[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 34 (Tuesday, February 20, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7239-7241]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-03340]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2018-0028]


Draft Flood Penetration Seal Performance at Nuclear Power Plants; 
Literature Review (Task 1.1) and Test Methodology (Task 1.2)

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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ACTION: Draft literature review and test methodology; request for 
comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting 
public comment on Task 1.1 and Task 1.2 of the project entitled, 
``Flood Penetration Seal Performance at Nuclear Power Plants,'' 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 March 22, 2018. 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 website: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2018-0028. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Jennifer Borges; telephone: 301-287-
9127; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact 
the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of 
this document.
     Mail comments to: May Ma, Office of Administration, Mail 
Stop: TWFN-7-A60M, 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: Thomas Aird, Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-2442; email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2018-0028 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 website: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2018-0028.
     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 Task 1.1, ``Flood Penetration Seal Assemblies at Operating 
Nuclear Power Plants,'' is available in ADAMS under Accession No. 
ML18043B094. The draft Task 1.2, ``Draft Methodology for Testing Flood 
Penetration Seals,'' is available in ADAMS under Accession No. 
ML18043B093.
     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-2018-0028 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 objective of this research project is to characterize flood 
penetration seals currently installed at nuclear power plants (NPPs) 
and to develop a draft test methodology that evaluates the 
effectiveness and performance of flood penetration seals in their 
installed configurations. This work will support NRC staff's 
development and implementation of interim staff guidance on estimating 
the flooding potential of installed penetration seals and the amount of 
water flow through them. It will provide additional support to site-
specific reviews of licensee flood hazard and mitigation strategy 
submittals.
    There is currently no nationally recognized testing standard to 
evaluate the performance of penetration seals to prevent or limit 
flooding. This penetration seal flood test methodology is intended to 
support the evaluation of the flood mitigation performance of 
penetration seals that are installed to protect openings in barriers 
(walls/floors) that have been otherwise credited as having a flood 
resistance rating in support of a flood mitigation program at NPPs. In 
addition, a limited series of flood tests are to be conducted to assess 
the effectiveness and viability of the developed testing methodology.
    Task 1 of this research project consists of two sub-tasks: Task 1.1 
(ADAMS Accession No. ML18043B094) and Task 1.2 (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML18043B093). The first sub-task, Task 1.1, is a literature review of 
the various seal materials used for flood seal penetrations at NPPs. 
This summary includes information regarding the size and shape of 
typical penetrations, the types of substrate medium, and the 
configurations of the penetrations to permit various piping through the 
penetrations. The primary source for much this literature review was 
that which is publically available through ADAMS. Additional sources 
included plant engineering documents provided to the NRC, Licensee 
Event Reports (LERs), fire tests, information available from vendors, 
and other NRC generated documents such as NUREGs, Information Notices 
(INs), and Inspection Reports.
    The second sub-task, Task 1.2, is a draft test methodology proposed 
for testing the effectiveness and performance of flood seal 
penetrations. Included within this draft test methodology is the 
proposed documentation of the testing procedures which itself includes 
the scope of the test, referenced documents, definition of 
terminologies, the significance and use of the test procedures, the 
specimens and test equipment, and the conduct of the test. The overall 
intent of this draft methodology and subsequent testing (Task 2) is to 
provide background research and knowledge for the NRC staff or industry 
that could be used to support the evaluation of the flood mitigation 
performance of penetration seals. This test methodology may also be 
used as a starting point or framework for the future development of an 
industry consensus standard.
    The objective of Task 2 of this project will be to test the 
effectiveness and adaptability of the draft test methodology with a 
limited series of

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flood tests. These flood tests will be conducted on a variety of 
candidate seal assemblies identified in Task 1.1. A technical letter 
report describing the testing and the test results will be the 
deliverable for Task 2. Upon the completion of the work in Tasks 1 and 
2, a draft final report detailing the research conducted in Task 1 and 
2 will be prepared. This final report is expected to be published as a 
NUREG document.
    This document is not intended for interim use. The NRC will review 
public comments received on the document, and incorporate suggested 
changes as appropriate. Consistent with past experimental programs, the 
final test methodology will be considered a living document.
    Changes to the final test methodology 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 quality data 
from experiments is being obtained.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 13th day of February, 2018.

    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. 2018-03340 Filed 2-16-18; 8:45 am]
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