Proposed Revision to Standard Review Plan Branch Technical Position 7-19 Guidance for Evaluation of Potential Common Cause Failure Due to Latent Software Defects in Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems, 2152-2153 [2020-00350]
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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 9 / Tuesday, January 14, 2020 / Notices
I. Obtaining Information and
Submitting Comments
NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
A. Obtaining Information
[NRC–2019–0253]
Proposed Revision to Standard Review
Plan Branch Technical Position 7–19
Guidance for Evaluation of Potential
Common Cause Failure Due to Latent
Software Defects in Digital
Instrumentation and Control Systems
Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
AGENCY:
Standard review plan; draft
section revision; request for comment.
ACTION:
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) is soliciting public
comment on draft NUREG–0800,
‘‘Standard Review Plan for the Review
of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear
Power Plants: LWR Edition,’’ Branch
Technical Position (BTP) 7–19,
‘‘Guidance for Evaluation of Potential
Common Cause Failure Due to Latent
Software Defects in Digital
Instrumentation and Control Systems.’’
SUMMARY:
Comments must be filed no later
than March 16, 2020. 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 on or before this date.
DATES:
You may submit comments
by any of the following methods:
• Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to
https://www.regulations.gov and search
for Docket ID NRC–2019–0253. Address
questions about NRC dockets IDs in
Regulations.gov 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: Office of
Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN–7–
A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555–
0001, ATTN: Program Management,
Announcements and Editing Staff.
For additional direction on obtaining
information and submitting comments,
see ‘‘Obtaining Information and
Submitting Comments’’ in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of
this document.
lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with NOTICES
ADDRESSES:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mark Notich, Office of New Reactors,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555–0001; telephone:
301–415–3053; email: Mark.Notich@
nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
VerDate Sep<11>2014
18:41 Jan 13, 2020
Jkt 250001
Please refer to Docket ID NRC–2019–
0253 when contacting the NRC about
the availability of information for this
action. You may obtain publiclyavailable information related to this
action by any of the following methods:
• Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to
https://www.regulations.gov and search
for Docket ID NRC–2019–0253.
• NRC’s Agencywide Documents
Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publiclyavailable 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 pdr.resource@
nrc.gov. The draft of NUREG–0800,
‘‘Standard Review Plan for the Review
of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear
Power Plants: LWR Edition,’’ BTP 7–19,
‘‘Guidance for Evaluation of Potential
Common Cause Failure in Digital
Instrumentation and Control Systems’’
is available in ADAMS under Accession
No. ML19256B502.
• 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–2019–
0253 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 https://
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.
PO 00000
Frm 00049
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
II. Further Information
The NRC seeks public comment on
the proposed draft revision of BTP 7–19.
This BTP has been developed to assist
NRC staff in the review of licensing
applications involving digital
technology that may be subject to
common cause failures. Common cause
failures have been identified as a type
of hazard that digital instrumentation
and control systems could be
susceptible to due to the integration
capabilities provided by the technology
and due to its inherent complexity
compared to analog technologies.
The proposed revision to BTP 7–19
provides a graded approach for
addressing common cause failures due
to latent defects based on the safety
classification and safety significance of
the proposed digital I&C structures,
systems, and components (SSCs). For
safety-related I&C SSCs that are safety
significant, this proposed revision
provides additional guidance for
performing a defense-in-depth and
diversity assessment. The guidance
includes clarifications on acceptable
means to eliminate common cause
failures from further consideration and
acceptable diverse means that can be
used to perform the same or different
function than the safety function
disabled by the postulated common
cause failures. For safety-related digital
I&C SSCs that are not safety significant
or digital I&C SSCs that are not safetyrelated but are safety significant, this
proposed revision provides criteria on
the performance of a qualitative
assessment. This proposed revision also
clarifies the criteria for performing a
spurious operation assessment for
digital I&C SSCs. The current version of
BTP 7–19 can be found in ADAMS
under Accession No. ML16019A344.
The proposed Revision 8 to BTP 7–19
can be found in ADAMS under
Accession No. ML19256B502.
