Document: NRC Regulatory Guide
Document ID: c5aaad57-c87f-47de-827e-b6909bc7e3b5
Document Type: regulatory_guide
Title: Licensee Actions to Address Nonconservative Technical Specifications + HISTORY - HISTORY 08/2020 – DG-1351 Revision 1 , Proposed Revision 0 06/2018 – DG-1351 , Proposed Revision 0 (Rev. 1)
Source: NRC Regulatory Guide Division 1
Source URL: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2014/ML20142A489.pdf
Revision Date: 2023-06
Chapter: 
Section ID: RG-1.239
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CFR Title: 

Content:
eactors (Ref. 4), the Commission stated, in part, the following: “The purpose of Technical Specifications is to impose those conditions or limitations upon reactor operation necessary to obviate the possibility of an abnormal situation or event giving rise to an immediate threat to the public health and safety…and establishing on them certain conditions of operation which cannot be changed without prior Commission approval.” Occasionally, licensees have determined that the TS may be nonconservative. Examples include, but are not limited to, an improper or inadequate TS value, required action, or completion time. When this occurs, in the interim, licensees typically enter the nonconservative TS into their corrective action program, conduct an evaluation, and, if necessary, institute administrative controls that instruct the operators to maintain a more restrictive value for a particular parameter or to take a more conservative action. Following the implementation of such administrative controls, most licensees have properly considered reporting under 10 CFR 50.72, 10 CFR 50.73, or both and have promptly submitted a license amendment request to correct the TS. However, some licensees have failed to comply with NRC reporting requirements, significantly delayed submitting a license amendment request to correct the TS, or improperly concluded that a license amendment request was unnecessary if administrative controls are implemented. On December 29, 1998, the NRC issued Administrative Letter (AL) 98-10, “Dispositioning of Technical Specifications That Are Insufficient to Assure Plant Safety,” (Ref. 5), to provide guidance about the correction of nuclear power reactor TS when they are found to contain nonconservative values or specify incorrect actions. Since the issuance of AL 98-10, both the NRC and nuclear power reactor licensees have identified the need for additional guidance. Based on a suggestion at the 2014 NRC Regulatory Information Conference, NEI