Spotlight
Fire Protection Program for Operating Reactors
The NRC's fire protection regulations, inspections, and research activities focus on:
Prevention |
Suppression
Rapidly detecting, controlling and extinguishing fires that do occur |
Safe Shutdown
Ensuring operators can shut down the reactor safely despite a fire |
The NRC requires a robust fire protection program at every commercial nuclear power plant in the United States to ensure the reactor facilities operate safely. Plants can choose between two approaches for managing their fire safety: deterministic fire protection or risk-informed, performance-based fire protection. These approaches apply the concept of defense-in-depth to meet fire protection objectives. The image below depicts several of the fire protection requirements currently in place.
For further information related to NRC's fire protection activities, see the following pages:
- Fire History and Events
- Fire Protection Fact Sheet
- Brown's Ferry Fire
- Related Information about Fire Protection
- Fire Protection Exemption Database
- GAO Report
- Fire Protection Video
- Fire Protection Program for Operating Reactors Brochure (NUREG/BR-0522)
Page Last Reviewed/Updated Monday, December 19, 2016