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Fire Protection and Fire Research 

Knowledge Management Digest

Table of Contents

Introduction............................................................................................ 1

Regulatory Publications......................................................................... 3

Technical Publications ........................................................................... 6

CD Topics and Procedure...................................................................... 7

Questions and Answers........................................................................11

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1

Introduction

“Knowledge is power”

 - Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has an active 

knowledge management program that captures important historical 

events and critical information and preserves this knowledge for future 

generations.

One of the principal products of the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research 

(RES) is knowledge; to this end, RES provides technical advice, tools, 

and information to support regulatory decisions. Accordingly, the Fire 

Research Branch (FRB) in the RES Division of Risk Analysis (DRA) 

initiated the knowledge management project by assembling a historic 

collection of NRC fire protection and research publications, with the 

objective of preserving and sharing almost 35 years of historic regulatory 

and scientific knowledge in a user-friendly format. This information is 

available for use by NRC inspectors, technical reviewers, licensees, 

and other interested stakeholders. The report is divided into two major 

sections: regulatory publications and technical publications.

The regulatory publications section provides vital information often 

needed during the fire protection inspection process, such as the 

pertinent parts of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 50 (10 

CFR 50) “Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities,” 

guidelines for fire protection in nuclear power plants, fire inspection 

manual, fire inspection procedure, generic letters, bulletins, information 

notices, circulars, administrative letters, regulatory issue summaries, 

and regulatory guides. This section will assist the inspectors during their 

preparation week, as all the relevant fire documents are available on one 

easy-to-use CD.

The technical publications section contains NRC technical reports 

(NUREGs) prepared by or for the NRC. This section includes fire 

test reports, fire protection studies, probabilistic risk assessments, 

and conference proceedings, all of which provide the background 

and technical support for the NRC’s fire protection requirements and 

guidelines.

The RES Fire Research Branch plans to maintain and update this CD 

annually to include new regulatory documents and technical reports.
2 Protecting People and the Environment
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 3

Regulatory Publications

Regulatory publications are documents used by inspectors and licensees. 

All regulatory publications included in this CD are NRC official records 

and are available to the public. The regulatory publications part of the 

CD includes the following:

• Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 50

This includes 10 CFR Section 50.48”Fire Protection” and the appendices 

that form the licensees’ fire protection requirements.

• Guidelines for Fire Protection in Nuclear Power Plants

This includes the Standard Review Plan for the Fire Protection 

Program and the NRC branch technical positions on the guidelines for 

fire protection.

• Fire Inspection Manual

This contains Significance Determination Process (SDP), power 

reactor inspection reports, and inspection documents and records. 

Also included is SDP guidance on identifying fire growth and damage 

sequences, mapping fire ignition sources, characterizing complex fire 

ignition sources, identifying targets and associated damage criteria, 

and analyzing nonsuppression probability.

• Fire Inspection Procedure

This part includes fire protection procedures used in fire protection 

inspection.

• Generic Letter

The generic letter (GL) addresses either an emergent or routine 

technical issue or a policy position with generic applicability. Some 

GLs may also request information or compensatory actions, or require 

a written response from licensees regarding matters of safety, security, 

safeguards, or environmental significance.

• Bulletin

A bulletin request licensee actions or information to address urgent, 

significant issues regarding matters of safety, security, safeguards, or 

environmental significance.
4 Protecting People and the Environment

• Administrative Letter

The administrative letter informs addressees of specific regulatory 

or administrative information, or clarifies this information. The NRC 

discontinued the used of these letters in September 1999.

• Information Notice

The information notice communicates recently identified operational 

information to the nuclear industry and the results of recently completed 

research that may affect addressees. The NRC expects the nuclear 

industry to review the information for applicability to its facilities or 

operations, and to consider actions, as appropriate, to avoid similar 

problems.

• Regulatory Issue Summary

A regulatory issue summary is used to inform stakeholders about 

NRC endorsement of industry guidance on technical or regulatory 

matters, request the voluntary participation of the nuclear industry 

in staff-sponsored pilot programs, and inform the nuclear industry of 

opportunities for regulatory relief and other topics that do not require 

an action or information.

• Circular

A circular provides time-sensitive information related to public health and 

safety. The NRC discontinued the use of circulars in February 1985.

