Termination of Section 274i Agreement Between the State of Louisiana and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is revising its regulations to remove the reference to an inspection agreement, referred to as the 274i Agreement, with the State of Louisiana. The inspection agreement entered into pursuant to section 274i of the Atomic Energy Act allowed the State of Louisiana to perform inspections or other functions in offshore waters adjacent to Louisiana on behalf of the NRC. This reference is located in the reciprocity regulations in 10 CFR 150.20. Under section 150.20(c), certain general licensees are not required to file with the NRC if the licensee provides timely notification of its offshore activities to the Agreement State that issued the specific license, and that State is listed in 150.20(d) as agreeing to perform inspections for NRC under a 274i agreement. Louisiana is the only Agreement State listed in the regulation. This action responds to a request from the Governor of Louisiana to terminate the agreement. The NRC agreed that the 274i inspection agreement is no longer needed and should be terminated. Therefore, the NRC is revising the regulations by deleting 150.20 (c) and (d) in their entirety. In the event NRC enters into a 274i inspection agreement with an Agreement State in the future, the provisions of 150.20(c) and (d), which were promulgated following notice and comment rulemaking, will be reinstated via direct final rulemaking.