Safety Assessment Services
These services, initiated in 1989, provide advice on selected safety assessment aspects of nuclear power plants and research reactors, as appropriate:
- Generic Reactor Safety Review (GRSR)
- Integrated Safety Review (ISR)
- Periodic Safety Review Service (PSR)
- International Probabilistic Safety Assessment Review Team (IPSART)
- Review of Accident Management Programmes (RAMP)
- Safety Assessment Capacity and Competency Review (SAC)
For further information please contact Mamdouh El-Shanawany.
Generic Reactor Safety Review - GRSR
As a response to renewed interest in the development of nuclear energy capacity across the globe, vendors are designing new reactors, including innovative systems, to meet the growing demand for safer and more economical nuclear power generation. The Generic Reactor Safety Review (GRSR) process provides Member States with an early evaluation of safety cases of these reactors against IAEA Safety Standards.
The objective of the Generic Reactor Safety Review, performed at the request of a Requesting Party, is to evaluate the completeness and comprehensiveness of the design safety case claims by an international team of senior experts against selected and applicable IAEA Safety Standards. In principle, the GRSR is based on IAEA Fundamental Safety Principles (SF-1) and Safety Requirements for Safety Assessment for Facilities and Activities (GSR-4). These Safety Requirements are high level standards addressing broadly the safety issues for nuclear installations and activities. The GS-R-4 requirements are generic and technology independent, therefore they are applicable at different stages of design evolution as well as to operating plants. The depth of the review and selection of requirements also depends on the design maturity and available documentation. The IAEA has performed reviews of safety cases of mature designs already under construction, through safety case of fairly complete designs to conceptual designs.
The GRSR provides for an early harmonized appraisal of safety cases made by vendors as a basis for an individual evaluation or the licensing process, which remains a sovereign activity of the Member States. Consequently, such safety evaluations, conducted against selected sets of Safety Standards, contribute to more effective management of subsequent activities within a global framework consistent with a harmonized approach to safety worldwide.
The aims of the review are to:
- Determine whether the design follows the IAEA Fundamental Safety Principles
- Determine whether the safety requirements defined in GS-R-4 are being addressed in the design safety case and identify any that have been omitted
- For those requirements that are addressed, form a view on whether they are being addressed in a way that is consistent with the spirit of the IAEA requirements
- For the safety requirements that are not being addressed or are partially addressed, form a view on their relative significance and highlight their importance to safety.
It should be noted that the IAEA Safety Standards applied in the GRSR, at the fundamental and requirements level, are generic and apply to all nuclear installations. Therefore, it is neither intended nor possible to cover or substitute licensing activity, or to constitute any kind of design certification. Moreover, the review does not address the correctness of technical claims made by vendors.
For further information please contact Michael Modro
Integrated Safety Review (ISR)
The purpose of an Integrated Safety Review (ISR) is to assist Member States in implementing the IAEA Safety Standards to ensure a consistent and uniform evaluation of plant safety. This service includes as stand alone modules services such as IPSART, PSR and RAMP, which can be separately requested.
The ISR focuses on items such as general adherence of the design to governing safety guides and criteria; and the implementation of design criteria, component classification, periodic safety reviews, analysis methodologies, construction practices, quality assurance and control procedures. Innovative and evolutionary reactors are included, as well as operating nuclear power plants, and include the following topics:
- Reactor core fuel behaviour and reload analysis
- Defence in-depth concept
- Probabilistic safety assessment
- Design basis accidents analysis
- Beyond design basis analysis
- Integrated risk informed decision making approaches
- Periodic safety review
This service addresses the entire spectrum of safety analyses performed in support of design, licensing and operations. Deterministic and probabilistic methods are covered.
Also, a dedicated tool called Safety Analysis Report Review Plan (SARRP) has been developed to improve the quality of the review and the adherence of the review to the IAEA Safety Standards. The review can focus on a limited number of topics or systems or on the complete safety analysis report. For new plants the IAEA review of the Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR) has proved to be very beneficial to safety authorities engaged in the approval activities and to the operating organisation to revise the safety analysis report.
The review of deterministic safety analyses for design basis and beyond design basis accidents focuses on issues such as:
- Analysis methodology
- Analysis scope
- Validation of methods
- Uncertainties
- Application
The ISR can provide a compliance review of a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) study to current PSA standards of IAEA and ANS/ASME.
Periodic Safety Review Service - PSR
To assist Member States in maintaining a high level of safety of operating nuclear power plants including those in long term operation, the IAEA provides a service to review the Periodic Safety Review (PSR) national requirements, PSR process and the PSR self assessment report against IAEA Safety Standards. The service provides Member States (Safety Authorities and Operating Organizations) with recommendations to improve their PSR activities for the future. The service can be tailored to the specific needs of the Member State. The service is also aimed at collecting feedback to update and improve the IAEA safety standards.
Review areas:
- National PSR requirements and reference documents for the self assessment
- PSR Basis document
- Methodology of the self assessment
- Safety factors self assessment reports (14 safety factors, e.g. design basis, aging status and management, equipment qualification, operational experience, organisation and management system)
- Evaluation of the safety relevance of the findings and ranking
- Final global assessment and corrective actions
IPSART
International Probabilistic Safety Assessment Review Team - IPSART
The IPSART service organizes peer reviews for probabilistic safety assessments (PSAs) performed in Member States to improve the quality of probabilistic safety analyses and to provide for technology transfer among the Member States; the IPSART team assists Member States in the application of PSA results and methods.
Scope of review:
- Organization of management
- Methods and data
- External hazards
- Level 1 and 2 analysis
- Interpolation of results
- Quality assurance and documentation
- PSA applications.
RAMP
Review of Accident Management Programmes - RAMP
The RAMP service provides advice and assistance at the utility/NPP level for effective plant specific Accident Management Programme (AMP) preparation, development and implementation.
Three options are available to Member States:
- Seminar on Accident Management, to include: plant behaviour during accidents; severe accident phenomenology; principles of accident management; approaches and their features; development phases and tasks
- Review of Safety Analysis for Accident Management, to include: selection of accident sequences; selection of analytical tools; analysis of accidents without operator actions; analysis of preventive and mitigative accident management measures; quality assurance in accident analysis
- Review of Accident Management Programme, to include: selection and definition of AMP; safety analysis for AMP; assessment of plant vulnerabilities; development of strategies; evaluation of equipment performance; development of procedures and guidelines; verification and validation of procedures and guidelines; integration between AMP and emergency plans; staffing and qualification; training needs; AMP revisions.
Safety Assessment Capacity and Competency Review (SAC)
A country planning to operate or operating a nuclear facility needs to develop sufficient safety assessment capacity, to assure effective regulations and decision making and for safe operation. Because of the complex character of safety assessment and the diversity of skill requirements, the IAEA offers advisory services on Safety Assessment Capacity building and Competency Review (SAC). This service includes the following elements:
- Review of existing capacities and the educational and training infrastructure
- Support in the development of capacity requirements
- Support in the development of capacity building strategies considering national and regional infrastructures
- Support and guidance in the development of sustainable education and training programmes for safety assessment capacity and knowledge management.
SAC is based on the IAEA Safety Standard safety assessment requirements (GSR-4), knowledge requirements for safety assessment competency and best practices among Member States.
