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Distribution SGFF r/f RRentschler WBrown TSherr RErickson RBurnett MEMORANDUM FOR: John G. Davis, Director Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards FROM: Robert F. Burnett, Director Division of Safeguards, NMSS
SUBJECT:
AMENDMENT OF 10 CFR PART 11 - REVISED CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES FOR DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR ACCESS TO OR CONTROL OVER SPECIAL NUCLEAR MATERIAL Attached is a memorandum forwarding a request to the EDO for authority to initiate rulemaking. We have included in this request a preliminary draft of the revised rule. This package contains the essentials of the Federal Register Notice. However, additional effort is required to comply with administrative requirements such as format, word usage, and punctuation.
The rulemaking which is proposed would amend 10 CFR Part 11 to allow utilization of documentation for existing personnel clearances whether granted by the NRC or by other federal agencies. The amended Part 11 would also allow utilization of the DOE Selective Reinvestigation Program for individuals subject to the requirements of both agencies. The amendments are administra-tive in nature and eliminate duplicative administrative and investigative effort on the part of licensees and the NRC.
Robert F. Burnett, Director Division of Safeguards, NMSS
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Document Name:
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P, APPROVED FOR PUBLICATION In a final rule published March 19,1982(47FR11816),theCommission delegated to the ED0 (10 CFR 1.40(c) and (d) the authority to develop and promulgate rules as defined in the APA (5 U.S.C. 551(4) subject to the limitations in NRC Manual Chapter 0103, Organization and Functions, Office of the -Executive Director for Operations, paragraphs 0213, 038, 039, and 0310.
The enclosed rule entitled, " Revised Criteria and Procedures for Determining Eligibility for Access to or Centrol Over Special Nuclear Material" amends 10 CFR Part 11 to allow utilization of current active Federal clearances based upon equivalent investigations for the purpose of granting the NRC special nuclear material access authorizations.
The proposed rule does not constitute a significant question of policy, nor does it amend regulations contained in 10 CFR Parts 0, 2, 7, 8, 9 Subpart C or 110. I therefore find that this rule is within the scope of my rulemaking authority ar.d am proceeding to issue it.
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Date William J. Dircks Executive Director for Operations
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FR/ REG. ANALYSIS Requestor's ID:
BARBARAS Author's Nare:
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REGULATORY ANALYSIS Criteria and Procedures for Determining Eligibility for Access to or Control Over Special Nuclear Material (10 CFR Part 11)
Statenent of Problem Paragraph 10 CFR 11.11 recuires each licensee who uses, processes, stores, transports or delivers tc a carrier for transport, forn.ula quantities of special nuclear material (as defined in 10 CFR Part 73) to identify all jobs under his control in which an individual could steal cr divert special nuclear material, or ccmit sabotage which cculd endanger the public by exposure to rediation. This paragraph further requires that persons who occupy the identified job positions be granted the appropriate level of NRC special nuclear material access authorization for initial or continued employrrent in such positions ("NRC-U" authorizatirn for persons whose jobs permit them to have direct access to or control over the special nuclear paterial; and "NRC-R" authorization for those who do not have direct access tc cr control over the special nuclear matcrial, but dc have a requirenent for unescorted access to protected areas wherein such material is located).
Paragraph 10 CFR 11.15 requires the initial and renewal applications for hRC special nuclear material access authorization for the affected licensee employees to be submitted on forms supplied by the Conmission. This paragraph authorizes affected licensees to grant unescorted access to special nuclear n'aterial or to protected areas during official business visits to employees of the Cconission, the Department of Energy (00i.) anc the Department of Defense
4 (D00), when such employees have personnel acc 5 authorizations or clearances which are based on investigations which are equivalent to the investigations required for licensee einployees. However, there are no provisions for fonnally granting NRC special nuclear tr,aterial access authorizatiens to persons such as licensee employees who have signilar personnel access authorizations or clearances anc are in, or applying fcr, po3itions at an NEC licensed facility which require the sare access on a continuing basis.
At the tire that 10 CFR Part 11 was pron:ulgated (1980), more than a dozen nuclear fuel facilities were affected. The rationale for requirirg all applications to be made on NRC forms was to provide a uniform system which was tailored to the needs of snost licensees. A central investigative data file
/ would have been established at the Comission Headquarters for all special nuclear material access authorizations granted by the Comission. Since that tire the nurr.ber of licensed fuel f acilities having formula quantities of special nuclear material has been reduced significantly. All of the remaining f acilities have requirernents, to varying degrees, for NRC and/or DOE personnel access authorizations. The levels of these authorizations are the same ("Q" and "L"); and they are based on the same type of investigations (full field Background Investigation and National Agency Check, respectively).
