The nuclear industry has submitted, and will continue to submit, a number of digital I&C technical and topical reports for NRC review and approval in preparation for future applications for standard design certifications, combined operating licenses, and/or upgrades to the current operating nuclear facilities. The NRC staff is actively interacting with individual applicants and is promoting dialogues on the technical and topical reports.

Update of Guidance Documents

The NRC has been working to expeditiously revise and update various digital I&C regulatory documents such as regulatory guides and Standard Review Plan (SRP) NUREG-0800.

Regulatory guides provide guidance to licensees, applicants, and stakeholders on the implementation of specific parts of NRC regulations, NRC staff review techniques, data needed for reviews by the NRC staff, and the preferred standard format and content for information submitted for NRC approval. The SRPs furnish guidance to the NRC staff for reviewing licensee applications.

Interface with Other Agencies and the International Community

The NRC has been interacting, and plans to interact, with other Federal agencies (such as the Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to share operating experience and lessons learned.

The NRC staff is actively interacting with other countries, their agencies, and international partners to share operating experience, regulatory processes and practices, and information on current and future activities with respect to the deployment of digital I&C to nuclear facilities. For example, the NRC staff is working closely with countries such as Finland, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, France, and the United Kingdom on the subject.

In addition, the NRC continues to support the digital I&C and human-machine interface research that is being conducted at the OECD Halden Reactor Project. This work is aimed at addressing challenges that include the impact of rapidly changing technology, increasing complexity, new failure modes, system and human reliability metrics, new concepts of operation, and the need to update acceptance criteria and review procedures.