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:
on germane to the contemplated changes in QA practices are clearly understood and adhered to, unless modified or amended through the appropriate licensing or regulatory actions. The suitability of the plant-specific PRA should be assessed relative to its use in supporting the GQA decisionmaking process. In addition, available industry and plant-specific operational experience information relative to GQA should be assessed. Further, the licensee should identify the overall objective and approach of the proposed changes to the QA program for the candidate SSCs. More details are provided in Regulatory Position I of this document. Element 2: Perform Engineering Analysis In Element 2, the proposed changes in the application of QA controls for SSCs as a function of categorization commensurate with safety are exam- ined and assessed with respect to the relevant risk- informed decisionmaking safety principles. An essential element of the evaluation is the categoriza- tion of SSCs into high and low safety-significant categories. The impact of the QA program changes on defense in depth would be determined through the use of both traditional engineering evaluations and PRA techniques. In addition, an assessment would ensure that no more than insignificant risk increases are introduced by the proposed changes, as described in Regulatory Position 2. The engineering evaluation helps to establish the safety significance of systems and components and determines that the effects of the changes in QA controls has a small impact on plant risk. More details concerning Element 2 are contained in Regulatory Position 2. Element 3: Define Implementation Monitoring Program The third element involves developing GQA control implementation and monitoring plans. These plans should be formulated to ensure that appropriate system and component performance are maintained. For the safety-related SSCs in the high safety- significant category, no changes in QA controls are expected to be proposed.