Required Assessment of U.S. Department of Energy Laboratories by Licensees, Applicants, and Suppliers To Verify the Effective Implementation of Their Quality Assurance Programs

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Draft regulatory issue summary; request for comment.

SUMMARY:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is seeking public comment on a draft regulatory issue summary (RIS) that clarifies the agency's regulatory position regarding the required assessment of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories by licensees, applicants, and vendors to verify the effective implementation of the laboratories' quality assurance (QA) programs. This draft RIS requires no action or written response on the part of an addressee.

DATES:

Submit comments by December 5, 2023. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission 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–2023–0058. 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 individual 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:

Phyllis Clark, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555–0001, telephone: 301–415–6447, email: Phyllis.Clark@nrc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

Please refer to Docket ID NRC–2023–0058 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–2023–0058.

• 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. The draft RIS “Required Assessment of U.S. Department of Energy Laboratories by Licensees, Applicants, and Suppliers to Verify the Effective Implementation of Their Quality Assurance Programs,” is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML22080A051.

• 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–2023–0058 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. Background

The NRC staff has received several inquiries from nuclear industry stakeholders on what type of assessment is required for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories that provide basic components to the U.S. nuclear power industry. The NRC is issuing this draft regulatory issue summary (RIS) to clarify the agency's regulatory position regarding the required assessment of U.S. DOE national laboratories by licensees, applicants, and vendors to verify the effective implementation of the laboratories' quality assurance programs.

The NRC issues RISs to communicate with stakeholders on a broad range of matters. It provides guidance to applicants and licensees on the scope and detail of information that should be provided in licensing applications to facilitate NRC review.

As noted in the Federal Register on May 8, 2018 (83 FR 20858), 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. Proposed Action

The NRC is requesting public comments on the draft RIS. All comments that are to receive consideration in the final RIS must still be submitted electronically or in writing as indicated in the ADDRESSES section of this document. The NRC staff will make a final determination regarding issuance of the RIS after it considers any public comments received in response to this request.