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Due to a lapse in appropriations, the NRC has ceased normal operations. However, excepted and exempted activities necessary to maintain critical health and safety functions—as well as essential progress on designated critical activities, including those specified in Executive Order 14300—will continue, consistent with the OMB-Approved NRC Lapse Plan.

Guidelines for Fire Protection in Nuclear Power Plants

Consistent with the mission of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the purpose of the agency's fire protection program is to provide assurance, through a defense-in-depth philosophy, that licensees and their facilities satisfy the Commission's fire protection objectives, as follows:

  • Prevent fires from starting.
  • Rapidly detect, effectively control, and promptly extinguish those fires that do occur.
  • Protect structures, systems, and components (SSCs) important to safety so that a fire that is not promptly extinguished by fire suppression activities will not prevent the safe shutdown of the facility.
  • Design fire protection systems such that their failure or inadvertent operation does not adversely impact the ability of SSCs important to safety to perform their safety functions.

Toward that end, the NRC has developed the "Standard Review Plan [SRP] for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants" (NUREG-0800), which includes the following guidance for use in reviewing licensee's fire protection programs:

Document # Document Title
SRP 9.5.1 Fire Protection Program
CMEB 9.5-1 Branch Technical Position CMEB 9.5-1, "Guidelines for Fire Protection for Nuclear Power Plants"
(formerly Branch Technical Position ASB 9.5-1)
APCSB 9.5-1 Branch Technical Position APCSB 9.5-1, "Guidelines for Fire Protection for Nuclear Power Plants"

Page Last Reviewed/Updated Monday, June 08, 2020

Page Last Reviewed/Updated Monday, June 08, 2020