Thursday, September 3, 2009

Environmental Federal Register, Vol. 74, No. 170, September 3, 2009

Federal Register
Vol. 74, No. 170
Thursday, September 3, 2009
 
Note: There were no nationally applicable announcements from U.S. EPA today.
 
There are 2 announcements in this issue
 
    1. LAND, WATER, AGRICULTURE - ND. USDA. Notice of Intent To Prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Conservation Reserve Program
 
    2. HAZ/Nuclear - ND. NRC. Notice of Availability of Revised Fuel Cycle Oversight Process; NRC is proposing significant revisions to its processes for overseeing the safety and security of fuel cycle facilities
 
  
CODES USED:  THE FOLLOWING CODES ARE USED TO IDENTIFY THE TYPE OF ANNOUNCEMENT & ISSUE AREA.  

REPORTING FORMAT: ISSUE CODE - TYPE CODE. AGENCY. ANNOUNCEMENT.
ISSUE CODES:  AIR - Air; ALL - Cross-Media, ecosystems, Env. Justice; CLIMATE - Climate Change, Global Warming; DRINK - Drinking Water, SDWA, Underground Injection; ENERGY - Energy; GLAKES  - Great Lakes; HAZ - Hazardous Waste, RCRA, HSWA, DOT/RSPA, Some Nuclear (NRC); LAND - Land Use, Forests; P2 - Pollution Prevention, Sustainability, Recycling, Pjt. XL; REMED - Remediation, Brownfields, Superfund; TANKS - AST, UST; TOXICS = Toxics, TRI, TSCA, Pesticides, Risks, RTK; TRANSPORT -  Transportation; SOLID - Solid Waste, RCRA Subtitle D; WATER - Surface Water, NPS, NPDES, Wetlands; WILDLIFE = Wildlife, Biodiversity, Endangered Species.
TYPE CODES: ANPR - Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; FR - Final Rule; FRD - Direct final rule; FRI - Interim final rule; ICR - Information Collection Request; ND - Notice of data, information, reports, etc. availability; NF - Notice of Fuding Opportunity; NM - Notice of Meeting; NS - Notice of administrative/court settlement; PR - Proposed Rule; ROD - Record of decision.
 

ANNOUNCEMENT 1


Subject: LAND, WATER, AGRICULTURE - ND. USDA. Notice of Intent To Prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Conservation Reserve Program
 
[Federal Register: September 3, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 170)]
[Notices]              
[Page 45606-45607]

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Commodity Credit Corporation

Farm Service Agency

Notice of Intent To Prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact
Statement for the Conservation Reserve Program

AGENCY: Commodity Credit Corporation and Farm Service Agency, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of Intent (NOI) and request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This notice announces that the Farm Service Agency (FSA), on
behalf of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), intends to complete a
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) assessing the
environmental impacts of changes to the Conservation Reserve Program
(CRP) required by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (2008
Farm Bill).

DATES: To ensure the full range of the issues and alternatives related
to CRP are addressed, FSA invites comments. We will consider comments
that we receive by October 19, 2009. Comments received after this date
will be considered to the extent possible. See the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section for dates and addresses for nine public meetings.

ADDRESSES: We invite you to submit comments on this Notice of Intent.
In your comments, include the volume, date, and page number of this
issue of the Federal Register. You may submit comments by any of the
following methods:
    E-Mail: CRPcomments@tecinc.com.
    Online: Go to http://public.geo-marine.com. Follow the
online instructions for submitting comments.
    Fax: (757) 594-1469.
    Mail: CRP SEIS, c/o TEC Inc., 8 San Jose Drive, Suite 3-B,
Newport News, Virginia 23606.
    Hand Delivery or Courier: Deliver comments to the above
address.
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://
www.regulations.gov
. Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
    Comments may be inspected in the Office of the Director, CEPD, FSA,
USDA, 1400 Independence Ave, SW., Room 4709 South Building, Washington,
DC, between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except
holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Matthew Ponish, National Environmental
Compliance Manager, USDA, FSA, CEPD, Stop 0513, 1400 Independence Ave,
SW., Washington, DC 20250-0513, (202) 720-6853, or email:
Matthew.Ponish@wdc.usda.gov. Persons with disabilities who require
alternative means for communication (Braille, large print, audio tape,
etc.) should contact the USDA Target Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice
and TDD). More detailed information on CRP may be obtained at http://
www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=copr&topic=crp
.
 
