Clarification of Personnel Access Authorization Requirements for Non-Immigrant Foreign Nationals Working at Nuclear Power Plants
| Published date | 31 March 2020 |
| Citation | 85 FR 17770 |
| Record Number | 2020-06473 |
| Section | Proposed rules |
| Court | Nuclear Regulatory Commission |
Federal Register, Volume 85 Issue 62 (Tuesday, March 31, 2020)
[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 62 (Tuesday, March 31, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 17770-17771]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-06473]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Chapter I
[NRC-2020-0073]
Clarification of Personnel Access Authorization Requirements for
Non-Immigrant Foreign Nationals Working at Nuclear Power Plants
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft regulatory issue summary; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is seeking public
comment on a draft regulatory issue summary (RIS) to reinforce the
existing requirement that prior to granting or reinstating unescorted
access (UA), or certifying unescorted access authorization (UAA) to
non-immigrant foreign nationals for the purpose of performing work,
licensees shall take reasonable steps to access reliable, independent
sources of information, in addition to the information provided by the
applicant, to verify the applicant's claimed non-immigration status.
DATES: Submit comments by April 30, 2020. 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 before this
date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2020-0073. Address
questions about NRC dockets IDs in Regulations.gov to Jennifer Borges;
telephone: 301-287-9127; email: [email protected]. 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: Mark Resner, Office of Nuclear
Security and Incident Response, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-287-3680, email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2020-0073 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-2020-0073.
[[Page 17771]]
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 [email protected]. The Regulatory Issue Summary 2020-XX,
Clarification of Personnel Access Authorization Requirements for Non-
Immigrant Foreign Nationals Working at Nuclear Power Plants is
available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML20008D562.
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-2020-0073 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, in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security,
has identified several instances where a licensee has failed to
appropriately verify, in the case of foreign nationals seeking UA and/
or UAA, that the claimed non-immigration status that the individual has
provided is correct. Consequently, foreign nationals have been granted
UA and UAA at United States nuclear power plants for the purpose of
work using visa categories that do not permit foreign nationals to work
in the United States.
The NRC issues RISs to communicate with stakeholders on a broad
range of matters. This may include communication and clarification of
NRC technical or policy positions on regulatory matters that have not
been communicated to or are not broadly understood by the nuclear
industry.
As noted in 83 FR 20858 (May 8, 2018), this document is being
published in the Proposed Rules section of the Federal Register to
comply with publication requirements under 1 CFR chapter I.
Proposed Action
The NRC is requesting public comments on the draft RIS. 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.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 24th day of March 2020.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Lisa M. Regner,
Branch Chief, Operating Experience Branch, Division of Reactor
Oversight, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2020-06473 Filed 3-30-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
