Alert

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.

Fire Protection Program for Operating Reactors

The NRC's fire protection regulations, inspections, and research activities focus on:

Prevention
Minimizing the
potential for fires and
explosions

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.

Overview
Prevention
Suppression
Safe Shutdown

An artist's rendering of the components which make up the Fire Protection Program for Operating Reactors

An image rendering of the components which make up the Fire Protection Program for Operating Reactors with the word PREVENTION and highlighting the 3 areas of prevention: Training and Fire Drills; NRC Inspections and Fire Marshall

An image rendering of the components which make up the Fire Protection Program for Operating Reactors with the word SUPPRESSION and highlighting the areas of Suppression: Offsite Support; Onsite Fire Brigade; Fire Protection Loop (water tanks, hydrants, natural water supply); Automatic Fixed Suppression (Fire Sprinklers, foam, etc.); Detection (Fire Detectors, Video Surveilance, etc.)

An image rendering of the components which make up the Fire Protection Program for Operating Reactors with the word SAFE SHUTDOWN and highlighting the areas of Safe Shutdown: Backup Power Supply; Wrapped Cabling, Redundant Safety Pumps, and Separation (Fire Walls)

For further information related to NRC's fire protection activities, see the following pages:

Page Last Reviewed/Updated Monday, April 19, 2021