Document: NRC Regulatory Guide
Document ID: e1c9e683-8773-413a-ac81-d7342e2eff5d
Document Type: regulatory_guide
Title: Qualification of Safety-Related Cables and Field Splices for Nuclear Power Plants
Source: NRC Regulatory Guide Division 1
Source URL: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0825/ML082530205.pdf
Revision Date: 2023-06
Chapter: 
Section ID: RG-1.211
CFR Part: 
CFR Title: 

Content:
s the degradation over time, followed by exposure to the environmental extremes of temperature, pressure, humidity, radiation, mechanical stress, or chemical spray (or a combination thereof) resulting from DBEs, that presents a potential for common-cause failures of safety-related cables and field splices. As a result, it is necessary to establish a qualified life for cables and splices that are installed in harsh environments and must perform a safety function during and following a DBE. These objectives should be accomplished using qualification methods (type testing, operating experience, analysis as a supplement to type testing and operating experience, ongoing qualification, or any combination thereof). However, qualification by analysis alone is not acceptable. Type testing of sample cables or field splices is the preferred qualification method. In addition, IEEE Standard 383-2003 requires documentation, in an auditable form, to demonstrate that cables and field splices are capable of adequately performing their safety functions during and following a DBE. In Clause 3.3 of IEEE Std 383-2003, an exact description of the “representative” cable is required to ensure that sufficient information is available for the “representative” cable to allow future engineering extrapolation of the conclusions from the results of the type tested cable to other cables reported to be “represented” by the type test. Different specialty cables (coaxial, triaxial, and twinaxial) have different critical characteristics based on the application such as noise rejection or signal propagation. It is imperative, if an engineering analysis is used to justify an application of one specialty cable based on qualification of a different type of specialty cable, that the critical characteristics be identified in both applications and compared to the qualification type test results. Further, Clause 6.1.2 of IEEE Std 383-2003, requires that suitable test specimen lengths and