[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 212 (Thursday, November 3, 2022)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 66228]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-23737]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Chapter I

[NRC-2022-0039]


Dedication of Commercial-Grade Digital Instrumentation and 
Control Items for Use in Nuclear Power Plants

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Regulatory guide; issuance.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a new 
Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.250, ``Dedication of Commercial-Grade Digital 
Instrumentation and Control Items for Use in Nuclear Power Plants.'' RG 
1.250 provides guidance that the staff of the NRC considers acceptable 
to meet, in part, regulatory requirements for the dedication of 
commercial-grade digital instrumentation and control items (I&C) for 
use in nuclear power plant safety applications.

DATES: RG 1.250 is available on November 3, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2022-0039 when contacting the 
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You 
may obtain publicly available information related to this document 
using any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2022-0039. Address 
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; 
telephone: 301-415-0624; email: [email protected]. For technical 
questions, contact the individuals listed in the For Further 
Information Contact section of this document.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may obtain 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 (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or 
by email to [email protected]. The ADAMS accession number for each 
document referenced (if it is available in ADAMS) is provided the first 
time that it is mentioned in this document.
     NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public 
documents, by appointment, at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), 
Room P1 B35, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland 20852. To make an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an 
email to [email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, 
between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), Monday through 
Friday, except Federal holidays.
    RG 1.250 and the regulatory analysis may be found in ADAMS under 
Accession Nos. ML22153A408 and ML22003A181, respectively.
    Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and NRC approval is not 
required to reproduce them.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Eudy, Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research, telephone: 301-415-3104, email: 
[email protected] and Dinesh Taneja, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation, telephone: 301-415-0011, email: [email protected]. Both 
are staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Discussion

    The NRC is issuing a new 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.
    RG 1.250 was issued with a temporary identification of Draft 
Regulatory Guide, DG-1402 (ADAMS Accession No. ML22003A180).

II. Additional Information

    The NRC published a notice of the availability of DG-1402 in the 
Federal Register on March 18, 2022 (87 FR 15456) for a 30-day public 
comment period. The public comment period closed on April 18, 2022. 
Public comments on DG-1402 and the staff responses to the public 
comments are available under ADAMS under Accession No. ML22153A416.
    RG 1.250 endorses, with clarifications, Nuclear Energy Institute 
(NEI) 17-06, ``Guidance on Using IEC 61508 SIL Certification to Support 
the Acceptance of Commercial Grade Digital Equipment for Nuclear Safety 
Related Applications,'' Revision 1, issued December 2021 (ADAMS 
Accession No. ML21337A380).

III. Congressional Review Act

    This RG is a rule as defined in the Congressional Review Act (5 
U.S.C. 801-808). However, the Office of Management and Budget has not 
found it to be a major rule as defined in the Congressional Review Act.

IV. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality

    RG 1.250 describes a method that the NRC staff considers acceptable 
to implement regulatory requirements for dedication of commercial-grade 
I&C items as basic components. Issuance of this RG does not constitute 
backfitting as defined in Sec.  50.109 of title 10 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations (10 CFR) (the Backfit Rule); forward fitting as 
defined in Management Directive (MD) 8.4, ``Management of Backfitting, 
Forward Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information Requests;'' and does 
not affect the issue finality of any approval under 10 CFR part 52. As 
discussed in the ``Implementation'' section of this RG, the NRC has no 
intention to impose this RG as a new requirement.

V. Submitting Suggestions for Improvement of Regulatory Guides

    A member of the public may, at any time, submit suggestions to the 
NRC for improvement of existing RGs or for the development of new RGs. 
Suggestions can be submitted on the NRC's public website at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/reg-guides/contactus.html. 
Suggestions will be considered in future updates and enhancements to 
the ``Regulatory Guide'' series.

    Dated: October 27, 2022.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Meraj Rahimi,
Chief, Regulatory Guide and Programs Management Branch, Division of 
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2022-23737 Filed 11-2-22; 8:45 am]
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