New NESCC Task Group on Polymeric Piping for Nuclear Power Plants Now Seeking Members

Meeting report and presentations now freely available online

A recent meeting of the Nuclear Energy Standards Coordination Collaborative (NESCC) resulted in the establishment of a new task group on polymeric piping, which is now seeking members. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) have published a freely available meeting report to detail the discussions and findings of the May 26 gathering.

Forty-one stakeholders gathered in person and through teleconference to address areas of interest for the NESCC and its constituents. Following discussions on current task groups on concrete and a standards database, attendees agreed on the formation of a new task group to address polymeric piping for nuclear power plants. All interested stakeholders are invited to join this task group as it begins it work by forming a scope and gathering expert sources.

It was also noted that ASME is already working on the topic of polymeric piping, and agreed that ASME would send representatives to task group meetings to contribute their knowledge and share details on their work.

Through other presentations and discussions over the course of the meeting, attendees discussed the use of IEEE and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) consensus standards in the regulation of digital instrumentation and control systems in the nuclear power industry. It was suggested that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) could influence these standards by informing groups when gaps and needs are identified. Participants also discussed whether vendors and utilities could be brought into the standards development process earlier, in order to assist in the prioritization of needs. Stakeholders agreed that a careful review of standards during their development by all affected parties would be necessary in order to prevent vendors from having too much influence.

More details can be viewed in the meeting report document. Presentations given at the meeting can be found in ANSI's online document library.

The next meeting of the NESCC is scheduled for November 22, 2010, at NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, MD. Participation in NESCC is open to all stakeholders representing standards developing organizations, consortia and other forums, industry, government, and consumers. For more information, contact Dr. Thompson (301.975.2333) or Sally Seitz ([email protected]; 212.642.4918).