[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 147 (Wednesday, August 2, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36006-36007]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-16233]



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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2017-0168]


Draft Test Plan High Energy Arcing Faults Phase 2

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, ``High Energy Arcing 
Faults (HEAFs) in Electrical Equipment Phase 2,'' 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.

DATES: Submit comments by September 1, 2017. 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:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2017-0168. 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: TWFN-8-D36M, 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: Nicholas Melly, Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-2392; email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2017-0168 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-2017-0168.
     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, ``High Energy Arcing Faults (HEAFs) in Electrical 
Equipment Phase 2,'' is available in ADAMS under Accession No. 
ML17201Q551.
     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-2017-0168 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 submissions into ADAMS.

II. Discussion

    The purpose of this test program is to better understand the fire 
risk presented by high energy arc fault phenomena and to characterize 
physical parameters such as the thermal conditions, pressure effects, 
and electrical conductive products of combustion created by HEAFs 
occurring primarily in electrical cabinets and bus ducts. The 
experimental data will be used by the NRC to determine the adequacy of 
existing HEAF zone of influences (ZOIs) damage models and support 
revisions to those methods if necessary. Additionally, phase 2 of 
testing will focus on the HEAFs involving aluminum components as it 
pertains to both increased physical damage states and potential product 
of combustion electrical conductivity concerns. This research is also 
being proposed as an international nuclear safety research project.
    Currently, there are two available methods to model HEAF damage. 
Electrical enclosure guidance is contained in NUREG/CR-6850 (EPRI 
1011989), ``EPRI/NRC-RES Fire PRA Methodology for Nuclear Power 
Facilities Volume 2: Detailed Methodology,'' Appendix M (ADAMS 
Accession No. ML15167A411). This model is limited because it was 
largely derived from empirical evidence from one single well-documented 
HEAF event that occurred at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, 
Unit 3, on February 3, 2001. A second method that focuses on damage 
involving bus duct HEAF events can be found in NUREG/CR-6850 (EPRI 
1019259) Supplement 1, ``Fire Probabilistic Risk Assessment Methods 
Enhancements'', Section 7 ``Bus Duct (Counting) Guidance for High-
Energy Arcing Faults (FAQ 07-0035)'' (ADAMS Accession No. ML15167A550).
    Both methods employ a ``one size fits all'' ZOI methodology that 
prescribes a damage zone around an initiating component. These ZOIs 
prescribe damage to potentially vulnerable electrical or 
electromechanical components nearby such as cables, transformers, 
ventilation fans, other cabinets, etc. The international Organization 
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/Nuclear Energy Agency 
(NEA) experimental HEAF Project was created in an attempt to take an 
exploratory scientific approach to better understand the HEAF phenomena 
and produce data that could be used to better inform fire modeling 
techniques for postulating a realistic damage range of HEAF scenarios. 
The report can be downloaded here: https://www.oecd-nea.org/nsd/docs/2017/csni-r2017-7.pdf.
    This draft test plan describes the NRC's next phase of testing 
necessary to better understand the HEAF phenomena and to characterize 
the damage involving thermal conditions, pressure effects, and 
electrically conductive deposits on nearby surfaces created by HEAFs 
occurring in electrical cabinets and bus ducts. The results of this 
program will provide qualitative information on the impact of HEAFs on

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typical fire probabilistic risk assessment targets such as electrical 
cable and nearby equipment. The experimental data will be used by the 
NRC to determine the adequacy of existing HEAF ZOIs presented in NUREG/
CR-6850, Appendix M and Supplement 1 and to adjust existing methodology 
as necessary. The phase 2 testing will also focus on the HEAF involving 
aluminum components as it pertains to both increased physical damage 
states and electrical conductive products of combustion concerns. This 
test program is also being proposed internationally through the OECD 
and the NEA as a collaborative international nuclear safety research 
program.
    This document is not intended for interim use. The NRC will review 
public comments received on the document, incorporate suggested changes 
as appropriate, and make the final test plan available. Consistent with 
past experimental programs, the final test plan will be considered a 
living document.
    Changes to the final test plan can, and likely will be made during 
the testing phase as insights and observations from the testing develop 
that would suggest changes are necessary to ensure valuable data from 
experiments is being obtained.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 27th day of July, 2017.

    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. 2017-16233 Filed 8-1-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P