• Regulatory Guide

A regulatory guide (RG) describes acceptable methods for implementing 

agency regulations, evaluating postulated accidents, and analyzing 

data that the NRC staff needs in reviewing applications for permits and 

licenses. RGs are not substitutes for regulations, and compliance with 

them is not required.

• SECY Papers

The office of the Secretary (SECY) papers are reports and/or letters 

submitted by the Office of the Executive Director for Operations 

(EDO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Information Officer (CIO), 

or other offices reporting directly to the Commission to inform or to 

request guidance from the Commission. The three kinds of SECY 

papers include policy issue papers (formulation of policy), rulemaking 

issue papers (promulgation of agency rules), and adjudicatory issue 

papers (granting, suspending, revoking or amending licenses).
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 5

• Generic Issue

A generic issue (GI) is a well-defined, discrete technical or security 

issues from which the risk or safety significance can be determined. A 

GI potentially affects the public health and safety, the common defense 

and security, and the environment. It must apply to two or more facilities, 

certificate holders, and/or licensees, and cannot be addressed through 

other regulatory programs or processes, existing regulations, policies, 

or guidance, or voluntary industry initiatives.

NRC staff or members of the public may propose a GI when there is an 

issue that indicates weaknesses in NRC rules and regulations.
6 Protecting People and the Environment

Technical Publications

The technical publications (NUREG technical reports) include such 

topics as experimental investigations of fire and the behavior of 

components exposed to fires, surveys of plant practices, assessments 

of the safety implications of these practices, the development of 

analytical methodologies to perform such assessments, and reviews 

of fire probabilistic risk assessments performed by other organizations. 

These publications are intended to support regulatory activities that 

ensure fire safety.

NUREGs are generally classified as the following:

•	 Reports prepared by NRC Staff (NUREG).

•	 Reports prepared by NRC contractors (NUREG/CR).

•	 Brochures prepared by or under the direction of NRC staff 

(NUREG/BR).

•	 Conference proceedings prepared by NRC staff or contractors 

(NUREG/CP).
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 7

CD Topics and Procedure

The enclosed CD, “Fire Protection and Fire Research Knowledge 

Management,” was programmed in Visual Basic. 

When you run the program, you will see an introductory screen, followed 

by the main window shown below:

Selecting the “Regulatory Publications” button will open a new window 

with a list of the regulatory publications available on the CD, as shown 

on the following page:
8 Protecting People and the Environment

For example, selecting the “Administrative Letters” button opens the 

following window:

A portable document format (PDF) file containing the document will open 

when one of the documents in the list is selected.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 9

When the “Historic Collection of Fire Related Reports” button is selected 

from the main window, the following window will be displayed:

Selecting one of the buttons for the respective documents types (NUREG, 

NUREG/CR, NUREG/CP, or NUREG/BR) will open a list of documents; 

selecting the desired document will open a PDF file. Please note that the 

document may not be displayed. Due to size limitations on the CD, we did 

not include many of the longer NUREG and NUREG/CR reports in their 

entirety. Instead, we have included a PDF file that includes the document’s 

abstract, its Agencywide Documents Access and Management (ADAMS) 

Accession No., and a link to the document on the NRC public Web site. 

An example of the file is shown on the next page.
10 Protecting People and the Environment

Note that you will need an Internet connection for the link to work and to 

find the document on the NRC public Web site.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 11

Questions and Answers

1. Question: Do I need to have Visual Basic or MicrosoftAccess 

installed on my computer before I use the CD?

Answer: No. The application is distributed as an executable file with 

a protected database.

2. Question: Do I need to have Internet access to see the 

publications?

Answer: While you do not need access to the Internet to read the 

regulatory publications, you will need internet access to open many 

of the NUREG reports.

3. Question: What if I cannot find an electronic copy of an old NUREG 

report that I have in hardcopy?

Answer: FRB has made every attempt to locate, recover, and 

preserve the reports. If you have a hardcopy of a report that you 

think this report should include, please contact Aixa Belen-Ojeda at 

(301) 251-7597, or at aixa.belen@nrc.gov.
12 Protecting People and the Environment

Prepared by:

Aixa Belen-Ojeda

David Stroup

Mark Henry Salley

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research

Fire Research Branch

CONTACT US:

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20555-0001

Telephone: (301) 415-8200 or (800) 368-5642

E-mail: OPA@nrc.gov

Web site: www.nrc.gov



U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Washington, DC 20555-0001

NUREG/BR-0465, Revision 1

February 2010