Digital Instrumentation and Controls-Interim Staff Guidance-06, “Licensing Process”

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Draft interim staff guidance; request for comment.

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: Jennifer.Borges@nrc.gov. 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: Joe.Golla@nrc.gov.

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 pdr.resource@nrc.gov. 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 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.