Safety Analysis Report for Small Nuclear Reactors

Abstract

A regulatory approval to build and operate a nuclear facility requires the applicant for a license to submit to the Regulatory authority a Safety Analysis Report (SAR). Current international standard (Ref.1) that describe the contents of the SAR is now being updated to reflect the experience with the newly built Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), the Design Extension Conditions (DECs), the strengthening of the levels of defence-in-depth and the robustness against extreme external hazards. While the international standard is being updated a new generation of reactors has already appeared on the seen such as the Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) with different design concept, different types of safety barriers and new set of initiating events, thus requiring further research and development leading up to acceptable deterministic and probabilistic Safety Analyses.This paper provides a review of the Canadian Operating Experience (OPEX) and latest international developments in the SAR contents and presents the challenges arising from applying the updated international standards to the anticipated features and postulated accidents of the newly built small reactors. An approach will also be proposed to address these challenges and to highlight areas of applicability in the international standard that may be adapted or subjected to the graded approach.