83 FR 9344 - Aluminum High Energy Arc Fault (HEAF) Particle Size Characterization

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 43 (March 5, 2018)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is making the proposed draft test plan, ``Aluminum High Energy Arc Fault (HEAF) Particle Size Characterization Test Plan--Draft Test Plan,'' available for public comment.

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 43 (Monday, March 5, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9344-9345]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-04341]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[NRC-2018-0040]


Aluminum High Energy Arc Fault (HEAF) Particle Size 
Characterization

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Proposed draft test plan; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is making the 
proposed draft test plan, ``Aluminum High Energy Arc Fault (HEAF) 
Particle Size Characterization Test Plan--Draft Test Plan,'' available 
for public comment.

DATES: Submit comments by April 4, 2018. 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 before this 
date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods 
(unless this document describes a different method for submitting 
comments on a specific subject):
     Federal Rulemaking website: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2018-0040. Address 
questions about NRC dockets 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: May Ma, Office of Administration, Mail 
Stop: TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001.
    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: Gabriel Taylor, Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-0781; email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2018-0040 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 http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2018-0040.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the 
ADAMS Public Documents collection at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and 
then 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 
proposed draft test plan, ``Aluminum High Energy Arc Fault (HEAF) 
Particle Size Characterization Test Plan--Draft Test Plan'' is 
available electronically under ADAMS Accession No. ML18036A448.
     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-2018-0040 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 http://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. Discussion

    The NRC has identified a potential generic issue associated with 
electrical equipment containing component made of aluminum. If the 
identified equipment were to experience a HEAF the presence of aluminum 
may cause greater damage to structures, systems, and components than 
previous analyses indicated. This generic issue has met all seven 
screening criteria of the generic issues program and is currently in 
the assessment phase (ADAMS Accession No. ML16349A027). To better 
understand the impact of aluminum, the NRC is sponsoring large- and 
small-scale testing. The large-scale testing will be undertaken as part 
of an international effort and the draft test plan for that program is 
publicly available (ADAMS Accession No. ML17201Q551).
    The purpose of this draft test program is characterize aluminum 
particle size distribution, rates of production and morphology 
(agglomeration) of HEAFs involving aluminum conductors. The 
measurements from these experiments will be used to support development 
of a HEAF/Aluminum combustion energy balance model to better 
characterize the aluminum HEAF hazard. This modeling effort will 
support advancements to quantify hazards HEAF pose to nuclear power 
plant risk. The small-scale testing is expected to be performed prior 
to any full-scale testing. The results from the small-scale work is 
expected to help inform to the large-scale test results and to support 
evaluation of the numerical method predictive capability. Model 
development is outside the scope of this test plan and is expected to 
be completed by a third party. This draft test plan has been developed 
by Sandia National Laboratories.
    The NRC is seeking public comment in order to receive feedback from 
the widest range of interested parties and to ensure that all 
information relevant to

[[Page 9345]]

developing this document is available to the NRC staff. This document 
is issued for comment only and is not intended for interim use. The NRC 
will review public comments received on the documents, incorporate 
suggested changes as necessary, and make the final test plan available.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 26th day of February, 2018.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Mark Henry Salley,
Chief, Fire and External Hazard Analysis Branch, Division of Risk 
Analysis, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
[FR Doc. 2018-04341 Filed 3-2-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P