[Federal Register: July 22, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 141)]
[Notices]
[Page 42627-42628]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr22jy08-88]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Draft Regulatory Guide: Issuance, Availability
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of Issuance and Availability of Draft Regulatory Guide
(DG)-1149.
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Satish Aggarwal, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-
6005 or to e-mail Satish.Aggarwal@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued for public
comment a draft guide in the agency's ``Regulatory Guide'' series. This
series was developed to describe and make available to the public such
information as methods that are acceptable to the NRC staff for
implementing specific parts of the NRC's regulations, techniques that
the staff uses in evaluating specific problems or postulated accidents,
and data that the staff needs in its review of applications for permits
and licenses.
The draft regulatory guide, entitled, ``Qualification of Safety-
Related Motor
[[Page 42628]]
Centers for Nuclear Power Plants,'' is temporarily identified by its
task number, DG-1149, which should be mentioned in all related
correspondence.
This regulatory guide describes a method that the staff of the NRC
deems acceptable for complying with the Commission's regulations for
the qualification of safety-related motor control centers for nuclear
power plants.
IEEE Std. 649-2006, ``IEEE Standard for Qualifying Class 1E Motor
Control Centers for Nuclear Power Generating Stations,'' published on
December 29, 2006, was developed by the Working Group on Motor Control
Centers (SC 2.14) of the Nuclear Power Engineering Committee of the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and was
approved by the IEEE-SA Standards Board on September 15, 2006. The
standard provides basic principles, requirements, and methods for
qualifying safety-related motor control centers for both harsh and mild
environment applications in nuclear power plants. The demonstration
that an installed motor control center will meet its design
specification requires many steps: A program of quality assurance,
design, qualification, production quality control, installation,
maintenance, periodic testing, and surveillance. However, the scope of
IEEE Std. 649-2006 is limited to qualification.
The purpose of qualification is to provide assurance that the motor
control center is capable of performing its required safety functions
with no failure mechanisms that could lead to common mode failures
under the postulated conditions specified in the equipment
specification.
Clause 9.5 of IEEE Std 649-2006 references IEEE Std 344-2004,
``Recommended Practice for Seismic Qualification of Class 1E Equipment
for Nuclear Power Generating Stations,'' and provides additional
guidance for seismic qualification of motor control centers. The vast
majority of seismic qualification tests on motor control centers were
performed with input frequencies up to only 33 Hz. Attempts to utilize
such past test experience data for seismic qualification of motor
control centers is not considered appropriate. Recent studies related
to the early site permit applications at certain east coast hard rock-
based plants indicated that the site-specific spectra may exceed the
certified design spectra of new proposed plants in the very high
frequency range (from 20 Hz up to 100 Hz). Plants located in the
Central and Eastern United States on hard-rock should evaluate whether
motor control center's components (such as digital components) could be
affected by the high frequency earthquake ground motion.
These objectives should be accomplished using qualification methods
(type testing, operating experience, analysis as a supplement to type
testing and operating experience, ongoing qualification, or any
combination thereof). However, the preferred method of qualification is
type testing.
II. Further Information
The NRC staff is soliciting comments on DG-1149. Comments may be
accompanied by relevant information or supporting data, and should
mention DG-1149 in the subject line. Comments submitted in writing or
in electronic form will be made available to the public in their
entirety through the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management
System (ADAMS). Personal information will not be removed from your
comments. You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
1. Mail comments to: Rulemaking, Directives, and Editing Branch,
Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001.
2. E-mail comments to: NRCREP@nrc.gov.
3. Hand-deliver comments to: Rulemaking, Directives, and Editing
Branch, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, between 7:30 a.m. and
4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays.
4. Fax comments to: Rulemaking, Directives, and Editing Branch,
Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at (301)
415-5144.
Requests for technical information about DG-1149 may be directed to
the NRC Senior Program Manager, Satish Aggarwal at (301) 415-6005 or e-
mail to Satish.Aggarwal@nrc.gov.
Comments would be most helpful if received by September 19, 2008.
Comments received after that 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. Although a time limit is given,
comments and suggestions in connection with items for inclusion in
guides currently being developed or improvements in all published
guides are encouraged at any time.
Electronic copies of DG-1149 are available through the NRC's public
Web site under Draft Regulatory Guides in the ``Regulatory Guides''
collection of the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/
reading-rm/doc-collections/. Electronic copies are also available in
ADAMS (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html), under Accession No.
ML072760149.
In addition, regulatory guides are available for inspection at the
NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), which is located at 11555 Rockville
Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The PDR's mailing address is USNRC PDR,
Washington, DC 20555-0001. The PDR can also be reached by telephone at
(301) 415-4737 or (800) 397-4209, by fax at (301) 415-3548, and by e-
mail to PDR@nrc.gov.
Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, and Commission approval is
not required to reproduce them.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 16th day of July, 2008.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Harriet Karagiannis,
Acting Chief, Regulatory Guide Development Branch, Division of
Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. E8-16729 Filed 7-21-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P