Revision of Management Directive for Review of 10 CFR 2.206 Petitions; Request for Comments

Resumen

NRC Management Directive (MD) 8.11 describes the NRC review process for 10 CFR 2.206 petitions. The most recent phase of a continuing effort to improve the review process has resulted in a revision to MD 8.11, issued on July 1, 1999. The process improvements were identified and developed on the basis of feedback from a limited stakeholder survey that was conducted in January 1999, as well as from NRC staff experience with the existing process. Many stakeholder comments and suggestions were addressed in the MD 8.11 revision. Other issues, such as the need for an appeal process, are under consideration by the staff. The significant changes included in the revised MD 8.11 are as follows: 1. The informal public hearing process has been replaced with a simpler and more interactive staff-petitioner-licensee meeting, similar in format to staff-license meetings. 2. Petitioners are offered an opportunity to make a presentation to the petition review board (PRB) for the purposes of explaining the requested actions and their bases and answering staff questions. 3. Periodic PRB meetings will be held, in addition to the initial meeting, to provide additional management oversight, if appropriate