[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 221 (Wednesday, November 16, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 80688-80689]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-27721]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2016-0232]
Response of Nuclear Power Plant Instrumentation Cables When
Exposed to Fire Conditions--Test Plan
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft test plan; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting
public comment on the draft test plan entitled, ``Response of Nuclear
Power Plant Instrumentation Cables When Exposed to Fire Conditions--
Test Plan,'' in order to receive feedback from the widest range of
interested parties and to ensure that all information relevant to
developing this document is available to the NRC staff. The purpose of
this draft test plan is to better understand the fire-induced failure
modes of instrumentation cables and evaluate the potential effect those
failure modes could have on plant instrumentation circuits (i.e.,
circuit, component, and/or system response).
DATES: Submit comments by December 16, 2016. Comments received after
this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the
Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments received
on or before this date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods
(unless this document describes a different method for submitting
comments on a specific subject):
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2016-0232. Address
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact
the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of
this document.
Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration,
Mail Stop: OWFN-12-H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001.
For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gabriel Taylor, Office of Nuclear
Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-0781, email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2016-0232 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain
publicly-available information related to this action by any of the
following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2016-0232.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and
then select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.'' For problems with ADAMS,
please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at
1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to [email protected]. The
draft test plan, ``Response of Nuclear Power Plant Instrumentation
Cables When Exposed to Fire Conditions--Test Plan,'' is available in
ADAMS under Accession No. ML16309A608.
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
B. Submitting Comments
Please include Docket ID NRC-2016-0232 in the subject line of your
comment submission.
The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact
information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your
comment submission. The NRC posts all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as entering the comment submissions into
ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove
identifying or contact information.
If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons
for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to
include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be
publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should
state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to
remove such information before making the comment submissions available
to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.
II. Discussion
In 1990, the NRC sponsored a series of tests at Sandia National
Laboratories (SNL) to investigate the effects of thermal aging on fire
damageability, documented in NUREG/CR-5546, ``An Investigation of the
Effects of Thermal Aging on the Fire Damageability of Electric Cables''
(ADAMS Accession No. ML041270223). An instrumentation cable was tested
to determine the failure time and temperature for both aged and unaged
cables. During the testing, levels of leakage current, on the order of
15 mA, were observed prior to the onset of catastrophic failure. In
2001, additional testing was performed by the Nuclear Energy Institute
and the Electric Power Research Institute. The NRC was invited to
observe and participate by sponsoring SNL to evaluate various cables
and instrumentation techniques. Six tests included instrumentation
cables and those results are documented in NUREG/CR-6776, ``Cable
Insulation Resistance Measurements Made During Cable Fire Tests''
(ADAMS Accession No. ML022600316). Those results indicated pronounced
differences observed between the failure of the thermoplastic and
thermoset insulated cables. In previous years the NRC has published
cable functionality test reports which focused on power and control
cables when exposed to fire conditions including: NUREG/CR-7102,
``Kerite Analysis in Thermal Environment of FIRE (KATE-Fire): Test
Results'' (ADAMS Accession No.
[[Page 80689]]
ML11333A033), NUREG/CR-7010, Volume 1, ``Cable Heat Release, Ignition,
and Spread in Tray Installations During Fire (CHRISTIFIRE), Phase 1:
Horizontal Trays'' (ADAMS Accession No. ML12213A056), NUREG/CR-7010,
Volume 2, ``Cable Heat Release, Ignition, and Spread in Tray
Installations During Fire (CHRISTIFIRE), Phase 2: Vertical Shafts and
Corridors'' (ADAMS Accession No. ML13346A045), NUREG-2128, ``Electrical
Cable Test Results and Analysis During Fire Exposure (ELECTRA-FIRE), A
Consolidation of Three Major Fire-Induced Circuit and Cable Failure
Experiments Performed Between 2001 and 2011'' (ADAMS Accession No.
ML13253A087), NUREG/CR-7150, Volume 1, ``Joint Assessment of Cable
Damage and Quantification of Effects from Fire (JACQUE-FIRE)'' (ADAMS
Accession No. ML12313A105), NUREG/CR-7150, Volume 2, ``Joint Assessment
of Cable Damage and Quantification of Effects from Fire (JACQUE-FIRE)''
(ADAMS Accession No. ML14141A129).
The purpose of this draft test plan is to better understand the
fire-induced failure modes of instrumentation cables and evaluate the
potential effect those failure modes could have on plant
instrumentation circuits (i.e., circuit, component, and/or system
response). Specifically, this research is intended to better quantify
the signal leakage characteristics that may occur before catastrophic
failure in instrumentation circuits.
The NRC is requesting public comment in order to receive feedback
from the widest range of interested parties and to ensure that all
information relevant to developing this document is available to the
NRC staff. This document is not intended for interim use. The NRC will
review public comments received on the document, incorporate suggested
changes as necessary, and make the final test plan available.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 4th day of November, 2016.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Mark Henry Salley,
Chief, Fire and External Hazard Analysis Branch, Division of Risk
Analysis, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2016-27721 Filed 11-15-16; 8:45 am]
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