Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual, Revision 2

Published date16 June 2021
Citation86 FR 32034
Record Number2021-12654
SectionNotices
CourtEnvironmental Protection Agency,Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 114 (Wednesday, June 16, 2021)
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 114 (Wednesday, June 16, 2021)]
                [Notices]
                [Pages 32034-32036]
                From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
                [FR Doc No: 2021-12654]
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                DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
                DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
                ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
                NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
                [EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0276; FRL-10023-12-OAR]
                Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual,
                Revision 2
                AGENCY: Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Environmental
                Protection Agency, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
                ACTION: Notice of availability with request for public comment.
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                SUMMARY: The Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Energy (DOE),
                Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Nuclear Regulatory
                Commission (NRC) are announcing for public comment the availability of
                a draft revision document, entitled the ``Multi-Agency Radiation Survey
                and Site Investigation Manual'' (MARSSIM). MARSSIM provides information
                on planning, conducting, evaluating, and documenting environmental
                radiological surveys of surface soil and building surfaces for
                demonstrating compliance with regulations. MARSSIM, when finalized as
                Revision 2, will be a multi-agency consensus document. The agencies are
                seeking public comment in order to receive feedback from the widest
                range of interested parties and to ensure that all information relevant
                to developing the document is received. The agencies will review public
                comments received on the draft MARSSIM Revision 2 as well as comments
                from a concurrent, independent, scientific peer review. The Agencies
                will review comments received during the public comment period and make
                revisions to the document as appropriate.
                DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 14, 2021.
                ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
                OAR-2021-0276, to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting
                comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or withdrawn. The
                EPA may publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not
                electronically submit any information you consider to be Confidential
                Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is
                restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must
                be accompanied by a written comment. The written comment is considered
                the official comment and should include discussion of all points you
                wish to make. The EPA will generally not consider comments or comment
                contents located outside of the primary submission (i.e., on the web,
                cloud or other file sharing system). For additional submission methods,
                the full EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia
                submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please
                visit: http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
                 You may obtain publicly-available information related to this
                action, including copies of the MARSSIM
                [[Page 32035]]
                Revision 2, by any of the following methods:
                 NRC's Agencywide Documents Access 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.'' Please refer
                to ML21008A572 when contacting the NRC about the availability of the
                MARSSIM Rev. 2 draft. 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]. Attention: The PDR, where
                you may have previously examined and ordered copies of public documents
                is currently closed for in-person document review.
                 You may submit your request to the PDR via email at
                [email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00
                p.m. (EST), Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The DOE,
                EPA, and NRC each have a publication number for MARSSIM. They are: For
                the DOE, DOE/AU-0002; for the EPA, EPA 402-P-20-001; for the NRC,
                NUREG-1575, Rev. 2. A free single copy of the draft MARSSIM Revision 2
                may be requested by email to [email protected].
                 The MARSSIM Revision 2 document is also available for download at:
                https://www.epa.gov/radiation/multi-agency-radiation-survey-and-site-investigation-manual-marssim.
                 Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket ID
                No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0276 for this rulemaking. Comments received may be
                posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov/, including any
                personal information provided. For detailed instructions and additional
                information on submitting comments, see the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
                section of this document.
                FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Any of the following points of contact
                for each agency for technical information (See ADDRESSES section above
                for directions on obtaining a copy of the draft MARSSIM Revision 2.):
                DoD: Erik Abkemeier, Phone: (757) 887-7635, [email protected],
                U.S. Navy, NAVSEADET RASO, 160 Main Road, Yorktown, VA 23691-5105; DOE:
                Derek Favret (AU-22), Phone: (202) 586-0250, [email protected],
                or Amanda Anderson (EM-3.11), Phone: (240) 702-5556,
                [email protected], U.S. Department of Energy, 1000
                Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585; EPA: Kathryn Snead;
                Phone: (202) 343-9228, [email protected], U.S. Environmental
                Protection Agency, Mail Stop 6608T, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,
                Washington, DC 20460-1000; NRC: Mark Fuhrmann, Phone: (301) 415-0879,
                [email protected], U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail Stop
                TWF 10 A-12 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852-2738. Questions
                concerning the multi-agency document development project should be
                addressed to Kathryn Snead, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200
                Pennsylvania Ave. NW, MC 6608T, Washington, DC 20460, (202) 343-9228,
                [email protected].
                SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
                I. General Information
                A. What should I consider as I prepare my comments for EPA?
                 1. Submitting Confidential Business Information (CBI). The EPA may
                publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not submit CBI
                information to the EPA through www.regulations.gov or email. Clearly
                mark the part or all of the information that you claim to be CBI. For
                CBI information in a disk or CD ROM that you mail to the EPA, mark the
                outside of the disk or CD ROM as CBI and then identify electronically
                within the files on the disk or CD ROM the specific information that is
                claimed as CBI. In addition to one complete version of the comment that
                includes information claimed as CBI, a copy of the comment that does
                not contain the information claimed as CBI must be submitted for
                inclusion in the public docket. Information so marked will not be
                disclosed except in accordance with procedures set forth in 40 CFR part
                2.
