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

39971 

Vol. 82, No. 162 

Wednesday, August 23, 2017 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

10 CFR Part 30 

[Docket No. PRM–30–66; NRC–2017–0159] 

Naturally-Occurring and AcceleratorProduced Radioactive Materials 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; notice 

of docketing and request for comment. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) has received a 

petition for rulemaking from Matthew 

McKinley on behalf of the Organization 

of Agreement States (OAS) (the 

Petitioner) dated April 14, 2017, 

requesting that the NRC revise its 

regulations to add radionuclides and 

their corresponding activities to the list 

of ‘‘Quantities of Licensed Material 

Requiring Labeling.’’ The petition was 

docketed by the NRC on June 21, 2017, 

and has been assigned Docket No. PRM– 

30–66. The NRC is examining the issues 

raised in PRM–30–66 to determine 

whether they should be considered in 

rulemaking. The NRC is requesting 

public comment on this petition. 

DATES: Submit comments by November 

6, 2017. Comments received after this 

date will be considered if it is practical 

to do so, but the NRC is able to assure 

consideration only for comments 

received on or before this date. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

by any of the following methods: 

• Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov and search 

for Docket ID NRC–2017–0159. Address 

questions about NRC dockets to Carol 

Gallagher; telephone: 301–415–3463; 

email: Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. For 

technical questions contact the 

individual listed in the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section of this 

document. 

• Email comments to: 

Rulemaking.Comments@nrc.gov. If you 

do not receive an automatic email reply 

confirming receipt, then contact us at 

301–415–1677. 

• Fax comments to: Secretary, U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission at 301– 

415–1101. 

• Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 

Washington, DC 20555–0001, ATTN: 

Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. 

• Hand deliver comments to: 11555 

Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 

20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. 

(Eastern Time) Federal workdays; 

telephone: 301–415–1677. 

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: 

Robert MacDougall, Office of Nuclear 

Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 

Washington, DC 20555–0001; telephone: 

301–415–5175, email: 

Robert.MacDougall@nrc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Obtaining Information and 

Submitting Comments 

A. Obtaining Information 

Please refer to Docket ID NRC–2017– 

0159 when contacting the NRC about 

the availability of information for this 

action. You may obtain publiclyavailable information related to this 

action by any of the following methods: 

• Federal rulemaking Web site: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov and search 

for Docket ID NRC–2017–0159. 

• NRC’s Agencywide Documents 

Access and Management System 

(ADAMS): You may obtain publiclyavailable documents online in the 

ADAMS Public Documents collection at 

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ 

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 (if it is available in 

ADAMS) is provided the first time that 

it is mentioned in this document. 

• NRC’s PDR: You may examine and 

purchase copies of public documents at 

the NRC’s PDR, Room O1–F21, One 

White Flint North, 11555 Rockville 

Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. 

B. Submitting Comments 

Please include Docket ID NRC–2017– 

0159 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 http://

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. The Petitioner 

The membership of OAS consists of 

state radiation control directors and staff 

from the 37 Agreement States who are 

responsible for the implementation of 

their respective Agreement State 

programs. The purpose of the OAS is to 

provide a mechanism for the Agreement 

States to work with each other and with 

the NRC on regulatory issues associated 

with their respective agreements. 

III. The Petition 

The petitioner request that the NRC 

amend its existing regulations in 

appendix B to part 30 of title 10 of the 

Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), to 

specifically add the appropriate 

radionuclides and their corresponding 

activities to the list of ‘‘Quantities of 

Licensed Material Requiring Labeling.’’ 

The requirements in 10 CFR 30.35, 

‘‘Financial Assurance and 

Recordkeeping for Decommissioning,’’ 

refer to the list in appendix B to 10 CFR 

part 30 to determine the need for a 

decommissioning funding plan and the 

amount of financial assurance required 

for sealed and unsealed sources. The 

petition states that the list in appendix 

B to 10 CFR part 30 is outdated and 

does not include conforming updates 


pmangrum on DSK3GDR082PROD with PROPOSALS
39972 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 162 / Wednesday, August 23, 2017 / Proposed Rules 

resulting from the 2005 amendment of 

the Energy Policy Act. The OAS petition 

is available in ADAMS under Accession 

No. ML17173A063. 

IV. Discussion of the Petition 

The petitioner believe that patient 

health and safety is being compromised 

due to licensing delays of important 

diagnostic and therapeutic products that 

utilize radioisotopes that are not listed 

in the appendix B table in 10 CFR part 

30. The petitioner assert that when the 

Energy Policy Act was amended in 2005 

to include discrete naturally-occurring 

and accelerator-produced radioactive 

materials (NARM) into the definition of 

byproduct material, that 10 CFR part 30, 

schedule B, exempt quantities for 

licensing was updated to include certain 

NARM isotopes. They note however that 

10 CFR part 30, appendix B, ‘‘Quantities 

of Licensed Material Requiring 

Labeling,’’ which is the driver for the 

decommissioning funding plan and 

financial assurance, was not updated. 