ACCESS THE COMPLETE PUBLISHED ANNOUNCEMENT IN HTML OR PDF FORMATS AT:
 


ANNOUNCEMENT 2


Subject: HAZ/Nuclear - ND. NRC. Notice of Availability of Revised Fuel Cycle Oversight Process; NRC is proposing significant revisions to its processes for overseeing the safety and security of fuel cycle facilities
 
[Federal Register: September 3, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 170)]
[Notices]              
[Page 45657-45660]

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2009-0386]

Notice of Availability of Revised Fuel Cycle Oversight Process

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Request for public comment on revision of the NRC's fuel cycle
oversight program.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY:
    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing significant
revisions to its processes for overseeing the safety and security of
fuel cycle facilities. The NRC plans to develop a revised oversight
process for fuel cycle facilities that is more risk-informed, and
performance-based, resulting in more objective, predictable, and
transparent results of licensee or certificate holder assessments.
(This notice will use ``licensees'' throughout, but in doing so the
intent is also to include ``certificate holders.'') Current oversight
consists mainly of inspections, enforcement and periodic assessments
based on inspection findings. NRC staff intends that any revised
oversight would not establish any new regulatory requirements. Rather,
revised oversight would improve inspection and assessment so that NRC
conclusions would be more closely based on risk and more understandable
to members of the public. Revised oversight could potentially add
objective measures of performance, called performance indicators, with
criteria for measuring acceptable performance. However, development of
performance indicators may not be part of the initial revision to the
oversight process. Inspections would focus in areas of highest risk
that are not well-measured by performance indicators and on validating
performance indicator information. Assessments would be based on more
objective criteria. Supplemental inspections (those above and beyond
the number and type of inspections normal for a well-performing plant)
of licensees whose performance shows indications of decline, would also
be based on objective criteria. These principles are currently applied
by the NRC in the oversight of power reactor safety and security and is
outlined in ``Reactor Oversight Process,'' NUREG-1649, (Agencywide
Documents Access and Management System [ADAMS] Accession No.
ML070890365).
    Since 1999, the NRC has undertaken several initiatives to examine
and improve the NRC's oversight process for fuel cycle facilities,
including those licensed or certified under Title 10 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 40 (Domestic Licensing of Source
Material), Part 70 (Domestic Licensing of Special Nuclear Material),
and Part 76 (Certification of Gaseous Diffusion Plants). Although
previous efforts resulted in some revisions to inspection and
assessment procedures, current NRC oversight could be improved by more
fully incorporating into inspection and assessment the risk insights of
licensees' integrated safety analyses, where applicable (the
requirement to perform an integrated safety analysis apply only to 10
CFR Part 70 licensees). Integrated safety analyses establish safety
controls based on analyses of potential hazards at a facility.
    To meet the objective of developing an oversight process with an
improved degree of transparency, predictability, objectivity and
consistency, using risk-informed and performance-based tools, the staff
is undertaking a comprehensive effort to develop a Revised Fuel Cycle
Oversight Process (RFCOP). The staff's efforts will be consistent with
the recent guidance in this area, notably the guidance provided in the
Staff Requirements Memoranda dated April 3, 2008, and February 17, 2009
(Agencywide Documents Access and Management System [ADAMS] Accession
Nos. ML080940439 and ML090490032), and will be responsive to
recommendations in the Office of Inspector General report OIG 07-A-06
(ADAMS ML070100282).

DATES: The comment period expires November 2, 2009. 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 one of the following methods.
Please include Docket ID NRC-2009-0386 in the subject line of your
comments. Comments submitted in writing or electronic format will be
posted on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site
Regulations.gov. Because your comments will not be edited to remove any
identifying information, the NRC cautions you against including any
information in your submission that you do not want to be publically
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
publically disclosed.
    Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and
search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-2009-0386. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher 301-492-3668; e-mail
Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov.
    Mail comments to: Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rules and Directives
Branch (RDB), Division of Administrative Services, Office of
Administration, Mail Stop: TWB-05-B10M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax to RBD at (301) 492-
3446.
    You can access publically available documents related to this
notice using the following methods:
    NRC's Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine and have
copied for a fee publically available documents at the NRC's PDR,
Public File Area 01 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland.
    NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS):
Publically available documents created or received at the NRC are
available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http:/
/www.nrc.gov/reading
room-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 in ADAMS, contact the NRC's PDR
reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to
pdr.resources@nrc.gov.
    Members of the public interested in obtaining additional
information in regard to the NRC's Revised Fuel Cycle Oversight Process
will be able to do so by periodically visiting http://
www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=NRC-
2009-0386
. The NRC expects to continue publishing documents about the
Revised Fuel Cycle Oversight Process using the regulations.gov Web
site, in addition to making them available electronically in the Public
Document Room (PDR), and the Electronic Document Room using the
Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), http://
www.nrc.gov/reading
room-rm/adams.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Russell Gibbs, Team Leader, Division
of Fuel Facility Inspection, Region II, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20005-0001. Telephone: (404) 562-4806 or
(301) 492-3120; Fax (404) 562-4955 or (301) 492-3363; E-mail:
Russell.Gibbs@nrc.gov.
 
ACCESS THE COMPLETE PUBLISHED ANNOUNCEMENT IN HTML OR PDF FORMATS AT: