§ 72.146 Design control.

(a) The licensee, applicant for a license, certificate holder, and applicant for a CoC shall establish measures to ensure that applicable regulatory requirements and the design basis, as specified in the license or CoC application for those structures, systems, and components to which this section applies, are correctly translated into specifications, drawings, procedures, and instructions. These measures must include provisions to ensure that appropriate quality standards are specified and included in design documents and that deviations from standards are controlled. Measures must be established for the selection and review for suitability of application of materials, parts, equipment, and processes that are essential to the functions of the structures, systems, and components which are important to safety. (b) The licensee, applicant for a license, certificate holder, and applicant for a CoC shall establish measures for the identification and control of design interfaces and for coordination among participating design organizations. These measures must include the establishment of written procedures among participating design organizations for the review, approval, release, distribution, and revision of documents involving design interfaces. The design control measures must provide for verifying or checking the adequacy of design by methods such as design reviews, alternate or simplified calculational methods, or by a suitable testing program. For the verifying or checking process, the licensee and certificate holder shall designate individuals or groups other than those who were responsible for the original design, but who may be from the same organization. Where a test program is used to verify the adequacy of a specific design feature in lieu of other verifying or checking processes, the licensee and certificate holder shall include suitable qualification testing of a prototype or sample unit under the most adverse design conditions. The licensee, applicant for a license, certificate holder, and applicant for a CoC shall apply design control measures to items such as the following: criticality physics, radiation, shielding, stress, thermal, hydraulic, and accident analyses; compatibility of materials; accessibility for inservice inspection, maintenance, and repair; features to facilitate decontamination; and delineation of acceptance criteria for inspections and tests. (c) The licensee, applicant for a license, certificate holder, and applicant for a CoC shall subject design changes, including field changes, to design control measures commensurate with those applied to the original design. Changes in the conditions specified in the license or CoC require prior NRC approval.