Nuclear Regulatory Commission October 15, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is conducting research to support development of regulatory guidance for using risk information related to digital systems in the licensing actions of nuclear power plants (NPPs). The objective of this research is to identify and develop methods, analytical tools, and regulatory guidance to support (1) Using information on the risks of digital systems in NPP licensing decisions, and (2) including models of digital systems into NPP probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs). In support of this research, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is working on the use of traditional methods to develop and quantitatively assess reliability models of digital systems. As part of this work, BNL will apply two selected traditional methods to two benchmark digital systems. The initial tasks in the BNL project, including preparatory work for developing the reliability models of the first benchmark system, are addressed in draft NUREG/CR-XXXX, ``Approaches for Using Traditional Probabilistic Risk Assessment Methods for Digital Systems.'' This notice announces the availability of the draft NUREG/CR for public comment.