Document: NRC Regulatory Guide
Document ID: 74c49394-8dbf-46e7-b62a-b85de93b47d8
Document Type: regulatory_guide
Title: Initial Test Programs for Water-Cooled Nuclear Power Plants + HISTORY - HISTORY 11/2012 – DG-1259 , Proposed Revision 4 11/2006 – DG-1166 , Proposed Revision 3 (Rev. 4)
Source: NRC Regulatory Guide Division 1
Source URL: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1229/ML12298A071.pdf
Revision Date: 2023-06
Chapter: 
Section ID: RG-1.68
CFR Part: 
CFR Title: 

Content:
l outside the range of assumptions used in analyzing postulated accidents in the facility’s FSAR. Appropriate consideration should be given to testing at the extremes of possible operating modes for facility systems. Testing under simulated conditions of maximum and minimum equipment availability within systems should be accomplished if the facility is intended to be operated in these modes (e.g., testing with different reactor coolant pump configurations, single-loop reactor coolant system operation, operation with the minimum allowable number of pumps, heat exchangers, or control valves in the feedwater, condensate, circulating, and other cooling water systems). The following list illustrates the types of performance demonstrations, measurements, and tests that should be included in the power ascension test phase. Parenthetical numbers following the listed activities indicate the approximate power levels to be used in conducting the tests. If no number follows a listed activity, the demonstration, measurement, or test should be performed at the lowest practical power level. Tests that are specific to one type of light water reactor are noted by BWR or PWR, as appropriate. Power ascension test activities may need to be adjusted because of new plant design features for nuclear power plants licensed under 10 CFR Part 52. a. Determine that power reactivity coefficients (PWR) or power versus flow characteristics (BWR) are in accordance with design values (25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent, 100 percent). b. Determine that steady state core performance is in accordance with design. Sufficient measurements and evaluations should be conducted to establish that flux distributions, local surface heat flux, linear heat rate, departure from nucleate boiling ratio, radial and axial power peaking factors, maximum average planar linear heat generation rate, minimum critical power ratio, quadrant power tilt, and other important parameters are in accordance with design values