Document: NRC Regulatory Guide
Document ID: a5ee4c78-1135-4bb6-8d54-e974a3402f87
Document Type: regulatory_guide
Title: An Approach for Plant-Specific, Risk-Informed Decisionmaking: Graded Quality Assurance
Source: NRC Regulatory Guide Division 1
Source URL: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1221/ML12216A017.pdf
Revision Date: 2023-06
Chapter: 
Section ID: RG-1.176
CFR Part: 
CFR Title: 

Content:
st the Maintenance Rule monitoring program rather than to develop additional monitoring programs for GQA purposes. Section 2.3, "Element 3: Define Implementation and Monitoring Program," of Regulatory Guide 1.174 provides amplifying guidance in this area. A program assessment, which could be accom- plished in conjunction with similar Maintenance Rule provisions, should be performed to ensure that the overall GQA process (activities associated with safety- significance determination, grading of QA controls, implementation of performance monitoring, and application of corrective actions) is being effectively implemented and provides insights into whether the GQA program needs improvements. As part of the assessment, (I) plant deficiencies should be evaluated, and (2) the bases for (a) the safety-significance categorizations (e.g., the PRA model and assumptions) and (b) the assignment of QA controls to each category should be evaluated to determine whether they continue to reflect plant design and operating practices. This assessment should not be performed in a graded manner and should be considered to be a high safety-significant activity as it serves to confirm the integrity of the GQA process implementation. 3.3.2 Corrective Actions The licensee's GQA program should include comprehensive and effective corrective action and root cause analysis processes. Failures of safety-related, low safety-significant SSCs and non-safety-related, high safety-significant SSCs should be identified through operational feedback or trending processes so that the licensee can ascertain whether the SSC's unacceptable performance may be attributed to deficient QA controls or practices. Licensee corrective action or trending programs should identify and determine the apparent cause of failures of SSCs to determine whether licensee-established performance criteria or quality elements need to be changed. If the failure is determined to apply generically to other SSCs,-or the failure