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:
ance on modifying current QA program controls based on the safety categorization of the SSCs. This regulatory guide also describes acceptable approaches for 1.176-2 monitoring the effectiveness of the GQA program implementation and for determining when it may be necessary to make adjustments in QA practices and safety-significance categorizations to ensure that SSCs remain capable of performing their intended functions. The guide also delineates the principles for risk- informed decisionmaking, or guiding features, of a GQA program that need to be dealt with by a licensee. In some cases, rather than articulating a prescriptive method that must be implemented by a licensee to fulfill these principles (or their subsidiary issues) for GQA, the staff has chosen to identify those issues that must be evaluated, and documented, by licensees when formulating their particular approach to GQA. Thus, the burden would fall on the licensee to be able to inform the staff how the issues were addressed within the site-specific program. This guide has been specifically written for situations when the licensee's GQA program will result in changes to the QA program that do reduce commitments in the program description previously accepted by the NRC. Graded quality assurance (GQA) is intended to provide a safety benefit by allowing licensees and the NRC to preferentially allocate resources based on the safety significance of the item. The Commission has articulated its expectation that implementation of the policy to expand the use of PRA will improve the regulatory process in three areas: foremost through safety decisionmaking enhanced by the use of PRA insights, through more efficient use of agency resources, and through a reduction in unnecessary burdens on licensees. Background information about initial efforts to implement GQA is in SECY-95-059, "Development of Graded Quality Assurance Method- ology" (March 10, 1995) (Ref. 2). Relationship to Other Guidance Document Applications