2022-22300. Guide for Assessing, Monitoring, and Mitigating Aging Effects on Electrical Equipment Used in Production and Utilization Facilities

AGENCY:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Regulatory guide; issuance.

SUMMARY:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a new Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.248, “Guide for Assessing, Monitoring, and Mitigating Aging Effects on Electrical Equipment Used in Production and Utilization Facilities.” This RG describes an approach that is acceptable to the staff of the NRC to meet regulatory requirements for managing, monitoring, and mitigating the aging effects on electrical equipment. It endorses Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard (Std.) 1205 2014, “IEEE Guide for Assessing, Monitoring, and Mitigating Aging Effects on Electrical Equipment Used in Nuclear Power Generating Stations and Other Nuclear Facilities.”

DATES:

Revision 0 to RG 1.248 is available on October 14, 2022.

ADDRESSES:

Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2021-0231 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-2021-0231. Address questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; telephone: [phone]; email: [e-mail]. 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 [e-mail]. 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 [e-mail] 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 1.248 and the regulatory analysis may be found in ADAMS under Accession Nos. ML22221A220 and ML21288A112, respectively.

Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and NRC approval is not required to reproduce them.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Michael Eudy, telephone: [phone], email: [e-mail] and Mohammad Sadollah, telephone: [phone], email: [e-mail]. Both are staff of the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research at 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 1.248 was issued with a temporary identification of Draft Regulatory Guide, DG-1393.

II. Additional Information

The NRC published a notice of the availability of DG-1393 in the Federal Register on February 3, 2022 (87 FR 6204) for a 30-day public comment period. The public comment period closed on March 7, 2022. Public comments on DG-1393 and the staff responses to the public comments are available under ADAMS under Accession No. ML22221A222.

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

The NRC staff may use this RG as a reference in its regulatory processes, such as licensing, inspection, or enforcement, as appropriate. However, the NRC staff does not intend to use the guidance in this RG to support NRC staff actions in a manner that would constitute backfitting as that term is defined in section 50.109 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), “Backfitting,” and as described in NRC Management Directive 8.4, “Management of Backfitting, Forward Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information Requests,” nor does the NRC staff intend to use the guidance to affect the issue finality of an approval under 10 CFR part 52, “Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants. The staff also does not intend to use the guidance to support NRC staff actions in a manner that constitutes forward fitting as that term is defined and described in MD 8.4. If a licensee believes that the NRC is using this RG in a manner inconsistent with the discussion in this Implementation section, then the licensee may file a backfitting or forward fitting appeal with the NRC in accordance with the process in MD 8.4.

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 7, 2022.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Meraj Rahimi,

Chief, Regulatory Guide and Programs Management Branch, Division of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.