This site displays a prototype of a “Web 2.0” version of the daily Federal Register. It is not an official legal edition of the Federal Register, and does not replace the official print version or the official electronic version on GPO’s govinfo.gov.
The documents posted on this site are XML renditions of published Federal Register documents. Each document posted on the site includes a link to the corresponding official PDF file on govinfo.gov. This prototype edition of the daily Federal Register on FederalRegister.gov will remain an unofficial informational resource until the Administrative Committee of the Federal Register (ACFR) issues a regulation granting it official legal status. For complete information about, and access to, our official publications and services, go to About the Federal Register on NARA's archives.gov.
The OFR/GPO partnership is committed to presenting accurate and reliable regulatory information on FederalRegister.gov with the objective of establishing the XML-based Federal Register as an ACFR-sanctioned publication in the future. While every effort has been made to ensure that the material on FederalRegister.gov is accurately displayed, consistent with the official SGML-based PDF version on govinfo.gov, those relying on it for legal research should verify their results against an official edition of the Federal Register. Until the ACFR grants it official status, the XML rendition of the daily Federal Register on FederalRegister.gov does not provide legal notice to the public or judicial notice to the courts.
FederalRegister.gov retrieves relevant information about this document from Regulations.gov to provide users with additional context. This information is not part of the official Federal Register document.
Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Notice of availability with request for public comment.
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.
Comments must be received on or before September 14, 2021.
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 ( printed 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 pdr.resource@nrc.gov. 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 pdr.resource@nrc.gov 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 DISTRIBUTION.Resource@nrc.gov.
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.
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, erik.j.abkemeier@navy.mil, U.S. Navy, NAVSEADET RASO, 160 Main Road, Yorktown, VA 23691-5105; DOE: Derek Favret (AU-22), Phone: (202) 586-0250, derek.favret@hq.doe.gov, or Amanda Anderson (EM-3.11), Phone: (240) 702-5556, amanda.anderson@em.doe.gov, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585; EPA: Kathryn Snead; Phone: (202) 343-9228, snead.kathryn@epa.gov, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Stop 6608T, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20460-1000; NRC: Mark Fuhrmann, Phone: (301) 415-0879, mark.fuhrmann@nrc.gov, 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, snead.kathryn@epa.gov.
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:
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 ( printed 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
17 comments have been received at Regulations.gov.
Agencies review all submissions and may choose to redact, or withhold, certain submissions (or portions thereof). Submitted comments may not be available to be read until the agency has approved them.