[en] The objectives of this work are to evaluate and benchmark the current safety and reliability assurance-related practices employed by the NRC. This effort represents an initial phase of a program whose overall purpose is to develop a reliability program (RP). A review of NRC regulations relevant to reliability assurance was made for a boiling water reactor using two representative safety systems; the reactor protection system, and the residual heat removal system. The primary sources of information were the NRC Standard Review Plan and Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, especially Part 50. In addition, relevant regulatory guides, NRC branch technical positions and industry consensus standard were identified and catalogued for the two reference safety systems over the plant's life cycle. The identified standards and criteria were then organized into a RP element matrix of current regulatory requirements organized by life cycle phase, top level assurance function, and items directly auditable by the NRC. A brief review of the licensing process was also undertaken to indicate the effectiveness of NRC implementation of a RP. The results of this work showed that within the NRC regulations a framework already exists in which to integrate, not add, a reliability assurance program