Document: NRC Regulatory Guide
Document ID: 49ce24c8-1a15-48b2-9e26-8c6c2f9064f7
Document Type: regulatory_guide
Title: Dedication of Commercial-Grade Digital I&C Items for Use in Nuclear power Plants
Source: NRC Regulatory Guide Division 1
Source URL: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2200/ML22003A180.pdf
Revision Date: 2023-05
Chapter: 
Section ID: RG-1.250
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CFR Title: 

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legally-binding requirement nor a “generic” NRC approved acceptable approach for meeting an NRC requirement. However, licensees and applicants may consider and use the information in the secondary reference, if appropriately justified, consistent with current regulatory practice, and consistent with applicable NRC requirements. DG-1402, Page 8 C. STAFF REGULATORY GUIDANCE 1. The NRC staff endorses, with the following clarifications, NEI 17-06, Revision 1, as a method acceptable to the staff on using IEC 61508 SIL certification to support the acceptance of commercial-grade digital equipment that is dedicated as a basic component in accordance with EPRI TR-106439. a. NEI 17-06 states that it “describes a method for using the accredited SIL certification process in lieu of a commercial grade survey as a dedication acceptance method to provide reasonable assurance that the dependability critical characteristics of digital devices are adequately controlled.” The NRC staff considers SIL certification to be a commercial grade survey for the purposes of Part 21 and understands that NEI means the SIL certification process is in lieu of the commercial grade survey method described in EPRI 3002002982. Thus, the NRC staff considers dedication of the certifying body’s services and verification of certification to the appropriate SIL to be adequate to verify dependability critical characteristics for use in the method described in EPRI TR 106439. b. NEI 17-06 states, among other things, that the certifying body’s services should be dedicated by “[a] U.S. NRC licensee, their designee, or the dedicating entity.” To be clear, each dedicating entity should dedicate the services of each certifying body whose certificates the dedicating entity wishes to rely on, and should not rely on dedication by, e.g., another NRC licensee. c. Section 7.3 of NEI 17-06 states, “[t]he U.S. nuclear industry observations will be performed initially on a three (3) year frequency with