                 2. Tips for Preparing Your Comments. When submitting comments,
                remember to:
                 Identify the rulemaking by docket number EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-
                0276 and other identifying information (subject heading, Federal
                Register date and page number).
                 Follow directions: The Agency may ask you to respond to
                specific questions or organize comments by referencing a Code of
                Federal Regulations (CFR) part or section number.
                 Explain why you agree or disagree; suggest alternatives
                and substitute language for your requested changes.
                 Describe any assumptions and provide any technical
                information and/or data that you used.
                 If you estimate potential costs or burdens, explain how
                you arrived at your estimate in sufficient detail to allow for it to be
                reproduced.
                 Provide specific examples to illustrate your concerns and
                suggest alternatives.
                 Explain your views as clearly as possible, avoiding the
                use of profanity or personal threats.
                 Make sure to submit your comments by the comment period
                deadline identified.
                II. Background
                 MARSSIM provides information on planning, conducting, evaluating,
                and documenting environmental radiological surveys of surface soil and
                building surfaces for demonstrating compliance with regulations.
                MARSSIM, when finalized as Revision 2, will update this multi-agency
                consensus document.
                 MARSSIM was originally developed by the technical staffs of the
                four Federal agencies having authority for control of radioactive
                materials: DoD, DOE, EPA and NRC (60 FR 12555; March 7, 1995). The four
                agencies issued Revision 1 to MARSSIM in August 2000, and additional
                edits to Revision 1 in June 2001. MARSSIM has not been updated since
                2001; updates prior to 2001 primarily consisted of minor non-technical
                edits. Revision 2 updates the science, clarifies methods, and
                implements lessons learned from over 20 years of the document's use in
                industry.
                 A summary of changes in MARSSIM Revision 2 includes the following:
                (1) Added measurement quality objectives (MQOs) and measurement
                uncertainty, (2) expanded measurement methods to include scan-only
                surveys, (3) updated survey instrumentation information, (4) added
                Scenario B (``assumed to meet the criteria until proven otherwise''),
                (5) increased emphasis on regulator interface during survey design, (6)
                improved description of the lower bound of the gray region (LBGR), (7)
                updated references, (8) changed English units to International System
                of Units (SI), (9) avoided using the term ``Area Factor,'' (10)
                included additional examples in Chapter 5 and (11) reorganized Chapter
                4.
                 The public review is a necessary step in the development of a final
                multi-agency consensus document. The document will also undergo
                concurrent, independent, scientific peer review. The draft has not been
                approved by the participating agencies for use, in part or in whole,
                and should not be used, cited, or quoted, except for the purposes of
                providing comments as requested.
                 Commenters are requested to focus on technical accuracy and
                understandability. Commenters are also
                [[Page 32036]]
                requested to address five questions while reviewing MARSSIM Revision 2:
                 (1) Do the revisions to MARSSIM provide greater clarity while
                maintaining a practical and implementable approach to performing
                environmental radiological surveys of surface soil and building
                surfaces?
                 (2) Are the revisions to MARSSIM technically accurate?
                 (3) Does MARSSIM Revision 2 provide useful examples and
                descriptions of approaches to implementing surveys and the statistics
                by which they are interpreted?
                 (4) Is the information in MARSSIM Revision 2 understandable and
                presented in a logical sequence? How can the presentation of material
                be modified to improve the understandability of the manual?
                 Comments may be submitted as proposed modified text, or as a
                discussion. Comments should be accompanied by supporting bases,
                rationale, or data. To ensure efficient and complete comment
                resolution, commenters are requested to reference the page number and
                the line number of MARSSIM Revision 2 to which the comment applies.
                Enter only the beginning page and line number, even if your comment
                applies to several pages or lines to follow.
                 Comments corresponding to an entire chapter, an entire section, or
                an entire table should be referenced to the line number for the title
                of the chapter section, or table. Comments on footnotes should be
                referenced to the line in the main text where the footnote is
                indicated. Comments on figures should be referenced to the page on
                which the figure appears. Figures do not have line numbers. The figure
                number should be included in the text of the comment. Comments on the
                entire manual should be referenced to the title page.
                 Title: Draft Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation
                Manual, Revision 2.
                Laura Macaluso,
                Director, Force Safety and Occupational Health, Deputy Assistant
                Secretary of Defense Safety and Occupational Health, Office of the
                Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness, Department of Defense.
                Michael J. Silverman,
                Director, Office of Environmental Protection and ES&H Reporting, Office
                of Environment, Health, Safety and Security, Department of Energy.
                Jonathan Edwards,
                Director, Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, Environmental Protection
                Agency.
                Raymond V. Furstenau,
                Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, Nuclear Regulatory
                Commission.
                [FR Doc. 2021-12654 Filed 6-15-21; 8:45 am]
                BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
                

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