[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 86 (Monday, May 5, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Page 24516]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-11575]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION


Individual Plant Examination Database: User's Guide, Draft

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Availability of NUREG-1603, draft.

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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published a draft of 
``Individual Plant Examination Database: User's Guide. This user's 
guide provides guidance for formulating queries on the Individual Plant 
Examination (IPE) database. The IPE database stores information 
extracted from a review of the IPEs submitted to the agency in response 
to Generic Letter 88-20.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Draft NUREG-1603 is available for inspection and copying for a fee 
at the NRC Public Document Room, 2120 L Street, NW. (Lower Level), 
Washington, DC 20555-0001. A free single copy of Draft NUREG-1603, to 
the extent of supply, may be requested by writing to Distribution 
Series, Printing and Mail Services Branch, Office of Administration, 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
    It should be noted that the associated software to query the IPE 
database is not attached to the user's guide. However, the computer 
software is made available at NRC web site (www.nrc.gov) under the 
category, ``Nuclear Reactor.''
    The Individual Plant Examination (IPE) database stores structured 
information about plant designs, core damage frequency (CDF) and 
containment performance. It records the presence or absence of hardware 
in each design, characterizes its functional dependencies, and relates 
these features to the CDF and containment performance. The IPE database 
supports detailed inquiries into these characteristics for a specific 
plant or class of plants. In particular, the IPE database is designed 
to answer questions that enable interested parties to compare the CDF 
and containment performance of boiling- and pressurized- water reactors 
(BWRs and PWRs) as a function of their design features, on the basis of 
information found in the IPE submittals.
    It should be noted that the information in the IPE database has not 
been verified or validated. The database contains only information 
taken from the original IPEs submitted by the licensees and does not 
contain any changes to this information made because of updates to the 
licensees' IPEs.
    To query the IPE database, two programs have been developed. The 
first is a self-contained, user friendly, menu-driven program written 
in Microsoft's Visual Basic language. This program answers the ``basic 
queries'' most often asked about the IPEs, through a process of sorting 
records within the IPE database. Queries of this type can be improvised 
on the spot. Other ``advanced queries'' that all for calculations, 
linking of data files, and ranking or sorting on the basis of 
calculation can be performed using the programming language within such 
personal computer data management applications as dBase, Access, or 
Paradox. This IPE database user's guide provides guidance for 
formulating basic and advanced queries.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 28th day of April, 1997.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Mary T. Drouin,
Acting Chief, Probabilistic Risk Analysis Branch, Division of Systems 
Technology, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 97-11575 Filed 5-2-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-M