The NRC staff presented proposed
Revision 8 to BTP 7–19 to the Advisory
Committee for Reactor Safeguards
(ACRS) Subcommittee on November 21,
2019. Based on feedback received from
ACRS Subcommittee members during
the meeting, the NRC staff modified
proposed Revision 8 to BTP 7–19 to
enhance the structure of the BTP and to
clarify the process descriptions for
evaluating common-cause failure
hazards. These modifications did not
result in changes to the technical
content of this BTP. Additional
structural modifications and technical
content clarifications may be necessary
to improve this BTP. Therefore, the NRC
staff is public comments to facilitate
enhancing both the structure and the
E:\FR\FM\14JAN1.SGM
14JAN1
Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 9 / Tuesday, January 14, 2020 / Notices
lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with NOTICES
technical content of this proposed BTP
7–19 revision.
Following NRC staff evaluation of
public comments, the NRC intends to
finalize BTP 7–19 Revision 8 in ADAMS
and post it on the NRC’s public website
at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doccollections/nuregs/staff/sr0800/. The
SRP is guidance for the NRC staff. The
SRP is not a substitute for the NRC
regulations, and compliance with the
SRP is not required.
III. Backfitting, Issue Finality, and
Forward Fitting Discussion
Chapter 7 of the SRP provides
guidance to the staff for reviewing
information on instrumentation and
controls in licensing applications.
Issuance of this draft BTP, if finalized,
would not constitute backfitting as
defined in title 10 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (10 CFR) 50.109 (the Backfit
Rule) and as described in NRC
Management Directive 8.4,
‘‘Management of Backfitting, Forward
Fitting, Issue Finality, and Information
Requests;’’ would not affect the issue
finality of an approval under 10 CFR
part 52; and would not constitute
forward fitting as that term is defined
and described in Management Directive
8.4. The staff’s position is based upon
the following considerations.
1. The draft BTP, if finalized, would
not constitute backfitting or forward
fitting or affect issue finality, inasmuch
as the BTP would be internal guidance
to NRC staff.
The BTP provides guidance to the
staff on how to review an application for
NRC regulatory approval in the form of
licensing. Changes in internal staff
guidance, without further NRC action,
are not matters that meet the definition
of backfitting or forward fitting or affect
the issue finality of a part 52 approval.
2. Current or future applicants are
not—with limited exceptions not
applicable here—within the scope of the
backfitting and issue finality regulations
and forward fitting policy.
Applicants are not, with certain
exceptions, covered by either the Backfit
Rule or any issue finality provisions
under 10 CFR part 52. This is because
neither the Backfit Rule nor the issue
finality provisions under 10 CFR part
52—with certain exclusions discussed
below—were intended to apply to every
NRC action which substantially changes
the expectations of current and future
applicants.
The exceptions to the general
principle are applicable whenever an
applicant references a 10 CFR part 52
license (e.g., an early site permit) and/
or NRC regulatory approval (e.g., a
design certification rule) with specified
VerDate Sep<11>2014
18:41 Jan 13, 2020
Jkt 250001
issue finality provisions or a
construction permit under 10 CFR part
50. The staff does not, at this time,
intend to impose the positions
represented in the draft BTP (if
finalized) in a manner that would
constitute backfitting or affect the issue
finality of a part 52 approval. If, in the
future, the staff seeks to impose a
position in the draft BTP (if finalized) in
a manner that constitutes backfitting or
does not provide issue finality as
described in the applicable issue finality
provision, then the staff would need to
address the Backfit Rule or the criteria
for avoiding issue finality as described
in the applicable issue finality
provision.
The staff does not, at this time, intend
to impose the positions represented in
the draft BTP (if finalized) in a manner
that would constitute forward fitting. If,
in the future, the staff seeks to impose
a position in the draft BTP (if finalized)
in a manner that constitutes forward
fitting, then the staff would need to
address the forward fitting criteria in
Management Directive 8.4.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 8th day
of January, 2020.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Dennis C. Morey,
Chief, Licensing Projects Branch, Division of
Operating Reactor Licensing, Office of
Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2020–00350 Filed 1–13–20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590–01–P
NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
[Docket No. 50–293; NRC–2019–0244]
Holtec Pilgrim, LLC; Holtec
Decommissioning International, LLC;
Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station
Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
ACTION: Exemption; issuance.
