Developments in CANDU Standard Plant Licensing

Abstract

AECL is continuing with its goal of completing the standard plant design for the CANDU 3 nuclear power reactor. To date major aspects of the conceptual design and some of the detailed design work have been discussed with the Canadian nuclear regulatory agency, the Atomic Energy. Control Board (AECB). The Standard Plant Design (SPD) envelope has been chosen to accommodate the characteristics of a wide variety of sites in Canada and around the world. One of the key objectives of the project is to ensure the standard plant design is licensable in Canada. This is to be accomplished prior to the AECB issuance of the construction licence for the first unit. Approval from the AECB is required to reduce the plant owners' risk and achieve the 35 month construction schedule established for the project. The focus of the early years of the project was to agree on and document the design requirements and then derive the conceptual design. The detailed design work could proceed only with agreement on the major design-related licensing pre-requisites, thus reducing the risk and associated costs of major design changes which might be required by the regulatory agency during the detailed design or construction phases. The licensing objectives for the first years included establishing the licensing basis for the SPD, review of the unique features of the CANDU 3, agreement on the Safety Design Requirements, agreement on the Systematic Plant Review and then agreement on the Safety Analysis Basis. These will then be used to ensure the detailed design and safety analysis proceeds on a mutually understood basis. Consultative Document C-6 "Requirements for the Safety Analysis of CANDU Nuclear Power Plants" was previously used on a trial basis in the licensing of Darlington. For CANDU 3, the traditional single/dual failures licensing approach has been abandoned by the AECB. These up front licensing discussions on the CANDU 3 provide the first opportunity for the AECB and the industry to explore what full implementation of the Consultative Document C-6 as the sole basis for judging the acceptability of the safety analysis entails. Clarifications of the draft requirements utilized in the Darlington licensing process have been discussed and these have resulted in the production of unique licensing documents such as the systematic plant review. In this paper, we review the issues discussed in the licensing process and outline then resolution.