online webinar on August 3, 2022, from 1 
p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) to receive comments on the draft 
Artificial Intelligence Strategic Plan. Comments received after August 
19, 2022 will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the 
Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments received 
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-2022-0095. Address 
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; 
telephone: 301-415-0624; email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#c794b3a6a4bee994a4afb2aaa6a9a987a9b5a4e9a0a8b1"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="bdeec9dcdec493eeded5c8d0dcd3d3fdd3cfde93dad2cb">[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 Branch.
    <bullet> Public Meeting: You may provide comments through 
participation in the virtual public meeting discussed later in this 
document.
    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: Matthew Dennis, Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-3702; email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#236e4257574b46540d67464d4d4a50634d51400d444c55"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="115c7065657974663f55747f7f7862517f63723f767e67">[email protected]</span></a>.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2022-0095, when contacting the NRC 
about the 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-2022-0095.
    <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#2c7c687e027e495f43595e4f496c425e4f024b435a"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a4f4e0f68af6c1d7cbd1d6c7c1e4cad6c78ac3cbd2">[email protected]</span></a>. The draft AI Strategic Plan: Fiscal 
Years 2023-2027 is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML22175A206.
    <bullet> NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public 
documents, by appointment, at the NRC's PDR, Room P1 B35, One White 
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. To make 
an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#eebeaabcc0bc8b9d819b9c8d8bae809c8dc0898198"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a4f4e0f68af6c1d7cbd1d6c7c1e4cad6c78ac3cbd2">[email protected]</span></a> or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 
8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. 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-2022-0095 in your comment submission. You may 
also provide comments through participation in the virtual public 
meeting discussed later in this document.
    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. Background

    The NRC is an independent agency established by the Energy 
Reorganization Act of 1974 that began operations in 1975 as a successor 
to the licensing and regulatory activities of the Atomic Energy 
Commission. The NRC's mission is to license and regulate the Nation's 
civilian use of radioactive materials to provide reasonable assurance 
of adequate protection of public health and safety and to promote the 
common defense and security and to protect the environment. Consistent 
with that mission, the NRC plans to develop strategic goals to address 
AI in the context of its regulatory activities. For the purposes of the 
draft AI Strategic Plan, AI refers to a machine-based system that can 
go beyond defined results and scenarios and has the ability to emulate 
human-like perception, cognition, planning, learning, communication, or 
physical action. The draft AI Strategic Plan focuses on a broad 
spectrum of sub-specialties (e.g., natural language processing, machine 
learning, deep learning, etc.) which could encompass various algorithms 
and application examples which the NRC has not previously reviewed and 
evaluated. The NRC recognizes that AI technological maturity is rapidly 
evolving and usage is growing; therefore, NRC anticipates increased use 
of AI in NRC-regulated activities.

III. Discussion

    The purpose of the AI Strategic Plan is to ensure the NRC's 
readiness to review and evaluate the use of AI in NRC-regulated 
activities. The NRC began actively coordinating across the agency and 
nuclear industry to better understand activities and plans for the use 
of AI in FY 2021. The agency: (1) conducted an internal scan to learn 
the scope of existing NRC projects which may fall within this technical 
area, (2) issued a Federal Register notice (86 FR 20744) to solicit 
feedback on nuclear industry AI activities, and (3) hosted a series of 
Data Science and AI Regulatory Applications Public Workshops. These 
three activities informed the development of the draft AI Strategic 
Plan. Based on feedback from the Data Science and AI Regulatory 
Applications Public Workshops, the NRC anticipates that the nuclear 
industry could begin deploying AI in NRC-regulated activities in the 
near future.
    The draft AI Strategic Plan considers machine learning, natural 
language processing, robotics process automation, and deep learning to 
be subsets of AI. In practice, the term AI describes various activities 
which range from data collection and analyses to support human 
decisionmaking to fully autonomous systems that can learn without human 
intervention or oversight. The AI Strategic Plan would contribute to 
regulatory certainty by ensuring continued NRC readiness to

[[Page 39876]]

review the use of AI in NRC-regulated activities.
    The draft AI Strategic Plan establishes five strategic goals to 
ensure the agency's readiness to review the use of AI in NRC-regulated 
activities. The five strategic goals are: (1) ensure NRC readiness for 
regulatory decisionmaking, (2) establish an organizational framework to 
review AI applications, (3) strengthen and expand AI partnerships, (4) 
cultivate an AI proficient workforce, and (5) pursue use cases to build 
an AI foundation across the NRC.

IV. Requested Information and Comments

    The NRC is interested in obtaining input from stakeholders, 
including professional organizations, and interested individuals. The 
focus of the request is to gather information that will permit the NRC 
staff to develop and refine the draft AI Strategic Plan. The NRC 
welcomes comments from the public on any areas that they believe are 
relevant to these topics, and is particularly interested in receiving 
input on the following questions:
    1. Are there any specific recommendations or improvements to 
consider in the development of the AI Strategic Plan?
    2. What goals, objectives, or strategies within the NRC's current 
strategic plan should be added, enhanced, or modified in the AI 
Strategic Plan?
    3. What are potential near-term, or far-term, AI activities that 
the NRC should be aware when finalizing and prioritizing the AI 
Strategic Plan, or associated supporting research?
    4. What are potential challenges the NRC should be aware when 
preparing to review potential use of AI in nuclear applications?

V. Public Meeting Information

    The NRC staff will hold a virtual public meeting on August 3, 2022, 
to receive comments on the draft AI Strategic Plan. A telephone line 
will also be used for the public to submit oral comments. A court 
reporter will be recording all comments received during the webinar and 
the transcript of the meeting will be made publicly available. 
Additionally, the NRC will discuss the agency's activities related to 
the development of the AI Strategic Plan or supporting activities for 
public input and comment on these activities and will continue to seek 
the views of stakeholders in identifying opportunities to improve the 
underlying strategic plan. The date and time for the virtual public 
meeting is as follows:

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                  Date                                Time                              Location
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 3, 2022..........................  1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET..  Webinar Information: https://teams.microsoft.com/registration/dRTQ6LXDakOgZV3vTGT1Lg,dY0urqMKG0-Gm00Y91vqrg,N7h1Wo8JnEK5NUmTIdvEqw,2FYud_DrR0260xwKOK2vAA,ujlyIZhqmUGql9FnYzVx0g,m1ErSd8hxEO1k_cLUoH9eQ?mode=read&tenantId=e8d01475-c3b5-436a-a065-5def4c64f52e&webinarRing=gcc.
                                                                       Telephone Access:
                                                                       Bridgeline: 301-576-2978.
                                                                       Participant Access Code: 654 033 041.
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    Persons interested in attending this meeting should monitor the 
NRC's Public Meeting Schedule website at https://www.nrc.gov/pmns/mtg 
for additional information, the meeting agenda, information on how to 
provide verbal comments, and access information for the meeting. Those 
wishing to make verbal comments at the meeting should follow 
instructions listed on the NRC's Public Meeting Schedule website.
    The NRC may post additional materials related to this document, 
including public comments, on the Federal rulemaking website. 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-2022-0095); (2) 
click the ``Subscribe'' link; and (3) enter an email address and click 
on the ``Subscribe'' link.

    Dated: June 29, 2022.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Luis D. Betancourt,
Chief, Accident Analysis Branch, Division of Safety Analysis, Office of 
Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2022-14239 Filed 7-1-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P


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