2020 Renewal Final Supporting Statement 3150-0131 Form 536

FINAL SUPPORTING STATEMENT

FOR

NRC FORM 536, “OPERATOR LICENSING EXAMINATION DATA”

(3150-0131)

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EXTENSION

Description of the Information Collection

The NRC annually requests all commercial power reactor licensees and applicants for an operating license to voluntarily send to the NRC: (1) their projected number of candidates for operator licensing initial examinations, (2) the estimated dates of the examinations, and
(3) information on whether the examinations will be facility developed or NRC developed.  NRC uses an official form, NRC Form 536, for the voluntary reporting of this operator licensing examination data.

The information requested includes the facility identifying information, proposed examination preparation schedule, estimated number of licensees prepared, and NRC staff prepared examinations, initial number of operator license examinations by category and proposed dates.

A. JUSTIFICATION

1. Need for and Practical Utility of the Collection of Information

The Code of Federal Regulations, 10 CFR 50.54, requires that all manipulations of controls of any facility be performed only by a licensed reactor operator, licensed senior reactor operator or a trainee under the direct supervision of a licensed reactor operator or a licensed senior reactor operator. The licensing of reactor operators or senior reactor operators is performed by the NRC in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR Part 55. In order to meet the needs of the nuclear industry for licensed reactor operators and senior reactor operators, NRC requests all commercial power facilities to submit their projected (estimated) number of candidates for reactor operator and senior reactor operator examinations, the proposed date for examinations for the next calendar year and each of three successive calendar years.

2. Agency Use of Information

This information is used by the NRC to plan budgets and resources in regard to operator examination development and scheduling to meet the needs of the nuclear industry.

3. Reduction of Burden Through Information Technology

The NRC has issued Guidance for Electronic Submissions to the NRC which provides direction for the electronic transmission and submittal of documents to the NRC. Electronic transmission and submittal of documents can be accomplished via the following avenues: the Electronic Information Exchange (EIE) process, which is available from the NRC's “Electronic Submittals” Web page, by Optical Storage Media (OSM) (e.g. CD-ROM, DVD), by facsimile or by e-mail. It is estimated that approximately 50 percent of the responses are filed electronically.

4. Effort to Identify Duplication and Use Similar Information

No sources of similar information are available. There is no duplication of requirements.

5. Effort to Reduce Small Business Burden

The information collection affects only licensees of nuclear power plants. These licensees do not fall within the scope of the definition of “small entities” as given in the Regulatory Flexibility Act or the Small Business Size Standards in regulations issued by the Small Business Administration at 13 CFR Part 121.

6. Consequences to Federal Program or Policy Activities if the Collection is Not Conducted or is Conducted Less Frequently

This information must be collected and reviewed annually in order to accurately forecast examination needs.

7. Circumstances which Justify Variation from OMB Guidelines

This information collection does not vary from OMB guidelines.

8. Consultations Outside the NRC

Opportunity for public comment on the information collection requirements for this clearance package was published in the Federal Register on April 9, 2020 (85 FR 19965).  Additionally, NRC staff contacted nine stakeholders via email.  The stakeholders were operating reactor owner/operator licensee representatives from PSEG Nuclear, LLC, Exelon Generation Co., LLC, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co., NextEra Energy, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., Duke Energy Progress, LLC, DTE Electric Company and Talen Energy. The agency received three comments as a result of the FRN, each of the three comments received where out-of-scope of the request. No additional comments were received as a result of the FRN or the staff’s direct solicitation of comment.

9. Payment or Gift to Respondents

Not applicable.

10. Confidentiality of Information

Confidential and proprietary information is protected in accordance with NRC regulations at 10 CFR 9.17(a) and 10 CFR 2.390(b). However, no information normally considered confidential or proprietary is requested.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

This information collection does not involve sensitive or private information.

12. Estimated Annualized Industry Burden and Burden Hour Cost

Approximately 57 (based on possible decommissioning during this clearance cycle) licensed to operate facilities and 3 combined licensed facilities will voluntarily submit their projected (estimated) number of candidates for reactor operator and senior reactor operator examinations during this clearance period. It is estimated that each respondent will submit one NRC Form 536 annually for a potential total of 60 responses (1 x 60 = 60).  The estimated annual burden per facility is 0.75 hour (45 minutes) per request.  This is based on previous submittals of NRC Form 536 by licensees.  The total annual industry burden is estimated to be 45 hours (0.75 hour x 60 potential respondents). 

The estimated annual cost to the facilities to respond to the collection is $12,510.00 (0.75 hour x 60 potential respondents x $278/hour).

The $278 hourly rate used in the burden estimates is based on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s fee for hourly rates as noted in 10 CFR 170.20 “Average cost per professional staff-hour.”  For more information on the basis of this rate, see the Revision of Fee Schedules; Fee Recovery for Fiscal Year 2019 (84 FR 22331, May 17, 2019). 

13. Estimate of Other Additional Costs

There are no additional costs.

14. Estimated Annualized Cost to the Federal Government

The staff has developed estimates of annualized costs to the Federal Government related to the conduct of this collection of information. These

estimates are based on staff experience and subject matter expertise and include the burden needed to review, analyze, and process the collected information and any relevant operational expenses.

Approximately 0.75 hour per respondent is spent by NRC personnel. The information gathered by NRC Form 536 is reduced to a standardized format and then used for planning budgets and resources for NRC operator licensing functions. The estimated annual cost to the Federal government in connection with NRC Form 536 is $12,510 (.75 hour x 60 potential respondents x $278/hour).

15. Reasons for Change in Burden or Cost

The reduction in respondents from 100 to 60 is due in large part to the licensees submitting one form that will cover multiple units for each facility, which reduced the estimated burden of multiple submissions to one response per facility and not per unit.  The reduction is due to fewer operating facilities providing responses (due to facility shutdown and decommissioning). The cost burden increased because of the increase in fee rate from $265 to $278.

16. Publication for Statistical Use

This information is not published for statistical use.

17. Reasons for Not Displaying the Expiration Date

The expiration date is displayed.

18. Exceptions to the Certification Statement

None.

B. COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS

Statistical methods are not used in this information collection.