[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 152 (Tuesday, August 7, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38731-38732]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-16810]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2018-0056]
Digital Instrumentation and Controls-Interim Staff Guidance-06,
``Licensing Process''
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft interim staff guidance; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is soliciting
public comment on its draft Interim Staff Guidance (ISG) Digital
Instrumentation and Controls (DI&C)-ISG-06, ``Licensing Process.'' This
ISG defines the licensing process used to support the review of license
amendment requests (LARs) associated with safety-related DI&C equipment
modifications in operating plants and in new plants once they become
operational. This ISG provides guidance for activities performed before
an LAR is submitted and for activities performed during the LAR review.
The NRC staff uses the process described in this ISG to evaluate
compliance with NRC regulations.
DATES: Submit comments by September 6, 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
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-2018-0056. 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: Joseph Golla, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-1002, email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2018-0056 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-2018-0056.
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 ISG DI&C-ISG-06 ``Licensing Process,'' is available in ADAMS
under Accession No. ML18123A118.
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-2018-0056 in 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 will post all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as enter 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. Background
This ISG provides guidance for the NRC staff's review of LARs
supporting installation of digital I&C equipment in accordance with
licensing processes defined in NRC office instruction LIC-101,
``License Amendment Review Procedures.'' This ISG identifies
information the NRC staff should review for digital I&C equipment. This
ISG provides guidance on when that information should be reviewed.
This ISG is designed to be used with the NRC's topical report
review and approval process defined in NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation office instruction LIC-500, ``Topical Report Process.''
Where a licensee references an NRC-approved topical report, the NRC
staff should be able to, where
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appropriate, limit its review to assessing whether the application of
the digital I&C modification falls within the envelope of the topical
report approval. This ISG was developed based upon, and is designed to
work in concert with, established guidance. As a result, this ISG
references other guidance documents for review criteria.
The NRC staff performs evaluations of proposed digital I&C
equipment to ensure equipment will perform required functions. These
evaluations use the guidance in the Standard Review Plan, Chapter 7,
and other associated guidance. When a license amendment is required,
licensees are obligated to provide a description of the licensing basis
functions of digital I&C equipment and include a description of the
equipment that implements the functions. Additionally, licensees
identify those parts of the licensing basis being updated as a result
of the proposed change.
The NRC staff review processes include activities for evaluating
documentation of plans and processes which are used to support system
development activities and their outcomes.
The Standard Review Plan, Appendix 7.0-A, and Branch Technical
Position 7-14, guide the NRC staff in performing reviews of digital
systems in support of safety evaluations. For reviews using the
Alternate Process as defined in the ISG, the ISG provides additional
guidance for performing early stage reviews of digital safety-related
systems in support of safety evaluations. The NRC staff may review the
system design and development process to support a determination that
the design meets regulatory requirements and that in safety-related
applications in nuclear power plants, the process is of sufficient high
quality to produce systems and software suitable for use.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 1st day of August 2018.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Eric J. Benner,
Director, Division of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2018-16810 Filed 8-6-18; 8:45 am]
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