CANDU-3 Systematic Plant Review - A New Approach

Abstract

Evaluation of nuclear power plant designs, including the determination of a design basis accident set, in a process that has been evolutionary. As more experience has been gained from the design, operation and licensing of established design concepts, the set of accidents and the range of conditions for evaluation has steadily grown. Recognition of this evolution has led the Canadian regulatory body, the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB), to require for all future plants a systematic review (Reference 11) of the plant design. TIM purpose of this systematic review is to come up with an exhaustive list of design basis accidents. It also gives the reviewer of the design confidence that a systematic, auditable process has been used to derive the Hot. Accident analysis for each of the events on the list is then used to determine the range of conditions for safe operation of the plant. The CANDU 3 is the newest design of CANDU nuclear power station. It provides the economy of operation of other CANDUs in a smaller unit size (450MW). A key part of the CANDU3 design program is a review of the design by the Canadian regulatory prior to the start of construction. These up front licensing discussions provide the first opportunity for the AECB and industry to explore what full implementation of the Systematic Review concept entails. This paper, provides the regulatory background to the Systematic Review, the review process developed by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd far CANDU 3 and the results of the review. This review process can be applied to any innovative design and provides a framework for identifying all internal events of safety significance. (External events are derived through the site investigation process.)