AGENCY:
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) has issued an
exemption in response to a request from
the licensee that would permit Holtec
Pilgrim, LLC and Holtec
Decommissioning International, LLC to
reduce the minimum coverage limit for
onsite property damage insurance from
$1.06 billion to $50 million for Pilgrim
Nuclear Power Station.
DATES: The exemption was issued on
January 6, 2020.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID
NRC–2019–0244 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of
information regarding this document.
You may obtain publicly-available
SUMMARY:
PO 00000
Frm 00050
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
2153
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–2019–0244. Address
questions about NRC docket IDs in
Regulations.gov 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.
• NRC’s Agencywide Documents
Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publiclyavailable 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 pdr.resource@
nrc.gov. 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 at
the NRC’s PDR, Room O1–F21, One
White Flint North, 11555 Rockville
Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Scott Wall, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington DC 20555–
0001; telephone: 301–415–2855, email:
Scott.Wall@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The text of
the exemption is attached.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 9th day
of January, 2020.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Scott P. Wall,
Senior Project Manager, Plant Licensing
Branch III, Division of Operating Reactor
Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation.
Attachment—Exemption
NUCLEAR REGULATORY
COMMISSION
Docket No. 50–293
Holtec Pilgrim, LLC
Holtec Decommissioning International,
LLC
Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station
Exemption
I. Background
By letter dated November 10, 2015
(Agencywide Documents Access and
Management System (ADAMS)
Accession No. ML15328A053), Entergy
E:\FR\FM\14JAN1.SGM
14JAN1
Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 9 (Tuesday, January 14, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2152-2153]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-00350]
[[Page 2152]]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2019-0253]
Proposed Revision to Standard Review Plan Branch Technical
Position 7-19 Guidance for Evaluation of Potential Common Cause Failure
Due to Latent Software Defects in Digital Instrumentation and Control
Systems
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Standard review plan; draft section revision; request for
comment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is soliciting
public comment on draft NUREG-0800, ``Standard Review Plan for the
Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants: LWR
Edition,'' Branch Technical Position (BTP) 7-19, ``Guidance for
Evaluation of Potential Common Cause Failure Due to Latent Software
Defects in Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems.''
DATES: Comments must be filed no later than March 16, 2020. 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 on or before this date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0253. Address
questions about NRC dockets IDs in Regulations.gov to Jennifer Borges;
telephone: 301-287-9127; email: [email protected]. For technical
questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT section of this document.
Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop:
TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.
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: Mark Notich, Office of New Reactors,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001;
telephone: 301-415-3053; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2019-0253 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 https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0253.
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 [email protected]. The draft of NUREG-0800, ``Standard
Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power
Plants: LWR Edition,'' BTP 7-19, ``Guidance for Evaluation of Potential
Common Cause Failure in Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems''
is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML19256B502.
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-2019-0253 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
https://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. Further Information
The NRC seeks public comment on the proposed draft revision of BTP
7-19. This BTP has been developed to assist NRC staff in the review of
licensing applications involving digital technology that may be subject
to common cause failures. Common cause failures have been identified as
a type of hazard that digital instrumentation and control systems could
be susceptible to due to the integration capabilities provided by the
technology and due to its inherent complexity compared to analog
technologies.
The proposed revision to BTP 7-19 provides a graded approach for
addressing common cause failures due to latent defects based on the
safety classification and safety significance of the proposed digital
I&C structures, systems, and components (SSCs). For safety-related I&C
SSCs that are safety significant, this proposed revision provides
additional guidance for performing a defense-in-depth and diversity
assessment. The guidance includes clarifications on acceptable means to
eliminate common cause failures from further consideration and
acceptable diverse means that can be used to perform the same or
different function than the safety function disabled by the postulated
common cause failures. For safety-related digital I&C SSCs that are not
safety significant or digital I&C SSCs that are not safety-related but
are safety significant, this proposed revision provides criteria on the
performance of a qualitative assessment. This proposed revision also
clarifies the criteria for performing a spurious operation assessment
for digital I&C SSCs. The current version of BTP 7-19 can be found in
ADAMS under Accession No. ML16019A344. The proposed Revision 8 to BTP
7-19 can be found in ADAMS under Accession No. ML19256B502.