As a result, the OAS believes that state 

regulators are forced to apply overly 

burdensome financial assurance 

obligations or evaluate on a case-by-case 

basis special exemptions for new 

products. They feel that this results in 

delays in using these improved products 

or discourages their development. 

The petitioner point out that the 

NRC’s Advisory Committee on the 

Medical Uses of Isotopes evaluated the 

financial assurance requirements for 

germanium-68 generators and 

concluded that these requirements were 

too restrictive and would prevent or 

deter the use of promising gallium-68 

diagnostic imaging agents for patients. 

Authorization for granting specific 

exemption from the decommissioning 

funding plan requirement for Ge-68/Ga68 generators was developed. A 

rulemaking action to provide a 

permanent regulatory solution has been 

initiated; however, the petition notes 

that the OAS is disappointed that the 

rule would address only this one 

isotope. 

Rather than issue exemptions on a 

case-by-case basis, the petitioner assert 

the more appropriate way to address the 

inconsistency is to amend appendix B to 

10 CFR part 30 to add appropriate 

radionuclides and their corresponding 

activities. The petition states that the 

failure to address this inconsistency 

puts an undue hardship on certain 

licensees with little or no radiation 

safety benefit, discourages the 

development of new beneficial 

products, and negatively impacts 

patient care. 

V. Request for Comment 

The NRC staff is requesting public 

comment on the following specific 

questions: 

1. What products or technologies, 

other than the germanium-68 generators 

cited in the petition, are being or could 

be negatively affected because the 

radioactive materials required for these 

products or technologies are not 

currently listed on the table in appendix 

B of 10 CFR part 30? 

2. Please provide specific examples of 

how the current NRC regulatory 

framework for decommissioning 

financial assurance has put an undue 

hardship on potential license 

applicants. Explain how this hardship 

has discouraged the development of 

beneficial new products, or otherwise 

imposed unnecessarily burdensome 

requirements on licensees or members 

of the public (e.g., users of medical 

diagnostic or therapeutic technologies) 

that depend on naturally-occurring or 

accelerator-produced radioactive 

materials (NARM). 

3. Given NRC’s current regulatory 

authority over the radiological safety 

and security of NARM, what factors 

should the NRC take into account in 

establishing possession limits for any of 

these materials that should be listed in 

appendix B of 10 CFR part 30? 

4. Does this petition raise other issues 

not addressed by the questions above 

about labelling or decommissioning 

financial assurance for radioactive 

materials? Must these issues be 

addressed by a rulemaking, or are there 

other regulatory solutions that NRC 

should consider? 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 16th day 

of August, 2017. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Annette L. Vietti-Cook, 

Secretary for the Commission. 

[FR Doc. 2017–17690 Filed 8–22–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 

SECURITY 

Coast Guard 

33 CFR Part 165 

[Docket Number USCG–2017–0731] 

RIN 1625–AA00 

Safety Zone; Mississippi River; New 

Orleans, LA 

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: The Coast Guard proposes to 

establish a temporary safety zone for 

certain navigable waters of the 

Mississippi River. This action is 

necessary to provide for the safety of life 

on these navigable waters near New 

Orleans, LA, during a fireworks display 

on October 28, 2017. This proposed 

rulemaking would prohibit persons and 

vessels from being in the safety zone 

unless authorized by the Captain of the 

Port New Orleans (COTP) or a 

designated representative. We invite 

your comments on this proposed 

rulemaking. 

DATES: Comments and related material 

must be received by the Coast Guard on 

or before September 7, 2017. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

identified by docket number USCG– 

2017–0731 using the Federal 

eRulemaking Portal at http://

www.regulations.gov. See the ‘‘Public 

Participation and Request for 

Comments’’ portion of the 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for 

further instructions on submitting 

comments. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If 

you have questions about this proposed 

rulemaking, call or email Lieutenant 

Commander (LCDR) Howard Vacco, 

Sector New Orleans, at (504) 365–2281 

or Howard.K.Vacco@uscg.mil. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Table of Abbreviations 

CFR Code of Federal Regulations 

COTP Captain of the Port New Orleans 

DHS Department of Homeland Security 

FR Federal Register 

NPRM Notice of proposed rulemaking 

§ Section 

U.S.C. United States Code 

II. Background, Purpose, and Legal 

Basis 

On July 17, 2017, the Coast Guard was 

notified of a fireworks display from 7:50 

p.m. through 8:50 p.m. on October 28, 

2017, to celebrate a wedding. The 

fireworks are to be launched from a 

barge in the Mississippi River at 

approximately MM 96.2, at New 

Orleans, LA. Hazards from firework 

displays include accidental discharge of 

fireworks, dangerous projectiles, and 

falling hot embers or other debris. The 

Captain of the Port New Orleans (COTP) 

has determined that potential hazards 

associated with the fireworks to be used 

in this display would be a safety 

concern for anyone within a one-half 

range of the barge. 

The purpose of this proposed 

rulemaking is to ensure the safety of 

vessels and the navigable waters within 

a one-half mile range of the fireworks 

barge before, during, and after the 

scheduled event. The Coast Guard 


pmangrum on DSK3GDR082PROD with PROPOSALS