[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 234 (Wednesday, December 7, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72862-72863]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-6981]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION


Regulatory Guide: Issuance, Availability

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued a new guide 
in the agency's Regulatory Guide Series. This series has been developed 
to describe and make available to the public such information as 
methods that are acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific 
parts of the NRC's regulations, techniques that the staff uses in 
evaluating specific problems or postulated accidents, and data that the 
staff needs in its review of applications for permits and licenses.
    Regulatory Guide 1.204, ``Guidelines for Lightning Protection of 
Nuclear Power Plants,'' provides guidance for NRC licensees and 
applicants to use in developing and implementing practices that the 
staff finds acceptable for complying with the agency's regulatory 
requirements in Criterion 2, ``Design Bases for Protection Against 
Natural Phenomena,'' as it appears in Appendix A, ``General Design 
Criteria for Nuclear Power Plants,'' to Title 10, part 50, of the Code 
of Federal Regulations (10 CFR part 50). Specifically, Criterion 2 
requires, in part, that nuclear power plant (NPP) structures, systems, 
and components (SSCs) that are important to safety must be designed to 
withstand the effects of natural phenomena without losing their 
capability to perform their respective safety functions.
    While the regulations address lightning protection for safety-
related electrical equipment, they do not explicitly provide guidance 
concerning the design and installation of lightning protection systems 
(LPSs) to ensure that electrical transients resulting from lightning 
phenomena do not cause spurious operation safety-related systems or 
render them inoperable. Toward that end, Regulatory Guide 1.204 
augments the regulations by establishing explicit guidance that is 
consistent with LPS design and installation practices that are 
currently applied throughout the commercial power industry.
    The scope of the guidance includes protection of (1) the power 
plant and relevant ancillary facilities, with the boundary beginning at 
the service entrance of buildings; (2) the plant switchyard; (3) the 
electrical distribution system, safety-related instrumentation and 
control (I&C) systems, communications, and personnel within the power 
plant; and (4) other important equipment in remote ancillary facilities 
that could impact safety. The scope includes signal lines, 
communication lines, and power lines, as well as testing and 
maintenance. The scope does not cover testing and design practices that 
are specifically intended to protect safety-related I&C systems against 
the secondary effects of lightning discharges [i.e., low-level power 
surges and electromagnetic and radio-frequency interference (EMI/RFI)]. 
These practices are covered in Regulatory Guide 1.180, ``Guidelines for 
Evaluating Electromagnetic and Radio-Frequency Interference in Safety-
Related Instrumentation and Control Systems.'' Regulatory Guide 1.180, 
which the NRC issued in January 2000 and revised in October 2003, 
addresses design, installation, and testing practices for dealing with 
the effects of EMI/RFI and power surges on safety-related I&C systems.
    In Regulatory Guide 1.204, the NRC staff has selected for 
endorsement a total of four standards issued by the Institute of 
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which taken together, 
provide comprehensive lightning protection guidance for nuclear power 
plants. Specifically, the four standards are IEEE Std. 665-1995 
(reaffirmed 2001), IEEE Guide for Generating Station Grounding, IEEE 
Std. 666-1991 (reaffirmed 1996), IEEE Design Guide for Electrical Power 
Service Systems for Generating Stations, IEEE Std. 1050-1996, IEEE 
Guide for Instrumentation and Control Equipment Grounding in Generating 
Stations, and IEEE Std. C62.23-1995 (reaffirmed 2001), IEEE Application 
Guide for Surge Protection of Electric Generating Plants.
    In February 2005, the NRC staff published a draft of this guide as 
Draft Regulatory Guide DG-1137. Following the closure of the public 
comment period on April 20, 2005, the staff resolved all stakeholder 
comments in the course of preparing the new Regulatory Guide 1.204.
    The NRC staff encourages and welcomes comments and suggestions in 
connection with improvements to published regulatory guides, as well as 
items for inclusion in regulatory guides that are currently being 
developed. You may submit comments by any of the following methods.
    Mail comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of 
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001.
    Hand-deliver comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of 
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 11555 Rockville 
Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on 
Federal workdays.
    Fax comments to: Rules and Directives Branch, Office of 
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, at (301) 415-5144.
    Requests for technical information about Regulatory Guide 1.204 may 
be directed to Christina E. Antonescu at (301) 415-6792 or via e-mail 
to [email protected].
    Regulatory guides are available for inspection or downloading 
through the NRC's public Web site in the Regulatory

[[Page 72863]]

Guides document collection of the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections. Electronic copies of 
Regulatory Guide 1.204 are also available in the NRC's Agencywide 
Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html, under Accession No. ML052290422.
    In addition, regulatory guides are available for inspection at the 
NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), which is located at 11555 Rockville 
Pike, Rockville, Maryland; the PDR's mailing address is USNRC PDR, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001. The PDR can also be reached by telephone at 
(301) 415-4737 or (800) 397-4205, by fax at (301) 415-3548, and by e-
mail to [email protected]. Requests for single copies of draft or final 
guides (which may be reproduced) or for placement on an automatic 
distribution list for single copies of future draft guides in specific 
divisions should be made in writing to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Reproduction and 
Distribution Services Section; by e-mail to [email protected]; or by 
fax to (301) 415-2289. Telephone requests cannot be accommodated.
    Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and Commission approval is 
not required to reproduce them.

(Authority: (5 U.S.C. 552(a)).

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 30th day of November, 2005.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Carl J. Paperiello,
Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
 [FR Doc. E5-6981 Filed 12-6-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P