[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 150 (Thursday, August 7, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38186-38187]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-14951]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2025-0080]
Draft Regulatory Guide: Qualification of Safety-Related Cables
and Field Splices for Production and Utilization Facilities
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Draft guide; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for
public comment a draft Regulatory Guide (DG), DG-1442, ``Qualification
of Safety-Related Cables and Field Splices for Production and
Utilization Facilities.'' This DG is proposed Revision 1 of Regulatory
Guide (RG) 1.211 of the same name. The proposed revision describes an
approach that is acceptable to the staff of the NRC to meet regulatory
requirements for the environmental qualification of safety related
cables and field splices in production and utilization facilities. It
endorses, subject to the conditions described in Section C of the DG,
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Standard (Std.)
383-2023, ``IEEE Standard for Qualifying Electric Cables and Splices
for Nuclear Facilities.''
DATES: Submit comments by September 8, 2025. 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.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods;
however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the
Federal rulemaking website.
Federal rulemaking website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2025-0080. Address
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Bridget Curran;
telephone: 301-415-1003; email: [email protected]. For technical
questions, contact the individual(s) listed in the For Further
Information Contact section of this document.
Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop:
TWFN-7-A60M, 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: Edmund Kleeh, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation, telephone: 301-415-2964; email:
[email protected] and Vance Petrella, Office of Nuclear Regulatory
Research, telephone: 301-415-1048; 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-2025-0080 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-2025-0080.
[[Page 38187]]
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, at 301-415-4737,
or by email to [email protected]. The DG ``Qualification of Safety-
Related Cables and Field Splices for Production and Utilization
Facilities'' is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML24358A029.
NRC's PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies
of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. 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
a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (ET), Monday through Friday, except
Federal holidays.
B. Submitting Comments
The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the
Federal rulemaking website (https://www.regulations.gov). Please
include Docket ID NRC-2025-0080 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
https://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 DG 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, entitled ``Qualification of Safety-Related Cables and Field
Splices for Production and Utilization Facilities,'' is temporarily
identified by its task number, DG-1442.
The DG is proposed Revision 1 of RG 1.211 of the same name. The
proposed revision endorses, subject to the conditions described in
Section C of this DG, IEEE Std. 383-2023 and applies to production and
utilization facilities licensed under parts 50 and 52 of title 10 of
the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) within the scope of this RG.
The previous version of this DG endorsed, with certain clarifications,
IEEE Std. 383-2003. In 2023, the IEEE revised IEEE Std. 383 to provide
greater guidance for cable and splice qualification and to clarify the
existing principles of qualification provided by International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)/IEEE Std. 60780-323-2016, ``Nuclear
facilities--Electrical equipment important to safety--Qualification,''
Edition 1.
The staff is also issuing for public comment a draft regulatory
analysis (ADAMS Accession No. ML24358A030). The staff developed a
regulatory analysis to assess the value of issuing or revising a RG as
well as alternative courses of action.
III. Backfitting, Forward Fitting, and Issue Finality
Licensees generally are not required to comply with the guidance in
this proposed RG. If the NRC proposes to use this RG in an action that
would constitute backfitting, as that term is 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''; affect the issue finality of an approval issued
under 10 CFR part 52, ``Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for
Nuclear Power Plants''; or constitute forward fitting, as that term is
defined in MD 8.4, then the NRC staff will apply the applicable policy
in MD 8.4 to justify the action. If a licensee believes that the NRC is
using this DG in a manner inconsistent with the discussion in this
Implementation section, then the licensee may inform the NRC staff in
accordance with MD 8.4.
IV. 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.
V. Executive Order (E.O.) 12866
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs determined that
this draft DG is not a significant regulatory action under E.O. 12866.
Dated: August 4, 2025.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Meraj Rahimi,
Chief, Regulatory Guide and Programs Management Branch, Division of
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2025-14951 Filed 8-6-25; 8:45 am]
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