[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 158 (Friday, August 14, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49685-49687]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-17763]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2020-0171]


Setpoints for Safety-Related Instrumentation

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft regulatory guide; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-1363, ``Setpoints for 
Safety-Related Instrumentation.'' This DG is proposed Revision 4 of 
Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.105. The proposed revision describes an 
approach that is acceptable to the staff of the NRC to meet regulatory 
requirements ensuring that setpoints for safety related instrumentation 
are established and maintained within the technical specification 
limits. This proposed guide has been revised to incorporate additional 
information regarding American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/
International Society of Automation (ISA) Standard 67.04.01-2018, 
``Setpoints for Nuclear Safety Related Instrumentation,'' since 
revision 3 of RG 1.105 was issued.

DATES: Submit comments by September 14, 2020. Comments received after 
this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC 
is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before 
this date. This public review and comment period is 30 days in 
duration, although the public review and comment period for draft RGs 
is usually 60 days. The shortened comment period is provided because 
the NRC has previously interacted with stakeholders on related industry 
and NRC guidance and the proposed revision endorses ANSI/ISA 67.04.01-
2018 without any exceptions or clarifications. As a result, the NRC 
does not anticipate significant public comment. Although a time limit 
is given, comments and suggestions in connection with items for 
inclusion in guides currently being developed or improvements in all 
published guides are encouraged at any time.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:

[[Page 49686]]

     Federal Rulemaking website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2020-0171. Address 
questions about NRC docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Jennifer Borges; 
telephone: 301-287-9221; email: [email protected]. For technical 
questions, contact the individuals listed in the FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.
     Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop: 
TWFN-7A06, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001. ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.
    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: Dawnmathews Kalathiveettil, Office of 
Nuclear Reactor Regulation, telephone: 301-415-5905, email: 
[email protected], and Michael Eudy, Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research, telephone: 301-415-3104, email: 
[email protected]. Both are staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2020-0171 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 https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2020-0171.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may access publicly-available documents online in the 
ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS 
Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public 
Document Room reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by 
email to [email protected]. DG-1363 is available in ADAMS under 
Accession No. ML20055G823 and the regulatory analysis for DG-1363 is 
available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML20055G824.

B. Submitting Comments

    Please include Docket ID NRC-2020-0171 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. Additional Information

    The NRC is issuing for public comment a draft guide in the NRC's 
``Regulatory Guide'' series. This series was developed to describe 
methods that are acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific 
parts of the agency's regulations, to explain techniques that the staff 
uses in evaluating specific issues or postulated events, and to 
describe information that the staff needs in its review of applications 
for permits and licenses.
    The DG, titled ``Setpoints for Safety-Related Instrumentation,'' is 
temporarily identified by its task number, DG-1363 (ADAMS Accession No. 
ML20055G823). The draft guide is proposed Revision 4 of Regulatory 
Guide 1.105. This revision of the guide (Revision 4) endorses ANSI/ISA 
Standard 67.04.01-2018 as a method acceptable to the NRC staff for 
satisfying the NRC's regulations for ensuring that: (a) Setpoints for 
safety-related instrumentation are established to protect plant safety 
and analytical limits, and (b) the maintenance of instrument channels 
implementing these setpoints ensures they are functioning as required, 
consistent with the plant technical specifications. This DG applies to 
licensees and applicants subject to part 50 of title 10 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Domestic Licensing of Production and 
Utilization Facilities,'' and 10 CFR part 52, ``Licenses, 
Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants.''
    The previous revision (Revision 3) of this RG endorsed ISA S67.04-
1994, ``Setpoints for Nuclear Safety-Related Instrumentation,'' with 
several clarifications and exceptions. In July 2014, the NRC staff 
issued DG-1141, ``Setpoints for Safety Related Instrumentation'' (ADAMS 
Accession No. ML081630179), for public comment (79 FR 40163). This DG 
evaluated the 2006 revision of the standard ANSI/ISA 67.04.01, 
``Setpoints for Safety-Related Instrumentation.'' DG-1141 described 
several concerns with the 2006 revision of the standard. These concerns 
included the need for additional definitions, analytical limit 
avoidance probability, use of the technical specification allowable 
value as a metric for determining instrument channel functionality and 
operability, and what to consider as an appropriate statistical 
confidence level. The ANSI/ISA S67.04 Standards Committee addressed 
these NRC staff concerns, as well as comments provided by industry 
stakeholders, and issued a revision to the ANSI/ISA standard in 
December 2018. The NRC staff elected not to finalize DG-1141 as a 
revision to RG 1.105 and chose instead to evaluate the 2018 ANSI/ISA 
standard revision for endorsement and issue DG-1363 as a replacement 
for DG-1141. The staff notes that DG-1363 considers and addresses 
technical issues and public comments related to the issuance of DG-
1141.
    The staff is also issuing for public comment a draft regulatory 
analysis (ADAMS Accession No. ML20055G824). The staff develops a 
regulatory analysis to assess the value of issuing or revising a 
regulatory guide as well as alternative courses of action.

III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality

    DG-1363, if finalized, would endorse ANSI/ISA Standard 67.04.01-
2018. Issuance of DG-1363, if finalized, would not constitute 
backfitting as defined in 10 CFR 50.109, ``Backfitting,'' and as 
described in NRC Management Directive (MD) 8.4, ``Management of 
Backfitting, Forward Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information 
Requests''; constitute forward fitting as that term is defined and 
described in MD 8.4; or affect the issue finality of any approval 
issued under 10 CFR part 52. As explained in DG-1363, applicants and 
licensees would not be required to comply with the positions set forth 
in DG-1363.

    Dated: August 10, 2020.


[[Page 49687]]


    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Meraj Rahimi,
Acting Chief, Regulatory Guidance and Generic Issues Branch, Division 
of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2020-17763 Filed 8-13-20; 8:45 am]
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