[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]
[[Page 36006]]
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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]
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