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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 143 / Thursday, July 29, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
resources between COVID19 needs and implementation of this final rule could potentially compromise important State efforts related to COVID19. Thus, it is in the best interest of the public to proceed to change the implementation date immediately without notice-andcomment rulemaking.
Timothy English, Acting Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service.
FR Doc. 202116123 Filed 72821; 8:45 am BILLING CODE 341030P

NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
10 CFR Parts 50 and 70
NRC20150016
RIN 3150AJ53

Spent Fuel Reprocessing Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Discontinuation of rulemaking activity.
AGENCY:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC is discontinuing a rulemaking activity that would have amended the NRCs regulations to add a new part to the existing regulatory framework specific to nuclear spent fuel reprocessing facilities. The purpose of this action is to inform members of the public that this rulemaking activity is being discontinued and to provide a brief discussion of the NRCs decision.
This rulemaking activity will no longer be reported in the NRCs portion of the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions the Unified Agenda.

SUMMARY:

As of July 29, 2021 the rulemaking activity discussed in this document is discontinued.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID
NRC20150016 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 NRC20150016. Address questions about NRC dockets to Dawn Forder; telephone: 3014153407;
email: Dawn.Forder@nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.
NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
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ADAMS: You may obtain publiclyavailable 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 NRCs Public Document Room PDR
reference staff at 18003974209, 301
4154737, or by email to pdr.resource@
nrc.gov. For the convenience of the reader, instructions about obtaining materials referenced in this document are provided in the Availability of Documents section.
Attention: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of public documents, is currently closed. You may submit your request to the PDR via email at pdr.resource@nrc.gov or call 1
8003974209 between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Easter Standard Time EST, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom Boyce, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, telephone: 301415
7335; email: Tom.Boyce@nrc.gov; U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 205550001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background Industry interest was the primary impetus for the NRC to update the regulatory framework for reprocessing light-water reactor spent fuel. In Staff Requirements Memorandum SRM
SECY130093, Staff Requirements SECY130093Reprocessing Regulatory FrameworkStatus and Next Steps, the Commission approved the NRC staffs recommendation to develop a reprocessing-specific rule. It directed the staffs continued development of the regulatory framework should be limited in scope for the time beingto the resolution of Gap 5, Safety and Risk Assessment Methodologies and Considerations for a Reprocessing Facility. Gap 5 focused on the development of analytical methods for the quantitative assessment of risks associated with reprocessing facility accidents to inform the basis for the development of regulatory requirements and regulatory guidance.
From 2013 to 2016 the staff focused its efforts on assessing the quantitative risk associated with reprocessing facility accidents i.e., Gap 5. In 2016, the staff found that industry interest in constructing and operating a commercial light-water reactor spent fuel reprocessing facility had declined.
As a result, in 2016, the NRC suspended work on the spent fuel reprocessing regulatory framework because of other
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higher priorities related to spent fuel storage and transportation, as well as budgetary constraints.
II. Discussion To inform its decision making, the NRC reached out to stakeholders to determine the degree of stakeholder interest in constructing, operating, and licensing a spent fuel reprocessing facility. Specifically, the NRC held a Category 3 public meeting on March 4, 2020; participating stakeholders included the Nuclear Energy Institute NEI, the U.S. Department of Energy DOE, the Union of Concerned Scientists UCS, industry representatives, environmental groups, and private citizens. The NEI and industry representatives voiced their support for continuing the rulemaking primarily on the basis of a need for a clear and stable regulatory framework for reprocessing and to support advanced reactor licensing. However, no industry stakeholders indicated that they plan to submit an application to the NRC for a reprocessing facility in the foreseeable future. Other stakeholders, such as UCS and members of the public, indicated they do not support the continuation of the rulemaking because of proliferation and other concerns.
In May 2020, after the public meeting, the NEI and the American Nuclear Society ANS sent letters to the NRC
with further feedback on the need for rulemaking. The NEI stated that developers with advanced reactor designs that may eventually source their fuel from the spent fuel of other reactors are generally not planning to do so in the near future. The NEI encouraged the NRC to assess the technologies for advanced reactors before making any decisions on the reprocessing rulemaking. It also suggested that the NRC should not charge existing facilities with fees for work on a reprocessing rule. ANS encouraged the NRC to continue with the rulemaking and stated that the lack of an efficient, technically robust, and technologyinclusive regulatory foundation for reprocessing and recycling is a barrier to innovation in advanced reactor designs.
The NRC also engaged organizations and vendors in the advanced reactor community to assess their interest in and specific needs for reprocessing, such as the use of fuel recovered from the existing spent fuel feedstock. Based on these interactions, the NRC
concluded that, in addition to using fresh fuel obtained from enrichment and fabrication, some advanced reactor designs have the capability to eventually source their fuel from the spent fuel of other reactors, but there
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