Technical Review of Risk-Informed, Performance-Based Methods for Nuclear Power Plant Fire Protection Analyses - Draft Report for Comment (NUREG-1521)

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Publication Information

Manuscript Completed: March 1998
Date Published: July 1998

Prepared by:
M. Dey,
M.A. Azarm,^* R. Travis,^* G. Martinez-Guridi^*
R. Levine^**

*Brookhaven National Laboratory
Upton, NY 11973

**Formerly with
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899

Division of Systems Technology
Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

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Abstract

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has instituted an initiative for regulatory improvement to focus licensee and NRC resources on risksignificant activities, and to decrease the prescriptiveness of its regulations through performance-based methods that allow licensees increased flexibility in implementing NRC regulations. The NRC has identified risk-informed methods utilizing insights from probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) as a major tool for achievirig its goal for regulatory focus. The issue of fire protection requirements has been identified as a regulatory area in which NRC will pursue regulatory improvement. This report presents a technical review and analysis of risk-informed, performance-based methods that are alternatives to those in current prescriptive fire protection requirements or guidance that could allow costeffective methods for implementing safety objectives, focusing licensee efforts, and achieving greater efficiency in the use of resources for plant safety. A technical analysis of the usefulness of the results and insights derived from these methods (including accounting for the uncertainties in the results) in improving regulatory decisionmaking is presented.