Accordingly, investigative data on file with either of these two agencies would be acceptable for granting the comparable level of access to special nuclear material (i.e. , "Q" to "NRC-U" and "L" to "NRC-R"). The granting of access to special nuclear material to employees of other Fcderal agercies (e.g., the Departirent of Defense) which have comparable currebt investigative data on file 1
would be consistent with this policy. Also, forn:s issued by other Federal agencies which are of similar design and contain all cf the infornation required on the NRC application forms would be acceptable substitutes for the NRC forms.
The changed circonistances in which the nunter of individuals needing NRC special nuclear n;aterial access authorizations are also already subject to DOE clearance requirements make it nore reasonable to utilize as nuch of the existing 00t program as pcssible without diminishnent of the NRC program.
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Accordingly, it is och appropriate to rodify the regulations to allow:
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(a) Ccnversion of NRC and 00E personnel access authorizations tc equivalent levels of NRC special nuclear material access authori-zations (i.e., "Q" to "NRC-U" and "L" to "NRC-R", respectively), when the investigations on which such personnel access authorizations were based are equivalent to those required for the level of access to special nuclear material for which applications are being made.
2 (b) Acceptance of forms accompanying the application for SNM access authorization which are issued by other Federal agencies, when such forms contain all of the information required on the prescribed NRC forms.
(c) Acceptance by the Conmission, of certification from other Federal agencies, of investigative data when personnel cleared by such agencies are making application for NRC special nuclear material I
access authorization and the investigative data on file are equivalent to that required for the level of special nuclear material access authorization for which applications are being made.
(d) Incorporation of rainor administrative changes which have cccurred since publication of the original rule in 1980 (e.g., date for annual revision of fees schedule has been changt.d from December to July; and changing the fee for a full fit.ld investigation from $1550.00 to
$1580.00).
An amendment to effect the foregoing changes to the rule would achieve all of the objectives of the Consnission special nuclear raaterial access authoriza-tion program; and at the same time, not require licensees to duplicate efforts and expenditures for equivalent investigations and application data which have already been accomplished to satisfy requirerents of other Federal agencies.
The significance of taking no action to resolve this problem would be to require unnecessary and unreasonable expenditures and personnel tire loss on the part of licensees and their ceployees to acquire information which is already available from other Federal sources.
Objective The objective of this ruler.aking action is to provide an effective program for the Comission to grant special nuclear material access authorizations 4
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without in; posing unnecessary administrative burdens on licensees. This can be achieved by effecting the foregoing changes to the existing rule, which will allow the Consission to " grandfather" certain cleared licensee employees into the program anc to accept application forms and investigative data provided by other Federal agencies. This will allow accption of the DOE Selective Ptinvestigation Prcgram for renewals of those individuals possessing appropriate DOE clearances.
Alternatives Two alternatives were considered, in detail:
- 1) Retain the current rule unchanged.
- 2) Aaend the current rule to achieve the stated objective.
Consequences The costs and/or benefits of this rulemaking action are sunmarized as folicws:
- 1) For each applicant for an NRC "U" special nuclear material access authorization who has had a full field background investigation conducted to satisfy personnel clearance requirements of another Federal agency, the amended rule will allow the employing licensee to submit an applicatien without fee, as opposed to the $1580.00 fee, which is currently required for the full field investigation. For some licensees this may be as many as one third of the total number e .,
of employees who require initial NRC special nuclear material access authorization. Additicnally, considerably less processing time is expended by the NRC reviewir.g cfficicis, as well as the applicants.
- 2) There will be r.o additional cost or adverse inspact on NRC operations other than the nonral statf tine expended and the cost of publishing the arrendtrent notices in the Federal Register. The staff tire required for drafting, coordinating and preparing the notice for final publication has, for the most part, already been expended.
Only a small ancunt of future effort, on the part of the staff, is anticipated. The cost per page for publication in the Federal Register is approximately $400. This notice should take less space than two full pages. Thus, the cost for publishing both a final rule notice will be less then $600.
Conclusion Alternative 2 (" Amend the current rule to achieve the stated objective")
should be implerented. The inonetary cost to the Consiission is minimal, as compared to the adverse impact of imposing on fuel facility licensees unneces-sary and duplicative requirernents of the existing rule (i.e., less than the cost of one full field background investigation to amend the rule).