The NRC staff presented proposed Revision 8 to BTP 7-19 to the
Advisory Committee for Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Subcommittee on
November 21, 2019. Based on feedback received from ACRS Subcommittee
members during the meeting, the NRC staff modified proposed Revision 8
to BTP 7-19 to enhance the structure of the BTP and to clarify the
process descriptions for evaluating common-cause failure hazards. These
modifications did not result in changes to the technical content of
this BTP. Additional structural modifications and technical content
clarifications may be necessary to improve this BTP. Therefore, the NRC
staff is public comments to facilitate enhancing both the structure and
the
[[Page 2153]]
technical content of this proposed BTP 7-19 revision.
Following NRC staff evaluation of public comments, the NRC intends
to finalize BTP 7-19 Revision 8 in ADAMS and post it on the NRC's
public website at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr0800/. The SRP is guidance for the NRC staff. The SRP is
not a substitute for the NRC regulations, and compliance with the SRP
is not required.
III. Backfitting, Issue Finality, and Forward Fitting Discussion
Chapter 7 of the SRP provides guidance to the staff for reviewing
information on instrumentation and controls in licensing applications.
Issuance of this draft BTP, if finalized, would not constitute
backfitting as defined in title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations
(10 CFR) 50.109 (the Backfit Rule) and as described in NRC Management
Directive 8.4, ``Management of Backfitting, Forward Fitting, Issue
Finality, and Information Requests;'' would not affect the issue
finality of an approval under 10 CFR part 52; and would not constitute
forward fitting as that term is defined and described in Management
Directive 8.4. The staff's position is based upon the following
considerations.
1. The draft BTP, if finalized, would not constitute backfitting or
forward fitting or affect issue finality, inasmuch as the BTP would be
internal guidance to NRC staff.
The BTP provides guidance to the staff on how to review an
application for NRC regulatory approval in the form of licensing.
Changes in internal staff guidance, without further NRC action, are not
matters that meet the definition of backfitting or forward fitting or
affect the issue finality of a part 52 approval.
2. Current or future applicants are not--with limited exceptions
not applicable here--within the scope of the backfitting and issue
finality regulations and forward fitting policy.
Applicants are not, with certain exceptions, covered by either the
Backfit Rule or any issue finality provisions under 10 CFR part 52.
This is because neither the Backfit Rule nor the issue finality
provisions under 10 CFR part 52--with certain exclusions discussed
below--were intended to apply to every NRC action which substantially
changes the expectations of current and future applicants.
The exceptions to the general principle are applicable whenever an
applicant references a 10 CFR part 52 license (e.g., an early site
permit) and/or NRC regulatory approval (e.g., a design certification
rule) with specified issue finality provisions or a construction permit
under 10 CFR part 50. The staff does not, at this time, intend to
impose the positions represented in the draft BTP (if finalized) in a
manner that would constitute backfitting or affect the issue finality
of a part 52 approval. If, in the future, the staff seeks to impose a
position in the draft BTP (if finalized) in a manner that constitutes
backfitting or does not provide issue finality as described in the
applicable issue finality provision, then the staff would need to
address the Backfit Rule or the criteria for avoiding issue finality as
described in the applicable issue finality provision.
The staff does not, at this time, intend to impose the positions
represented in the draft BTP (if finalized) in a manner that would
constitute forward fitting. If, in the future, the staff seeks to
impose a position in the draft BTP (if finalized) in a manner that
constitutes forward fitting, then the staff would need to address the
forward fitting criteria in Management Directive 8.4.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 8th day of January, 2020.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Dennis C. Morey,
Chief, Licensing Projects Branch, Division of Operating Reactor
Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2020-00350 Filed 1-13-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P