FIRE PROTECTION

NFPA 805

The NFPA 805 standard provides the methodology to transition from an existing deterministic safe shutdown analysis to the newly proposed alternate rule to 10 CFR 50.48. The new rule is a risk-informed, performance-based approach to address fire protection and fire-induced safe shutdown for light water reactors and provides more flexibility for a utility to meet fire protection requirements. EPM is a principal member of the NFPA 805 committee and has made substantial contributions to the development of the standard.

EPM utilized a performance-based approach to address the fire protection requirements for several Canadian (CANDU) plants and is confident that U.S. plants will greatly benefit from adopting the new rule. Although the transition to NFPA 805 will require an initial investment, it appears from our experience that the transition process will very likely reap substantial immediate cost benefits related to manual action issues. It should also be considered that with a performance-based program in place, the cost savings will increase over time in that the transition to NFPA 805 will establish a vehicle to address any future industry issues in a more cost-effective manner.

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