[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 225 (Tuesday, November 23, 2010)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 71368-71369]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-29480]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
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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.
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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 225 / Tuesday, November 23, 2010 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 71368]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 26
[Docket No. PRM-26-6; NRC-2010-0310]
Erik Erb; Notice of Receipt of Petition for Rulemaking
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; Notice of receipt.
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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received a
petition for rulemaking (PRM) dated August 17, 2010, submitted by Erik
Erb (the Petitioner) and 91 co-signers. The petition was docketed by
the NRC on September 17, 2010, and has been assigned PRM-26-6. The
petitioner requests that the NRC amend its regulations to decrease the
minimum days off (MDO) requirement for security officers working 12-
hour shifts from an average of 3 days per week to 2.5 or 2 days per
week. The NRC is also requesting public comments on the PRM.
DATES: Submit comments by February 7, 2011. 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: Please include Docket ID NRC-2010-0310 in the subject line
of your comments. For instructions on submitting comments and accessing
documents related to this action, see ``Submitting Comments and
Accessing Information'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of
this document. You may submit comments by any one of the following
methods.
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and
search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-2010-0310. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher, telephone: 301-492-
3668; e-mail: [email protected].
Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff.
E-mail comments to: [email protected]. If you do not
receive a reply e-mail confirming that we have received your comments,
contact us directly at 301-415-1966.
Hand deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland
20852 between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. during Federal workdays
(telephone: 301-415-1966).
Fax comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at
301-415-1101.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules,
Announcements, and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative
Services, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-492-3667, toll free: 800-368-
5642, e-mail: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Submitting Comments and Accessing Information
Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted
on the NRC Web site and on the Federal Rulemaking Web site, http://www.regulations.gov. Because your comments will not be edited to remove
any identifying or contact information, the NRC cautions you against
including any information in your submission that you do not want to be
publicly disclosed. The NRC requests that any party soliciting or
aggregating comments received from other persons for submission to the
NRC inform those persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to
remove any identifying or contact information, and therefore, they
should not include any information in their comments that they do not
want publicly disclosed.
You can access publicly available documents related to this
document using the following methods:
NRC's Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine and have
copied for a fee publicly available documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O-
1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville,
Maryland.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS):
Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC are
available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this page, the public can gain
entry into ADAMS, which provides text and image files of NRC's public
documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems
in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, then contact the NRC's PDR
reference staff at 800-397-4209, or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to
[email protected]. The ADAMS accession number for the petition is
ML102630127.
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Public comments and supporting
materials related to this action, including the petition for
rulemaking, can be found at http://www.regulations.gov by searching on
Docket ID NRC-2010-0310.
Petitioner
The petitioner is Erik Erb, a nuclear security officer at
Constellation's Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station in Oswego, New York.
Mr. Erb has held this position since April 2004. The petition has 91
co-signers; most co-signers have identified their position as nuclear
security officer or guard.
Background
Grounds for Action Requested
The Petitioner proposes that the NRC amend its regulations in Title
10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) part 26, subpart I, to
decrease the MDO requirement for security officers working 12-hour
shifts from an average of 3 days per week to 2.5 or 2 days per week.
Specifically, the Petitioner claims that the MDO requirement of 3 days
per week has led to unintended detrimental consequences at the Nine
Mile Point facility.
The Petitioner states that the MDO requirement has reduced the
amount of overtime available to security officers at Nine Mile Point.
The Petitioner states that this may provide the impetus for security
officers to seek additional part-time employment. The Petitioner claims
that hours worked at another place of employment would most likely be
unrecorded, unmonitored, and unreported to the licensee. The Petitioner
states that security officers working additional part-time hours to
supplement lost income would ``seem to be counterproductive to the aim
of the MDO requirement.''
[[Page 71369]]
The Petitioner states that officers who previously did not work
much overtime must now ``pick up the slack,'' sometimes to the point of
being forced to work overtime. The Petitioner also states that training
sometimes has to be rescheduled or canceled, because the officers
facilitating the training have reached their MDO mandate.
The Petitioner states that non-management/non-supervisor security
chiefs have been impacted by the use of the fatigue software,
EmpCenter, at the Nine Mile Point facility. The Petitioner claims that
when an employee is asked to work overtime, the chiefs must use the
software to determine whether that employee will exceed the MDO
requirement. The petitioner describes this extra step as a burden on
the chiefs. According to the petition, the attention/focus of the
chiefs is diverted by the need to coordinate with their supervisors in
order to ensure compliance with the MDO requirement.
The Petitioner also claims that licensees have had to increase
their staffing across affected departments, in part due to the MDO
requirement, thus increasing their costs. The Petitioner claims that
licensees may be required to pass these extra costs onto the rate
payer. Alternatively, the Petitioner claims that licensees may explore
the option of contract security as a cost-saving measure.
The Petition
The Petitioner requests that the NRC amend its regulations in 10
CFR part 26, Subpart I, to decrease the MDO requirement for security
officers working 12-hour shifts from an average of 3 days per week to
2.5 or 2 days per week. The Petitioner claims that such a decrease in
MDO would (1) bring the requirement in line with MDO requirements for
Operations, Maintenance, and other personnel subject to the MDO
requirements; and (2) have a sizeable impact on alleviating some of the
issues the MDO requirements have caused or may cause in the future.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 17th day of November 2010.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2010-29480 Filed 11-22-10; 8:45 am]
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